J.J. Abrams Turned Down "Star Wars Episode VII" - East Idaho News
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J.J. Abrams Turned Down “Star Wars Episode VII”

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GETTY E 060111 StarWars?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1356515913671Ethan Miller/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Lost co-creator and Star Trek reboot series director J.J. Abrams’ name was one of those rumored to be in the running to call the shots on Disney’s first Star Wars film, Episode VII — and apparently the rumors were true. 

However, as “amazing” as he predicts the next films will be, Abrams told the U.K. movie magazine Empire that he declined the gig early on.

“[T]here were the very early conversations and I quickly said that because of my loyalty to Star Trek, and also just being a [Star Wars] fan, I wouldn’t even want to be involved in the next version of those things,” Abrams says.

Abrams praised producer Kathleen Kennedy, George Lucas’ hand-picked successor at the now-Disney-owned Lucasfilm, saying the franchise is “in great hands.”

The filmmaker says even though he’s a “huge fan” of the original trilogy, and “the idea of [that] world continuing is exciting and will be amazing,” he admits, “I’d rather be in the audience not knowing what was coming, rather than being involved in the minutiae of making them.”

Abrams’ next Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, beams into theaters in May 2013.

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