As more time passes, it seems like fewer and fewer directors are interested in heading up “Star Wars Episode VII.”
Guillermo del Toro is the latest director to pull his name out of the search, a list that now includes del Toro, Zack Snyder, J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino and Colin Trevorrow.
Del Torro told IndieWire.com that he was approached by Disney and declined the chance to direct the next chapter in the Star Wars saga because his plate was already full with projects like the upcoming “Pacific Rim.”
"We got one phone call to my agent saying, 'Is Guillermo interested?' " del Torro said. “And basically I have so much stuff already of my own, and I'm pursuing stuff that I'm generating already.”
In an interview last month in
Empire magazine, Abrams confirmed he spoke with Kathleen Kennedy, the producer and president of Lucasfilm who is heading up the project, but he ultimately decided he didn’t want to be involved because he wanted to see the new series evolve as a fan.
“I quickly said that because of my loyalty to Star Trek, and also just being a fan, I wouldn’t even want to be involved in the next version of those things,” Abrams told Empire. “I declined any involvement very early on. I’d rather be in the audience not knowing what was coming, rather than being involved in the minutiae of making them.”
There are plenty of options still out there. Jon Favreau (“Iron Man 3”), Joe Johnston (“Captain America: The First Avenger”) and Matthew Vaughn (“X-Men: First Class”) have been linked to the job in different rumors, with
one report saying Favreau was “panting after this job.” And
Empire has a great breakdown of other possibilities and the chances of them directing “Episode VII.”
