As we all patiently wait to find out who will end up directing Lucasfilm and Disney's Star Wars: Episode VII, director Guillermo del Toro revealed that he was approached to see if he would be interested in directing the sequel. Of course he ended up turning it down. Here he explained how it all went down,
We got one phone call to my agent saying, 'Is Guillermo interested?' And basically I have so much stuff already of my own, and I'm pursuing stuff that I'm generating already...
I think it would be really hard to turn something like Star Wars down, but it seems like several directors aren't having a problem saying no. Even though the director is busy with a ton of other projects on his plate he does say that he was flattered that they approached him,
It was very flattering. It was just a phone call, it didn't go past that, it was very nice to be asked, but believe it or not, I'm busy enough.
As much as I like Del Toro's work, I'm not sure if his style is the right fit for the Star Wars universe. The director does go on to say that he thinks Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol director Brad Bird should take it on!
I think the fans deserve somebody that is just going to immerse themselves completely. As a geek, I would have loved to see Brad Bird take it.
I'd love to see Bird take it on as well, but he's already said that he won't be doing it as he's prepping to take on another really cool sounding project called 1952. I'm still holding out for hope that Jon Favreau ends up directing it because he'd be awesome!