Yes, this may seem like clickbait, but we’re not misleading you at all, dear reader. Filmmaker Colin Trevorrow, who wrote and directed “The Book of Henry” and was hand-chosen (and subsequently dismissed from) to write and direct “Star Wars: Episode IX,” is now explaining why he thinks that ‘Henry’ is a “carbon copy” of “Star Wars.”
Now, before we get to the explanation, Trevorrow raised some eyebrows when there was an exchange between the filmmaker and writer Zack Stentz. After Stentz tweeted, “You know I am ride or die for Book of Henry, CT.,” Trevorrow replied, “Someday we’ll get drunk and I’ll lay out how that movie is a carbon copy of A New Hope. My favorite bar trick for fellow story nerds.”
Since that conversation in April, people have been wondering how Trevorrow’s “Book of Henry” could possibly be compared to “Star Wars: A New Hope.” To give a little more context, ‘Henry’ was released last year and was almost universally panned by critics. Many speculated that the failure of ‘Henry’ was one of the driving factors to Trevorrow’s dismissal from ‘Episode IX,’ which is something the filmmaker has even thought about.
So, comparing ‘A New Hope,’ which on the other end is universally praised as a classic, to ‘Heny’ seems silly, at best, and incredibly stupid, at worst. But nevertheless, Slash Film caught up with Trevorrow, as he’s making the rounds to promote “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” to have him explain why he made the comparison.
Trevorrow explained:
“I mean, it is, it’s a foundational myth. It’s a noble ghost story. Where a character lives on after death in order to guide a hero to find their strength and defeat ultimate evil. And structurally, I can’t…but you’re gonna print this, unfortunately. I’m saying this now. But the way that I look at movies, I do see ‘Avatar’ and ‘Titanic’ and ‘Jurassic World’ [as] very similar movies. Henry was Obi-Wan Kenobi. And he died in the middle. And he left a set of instructions on how to take out the Death Star where Darth Vader was holding a Princess captive. And at the very end, when he had the target in his sights, he had to remember his training. Guided by this ghostly voice. And then Han Solo comes in with the Rube Goldberg machine and gives him the moment. And ultimately the Princess saves herself.”
The filmmaker went a step further and continued his explanation, while also elevating ‘A New Hope’ to Joseph Campbell status, saying, “To me, ‘Star Wars’ is a foundational myth. And I think that in the same way that we use Joseph Campbell as a foundational myth for so long, we’re now gonna start using ‘Star Wars’ as a foundational myth to tell other stories. I know I’m gonna get a lot of shit for this on Twitter and I regret that you asked me, but it’s just the way that I saw it.”
I have to admit that I never saw ‘Henry.’ From everyone I know who did see it, I did myself a favor by skipping the film. However, this may be just what Trevorrow needed to get a whole new set of viewers on his film because I’ll definitely want to see if the director is speaking the truth.
That being said, the explanation given doesn’t seem to be more than just a surface level comparison. I guess I’ll find out for myself.
Someday we’ll get drunk and I’ll lay out how that movie is a carbon copy of A New Hope. My favorite bar trick for fellow story nerds.
— Colin Trevorrow (@colintrevorrow) April 24, 2018