Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: 4 Reasons To Be Excited

For many ‘Star Wars’ fans Rian Johnson’s appointment as writer and director of ‘Episode VIII’ and writer for ‘Episode IX’ is the stuff dreams are made of. Some may still be pinching themselves.

When LucasFilm picked JJ Abrams to direct 2015’s ‘Episode VII’ it seemed to be a safe choice, with the general assumption being that he would go on to direct future movies. Now however, the decision makes perfect sense.

Abrams was hired to steady the ship in stormy waters. Despite a number of celebrated entries into the series in other mediums, George Lucas’ disastrous prequel trilogy of films tainted the entire franchise. Abrams is here to take everything back to the basics of Lucas’ original trilogy before passing the buck to a director of more individual vision.

That man is Rian Johnson, and this is why his ‘Star Wars’ is something to be excited about.

Everything he does is a personal project

Johnson’s career started with a series of shorts before he made the jump to feature length with debut feature ‘Brick’, a strange and stylistic neo-noir set in a Californian suburb that focused on a group of high-schoolers.

'Brick' starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt (before his leap to mega-stardom) as a high schooler who showcases all the traits and mannerisms of a world-weary detective. It was a film peculiar in its premise but executed wonderfully, winning the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at 2005's Sundance Film Festival.

Johnson followed that up with the critically-praised yet not quite as popular ‘The Brothers Bloom’, but it was the director’s next project which made him one of Hollywood’s hottest talents. ‘Looper’ was a post-‘Inception’ time-travel sci-fi made on a meagre $30 million budget but which felt like a top-of-the-range blockbuster.

It was a big success but Johnson hasn’t yet returned to film. Each of his first three films were spread over a seven year period, and really the director could have been snapped up to direct a big franchise movie at any point. Johnson doesn’t strike as the type however. He retains tight control over his work having written each of his films and having worked on those scripts for many years.

Johnson has undoubtedly been offered other huge films before landing ‘Star Wars’. He isn’t one for an easy cash-grab however, and his desire to write the next two ‘Star Wars’ movies as well as direct the first shows this isn’t a project he takes on lightly.

He is unique

‘Brick’ was a detective story starring Californian high-schoolers which played out as a drama and thriller rather than the comedy its premise might suggest. ‘Looper’ is action sci-fi pitting Bruce Willis against his younger self, played by Gordon-Levitt with facial prosthetics to make the pair look similar.

These aren’t ideas that can be pulled off easily and it isn’t hard to imagine either film being wildly mishandled by others, but Johnson made each work without diluting the idea at each film’s core.

It is individual style which makes great directors; you know when you’re watching a Scorsese, Spielberg, Kubrick or Hitchcock, rather than a Brett Ratner or McG. Even Michael Bay - for all his faults - has a certain style that keeps assuring him box office success.

I apologise for mentioning Bay and Kubrick in the same paragraph but you get the idea. Individuality makes you memorable, and the early stages of your career it makes you exciting.

He is secretive

One of the best surprises about ‘Looper’ was that it its half-way point there’s a complete tonal shift not even alluded to in the trailers, centring on a character who also hadn’t appeared in any previews. What starts as a chase action-thriller with a science fiction twist turns into something of a horror movie before the two styles merge at the end.

For those who can’t withstand the temptations of a movie trailer (or have to watch them for your jobs) such a surprise is rare, particularly in this kind of film with its blockbuster aspirations. It’s a similar level of secrecy to that of JJ Abrams - who employed it well with ‘Super 8’ and hopes to again (as best as Disney will allow him) with ‘Episode VII’.

He made one of the most talked-about television episodes ever

There is of course one substantial part of Rian Johnson’s résumé that I haven’t brought up: ‘Breaking Bad’. While not a huge part of the show’s monumental success, Johnson was entrusted by showrunner Vince Gilligan to direct its best and most important episode.

Without spoiling the show, ‘Ozymandias’ takes place towards the end of ‘Breaking Bad’s fifth and final season. Two episodes follow it, but ‘Ozymandias’ could well have been the finale.

Thanks to a jaw-dropping cliffhanger the week prior it was the most anticipated and talked-about episode of the show and maybe the most talked about television episode ever. It wasn’t Johnson’s first time directing Walter White’s meth-making exploits however; he also directed ‘Fly’, a bottle episode that many fans love and many fans hate.

Not much occurs in ‘Fly’ to further the overall story but it’s without question a memorable entry in the series whether you like it or not -because it is unique. Johnson also directed another of the show’s finest episodes, season five’s Fifty-One.

Johnson is a name few mainstream cinema-goers will know, but they will soon enough when he takes over from JJ Abrams to conclude Disney’s ‘Star Wars’ sequel trilogy. Hiring someone like Johnson does carry risks, but in this day and age that’s something Hollywood sorely needs more of.

'Star Wars: Episode VII' will be released on 18 December 2015. 'Episode VIII' will probably be released in 2017 or 2018.

Ben Skipper is a London-based entertainment junkie whose favourite ‘Star Wars’ movie is ‘Empire Strikes Back’ (what else?) and who prefers to forget the prequel trilogy ever happened. You can follow him on Twitter @bskipper27.

(Photo credit: The Verge)