When you’re making a movie, having some outside advice is always helpful, but not every filmmaker has friends like Ava DuVernay and Steven Spielberg in the contact list on their iPhone. But J.J. Abrams does, and we’ve already learned the advice he took from the “Selma” director during the climatic showdown between Kylo Ren and Rey in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” and it turns out, Spielberg also had some pointers to help improve the battle.
“When I showed the first cut of this scene to Steven Spielberg … he suggested ‘What if trees were falling while they were fighting?’ And I said ‘That’s cool, but we’ve shot the scene already.’ And then I said to [visual effects supervisor] Roger Guyett, ‘Is there any way we could have trees falling?’ And he said, ‘If you want to pay for it.’ So we did,” Abrams reveals on the director’s commentary on the upcoming “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Collector’s Edition.
The director also adds that it was Spielberg’s idea that when Finn lands on Jakku, we should see Poe’s Tie Fighter sinking into the sand before the big explosion. And indeed, a little CG magic made that happen.
Check out both scenes below. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Collector’s Edition (in 3D) arrives in stores on Blu-ray on November 15th. [Screen Crush]