Josh Trank to direct Star Wars spin-off

Fantastic Four director Josh Trank has been hired to direct another standalone Star Wars spin-off film. It was announced by Disney that they intended to make at least three separate Star Wars films and they just are keeping the ball rolling. Godzilla director Gareth Edwards was confirmed to be directing one of them last week.

Trank hit the scene with the 2012 film Chronicle and since then has been hired to direct Fox's Fantastic Four reboot. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy stated, "we are thrilled to welcome Josh into the family."

Filming officially starts for Star Wars Episode VII

Enough said =^D

Star Wars Episode VII timeframe revealed

Disney CEO, Bob Iger, has leaked some information about the severely secretive Star Wars Episode VII plot. Iger stated that  the new Star Wars will take place 30 years after the events of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. He also mentioned a trio of new lead characters will lead familiar characters. So far, the only official cast member announced is R2-D2 but it has been rumored for months that Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill will be returning as well.

This is just more to add to the rumor pot regarding Episode VII. We literally know nothing about this movie other than the director, writers, R2-D2, and that filming starts in May.

Star Wars: Episode VII gets official release date

Everyone mark your calendars!

Star Wars: Episode VII is currently set to open, in 3D, on December 18, 2015. 
This will mark the first Star Wars film to not be released in the month of May and will be the first film in the franchise to have an initial release in 3D. All previous 3D Star Wars releases have been re-releases. There is no word on whether the film will be shot in 3D or if it will be post-converted. Episode VII will share the release weekend with Universal's World of Warcraft adaptation, Warcraft.
In addition to an official release date, we have also learned the real reason J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan stepped in and replaced Michael Ardnt to finish the script. Abrams cites speed as the real reason. Arndt exited the project and was replaced in order for them to meet the deadline. Producer Kathleen Kennedy previously tried to convince Disney to push back the release until 2016, but Disney wouldn't budge and was adamant about a 2015 release. As a result, Kasdan was brought in to help speed up the process.


I personally don't mind the December release date for two reasons. First off, in order to obtain the May release date they would either have to shift The Avengers: Age of Ultron or delay Star Wars until 2016. Second, releasing in December gives a bit of a break to viewers and gives them enough time to give us a quality product. There is obviously no way in hell we would get May 2014 and I think it's fairly obvious they aren't willing to shift The Avengers, so people just need to be happy with what we have. We have an official date. Now, it could still change so I am not putting much stock in this for right now. Seeing that it is going directly against Warcraft I wouldn't be shocked to see that one shift up or down by a week. Anything going up against Star Wars is going to get demolished.
Another sidenote about this recent release date, it has caused a rift that resulted in Disney moving the release date for Tomorrowland. Originally set for release in November 2014, it will now be released on May 22, 2015 which is three weeks after The Avengers: Age of Ultron and one week before Inside Out, the next Pixar release.

Star Wars team seeks to delay Episode VII

Last week we got some pretty major news that Michael Arndt had been replaced with Lawrence Kasdan and J.J. Abrams for the Star Wars: Episode VII script. This comes just about a year after Disney announced their purchase of Lucasfilm and the announcement of a seventh Star Wars film. We now have news that the Star Wars team has requested a delay of the film until 2015, but was shut down by Disney.

There is still no official release date for Episode VII, however Disney is constantly hammering their intent for a 2015 release. It has been rumored as of late that the film will be released in December 2015 for a Christmas release. However, with the current script rewrite and no solid casting news, the deadline is cutting very close because filming is supposed to start in London in early 2014.
The word is that producer Kathleen Kennedy and the rest of the creative team has requested a delay for the film until 2016 and was promptly denied by Disney. The speculation is Disney CEO Bob Iger is adamant about the 2015 release due to pressure from the shareholders and demand for merchandising and revenue by 2015. This also could be due to rumors that Tomorrowland at Disneyland will be revamped and redesigned as a so-called "Star Wars Land" with a new speeder bike attraction and a life size Millenium Falcon. Similar rumors are circulating at Disneyworld in Florida for a Star Wars addition to the Hollywood Studios park.
However, some are suggesting that J.J. Abrams is confident in the 2015 release and it is primarily Kennedy that is pushing for the delay. The two are apparently working in sync with the casting, though. There is also a rumor that Michael Arndt had treated Disney to a 50-page script for a seventh film before Lucasfilm was even purchased, so this new trilogy has been in the works for quite sometime already.

I am doubting this is all due to tension between Kennedy and Abrams. She has been a longtime producer for Steven Spielberg and has been on several high pressure projects, so I think she knows what she is doing. Hopefully this pressure will give Disney some sense and not release a half-assed project for once. I am still not fully on board to this new Star Wars movie and if it sucks because Disney rushed it I am going to be even more upset. 

Saoirse Ronan uses a lightsaber?

This is just getting worse.

News broke a while back that Saoirse Ronan had read for Star Wars: Episode VII, but of course no one has been officially cast yet. She has now elaborated on her audition and stated that she used a lightsaber. However, she didn't see a script.


Well then.

Star Wars Episode VII to utilize practical effects

Executive Producer Kathleen Kennedy is starting to speak out about Star Wars: Episode VII due to the Star Wars Celebration in Germany this weekend. She stated that as of right now she is splitting her time between Lucasfilm and Bad Robot to meet with J.J. Abrams and the writers citing that all they are focusing right now is the story and the characters. Kennedy believes if you don't spend the time to create a good story and great characters any effects you use will be useless.

On the subject of special effects, Kennedy responded to the question of how much CGI will be used in Episode VII. Episodes I-III had a ridiculous amount of CG effects to the point that it distracted from the story. Kennedy has worked on several cutting edge and culturally defining films like Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, and ET and understands the ways technology can be used. However, she also understands the balance that exists between CGI and practical effects. She stated,

"It's a conversation we're having all the time in the development of Episode VII. Looking at all the Star Wars movies and getting a feel for what even some of the early films did, combining real locations and special effects – that's something we're looking very seriously at. So we're going to find some very cool locations that we're going to use in support of Episode VII and I think we're probably going to end up using every single tool in the toolbox to create the look of these movies."

That statement apparently resulted in an uproar of applause and approval from the fans in attendance. In addition to that statement, Kennedy promised they will be using model makers to create real droids and use real artwork to be combined with tasteful CG effects.


I'm still not 100% on board with this whole Episode VII thing, but reading this made me extremely happy. It would be nice to see something that is tasteful and not just a CGI, green screen crapshoot that George Lucas gave us for three movies.

Source via IGN

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