Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm (after 2021)?

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Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

sztriki said:
Could you please expand on this? I’m genuinely interested and feel I missed out on something.
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Rinzler was brought in by George initially to do a “Making of” book for TFA like he did for the OT. Disney wasn’t comfortable with that sort in debth behind the scenes publication and shut down his project. They claimed concerns over leaking potential future film content but they just aren’t as open about the production of their films.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Paul Andrew said:
You literally created a force of nature in your mind.
SWIQ is your own personal fanfic. I get it now.
Click to expand...

I think the confusion is that he's talking about an adjective and you're both talking about a noun. One is simply describing an amount of knowledge, while the other is picturing possessing some sort of title or badge.


Other than that, this entire thread is entertaining, but stupid. I've enjoyed reading it in a very voyeuristic way. Carry on.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Bryancd said:
Rinzler was brought in by George initially to do a “Making of” book for TFA like he did for the OT. Disney wasn’t comfortable with that sort in debth behind the scenes publication and shut down his project. They claimed concerns over leaking potential future film content but they just aren’t as open about the production of their films.
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I do miss that about Lucas's LFL. The behind the scenes material on the DVDs were great, and it was released even though it didn't paint the most flattering picture of George, or everyone involved. I'm feeling a sad nostalgia all of a sudden. Gee, thanks.... [emoji16]
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

You’ve taken your first steps into a larger world...

PantheraGem said:
I do miss that about Lucas's LFL. The behind the scenes material on the DVDs were great, and it was released even though it didn't paint the most flattering picture of George, or everyone involved. I'm feeling a sad nostalgia all of a sudden. Gee, thanks.... [emoji16]
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Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Part of this is that I've had a few drinks, but only a few really...only enough to explain away typos. So I hope that you'll bear with me...

I've read through all of this thread...long as it is...and here are my thoughts, such as they are.

I don't think it's right to entirely blame KK for all of this. And I don't think her leaving will fix anything.

For one thing: her pedigree is genuine: she's produced some truly great films, and the proof is in the pudding. If anything, her fault would be that she hasn't done enough to reign in the talent into a cohesive vision, and it's hard to fault her for that, since so many of Hollywood's problems in recent years have been the opposite: studios doing too much to water down artists visions.

But bad choices have been made. JJ is a great director. There's no question in my mind...his movies are enjoyable and well paced, and he gets wonderful performances from his actors. But they tend to have gaping plot holes and don't conform well to the pre-established rules of the universe, both with Star Wars and Star Trek. RJ...I know most of his work only by reputation, but by comparing that reputation to TLJ it's simple enough to see the pattern...he likes to shake it up a bit, which is laudable, and he likes to surprise the audience, also laudable, but he NEEDS writers to keep him on the rails.

George Lucas also has problems. He a genius at world building and Story ideas, but he needs someone else to direct to get good performances from his actors, and to keep the pace from becoming a treatise on politics. Also, he needs someone to smack him in the head when he tries to let bad puns and stilted dialogue take over beloved characters.

The end result is the only known case in history where the fans actually WANT the studio to be more of a wet blanket and keep the actual artists more in check. and weirdly...it hasn't.

My fear is...kicking KK out isn't going to improve that, at all.

What I'd love is for someone with a cohesive vision to keep the directors and writers on the path, but even then, it depends on what path that is. I liked Lucas's path, but in my worthless opinion, he definitely would have benefited form someone saying "that's boring" or "that's a cheap joke, don't do it" or even "CG just isn't working there, use a puppet." When he left I had hoped that's what we would get, but instead, we seemed to keep the Bad, but got rid of the vision.

I can't help but wonder how amazing it might have been if Lucas had laid out the goal of the PT, but let someone like JJ direct it. But instead, we got a trilogy of Lucas directing a love story that rivals Twilight for most contrived, followed by JJ writing a movie that was exciting, but built on a house of cards. Followed by RJ creating a story bent on kicking the house of cards over for the the pure joy of watching the cards fly around the room.

Now how to save it? Kicking out KK may not be the answer, if that even is more than just rumor. She definitely knows how to produce good movies. Maybe she didnt keep the train on the rails, but I see no indication that anyone else is interested.

GL was good, but needed help, like he had with ESB. Him leaving didn't make anything better. Better would've been keeping him, but ADDING JJ. I wonder if we're not looking at more flailing. It would be nice to add someone who can keep the train on the rails, but if we're just losing talent, rather than adding it, it may not be a good sign. It might mean it's going even more chaotic than it already has.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

The issues over Kathleen Kennedy leave me somewhat torn. I'll quote from Wikipedia.

"She was a producer on the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the Jurassic Park franchise, the first two of which became two of the top ten highest-grossing films of the 1990s. Kennedy is second to Spielberg in domestic box office receipts, with over $7 billion as of January 2018.
Overall, Kennedy participated in the making of 60 films, that garnered 8 Academy Award nominations and over $11 billion worldwide including three of the highest-grossing films in motion picture history."

Lets face it shes been essential to the production of many of my favorite blockbuster movies.

The "Back to the Future" trilogy," Indiana Jones", "Gremlins"," Jurassic Park" , "Poltergiest" ,"War of the World"s etc. Thats a hell of a list of accomplishments.
And thats not to mention some of the smaller more personal ones that really moved me deeply.
I watch "Seabiscuit" and "Warhorse" and I still get to feel that damn heavy lump in my throat. I was riverted by both the "Sixth Sense" and "Munich" . I have never been so effected by a film as watching "Schindlers List" .

So I've alot to admire and thank Kathleen for as a movie goer.

BUT.
Rather like George Lucas she has always done her best work when shes been working in a collabrative effort with the people shes worked with all her life. As an excutive producer shes been outstanding. Look at her filmography and you've seen what the very best results can be (though its interesting to note there are more "clunkers" it the later half than the beginnning)..
Yet as the sole producer for the new SW movies theres no doubt managing them "solo" has given her more of a problem in judgement , mainly because I think shes missing that integral support structure of the old creative team that surrounded her.
In that respect she is in exactly the same situation that George Lucas was when he made the prequels. Its lonely up top and few people will ever call out the boss on a poor decision when it could cost them their job, particularly if they haven't come up through the years with her.
When you consider how closely she used to work with Spielberg, and recognise the elements in his films that shes tried to put into SW you quickly realise exactly why shes tried to drive SW in a certain direction, without balancing it well.

By herself she doesn't have the creative flair nor understanding about what makes Star Wars such a particular "type" of science fiction movie popular with both the hardcore fans and the mainstream movie public. But then niether did George Lucas. Has everybody forgotten that horrible monstrosity that was "The Crystal Skull"? Fans, not just SW fans are very quick to point out when a film is poorly done and in alot of cases rightly so.
But that exact same vitriol for the prequels and IJATCS has now transferred to KK as burnt Lucas in its entirety since the release of TLJ. And there is no doubt that Disney and Lucasfilm have noticed.

I think KK is now trying to build a stronger structure going forward to make the movies more inline with SW expectations.
Why?
Because the real shame is that Solo (I actually watched it a second time and enjoyed it even more ) is really much closer to the SW in tone than any movie since the OT and KK did more to influence that it the end than anybody (although it was a financial disaster to have to shoot it twice). IF the fan boycott has been that extensive then the chances are we are actually shooting ourselves in the foot by screwing with its BO performance and all this endless negative feedback...…

I do think there will be a huge rethink how these movies will be approached in the future and thats all to the good and that the new team will probably be built up over the next two years.If Kennedy left LF now that would be exceptionally bad press for everybody BUT those that are waging a very personal attack on her.
I'm all for constructive and well directed criticisim regarding any film, BUT if this kind of endless hate continues to be spewed over social media who will want to take over running such a toxic franchise?
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Simple thing: LFL needs to bite the bullet and do some test screening.

Look at TLJ. Everyone came out complaining about the same 3 or 4 specific gags that crashed & burned. These were one-shot throwaway things that could have easily been worked around in the editing stage. This shouldn't be happening in a $200m movie.

I know TLJ had deeper issues. But come on, at least cover the easiest bases.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Jaitea said:
Quick Google search,...top hit

https://screenrant.com/star-wars-making-of-force-awakens-book-cancelled/

J
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Bryancd said:
Rinzler was brought in by George initially to do a “Making of” book for TFA like he did for the OT. Disney wasn’t comfortable with that sort in debth behind the scenes publication and shut down his project. They claimed concerns over leaking potential future film content but they just aren’t as open about the production of their films.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing, I wasn't aware of that! That kinda validates my impression on "recent" events. The only new SW film I have in home media is a double-disc blu-ray of TFA where and entire blu-ray disc is dedicated to making of and BTS bits...only that the actual material is paper-thin. I haven't really learned anything about the development of the movie, the writing, producing, etc. It was people sitting in armchairs with some pathos in the air and everyone being in full agreement that it's a wonderful journey, a fantastic experience for all, everyone got along perfectly and was working so hard, and there's tremendous respect, and I respect him so much, and she's very respectable, and so on...the Director and the Jedi was a tiny bit more in-depth but still kind of lacked structure and depth, it started to get into one aspect, kinda glossed over it and then moved on to another subject of the movie.
Compared to the making of featurettes on Alien series, the Thing, Terminator, Halloween, Empire of Dreams, or even Phantom Menace there's really not much material there. Dunno about Rogue One?

batguy said:
Simple thing: LFL needs to bite the bullet and do some test screening.

Look at TLJ. Everyone came out complaining about the same 3 or 4 specific gags that crashed & burned. These were one-shot throwaway things that could have easily been worked around in the editing stage. This shouldn't be happening in a $200m movie.

I know TLJ had deeper issues. But come on, at least cover the easiest bases.
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As much as I'm generally against test screenings I agree with this. Normally I champion a writer-director making a movie and realizing his vision, but that normally still needs someone to keep everything in check (usually the producer). With the lack of continuous vision in SW it might be worthwile doing test screens.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Seeing reports that Solo might actually lose up to $150 million . Holy cow. Just that on its own is enough for a new leadership structure let alone all the other unwanted baggage.
 
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Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

I haven’t been here in awhile. I just quickly was checking up on things.
Holy hell if this is true...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

DARKSIDE72 said:
Yea but the Luke Skywalker character was written off and killed as a cowardly bitch. And so a lot of fans have an issue with that. And that isn't the only problem with how his character was written.

Tossing the saber over his shoulder....

Milking the space manatee....

Training Ray nothing....

Basically DOING nothing!

It was sickening to watch.
Click to expand...

TLJ has ZERO connection to TFA. Whether you like TFA or not, we were set down a path where the saber played a VERY important role as it spoke to and reached out to Rey. She had visions of Luke when she touched it. Even Han asks where Maz got the saber only for her to tease us with a story to be told another day.

How does TLJ start? Luke tosses the saber over his shoulder thus tossing everything that was established in TFA. As I've mentioned before, it made ZERO sense. As a result, we'll paint a broad stroke over the fan base and blame everything but the obvious? OK. ummm... Cool? Thanks?

For those who didn't like TLJ... there's not much else to say about it. I'm really curious how they're going to move forward with 9.

- - - Updated - - -

Egon Spengler said:
I have less interest in the last part of this new trilogy than I do a Solo sequel to be honest and honestly, I really am down for a Solo sequel.
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Strangely, I agree with that. :)
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

The Wook said:
For the UMPTEENTH time, my SWIQ is measured against the absolute SWIQ, the same as yours is.

If you and I agree on EVERYTHING related to what does and does not belong in a new Star Wars movie, then our SWIQs are the same, given they measure up equally to the absolute SWIQ standard, as established by the theatrical cuts of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. However, if we disagree on even one thing--let's say, the inclusion of Yo Momma prank calls-- then one of us has a higher SWIQ than the other. You say the gag is befitting a Star Wars film. I say it is not. One of us right. One of us is wrong.



Listen, I get it. You're a liberal, and qualifiers such as the word, "Low", offends your hypersensitivities. So, while I do not go around this site telling individual members I disagree with that they have a low SWIQ--instead, I generally reserve the term for calling out Disney's low-SWIQ filmmakers--I give you my word, Paul Andrew, that if I ever again criticize your understanding of what does and does not belong in a Star Wars movie, and I feel inclined to put a label on it, I will not say you have a low SWIQ, but will be much more PC, for your sake, and will refer to you instead as, "SWIQ-challenged".

The Wook
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The issue is you are applying standards when you invoke a SWIQ. People who love TLJ, love TLJ because it goes against any legit standard of what is acceptable in Star wars.

Dont agree? Did you hear about the boycott?

The irony, is those who liked the movie, those who lacked reasonable standards, were very eager to tell everyone else they are wrong... based on their lack of standards vs other peoples' very-well-defined standards.

Wrong has to be guaged against a "right" or correct. ;)

For instance, "Rey is a strong character." Actually, quite the reverse, she is a painfully weak and superficial character. She succeeds at everything. Any obstacle just needs for Rey to show up and you're done. Now that's just lazy. Even Jar Jar had to be manipulated. When little girls try something and fail, when they wont get their trophy they will have been painfully misled.
So, clearly, not a good role model. She is a tertible role model. She is the opposite of a good role model.

But then again, I applied a perfectly reasonable standard. ;)
 
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Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

She needs to go. If you watch enough of the clips of her on YouTube... then watch the behind the scenes interviews on the marvel side of things...

It IS KK that spearheaded the direction the ST has taken. In my honest opinion.

I’m not the biggest filloni fan... but he needs to take the helm.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

I really feel that Star Wars fans are killing the franchise. How? They've deified the Expanded Universe. The Expanded Universe that defiled the Force and the Jedi. Letting people run wild with the Expanded Universe was Lucasfilm's biggest blunder. They were unknowingly setting selves up for this fallout.
 
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