Lando Calrissian's 'Star Wars' Future Isn't Quite So Cloudy Anymore
Less is more — especially when it comes to this holiday season’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, according to producer and co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan.
In interview excerpts published Monday afternoon by Vanity Fair, Kasdan said that, although the new movie is “full of wonderful stuff, incident and character stuff and jokes and effects,” he and director J.J. Abrams are very conscious of its running time.
“A lot of very entertaining movies lately are too long. In the last 20 minutes, you think, ‘Why isn’t this over?’ We didn’t want to make a movie like that,” Kasdan explained, adding that the plan is to create a movie where, “When it’s over you’ll say, 'I wish there’s more.’ Or, 'Wait, is it over?’ ”
That means being particularly tough during the editing process, he said. “There will be constant critical looking at [the movie] from now to the end, saying, 'Do we need this? Do we need that? Is it better if this comes out, even thought we love it?’ ” He described the process as “killing your darlings,” but one particular darling actually emerged with hope for more life than before.
Asked by the interviewer about whether or not fans will see Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams’ character from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) again, Kasdan said that, while the character doesn’t appear in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, “Lando, I don’t think, is finished in any way, shape, or form.”
Watch an ‘In Memoriam’ video for Jar Jar Binks below:
