It’s not surprising that with a new Star Wars movie announced, a lot of people have been jockeying for jobs. But what’s become clearer in the days since it was announced Disney was buying Lucasfilm, is that some people have actually been at work on the movie, in secret, for a while.
One of those is be Oscar-winning Little Mis Sunshine and Toy Story 3 scribe Michael Arndt, with Vulture reporting that he recently turned in a 40-to-50 page treatment outlining his take on the story, which he had been working on for months prior to the Disney/LucasFilm announcement (Deadline says he’s created treatments for three films, based on George Lucas’ ideas). He will likely be at least one of the writers who does work on the actual screenplay – although he has to finish The Hunger Games: Catching Fire first – before shooting begins in 2014.
Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher have all said they’re open to returning as Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia, which is good as Arndt treatments revolve around older versions of their characters.
Michael Arndt’s treatment will start going out to top directors such as Steven Spielberg, Brad Bird, and J.J. Abrams. It is not known if any of these top-tier filmmakers have any interest in tackling this massive project (Zack Snyder has apparently already ruled himself out), but Disney wants to make sure all of the big-name directors have had a shot at it. Other filmmakers such as Matthew Vaughn and Colin Trevorrow have been mentioned as contenders.