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Re: Why Gendy Tartakovsky should direct Episode VII
They got the strongest brand in the world and story treatments by the creator and his right hand "man". It's not like giving Scorsese and Coppola huge dollars to make new, personal projects. If they can do it with Kershner and Marquand they can do it here.
Imo I think they'll go for a lesser known, competent director. Cheaper, can commit longer and is easier to control. If that fails they might try and go for a bigger name for the next one. Really what you want for this kind of thing is a guy that puts Star Wars first. That might be harder to accomplish with some uber successful big shot.
Re: Why Gendy Tartakovsky should direct Episode VII
This same old song and dance went on even back in the day. 
"TIP: George Lucas got in touch with you because of "The Return of the Jedi" at that time.
Lynch: Yes. George Lucas got in touch with me at the same time Dino [de Laurentiis, producer of Dune] did, and I had to make an important decision. George was great. He's a living legend, but although I was really fond of him; I realized that his projects are entirely his projects, and I prefer to do my own.
TIP: You wouldn't have had the same creative freedom like when doing "Dune"?
Lynch: Absolutely not. In George's imagination the movie was already done. It wouldn't have made a difference with me doing it. It would have looked exactly the same.
TIP: Did you ever regret not doing it?
Lynch: No, I really don`t know how it became public that I was Involved, because I never told anybody."
Re: Why Gendy Tartakovsky should direct Episode VII
This brings us to a curious point. During the filming of Empire, several sources (incl. Gary Kurtz) have suggested Lucas himself had a very hands-off approach to the good work of Irvin Kershner and his crew, whom were supervised by Kurtz. It's been said that the film is the most "human" (and, to the humor of his deriders, the most non-Lucas) of the series. While I doubt Lucas has ever admitted to have felt alienated by what Empire had become without him, he was sure to roll up his sleeves for "Jedi".
After the release of “Empire” (which was shaped by material left over from that first Lucas treatment), talk turned to a third film and after a decade and a half the partners could no longer find a middle ground.
“We had an outline and George changed everything in it,” Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”
Han Solo was discussed of being killed off during the preproduction of 'Jedi', as well.
The issue of whether Harrison Ford would return for the final film arose during pre-production. Unlike the other stars of the first film, Ford had not contracted to do two sequels, and Raiders of the Lost Ark had made him an even bigger star. Ford suggested that Han Solo be killed through self-sacrifice.
[Screenwriter Lawrence] Kasdan concurred, saying it should happen near the beginning of the film to instill doubt as to whether the others would survive, but Lucas was vehemently against it and rejected the concept.
The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone “like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,” as Kurtz put it.
Kurtz said that ending would have been a more emotionally nuanced finale to an epic adventure than the forest celebration of the Ewoks that essentially ended the trilogy with a teddy bear luau.
He was especially disdainful of the Lucas idea of a second Death Star, which he felt would be too derivative of the 1977 film. “So we agreed that I should probably leave.”
- LA Times
Having lost his long-time collaborator, it's curious to think Lucas would then ask Lynch and another David (of all people!) to direct the film.
"A long time ago I was approached for one second to do a Star Wars movie, which at that time was called Revenge of the Jedi and then it became Return of the Jedi," Cronenberg told Digital Spy. "I was approached by Lucasfilm about that and it didn't take them long to realise that maybe that wasn't a good idea."
A lot of the design work and preproduction of Jedi would base on Lucas' (revised) story treatment and storyboards, so Lynch had a point. Lucas had, apparently, done a meticulous job in outlining the visual narrative of 'Jedi', and a bright young thing as a director might lend the film the same gleeful mojo evident in Episode IV. Maybe so.
