News has come to light that one of the world’s greatest filmmakers had a hand in some of The Force Awakens‘ more iconic scenes.
Steven Spielberg, who needs no introduction, was on hand to director JJ Abrams during production of Episode VII, giving him nudges on at least two scenes in the movie.
Spielberg has been instrumental in the whole of the Star Wars franchise, and it was even he who convinced Lucasfilm to let the Star Trek director helm the anticipated return to the galaxy far far away.
However, the best evidence we have of his involvement is the film itself.
The director’s commentary for the upcoming Collector’s Edition Blu-Ray hears Abrams say that Spielberg influenced both the TIE Fighter crash and the final lightsaber stand-off between Kylo Ren and Rey.
On the final battle, Abrams said:
When I showed the first cut of this scene to Steven Spielberg … he suggested ‘What if trees were falling while they were fighting?’ And I said ‘That’s cool, but we’ve shot the scene already.’
And then I said to [vfx supervisor] Roger Guyett, ‘Is there any way we could have trees falling?’ And he said, ‘If you want to pay for it.’ So we did.
Sci-fi pedigree doesn’t get much better than Spielberg with classics such as E.T. and Close Encounters, so it’s really no surprise that he knows his way around a good space opera.
It was even once rumoured that Spielberg would himself be behind the camera of The Return of the Jedi after he and good pal George Lucas shared notes over the first two films.
So we have Spielberg partly to thank for one of the best scenes in the movie, and indeed the franchise.
Add it to the list of his achievements.
