MovieChat Forums > Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) Discussion > How did Rian Johnson got so much power a...

How did Rian Johnson got so much power at Disney?

posted 6 years ago by ksi (49)
16 replies | jump to latest

Coming from the awful Looper and a few Breaking Bad episodes this guy has no resume as to say it is a good choice to take your billion dollar franchise, it would be like having a 2 years experience engineer in charge of Microsoft or Apple or a newly graduate medic in charge of the Mayo Clinic out of nowhere, even if they were geniuses you lack the experience to have something that big that you did not create.

He is either a real life Jedi (or sith lord) with mind control powers or someone on the higher ranks just liked his script and diced to go with it, this sounds like a case of "lets get a unexperienced CHEAP guy to inject something new to our franchise".

Even worse, he is given total control over the following movies, a complete trilogy until now, I am sure there were a ton of people with more experience and good fresh ideas to be given as much power as this person.

[–] kuku (3510) 6 years ago

How bad actresses could get the main role with Weinstein?

How Rian Johnson got so much power in a female executives environment?

Guess... ^^

[–] darkpast (8086) 6 years ago

Kathleen Kennedy should not be in charge

[–] Buttholio (198) 6 years ago

There's no way the fabled Rian Johnson trilogy is happening now that his name is forever tainted by the TLJ fiasco. It was probably just an empty promise KK made to ensure loyalty of her sniveling toady anyway...

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] century_hades (67) 6 years ago

Kathleen Kennedy said they couldn't have a female director right now, because there were none in the business that had experience directing a big tent pole movie. Yet she gets Rian Johnson who had no experience directing a big blockbuster film. They should get Patty Jenkins the director of wonder woman. She would have been much better than Johnson, and would have done a better job with the female characters like Rey.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

He launched Order 66 and then dissolved the Senate.

[–] Recognizer (386) 6 years ago

This is essentially what happened

[–] OldG (628) 6 years ago

I guess Disney/KK thought Looper was pretty good;-)

[–] Arghhhh (804) 6 years ago

I suspect he has zero power... KK just wanted somebody technically professional to bring her vision of a vagina based caste system in space through to fruition.

Look at all the other directors/writers that got fired. And the reshoots on R1. RJ is just a patsy.

[–] TandyMan (10398) 6 years ago

I think they just picked a guy that was pretty green so they could mold and train him into the director they need. Getting a big name would have just been a headache and a lot of butting heads. If they don't have one already, sooner or later Disney is gonna have their own film school and everybody will come through the system knowing only how to make Marvel and Star Wars movies.

[–] CoachGainz (453) 6 years ago

Most of the fan base was actually happy when Johnson was hired. He was young, ambitious, and made different challenging movies that like them or not were talked about and praised for the most part.

However, I would say that once hired he became a yes man putting ideas and characters Disney wanted in his script without any push back. He was efficient, on time, and on budget and had really good relations with the cast and crew. Studios love that kind of stuff. A talented director who can make a pretty film on time and on budget while also getting along with everybody and is willing to work their vision in is a studio's dream hire.

What they didn't think of was how the fan base(The people who spend money on SW after it's theatrical run) would respond to his script.

What they don't like are guys like the lord and miller who tell them they are making the movie their way or not at all. It was heavily hinted that Collin T was controlling and power hording as well so they axed him.

[–] CraigJamesReview (1474) 6 years ago

I don't think you can work at Lucasfilm in any other capacity. If I were a director I wouldn't even want to be apart of this anymore. It seems like Kathleen Kennedy makes the rules and if you have any of your own, they are not met with nearly as much acceptance.

I'm trying to go for an engaging, funny youtube channel so, if you have the time, take a look. Hope you enjoy what you see and if you have any thoughts or criticisms, i'd love to hear them. Thanks in advance. Review is right here- https://youtu.be/nerCnafPUm8

[–] TexasJack (12515) 6 years ago

I forget exactly who the director was, but one was asked if he would like to direct Star Wars. He said "No, I like to finish my films."