Hollywood Popular Artists

Jan 28th 2013, 21:05

Though the mystery of the "Star Wars: Episode VII" director may be solved, the future of the franchise and the talk of spin-off movies still lingers. In theory, standalone movies set in the "Star Wars" universe would be a way of attracting serious talent who would otherwise be hesitant to commit to numbered installment and who could put their own spin on George Lucas' world.

Given the chance to talk to Robert Rodriguez at this year's Sundance Film Festival, of course MTV News' Josh Horowitz had to ask if the genre director would ever like to take a crack at the world of Jedis and intergalactic smugglers.

In general, Rodriguez is definitely on board for standalone "Star Wars" movies. "I don't mind them doing more 'Star Wars,' " he said. "I also like the whole idea of them doing off-shoot films, like you just have a 'Boba Fett' movie over here."

"There's so much you can do. George has built such an enormous world that just to be waiting now again, who's going to live up that? It's almost like they should just branch it out, and let people play with those characters. There's such rich stuff."

But don't assume that the prospect of toying with the "Star Wars" universe is going to attract every fanboy director. "I don't know. It depends on what it was. George really inspired me to do what I'm doing now, which is the same thing he did," Rodriguez said. "He originally wanted and couldn't get the rights to 'Flash Gordon.' He tried, couldn't get it, so he went and wrote 'Star Wars,' which was his complete take on 'Flash Gordon,' even to the opening titles crawl that went that way.... I think if I asked [Lucas] for advice, he would say 'Go make your own "Star Wars" universe, kid.' "

Given the opportunity, however, Rodriguez simply couldn't turn down Han Solo. "If there was something that somebody said, 'Here, Han Solo, his own adventures.' I'd go do that."

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