Despite his love for the franchise, or perhaps former love, “Dune” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve says he has no interest in making a “Star Wars” movie and says the movie series lost the plot during 1983’s “Return Of The Jedi.”
In a Puck conversation on their The Town podcast, Villeneuve was asked whether he would want to make a “Star Wars” film. The glib interviewer assumed it would only be natural for him to want to make one, but the director seemingly surprised him by saying he had no interest.
READ MORE: ‘Dune 3’: Legendary & Denis Villeneuve Officially Have Sequel In Development
“No, because—” he said, but was instantly cut off by the interviewer who said, that’s BS and every filmmaker has a dream “Star Wars” film. Patiently, Villeneuve explained his reasoning, essentially saying he loved “Star Wars” as a kid, but the love affair was cut short at the end of the first trilogy.
“I was the target audience. I was 10 years old. It went through my brain like a silver bullet. I became obsessed with ‘Star Wars.’” he said. “‘The Empire Strikes Back’ was the movie that I anticipated the most in my life. “I saw the movie a billion times on screen. It’s like I was traumatized by the ‘Empire Strike Back.’”
Egged on a little bit more, Villeneuve said Ewoks and the cutesy elements of that film were the culprits.
“Listen, I adore Star Wars. That the problem is that it all derailed in 1983 with ‘Return of the Jedi,’” he remarked. It’s a long story, but I was 15 years old, and my best friend and I wanted to take a cab, go to LA, and talk to George Lucas because we were so angry.” Still today, the Ewoks—it turned out to be a comedy for kids. No, sorry [I’m not a fan of Ewoks]. I thought that ‘Star Wars’ became crystallized in its own mythology, very dogmatic. It became like a recipe [with little] surprises. And so, I’m not dreaming of doing ‘Star Wars’ honestly because it feels like the code is very codified.”
One can easily argue Villeneuve is not wrong, especially about dogmatic mythology that can’t be changed and how ‘Star Wars’ really hasn’t grown or changed much in 40 years—still mostly about Jedis and the same old types of characters. But I suppose that’s another conversation.
Lastly, the filmmaker was asked if he had another dream franchise he would like to take on, and the answer was basically no.
“Honestly, in a lifetime, if you do a series of three movies— like I might do a third [‘Dune’ film]— it’s enough, I think. After [‘Dune’], I would love to go back to original content or [adaptig] books that I love.”
Listen to the conversation below and let us know what you think. By the way, Happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for your readership.
