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BREAKING: Rian Johnson Will Direct Two Star Wars Movies

By Jack Gattanella on Fri 20 Jun, 2014

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And the Star Wars news just doesn’t stop lately – now along with directors being named for spin-off movies (i.e. Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank), a director and writer has been named for the next two Episodes in the Star Wars series: Rian Johnson.

This isn’t the same as the spin-off movies – those will be focusing on the background of the characters like Han Solo and Boba Fett (as rumored) – these will be episodes XIII and IX (gotta use those Roman numerals) following on JJ Abrams‘ Episode XII which is currently shooting.  Continuing as producer will be Kathleen Kennedy; no word yet if Abrams will continued to be involved behind the scenes.

Johnson will have to get to work right away on scripting and preparing for the next two films, as Disney and Lucasfilm are anxious to see more new movies to pump up their franchise plans.   Previously, Johnson scored a cult-movie success with his debut feature, the noir-flavored high school thriller Brick, and had a genuine box office hit with the sci-fi film Looper.

So far with those films, as well as The Brothers Bloom (and, for me, fantastic work directing a few episodes of the show Breaking Bad, particularly the third to last episode of the series), show Johnson as a filmmaker really gifted in crafting characters and witty and believable dialog and a different spin on the familiar, and it seems like a strong choice to continue the series with.

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Jack is a graduate of film studies from William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, and is currently seeking his MFA in Screenwriting at the Academy of Art. He is a screen-writer, film critic, director, and editor, and has also done camera-work for web-series, doccumentaries and shorts. Currently Jack is seeking distribution for his feature film drama, “Green Eyes“, co-produced a sci-fi feature, Audrey Lorea‘s ‘Heaven is Now.‘, as well as a comedy pilot called ‘Losers’ which is being shopped around to networks. He is also a contributing writer for the sites FocusFilm.co.uk, Film Forward, and some of his other reviews can be found on his blogcinetarium.blogspot.com. Jack is a vociferous fan of films and will watch anything interesting, foreign and domestic. He survives by his wife, a political science professor, and currently resides in Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA.
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