The Director and The Jedi (The Director and the Jedi)

Please let me introduce our producers and our mentor,

Rian Johnson, Kathy Kennedy and Ram Bergman.

I'm gonna take a very short amount of time

to just say that I've been making movies for a long, long time.

And I don't think, seriously,

I have ever had an experience

like I've had with this guy and this guy.

They are the best.

And you guys know that...

You know that you are very, very lucky to have been led by this team.

So, I'm going to let them speak to that.

So, I don't want to freak anyone out, but...

I don't want to freak anybody out here,

but I think we just made a Star Wars movie.

Do you have a new project?

Yeah. You know, I'm doing a Star Wars movie.

- I'm doing the next Star Wars movie. - Wow!

Yeah. It’s…Yeah, it's crazy.

Right as we were finishing AMC Movie Talk on Friday,

the news broke about Rian Johnson.

Actually, you and I talked on the phone. I was in my car, losing it,

"Did you see this, Rian Johnson, what?"

I love what he tweeted when the news broke,

which was that clip from The Right Stuff.

Dear Lord, please don't let me fuck up.

It was a surprising decision, like, I think people...

'Cause he's not really a recognized name.

Yeah, I think Rian Johnson, it's a really bold choice.

How is Rian Johnson's style going to change Episode Vlll?

All I know is that I'm super excited for Star Episode Vlll.

And super excited to watch Star The Force Awakens again.

The Force is certainly with the new Star Wars movie,

smashing box office records in its opening weekend.

- It was really amazing. - It was really a roller-coaster.

It was fantastic.

Okay, everybody, I gotta get to Star Wars.

I think Rian Johnson is an incredibly talented individual,

and I hope that within the Star Wars world,

he will give us something that is new, and interesting, and exciting,

and he will still make something that feels like it's gonna fit in that world.

Yep.

What does it feel like when you take over somebody else's world?

Well, it's, you know...

I mean, honestly, it's the most fun I've ever had writing. It's justjoyous.

But I don't know.

- Ask me again in a few years. - Yeah.

And that word, "conflict,"

that word is straight from Luke's, when he confronted Vader.

"I feel a conflict in you."

And, so, that's kind of the key to, well, making him understand.

"I looked into his eyes and I saw conflict.

"I saw he could be turned.

"And if he were turned from the dark side,

"that could shift the tide and save the Resistance.

"This could be how we win."

"This is not going to go the way you think."

"It is, because there's more."

I wonder if we can even ease off on the intensity of it,

and make it more...

DAISY RI Entreating.

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

The truth is I always put myself in the shoes of..

If I wasn't involved in this movie,

if I was just, you know, just me, just a fan,

the only thing I would really want is a good movie

that delights me in ways I didn't expect.

You know what actually would be nice maybe?

You listen to me now. Instead of holding it on him as a threat,

you bring it in.

"Listen, listen."

- And then that can be a more intimate... - Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The spotlight now is definitely on us, on Rian,

on making this movie...

Listen to me!

…which I think is great...

You listen to me now!

... as long as everybody's in sync on what that movie needs to be.

And that's always the hard part.

The caliber of people that we've got, it's pretty amazing.

Every single person is the best at what they do here.

I'm the newbie.

All these other department heads have done movies of this size.

I imagined that Ram and I would be outsiders,

that we would be somehow infiltrating this world that we don't belong in.

I feel like it looks too much like a droid.

Too complicated, too robot-y, too Doctor Who.

I feel like they gotta be, you know...

They gotta be classier. Yeah.

You have to lay down all your chips on it,

in front of a lot of really good poker players,

and say, "This is the right decision, "

based on nothing but this little tingle you get in your stomach.

And, you know, that's scary. That's really terrifying.

Rian delivered a great script, very ambitious, with a lot of surprises.

And people realize that he has a complete vision

of the film he wants to do.

I've known Rian since we were teenagers.

I was over the moon.

I couldn't believe that it was something this amazing and meaningful to me.

And that it was still a Rian movie.

It wasn't a hired gun because he was gonna write it

and Ram was going to produce it.

- I, sorry. - That's okay.

I have all of the poster art if you want to see it at some point.

You don't need to see it right this second.

But it's easy for me to pull up on PIX. Oh.

Once we decided that we were making Star Wars movies,

he was one of the people that I was immediately interested in.

I just think that his storytelling ability,

and who he is, as a human being,

just exemplified a lot of the values and the sense of fun.

I get excited when it feels like it's something new and unique.

I just have one goal,

which is to make the most powerful Star Wars movie I possibly can.

The best shot at making something good

is to come into it and trust my guts, you know.

What's up, Leo?

I know.

He's getting pretty big now.

- Up and coming. - Yeah.

He would love to talk with you tonight.

No, that's ridiculous.

I'll throw out maybe 8:30 tonight.

- That sounds good. - No pressure.

- There you go. - Yeah.

Wow. Hmm.

Battle of Crait. Shot by shot.

Any questions, any answers, greatly appreciated.

Page 1, reveal of the speeder.

Page 3, we have the fox tunnel here, lead onto our trench.

I'm like the conduit of everything.

Everything comes to me,

and then I kind of branch it out to who is responsible for it.

A decision by the Art Department can affect special effects.

Action!

It can affect visual effects.

Make it look good, all right?

I'll be your best mate.

Uh, cool.

It can affect cameras.

To the creature effects.

The set builds.

So, it's very much a big group effort here.

Did I tell you this? I've gotten a rush of tweets,

coordinated tweets, like somewhere else on the Internet,

there's a group that's saying,

"Okay, everyone tweet Rian Johnson at the same time."

All from Russian accounts,

and all begging me not to kill Admiral Hux in this movie.

- Are you serious? - Russian accounts exclusively.

Look at this.

"General H ux, lovely personality,

"if you kill him in the new episode my heart can't take it, #H uxLive."

We have 120 sets over 100 days' filming.

Even if I throw thousands of people to build this, it's insane.

Practically, this is impossible. They cannot physically build it.

So that means either we cut some sets, or we combine sets.

It gives them more weeks, and more time, and more turnaround.

And then we'll make it more doable.

It's really a house of cards.

Everything needs to be, like, so perfect in terms of the schedule.

So we now go Ireland,

straight to Iceland, three days in Iceland...

I've eliminated a travel day. Genius.

And no matter we do,

nobody here knows any movie where they had to build 120 sets.

And it's not just building the set,

because every time you build a set,

the lighting guys need to come and light it,

set dressing, stunts, special effects.

So, when you look at the schedule,

we have weeks where we're shooting eight different sets,

and then they need to turn around.

It takes them months to build them,

especially a set like the casino, which is a huge, giant set.

This is actually my first time seeing it all.

- Are you pleased? - Yeah.

It's big.

One actor gets sick. Rian gets sick for one day.

That has an effect that goes all the way.

It's like... House of cards. The whole thing falls.

Everything has to be so perfect to get it done.

And it's not going to be.

Yeah. Good work. Boy, it's...

Yeah, it's tight.

It is 100 days. Walk in the park.

Jesus.

No, it's good.

It's good to, uh...

It's good to get my head, like, around it,

and in the right place in terms of the pace

that we're actually going to have to accomplish to get all of it done.

We are here on Skellig Michael, off the west coast of lreland.

This is a little pre-shoot.

Our main shoot isn't for a few more months.

But because it's a bird sanctuary, it's a UNESCO heritage site,

it is so inaccessible,

we could only get there for two days to shoot.

After months of planning, and working it all out,

we finally have our crew here,