‘Quiet Place’ Writers Turned Down ‘Star Wars’ by Telling Lucasfilm to Start New Franchises
Zack Sharf
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods became one of Hollywood’s most in-demand screenwriting duos after the smash hit that was “A Quiet Place,” the 2018 John Krasinski-directed horror film that earned $340 million worldwide. The success of “A Quiet Place” landed Back and Woods a meeting at Lucasfilm, where executives were courting the duo for potential “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars” movies. In an interview with Movieweb, the writers reveal they turned down Lucasfilm in favor of developing original story ideas. Beck and Woods even called out Lucasfilm’s resistance to new franchises to Lucasfilm’s face.
“We went into Lucasfilm in the wake of ‘A Quiet Place’ and they wanted to talk to us about ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Star Wars,’” said Woods. “And we’re like, ‘We wanna talk to you about what is “Star Wars” before it was “Star Wars?” You guys have a responsibility to start a new franchise. That’s where our hearts have always been, just trying to create original ideas.’”
Beck added, “Without giving away too much it was simply ruminating on if we did an ‘Indiana Jones’ movie, what would we want to see in ‘Indiana Jones?’ Or if we did a ‘Star Wars’ movie, what’s that chapter of the whole universe that we would want to see? So it very much was an open canvas talk. It started going down the line a little bit but, again, as Bryan said, it’s just not our DNA. We would rather create what the next ‘Indiana Jones’ could be.”
Lucasfilm is ending the Skywalker film saga with this December’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” before launching new “Star Wars” trilogies, one from “The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson and another from “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The studio also has the first “Star Wars” television series, “The Mandalorian,” launching on Disney+ this fall, plus an Obi Wan Kenobi series starring Ewan McGregor in the works. A fifth “Indiana Jones” movie with Harrison Ford is also being developed.
As for Beck and Woods, they are not involved in the upcoming “A Quiet Place: Part II.” Krasinski wrote the script based on their characters and is returning to direct returning cast members Emily Blunt, Noah Jupe, and Millicent Simmonds. Newcomers include Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou. Paramount is opening the sequel March 20, 2020. Scott and Beck’s new film, “Haunt,” opens September 13 from Momentum Pictures.
