Episode VII Has a Potential Writer That We Should Potentially Be Okay With

From Vulture:

Informed sources tell Vulture that Star Wars: Episode VII has found a leading candidate to write the film’s screenplay: Michael Arndt, the Pixar favorite who was nominated for an Oscar for Toy Story 3, won an Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine, and wrote The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which is currently shooting. Insiders confirm that Arndt has written a 40- to 50-page treatment for the film and is likely to be at least one of the writers when the Disney/Lucasfilm project begins shooting in 2014.

The merger between George Lucas’s brainchild and Disney, announced October 30, caught the town by surprise. And talent agents were similarly astonished to learn that Arndt had been at work on the treatment long before the deal was announced, catching them flat-footed and cutting off any chance they’d have to proffer their own many eager candidates for the coveted job.

It’s not that I’m looking at this dude’s resume and saying, “Oh my god, he’d be perfect for Star Wars” but instead I’m looking at it and not seeing any problems. Toy Story 3 is an all-ages film, but it has plenty of fun and drama; assuming Catching Fire isn’t a wash, it’s a good mix of action and drama, and the Little Miss Sunshine is a character-based drama. Sure, Arndt doesn’t really have any sci-fi expertise, but Star Wars isn’t that sci-fi — it’s the good characters and relationships and fun, meaningful action that the movie needs back. But the article doesn’t end there (unfortunately):

Sources also tell Vulture that the studio’s brass want to bring back the three central characters of the original Star Wars: a much older Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. No deals are in place with any of the original actors, though our source did say it had high ambitions to sign up Mark Hamill, and EW recently reported that Harrison Ford was open to the idea of returning.

Look, I’ve said this before, but I don’t want Luke, Leia and Han in the new trilogy. I don’t even want Artoo and Threepio, although I think my chances of them not appearing about 1-in-1138.
Look, I can see myself getting older every time I look in the mirror. Wrinkles are forming, my body is deteriorating, and it sucks. I am perfectly fine remembering Luke Skywalker as the eternally young warrior who took down the Empire. I really, really do not need to see Luke trudge over to his special ergonomic chair in the Jedi Academy so he can tell the new youngling how his dad would have murdered them and stacked their bodies like cordwood.