If all goes as planned, this time next week Joe Johnston should be a very happy guy. His new film, Captain America: The First Avenger debuts in theaters this Friday and the early buzz from fans is very good. Which hopefully will translate into very good box office numbers. If the film is as successful as expected, Johnston (Rocketeer,Hidalgo) may very well have a lot of choices when he begins to select his next project.
In an interview with movie news website ScreenRant.com Johnston indicated that he very much wants to return to the Star Wars universe as director. “I’m trying to get George to make a feature based on Boba Fett. I would like to (direct it), it would be a lot of fun.”
It's a great idea. Boba Fett is arguably the most popular fictional character of the last 40 years and a film centered around the galactic Bounty Hunter could go a long way towards satisfying disgruntled fans who feel betrayed by the poor quality of the prequels. Now, if this same kind of statement had come from any other director it would have simply been dismissed as a pipe dream. However, Johnston's connections to Lucasfilm and to the Boba Fett character are much deeper than most people realize.
Johnston has a very strong relationship with Lucas. He was a visual effects artist at Lucasfilm for years. He worked on all three films in the original Star Wars trilogy. He created the designs for The AT-AT's, Yoda, The Millennium Falcon, the X-Wing Fighters and the Imperial Star Destroyers. He is also considered by many to be the Father, in a visual sense, to Boba Fett. It was Johnston who came up with the design for the distinctive Mandalorian Armor that Fett wears.
So if any person in the world has serious chance at making this happen it would be Johnston. You have to wonder though, Is Lucas prepared to hand over the Star Wars firanchise to another director? It's possible. In fact it may be more than possible. Lucas has tried for years to launch a live action Star Wars television series but has never been able to find a cost effective way to create cinema quality effects on a TV budget. A series of films based on the periphery of the Star Wars universe may be a very smart plan B. Only time will tell.
-Admiral Duke
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