By JAMES ROYAL Staff Writer on Jan 14, 2013, at 4:00 PM Updated on 1/14 at 4:12 PM
Zack Snyder speaks at "Man of Steel" panel at Comic-Con last summer. JORDAN STRAUSS/Invision/AP
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“Man of Steel” director Zack Snyder may not be working on “Star Wars Episode VII,” but according to
a report from Vulture, he may be putting together something Star Wars-related that might excite the nerd universe just as much.
Vulture reports that Snyder is developing a movie set in the Star Wars universe that will be based loosely on the Akira Kurosawa classic “Seven Samurai,” the film upon which the western “The Magnificent Seven” is based.
For those unfamiliar with the plot of “Seven Samurai,” a farming village hires seven samurai to defend them from a group of bandits that is planning on looting it after the harvest. The story could easily fit into the Star Wars universe, with seven Jedi defending a village on a remote planet or even defending an entire planet from an evil onslaught, with light sabers replacing katanas (as long as they aren’t defending Gungans, I’ll be happy).
This won’t be the first Star Wars film influenced by the Japanese film maker. Creator George Lucas strongly admires Kurosawa’s work, and Lucas has said the original trilogy was influenced by Kurosawa’s “The Hidden Fortress.” “Seven Samurai” is one of Lucas' favorite films, and he
references it several times throughout the Star Wars franchise.
Vulture reported that Snyder’s untitled film “will not be considered part of the ‘numbered’ episodes, but rather a stand-alone film set sometime post–Episode VI events.” It will be interesting to see if the samurai/Jedi are new creations or if Snyder draws on characters from the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Either way, it’s an intriguing project that shows the Lucas-Disney deal will be reaching beyond simply new installments in the main Star Wars storyline. Disney wants to release a Star Wars film every two or three years starting with Episode VII in 2015, and with films like this in the works, it's possible they may even come at a faster rate than that.
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