Star Wars: A New Hope Inspires Young Director

It seems Star Wars: A New Hope is still inspiring filmmakers even 41 years after its release. In an interview this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, Aquaman director James Wan was asked about a clip from the trailer that shows a young Arthur Curry catching a Trident with his hands on the beach. Wan was there of course as part of the big Aquaman panel where the trailer was premiered...

“When Willem and I spoke very early on, we always saw him as an old school samurai warrior, like an Obi Wan Kenobi training Luke Skywalker.”



Willem Dafoe plays the character Vulko, Curry’s mentor, who is not unlike an Obi-Wan Kenobi type sage as Wan points out. The Star Wars connection goes even deeper for the young director who looked to Akira Kurosawa films for inspiration the same way a young George Lucas did back in the 1970’s when developing Star Wars.

“He's modeling himself after Toshiro Mifune in all the classic Kurosawa films. Even down to the way Willem looks in the movie. His hair is pulled back into a bun like a samurai warrior, and his sword's behind his back.”

So, the training sequence depicted in the film is meant to pay homage to the great training sequences we've seen such as the one’s on display in Star Wars all those years ago.

It seems the Force is strong in this new generation of filmmakers.

Till next time…MTFBWY.

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