“Game Of Thrones” Bros David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Quit Their “Star Wars” Gig
The guys who shit the bed at Westeros, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, have just stepped away from/been asked to step away from the big cushy Star Wars bed in the sky. It makes sense. Do you know how hard it is to get shit stains out of a sheet IN SPACE? According to Deadline, the Game Of Thrones showrunning duo who become more hated than season 2 King Joffrey (for non GOT fans, he was a like a less sympathetic, murderous Aaron Carter) have decided to walk away from a deal with Disney which would have had them at the helm of a Star Wars feature film trilogy. Coincidentally, the pair just participated in a GOT panel at the Austin Film Festival with disastrous results for their reputations.
D&D getting a Star Wars deal was unpopular with both GOT and Star Wars fans from the beginning. There was even a petition to “Keep Game of Thrones writers away from Star Wars!” floating around that has almost 35,000 signatures on it (to date). However, Deadline reports that their departure was all about their busy schedules.
Benioff and Weiss were supposed to usher in the post-Skywalker era of the Star Wars brand with a 2022 new-start story that would stake out a new frontier for the era-defining cinema brand created by George Lucas. The Emmy-winning pair cited their historic deal with Netflix. They said their enthusiasm for Star Wars remains boundless but, regrettably, their schedule is full.
It seems like getting a Star Wars trilogy would be something you’d make time for, but I guess they need to wash their hair that badly. They probably got gum in it or something. D&D had this to say about getting their Disney e-ticket punched.
“We love Star Wars,” the pair said in a statement to Deadline. “When George Lucas built it, he built us too. Getting to talk about Star Wars with him and the current Star Wars team was the thrill of a lifetime, and we will always be indebted to the saga that changed everything.”
What wasn’t a thrill of a lifetime was all the heat they took for the final season of GOT. You may recall that it was so bad a petition was signed by almost 2 million people (and counting) demanding the final season be reshot entirely. And D&D bailed on a GOT Comic-Con panel at the last minute after the series finale aired. Maybe they should have bailed on the Austin Film Festival one too because it made them look really, really, bad. Here’s a sample of how that went.
They talking about the pilot and their friends who they let watch their first attempt at a pilot. One of the people was Craig Mazin (wrote Chernobyl) Scott Frank and Ted Griffin. He acknowledged that the first pilot was basic writing mistakes.
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
Dan is saying that #GameofThrones was basically an expensive film school for he and Dave. For example, they had no idea how to work with costume designers, and it was a huge learning experience.
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
The moderator is asking them about their comments acknowledging they didn’t understand the characters, and the extra minutes helped them understand the characters better. 😳
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
Were you listening to the feedback to your fans as things went along?
Dan: “We really did not.”
Dan doesn’t see the value of considering other people’s reactions.
Dave acknowledged that he googled the show and it upset him. Dan, no. @dndgoogling
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
It goes on, if you can believe there’s still anywhere left to go after admitting to freezing a baby’s nutsack. The upshot is it made D&D look like unprofessional bros who were allowed to fail so far upward they ended up in outer space. And while they were in space, Netflix swooped in with a tricked out shuttle to take them to planet Money Bags.
In the end, however, it appears the tandem’s deficiency was in time, not talent. In August, Deadline broke the news that the GoT duo had signed a nine-figure deal with Netflix, and on Monday, that commitment was the one that brought about the end of the Great Westeros Experiment by Disney and Lucasfilm.
“There are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects,” the GoT pair said in a statement to Deadline. “So we are regretfully stepping away.”
I can’t wait for their first Netflix series about a couple of frat brothers who risk it all for their big break, fail miserably, and become America’s first platonic friendship co-presidents of the United States. I know, they can call it Confederate!
Pic: Wenn.com