One of the biggest stories of the day was that “Ford vs. Ferrari” and “Logan” filmmaker James Mangold has been hired to direct a “Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi” movie.
That film will explore the distant past of the “Star Wars” universe and will deal with the beginnings of the Jedi order and its founders and takes place around 25,000 years before the Skywalker saga.
Speaking with Variety, Mangold describes his project as almost one of those old school religious epics, telling Kathleen Kennedy that he sees the film as “kind of a ‘Ben-Hur’ or ‘The 10 Commandments’ about the birth of the force.”
He goes on to explain the main questions this origin story, treading uncharted territory in the “Star Wars” universe, aims to answer:
“The force has become a kind of religious legend that spans through all these movies. But where did it come from? How is it found? Who found it? Who was the first Jedi? And that’s what I’m writing right now.”
Mangold of course has been very busy lately working with Lucasfilm already at the helm of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” due out in cinemas in June.
Yet he also has a Buster Keaton biopic and Bob Dylan biopic on the way with the latter starring Timothee Chalamet. He also posted an image posting a few months back suggesting (but did not confirm) that he’s also going to be directing the “Swamp Thing” movie for James Gunn’s DC Universe.
So where do all these projects stand right now and what’s going first? Speaking to Collider at Star Wars Celebration earlier today, Mangold confirmed he is indeed doing “Swamp Thing”, and he is currently writing the scripts for both it and his “Star Wars” film:
“The truth is, I’m writing both right now, and who knows what’s going to happen and what’s gonna blossom first or second? So there’s your thing. I’m acknowledging I’m doing ‘Swamp Thing,’ there’s your scoop. It’s not a rumour, it’s happening. I put it online… It can all happen, it just takes time – there’s only one person.”
In the wake of that, James Gunn took to Twitter to confirm the confirmation:
“Of course, when we started charting the course for the DCU one of the first people I talked to was the super talented @mang0ld about writing and directing his passion project, Swamp Thing.”
Mangold also confirmed that his Bob Dylan biopic, which will explore the period when a 19-year-old Dylan first comes to New York, aims to begin shooting this August. Not only will Chalamet star but he’ll also sing, and Mangold adds that famed American icons like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez will likely be characters as all “have a role to play in this movie”.
