Old Ben
With the massively jaw-dropping ‘Disney buys LucasFilm for $4bn’ news of late last week, with of course the main focus being the much-adored (original trilogy) Star Wars franchise, the whirlwind of whispers relating to the ‘when’ (release date) ‘what’ (plot) and ‘who’ (talent) soon began to churn the ground up.
Just a few days on and of course we’re still receiving excitable talk. By now, you may have already heard what I’m going to reel off, however, for those who have had a useless broadband connection that I usually get, this one’s for you.
Director Matthew Vaughn (‘Stardust’, ‘Kick-Ass’, ‘X-Men: First Class’) is being majorly gossiped about, with website Collider reporting, rumour-mongers Tweeting, Facebook-ing and general tittle-tattling in having Vaughn already lined up to helm ‘Star Wars Episode VII’. Why on Earth would people be linking him at all, some may ask?
Well, Vaughn recently left previous the Fox ‘prequel sequel’ that is ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’. Fox being the previous home for ‘Star Wars’. OK, so? Well, Vaughn’s also signed up none other than Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill, to his new ‘Secret Service’ comic adaptation. There’s strong word he’s had meetings with LucasFilm. Now, this might seem a little ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’, but longtime Lucas collaborator, Kathleen Kennedy, who holds the reigns at Lucasfilm, was a main producer of ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’. This heavily featured actor Jason Flemyng who is one of Matthew Vaughn’s closest friends. Flemyng is without doubt one of the nicest guys in film and anyone who meets him recommends him and wants to work with him again and again, as is Vaughn. Could the words “You should work with my mate Vaughny?” have been uttered to Kennedy?
OK, imaginary tenuous straw clutching I know, but nowhere near as much as this one. Vaughn’s screenwriting partner, Jane Goldman is TV presenter Jonathan Ross. So bleedin’ what? A friend of mine saw him the other day and swears blind he was whistling the main theme of Star Wars and then beamed a massive smile.
I think I’ve exhausted the Matthew Vaughn links, but before I go, should I mention my “is the Disney project known as ‘Tesla’ directed by Brad Bird’ really a front for ‘Star Wars Episode VII’, in a ‘Blue Harvest’ / ‘Return of the Jedi’ kind of way rumour?” Doubtful, but worth mentioning.
What I will end with, though, is that people have failed to mention the news that George Lucas is said to be donating the $4.05bn to charity AND that Disney also has the rights to the ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise, too. Go Indiana Mouse and the Temple of Duck!
So what do you think of Matthew Vaughn doing “Episode 7”?
