J.J. Abrams to move away from reboots: ‘I’m more excited about original ideas’

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10 (UPI) — Filmmaker J.J. Abrams is done with making reboots and remakes of popular franchises and is ready to focus on original content.

“You know, I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten involved in things that I loved when I was a kid,” Abrams said while speaking with People magazine at the Golden Globe Awards.

“In fact, even Westworld, which we’re here for tonight, is one of them. But I don’t feel any desire to do that again. I feel like I’ve done enough of that that I’m more excited about working on things that are original ideas that perhaps one day someone else will have to reboot,” he continued.

Abrams has made a career out of reviving established franchises including his work on the then dormant Mission Impossible series with 2006’s Mission Impossible III, Star Trek which he rebooted cinematically in 2009 along with its 2013 sequel Star Trek Into Darkness and most recently with 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which jump-started a new trilogy in the storied franchise.

“You know, I do think that if you’re telling a story that is not moving anything forward, not introducing anything that’s relevant, that’s not creating a new mythology or an extension of it, then a complete remake of something feels like a mistake,” he noted to People.

“But film is a fairly young medium and there are stories that have lasted for centuries,” he added. “And it’s not uncommon, I think, for stories to be retold — whether it’s at campfire or on film, but I think you always have to be additive. You can’t just be remaking something just for the sake of remaking it.”

Abrams next project is a tie-in film to a franchise he helped create, Cloverfield, with the formally titled God Particle.

The film about a team of astronauts that make a terrifying discovery, is produced by Abrams and connects to the Cloverfield universe following 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane.

The project originally scheduled to release in February, was pushed back until Oct. 27, 2017 and will be given a new title.