Movies

Rian Johnson And Duncan Jones Debate 'Star Wars' Vs. 'Warcraft' And It Is Delightful

star wars twitter
By Jacob Hall/

Twitter can be a wretched hive of scum and villainy that feels engineered to fill you with crummy feelings and ruin your day... but it can also be a miraculous forum on which to witness incredible people engage in incredible conversations about incredible things. Or at least super-nerdy things. Or at least hilarious mean things. Based purely on the strength of a lengthy exchange between filmmakers Rian Johnson and Duncan Jones, Twitter has earned the right to exist for another few weeks or so.

What happens when the director of Star Wars Episode VIII challenges the director of Warcraft to a Twitter duel over the value of their respective film series? You can see for yourself below.

If you've come here looking for an enlightened, intelligent debate, go ahead and turn back now. This is less of a proper argument and more of a quickly escalating series of low blows. It's all in good fun, but man, it sure gets dark. Directing hugely expensive movies with countless fans and studio executives breathing down your neck must gives you a near-unlimited amount of steam that needs to be blown off.

It all started with Jones, who is neck-deep in post-production on next year's Warcraft movie, throwing out a provocative tweet that surely knew was going to ruffle a few feathers:

While some filmmakers, like Jones and other industry stalwarts like Steven Soderbergh and David Fincher, have embraced digital technology, other directors have fought tooth-and-nail to preserve 35mm film. The likes of Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams all shoot on film and will never tire of letting everyone know their preference. So, enter Rian Johnson, who is about to begin production on Star Wars Episode VIII:

Jones was quick to join Johnson on the snark wagon:

However, things got real when Johnson inquired which iPhone Jones used to shoot his big fantasy epic:

And then it was on. We'll let this next stretch speak for itself, because it is a thing of great and terrible beauty:

Thankfully, the whole thing concluded with the Twitter equivalent of a friendly hug, complete with a winking emoticon and a GIF. How else are you supposed to indicate not-so-gentle good humor on the internet?

Anyway, Warcraft will be released on June 10, 2016 and Star Wars: Episode 8 will arrive on May 26, 2017, just in case you want to reward Johnson and Jones' Twitter skills by throwing some money at their tiny, indie movies.

A tip of the hat to Film School Rejects for bringing this majestic exchange to our attention.

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