From slashfilm, Simon Pegg has already voiced his support for his Star Trek Into Darkness director J.J. Abrams‘ choice to direct Episode VII, but today we have a snippet of the actor fielding questions about whether this might mean he’ll hop over to the Star Wars camp as well.
Unsurprisingly, his response is far from definitive. “Well, there’s no script yet,” he said. “I’ve spoken to him and congratulated him, but it’s not written so there’s no casting or anything. That just hasn’t come up.”
Pegg also riffed on the similarity of the franchise names. “I hope he does more films with ‘Star’ before the first word,” he joked. “I think he should do Star Bucks. Just get them all. Star Man. Stars in Their Eyes.”
Less thrilled with Abrams’ decision is William Shatner, who offered a blunt and not-so-sweet assessment of the filmmaker:
"He’s being a pig. He’s collecting the two franchises and holding them close to his vest. He’s probably the most talented direct of that ilk that we have, but he’s gone too far this time. I think of him as a buddy of mine, I’ve taken him out for sushi, I think it’s time for JJ and I to have another sushi and let me put him straight about two of the largest franchises and not employing me in either one of them, I think is just foolhardy."
I can’t tell if Shatner is being entirely serious (probably not), but it’s definitely a change from the bland “we’re very happy for him”s we’ve gotten from most of the rest of Team Trek.
5 comments:
I'm skeptical of JJ Abrams myself and would prefer it be directed by
JJ Evans from Good Times. But, as it's been said many times before - it can't possibly be worse than the prequels. Oops, I forgot. Prequels? What prequels? They never existed. Shh!
I hope Shatner is kidding for his sake because he sounds bitter and foolish otherwise. The fact that JJ was initially unwilling to take on both franchises speaks a lot to this "pig" business.
The only person I'd trust besides him would be Joss Whedon, but I think I'd actually be extremely slightly less confident. Sure, it's weird to have one guy so key to the two biggest rival sci-fi franchises ever, but he's got the chops. It's kind of like when comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis was writing EVERYTHING in both the regular and Ultimate Marvel universes (not literally, but it sure seemed so).
Shatner has Narcissistic Personality Disorder (just listen to any interview with a former cast mate. I'd like to believe that he was joking but I can also believe that he has a bruised ego from not being asked to be involved.
I'm mildly confident in Abrams, but I do feel like we've already seen the bad results of him spreading himself too thin in terms of running TV Shows. Fringe was a mess. That Alcatraz thing was silly. My feeling is that he started seeing himself more as a "brand" than a hands-on creative guy. So I do worry that he'll have to outsource these two franchises similarly. But if he's all-in on something, I've liked what I've seen. First 2 seasons of Alias kick serious ass.
...and LOST was fantastic!
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