CONFIRMED: J.J. Abrams Taking Reins Of STAR WARS: EPISODE VII

Finally we have word (via The Wrap) that J.J. Abrams has accepted the helm of STAR WARS: EPISODE VII! This after turning down the opportunity back in December.

Apparently ARGO director Ben Affleck was being seriously considered as well, but an aggressive Kathleen Kennedy and Disney nabbed the STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS director Abrams.

By the time he starts lensing EP VII Abrams will be well versed on the requirements of shooting with an eye toward a 3D conversion. I was hoping for native 3D but will we see this from Abrams? Most likely not unfortunately. But a great conversion will suffice - along the lines of Marvel have been doing lately will bring a smile to my face.

What do you think of this selection? Personally I think Affleck would have been better, but I've been warming to Abrams of late. I just think Abrams style is better suited to STAR TREK which always seemed a bit lighter to me than STAR WARS.

Source: The Wrap | Confirmed by the LA Times

SAMARAI JACK Will Be Slicing Through 3D Screens! J.J. Abrams Producing!!

Jim here. Screenrant has a nice writeup about SAMARAI JACK headed to the big screen. The Emmy award winning animation from the Cartoon Network (2001 - 2004) will be brought to cinema by co-producer J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot Productions with a reported budget of $20 million.

The movie will combine 2D animation with S3D - so flat characters in a 3D world. Interesting. Zemeckis wants to pull off something similar with the animation portions of ROGER RABBIT 2 - only RR2 will have live action elements too of course.

Visually the early 2000's cartoon was very well done. And the premise is good too: Jack was a noble warrior who is cast into the future by the evil Aku, “the shape-shifting Master of Darkness.” Each episode involved Jack’s attempts to return to the past to defeat Aku once and for all.

Sounds delicious. Should be great to see what Abrams and co. and come up with! Whenever I read this title though, it reminds me of cheese. Hope it ISN'T cheesy...