Rian Johnson, discussing his forthcoming murder mystery Knives Out discussed the current status of his next Star Wars project, and it seems he will be steering his stories far clear of the familiar legacy characters.
“I think that the fun and challenging part of it is to dive in, figure out what’s exciting and then figure out what it’s going to be. We’re doing something that steps beyond the legacy characters. What does that look like? To me, the blue sky element of it is what was most striking about it. I know the way that I’m coming at it and what’s fun about it for everyone in Lucasfilm is figuring out, ‘what’s the next step?’ It really makes you think and figure out what the essence of Star Wars is for me and what that will look like moving forward.”
Johnson discussed the differences between Knives out and working on a Star Wars project.
“Well, you have to shoot a lot faster. It’s less about the scale of it and more the type of movie it is. Obviously, there’s a different approach in the Star Wars universe and some of that is just logistics and the type of film it is.”
“For me, one of the fun things about it was how dialogue-based it was. It was really fun to get a group of great actors together and give them a ton of words. In a Star Wars movie, you’re usually trying to be as efficient with dialogue as possible, which is a good thing. Of course, I worked with some of the best actors on the planet in Star Wars. You’re just chasing a very different rabbit. With Knives Out, you could write more words and just sit back with a huge smile on my face as they shoot them.”
