James Mangold Pitched His STAR WARS Film as a "BEN HUR or THE TEN COMMANDMENTS" Film About The Force
There were a lot of exciting announcements that came out of Star Wars Celebration this past weekend, and one that got a lot of fans excited was the James Mangold film project, which would go back to the dawn of the Jedi.
The story is said to take place 25,000 years before the events of the original trilogy, which is so cool and fascinating! The movie will focus on the birth of The Force and during an interview with Variety, Mangold talked about the pitch he made to Kathleen Kennedy and how he likened it to a couple of iconic, epic films:
“It’s a chance to tell the entire story of its own, the birth of the force. When I first talked to Kathy Kennedy about it, I just said, ‘I just see this opening to make kind of a Ben-Hur or The 10 Commandments about the birth of the Force.’ The Force has become a kind of religious legend that spans through all these movies. But where did it come from? How is it found? Who found it? Who was the first Jedi? And that’s what I’m writing right now.”
So, this is going to be the Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments of Star Wars movies, and I’m all for it! When previously talking about how the movie would center on the discovery of The Force, Mangold said:
"It just came from me thinking about if I were doing one, it seemed to me that most of what they were thinking about doing with movies were either in the present of Star Wars or the future, and what attracted me most was the distant past and how this galaxy formed and how, more specifically, the Force was discovered."
The filmmaker also said that he was currently writing the film and formulating the main character of the story. I wish we knew more about what Mangold is up too, but more details will leak out over time.
What we do know about the early history of The Force was that in “36,453 BBY, philosophers and scientists from several Star systems gathered on Tython to share mystical knowledge. The Force was ‘discovered.’ Unfortunately, in 25,793 BBY, several Tythan scholars began using their knowledge of the Force to pursue power, leading to the beginning of the Force Wars. Peace-minded monks that survived the destruction on Tython established the Jedi Order in 25,783 BBY.”
There are a lot of fascinating elements to pull from Star Wars lore, and it’s going to be pretty cool to see what Mangold ends up delivering.