Just How is the New Star Wars Move Being "Made"?

It’s finally been announced; the principal cast of the coming Star Wars trilogy will include Hamill, Ford and Fischer. And the original Chewbacca, C3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2 will be along for the ride. Great, I say, great. Let’s do this!

This success of this first movie is absolutely critical to the entire Disney-planned reemergence of the Star Wars Universe. This picture is expected to be so excellent, so absolutely epic, that it will lead to numerous sequels, prequels, side-quels, cartoons, shorts, commercials, action figures, PS4 games, etc. It could do for Disney what the Marvel Universe has already done, but on a much larger, more complex level. And it aims to launch a zillion careers in writing, acting, directing, producing, animating, and on and on and on.

They weren't just "acting"; we now know they probably

contributed as much to the first movie as Lucas did

But first, the movie must be good, really, really good. It’s got to be as good as, or better, than any of the original Star Wars movies. And man, that’s gonna be hard to do. Really, really hard. And the pressure will be enormous – suffocating really.

And this is where it’s going to get really, really interesting. Most teens and adult Star Wars lovers already know the truth. The original cast members have long said it. George Lucas, of course, was responsible for the original concepts and plotlines; credit needs to be given there. He was (and remains) a cinematic genius, a man of incredible vision. But the magic of Star Wars – the original trilogy I’m speaking of here – the brilliant and near-perfect interplay between the original characters, from their diction to their appearance to their snappy lines – most of that credit goes to the actors themselves.

Decades ago, when asked about Lucas’ skill as a director, Carrie Fischer laughed and said that the only advice Lucas gave as a director were for scenes to be played more intensely or faster. Otherwise, it was entirely up to the principal players. What I’m saying here, and what so many of us know, is that much of the original trilogy, especially its most memorable scenes and lines, were improvised. Improvised!

So the concepts might have been Lucas’, but the alchemy was Hamill’s, Fischer’s and Ford’s. And it's so obvious, too, because anyone who has viewed the prequel trilogy knows that the effects and scenes were far more colorful and intense than the original trilogy…but the acting, on the whole, was simply terrible. In scene after scene from the opening score of the Phantom Menace to the closing moments of Revenge of the Sith, actors and their lines resembled so much as cardboard. From the most “intense” scenes to the most “romantic moments,” the Prequel trilogy’s actors seemed stale and frankly, terrified. From my unscientific point of view, almost every one of them seemed scared beyond belief, entrusted with a storyline that they knew might make or break their hopefully long careers. It was only the more experienced actors, like MacDiarmid as Palpatine and Jackson as Windu, do we get more confident, risk-taking, depth-digging, flesh-and-bone performances.

So one can only wonder how Disney and Producer-director J.J. Abrams aim to repeat the miracle that was the Original Trilogy. After all, how can J.J. Abrams turn to Harrison Ford and literally “direct” the actor on how Han should properly act when “driven” or “furious,” or “frustrated” in any specific moment? How does one direct these actors at all, aside from simply informing the actors what is about to transpire in a particular scene?

And here’s a more interesting question. What if an actor, say Mark Hamill, disagrees with the director? What if he says something like, “I really don’t think Luke, under these circumstances, would say or do this or that.” Or perhaps even more seriously, what would Abrams do if Hamill and Ford went to him and said, “there’s no way this scene that you wrote would work; we can’t see the characters going in that direction.” What could Abrams possibly say to them? The original actors made these characters. They brought life into them in situations when Lucas could only scratch his head and hope for the best.

And here is another thought. These three principal actors, really, cannot be intimidated, pressured or fired. I cannot see how Disney could really simply dismiss any one of them due to “creative differences” and then change the entire script mid-way. Especially if the three ever approached Abrams and/or Disney as a united front.

So the question here is, how is Disney actually making this movie? Is there a complex script with a zillion orders for each and every actor, or is each scene being presented to the actors in “scaffold style,” only to be fleshed out in a dozen or more takes? How much is Disney and Abrams entrusting to the original actors at any given time?

As a Star Wars fanatic, an absolute lover of all things from that Galaxy Far, Far, Away, all I can do is wonder. Regardless, I am beyond excited for familiar opening scroll of the first sequel. What comes after remains, of course, a mystery.