Brad Bird on Wanting to Direct TOMORROWLAND and STAR WARS
Back in the days when Disney and Lucasfilm were still looking for a director to take on the task of directing Star Wars: Episode VII, Brad Bird was being considered. He is the guy who brought us such films as The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. He was in the running up until the point he decided to bow out to put all of his efforts into developing the sci-fi adventure film Tomorrowland.
MTV caught up with the director at New York Comic Con this last weekend and he talked about why he took himself out of the running for Star Wars: Episode VII saying:
“We were already deeply into ['Tomorrowland']. George [Clooney] had committed to it, and we were down the road a bit. For a moment there, I thought that it would work out to do this and go right into ['Episode VII']. It was supposed to be summer of this coming year. There was no way to make that schedule and give this film the attention that it deserved, so I had to step away.”
He gave a similar answer when asked about it a year ago, but this time he reveals that there was a point where he was looking to direct both movies. So it was just a matter of bad timing. It sounds like if he could have done both he would have. He went on to say:
“I know ['Episode VII'] is going to be terrific and everything, but I’m really happy to do this film. It’s rare to do a film of size that’s original, so those opportunities can’t be missed either.”
I'm happy that he went with Tomorrowland. It's a perfect story for Bird to tell, and the movie looks like it's going to be fantastic. If you haven't seen the teaser trailer yet, make sure to check it out here. We also posted a breakdown and analysis of the trailer here. I'm sure that he'll be given the opportunity to make another Star Wars movie somewhere down the line since Lucasfilm plans on making a lot of them. I'd love to see what he would do with the Star Wars universe.