Star Wars - Iconic Star Wars Writer to Return For New Films

Iconic Star Wars Writer to Return For New Films

As the maniacal excitement dies down after the initial news that the Star Wars franchise had been bought by Disney for an enormous sum of over four billion dollars, and the revelation that there would be at least two more movies in the pipeline, it is now time for a few details to begin getting settled.

A couple of weeks ago we reported that Michael Arndt had been picked to pen the first of the two movies on the way. Now, the Hollywood Reporter has been told that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg have signed contracts to write episodes 8 and/or 9. Lawrence Kasdan is something of a Star Wars legend, as he wrote the scripts for The Empire Strikes Back (largely lauded as the best Star Wars movie to date), as well as Return of the Jedi. 

Since 1983, when The Return of the Jedi was released, Kasdan has also written The Bodyguard, which Whitney Houston starred in, as well as the award winning The Accidental Tourist, which was a very different kind of writing and film making than either Star Wars or The Bodyguard, and showed his great range and depth. Simon Kinberg has an equally impressive career history. He's written two X-Men movies, the Brad Pitt and Anjelina Joli movie Mr and Mrs Smith, plus the Robert Downey Junior version of Sherlock Holmes. 

Between the two writers they certainly have some great talent between them, particularly in the thriller/action genres, which lend themselves very well to Star Wars. But it'll be whether they can match that with enough sentimentality and honesty, which defined the original trilogy, that will prove their worth. Do you think that Kasdan and Kinberg are good choices? Let us know below.