J.J Abrams somehow found himself in the position of being the guy to restart two of the biggest science fiction franchises in the history of all media. He's become as known for that as he is for lens flare. However, now the director says he's done with the remakes and reboots. He says he's now in a place where he'd rather work on more original ideas.
You know, I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten involved in things that I loved when I was a kid. In fact, even Westworld, which we're here for tonight, is one of them. But I don't feel any desire to do that again. I feel like I've done enough of that that I'm more excited about working on things that are original ideas that perhaps one day someone else will have to reboot.
While J.J. Abrams started his career writing original screenplays and creating new television shows, his directing career has had an element of the remake/reboot trend in it from the beginning. His first film as a director was Mission: Impossible III. Abrams wasn't the one to start that reboot, but he got involved in it nonetheless. From there he was put in charge of rebooting the Star Trek franchise, before then being asked to revive Star Wars as well.
J.J. Abrams had said that part of the reason he got involved in projects like Star Trek and Star Wars was because he was as much a fan of those properties as the rest of us. Now, however, he tells People that he's reached a point where he'd rather work on new ideas.
We're assuming this means that the next thing he directs, or possibly writes, will be a more original idea. These days J.J. Abrams is more a producer than anything else, and he'll still be producing more of the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, not to mention Mission: Impossible.
Although, creating something new doesn't necessarily mean staying away from the idea of franchises. Last year J.J. Abrams-produced 10 Cloverfield Lane, a film which was related to his original Cloverfield but still a new and unique story. It now appears that a new film, previously known as The God Particle, is being developed to be the third entry in the series.
What happens after that is anybody's guess. The fact that J.J. Abrams will be looking toward original material makes it essentially impossible to predict what sort of movies we may see. In the end, it's a good thing of course. All those stories that get endlessly remade and rebooted were once brand new ideas that their creators couldn't be sure would become popular. Perhaps, as Abrams says, he'll be able to create something like that which will then get endlessly remade for years to come. If it's that good, it'll be worth it.
