Star Wars ‘Episode VII’ Finds Its Writer While Continuing To Scare Off Directors

Last week we reported that Michael Arndt, the guy responsible for the scripts for Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 had written a 40-page treatment for Star Wars: Episode VII. Well, those 40-pages must have been pretty good, because the guy has officially been hired as the writer of Episode VII.

This is probably a good thing — as Robo pointed out, Arndt seems to be a guy who understands story structure and character, two things badly lacking in the prequel trilogy. Just a warning, this guy managed to make movies about living toys and a junior beauty pageant totally emotionally harrowing — Episode VII is going to make you cry. Prepare your manly tear ducts.

So, we’ve got a writer, but who’s going to direct? That hasn’t been decided yet, but we know who’s not going to direct…

Spielberg apparently thinks Lucas still owns Star Wars — “No! No! It’s not my genre, it’s my best friend George’s genre.”

Zack Snyder thinks it sound like too much effort man — “I don’t think I’d be interested in [directing it]… I’m a huge Star Wars fanatic. I just think doing episodes seven, eight and nine is just a slippery slope. It’s a whole other mythological experiment I’m excited to see, but it’s a lot of effort.”

Quentin Tarantino just hates Disney (even though they indirectly funded most of his films) — “I could so care less…Especially if Disney’s going to do it. I’m not interested in the Simon West version of Star Wars.”

So yeah, if you’re a director who’s even a little bit established you’re running as fast as you can from this project. Nobody wants to risk becoming sad, post-prequels George Lucas.

via Hero Complex & Bleeding Cool