movies Star Wars Episode VII (Official Thread) (JJ Abrams Directs)

[Rappy Veteran]

We are going to get news I am sure over the next few months about the new Star Wars films so thought there could be a thread about it.

Some rumours already released:

The films are reworked versions of what Lucas was planning as far back as when he was making the original trilogy.

This next trilogy may conflate plot points originally intended to span two trilogies ? the second featuring the Skywalker offspring.

As such, Luke Skywalker is a key character.

And so are many of ?the original trilogy cast? with Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, C3PO and R2D2 set to appear.

Hamill is already locked-in.

The Empire was not completely destroyed at the end of Return of the Jedi.

Disney intend ?on playing to the cultural significance of that original trilogy.?

The scripts that have already been written for the live-action TV show ?will be absorbed in some way into a TV format.?

Disney are ?all over? restoring the original trilogy.

This mysterious source also lists the names of some directors that were being ?bandied about? ? Steven Spielberg, Neill Blomkamp, Alfonso Cuaron, Matthew Vaughn, Darren Aronofsky and Joss Whedon.

x

[ViperAFK]

I bet it will be better than the drivel lucas was putting out with the prequels.

[Growled Member]

The Empire was not completely destroyed at the end of Return of the Jedi.

That's a cool idea. I also like the idea of the original actors and probably their children. There is just so much they could do with the Star wars universe.

[LUTZIFER]

I've always been hoping the Star Wars saga would continue. After all, the only one of importance who really died, is Darth Vader.

There's plenty of bad guys left and there's stll Luke Skywalker and Princess Lea, etc. etc.

So I'm sure lookin forward to some new movies.

[cjaramillo88]

Hopefully it would take place 40 years from EP VI ... With the same principal cast.. Hope no one kills Solo, as in some Expanded Universe comics.

[greenwizard88]

Psyched. That's all I have to say. Some of the directors listen make me incredibly exited for the future of star wars, and the fact that these rumors are coming within days of the announcement makes me feel as though Disney isn't just serious, but Super Serious? about the series.

[heyitsheather]

Would love to see it follow the Thrawn Trilogy or something similar to what was written by Timothy Zahn.

[kev64]

Would love to see it follow the Thrawn Trilogy or something similar to what was written by Timothy Zahn.

Nope

The LA Times reports that, according to their sources, very well-known screenwriters have visited Skywalker Ranch to pitch their ideas for Star Wars Episode VII. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that brainstorming session!

Here's a quick snippet:

In the months before Disney announced it would acquire "Star Wars" studio Lucasfilm, several different screenwriters paid visits to Lucasfilm's Northern California compound to pitch George Lucas and his co-chair Kathleen Kennedy their ideas for the new live-action installment, the series' seventh, according to a person familiar with the talks who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about them. The screenwriters were pitching ideas for a new story, not ones adapted from existing "Star Wars" books.

The person did not reveal the identities of the people who had met with Lucas and Kennedy but said they were well-known screenwriters with experience creating big-budget Hollywood films.

http://www.theforce....deas_148699.asp

[+virtorio MVC]

I'd love to see a Cronenberg Star Wars film

[S00N3R FR3AK]

We are 3 years out I don't see us getting much of anything for awhile.

[moloko]

That's a cool idea. I also like the idea of the original actors and probably their children. There is just so much they could do with the Star wars universe.

This is in the wiki for star wars. it took many many years of war before the empire was destroyed. The emperor is not even dead yet. he comes back in another body.

[Rappy Veteran]

We are 3 years out I don't see us getting much of anything for awhile.

dunno I would imagine stuff will be coming out soon as the disney/lucasfilm gets finalised

[Alladaskill17]

I predict this to be one of our larger threads by post count over the coming months.

[Elliot B.]

I predict this to be one of our larger threads by post count over the coming months.

Yeah, there are a lot of older virgins around.

[Twiddle]

I wonder who else will be reprising a role in this... I mean, who doesn't want to see a 56-year-old Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) in the slave outfit! :woot: :x

[Asrokhel]

'Star Wars' sequel: Harrison Ford open to idea of Han Solo role -- EXCLUSIVE

Harrison Ford is open to the idea of bringing Han Solo back to life on the silver screen in 2015, according to sources close to the just-announced Star Wars sequel, but don?t be surprised if his contract includes a mandatory death scene for the sly old space smuggler.

?Harrison is open to the idea of doing the movie and he?s upbeat about it, all three of them are,? said one highly placed source, referring to Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher, the trio that made a hyper-speed jump to global fame on May 25, 1977, the opening night for George Lucas?s original Star Wars film.

The Hollywood trajectories of Hamill and Fisher led to reinvention ? he?s now an in-demand voice actor; she used a gift for acerbic memoir to deliver Postcards from the Edge and Wishful Drinking. But Ford, who reached his 35th birthday in the summer of 1977, launched himself on a truly historic career run that synced up with the blockbuster bonanza of the 1980s. Ford?s star rose with The Fugitive, Air Force One, Clear and Present Danger, Presumed Innocent, Blade Runner, and of course, the four fedora films as a certain archaeologist named Henry ?Indiana? Jones.

The actor, now 70, is plenty proud of Indy, Jack Ryan, John Book, and Dr. Richard Kimble but in the past he didn?t disguise his disdain for Solo. ?As a character he was not so interesting to me,? the frosty Ford explained in an ABC interview in 2010.

The slippery Corellian pilot?s great talent is keeping himself alive, a skill that apparently extended beyond the screen. Solo?s death scene in early outlines for Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was scrapped, according to Ford and others, because the character was a top seller as an action figure.

As Ford told ABC in the same interview: ?I thought he should have died in the last one to give it some bottom?George didn?t think there was any future in dead Han toys.?

Disney, which acquired Lucasfilm in a $4.05 billion deal, sees plenty of retail future with Star Wars sitting on the same corporate toy shelf as Marvel and Pixar, and they?ll certainly be offering a stellar payday to coax Ford to bring his star power back to role that started it all.

More than money, Ford might be drawn back by the upside of changes at Lucasfilm where the respected Kathleen Kennedy is taking over as company president, and with the Jedi franchise as a whole now that Kennedy is in as executive producer and Lucas will take on a consultant role, leaving the director?s chair for someone else.

Indeed, Ford won?t go to the next level of contract talks until there?s a script and director in place. Either could be a deal breaker. Still, at any stage, an ?upbeat? signal from Ford on any Solo matter is enough to shock and excite fans who view Star Wars as something close to religion.

Solo, Luke Skywalker (Hamill), and Princess Leia (Fisher) appeared in two more films and when last we left them (in 1983?s Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) they were on the forest moon of Endor reflecting on the downfall (literally) of the Emperor and Darth Vader?s final act of redemption.

Now a new-look Lucasfilm ? with Lucas moving into retirement and the Walt Disney Company taking over ? plans to circle back with a new trilogy that picks up the story decades later and presumably uses the original trio to hand off the franchise to a new generation. (It?s a familiar approach; 2009?s Star Trek beamed Leonard Nimoy back aboard or 2010?s Tron: Legacy turned to Jeff Bridges to initiate the next cycle.)

Hamill told EW that he and Fisher heard about the idea when Lucas summoned them for a lunch in August, not long after both were onstage return guest at Star Wars Celebration VI, an official Lucasfilm event that drew tens of thousands of fans to Orlando. Many of those true believers are delirious about the new hope of a third trilogy but Hamill, 61, knows that some outsiders will roll their eyes.

?I can see both sides of it,? Hamill said. ?Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that?s the way it should be ? and it?s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories. But on the other hand, there?s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material.?

In the 29 years since the red carpet premiere of Return of the Jedi, Ford has declined hundreds ? if not thousands ? of offers to appear at Star Wars events and cast reunions even the ones sanctioned and run by Lucasfilm. In fact, in all those years was only one offer he accepted: He attended a 30th anniversary screening of the The Empire Strikes Back in 2010 to benefit St. Jude Children?s Research Hospital.

About 400 fans (including Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, Jon Favreau, and Kevin Feige) paid $100-$175 each to hear Ford reflect on his Millennium Falcon days. I was the moderator for the event and the star arrived in a cheery mood but, after watching the film, he was weary of the crowd?s zeal for something he could never love.

?I don?t know that I understood it very well,? Ford said in a flat tone of the franchise?s ascension in popular culture. ?I?m not sure I understand it yet?I was very happy to be involved. I was pleased to be a part of an ensemble.?

It was a bare-bones answer but still the crowd cheered and no one asked for a refund ? everyone was just excited to see Ford back in the same theater as the Star Wars universe. That alone may be the Force that brings Ford and Solo back together for their date with destiny.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/11/05/star-wars-sequel-harrison-ford-han-solo-exclusive/

[George P Global Moderator]

You know what, I dunno how I'd feel about the original actors coming back, if you do that then you're forced to have a big gap between the end of RoTJ and this new one, that big gap IMO might help if you want to bring in newer characters to take over for movies 8 and 9, I figure Solo and the Princess popped out a few kids at least. But on the other hand, Luke being so key to things with how RoTJ ended to just jump ahead to him being another old Jedi would be kind of meh to me.

If they do hand it off to new characters for this new trilogy then that's fine I guess, still would like to have seen Luke tarring it up in his prime.

[Rappy Veteran]

'Star Wars' sequel: Harrison Ford open to idea of Han Solo role -- EXCLUSIVE

It has to happen really

[giantpotato]

You know what, I dunno how I'd feel about the original actors coming back, if you do that then you're forced to have a big gap between the end of RoTJ and this new one, that big gap IMO might help if you want to bring in newer characters to take over for movies 8 and 9, I figure Solo and the Princess popped out a few kids at least. But on the other hand, Luke being so key to things with how RoTJ ended to just jump ahead to him being another old Jedi would be kind of meh to me.

If they do hand it off to new characters for this new trilogy then that's fine I guess, still would like to have seen Luke tarring it up in his prime.

Well, that seems to be the pattern in the trilogies so far. The old guy, Qui-Gon in ep1, Obi-Wan in ep4, passing the torch to the new generation. I wouldn't be surprised if Luke took on that role in ep7.

[episode]

Well, that seems to be the pattern in the trilogies so far. The old guy, Qui-Gon in ep1, Obi-Wan in ep4, passing the torch to the new generation. I wouldn't be surprised if Luke took on that role in ep7.

Can't purposely **** up the EU with a Luke death unless they want to alienate all the SW fans. You know, the ones they've been making piles of money from for all these years - not just the people that see the movies and buy them on DVD.

[Growled Member]

I can see it in EP 9, but not EP 7. Then the next trilogy can deal with other things.

[Asrokhel]

Star Wars: Episode VII May Have Found Its Writer

Informed sources tell Vulture that Star Wars: Episode VII has found a leading candidate to write the film?s screenplay: Michael Arndt, the Pixar favorite who was nominated for an Oscar for Toy Story 3, won an Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine, and wrote The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which is currently shooting. Insiders confirm that Arndt has written a 40- to 50-page treatment for the film and is likely to be at least one of the writers when the Disney/Lucasfilm project begins shooting in 2014.

The merger between George Lucas?s brainchild and Disney, announced October 30, caught the town by surprise. And talent agentswere similarly astonished to learn that Arndt had been at work on the treatment long before the deal was announced, catching them flat-footed and cutting off any chance they?d have to proffer their own many eager candidates for the coveted job.

Sources also tell Vulture that the studio?s brass want to bring back the three central characters of the original Star Wars: a much older Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. No deals are in place with any of the original actors, though our source did say it had high ambitions to sign up Mark Hamill, and EW recently reported that Harrison Ford was open to the idea of returning. We're told that Arndt's 40-something page treatment will soon be crossing the desks of top directors, including Brad Bird, Steven Spielberg (Lucasfilm?s co-chair, Kathleen Kennedy's former producing partner), and J.J. Abrams.Whether they?d be interested is unknown (Star Wars is a lot of baggage for an established director), but Disney wants to make sure they?ve at least tried the biggest names.

A representative for Arndt declined to comment, referring all calls to Kennedy, who did not return a call seeking comment at deadline. A Lucasfilm spokeswoman declined to comment, saying, "We have no news to report at this time."

The choice of Arndt to pen a treatment makes perfect sense, given both his prestige as a screenwriter and his close relationship with Disney?s equally secretive Pixar ? he?s the screenwriter of the cheekily titled Untitled Pixar Movie That Takes You Inside the Mind for Up director Pete Docter, currently in preproduction ? but there?s one more reason still that Arndt would be so appealing to Disney and Lucasfilm: He?s a Star Wars expert.

Since winning the Oscar for Sunshine, Arndt has lectured extensively on the art of storytelling at numerous writers? retreats, like the Hawaii Writers Conference in Maui and the Austin Film Festival, always featuring a lengthy and detailed explanation of why the originalStar Wars? ending is so creatively satisfying.

At these talks, Arndt always tells attendees that Star Wars? enduring appeal has to do with resolving its protagonists goals? nearly simultaneously, at the climax of the movie. In the comments section of a discussion about a Star Wars talk Arndt gave at the Austin Film Festival in 2010, one attendee of the seminar notes, "Arndt stated that if a writer could resolve the story's arcs (internal, external, philosophical) immediately after the Moment of Despair at the climax, he or she would deliver the Insanely Great Ending and put the audience in a euphoric state. The faster it could happen, the better. By [Arndt?s] reckoning, George Lucas hit those three marks at the climax of Star Wars within a space of 22 seconds."

Indeed, in the third act of Star Wars, as Arndt explained to his young screenwriting Padawans at the 2009 Hawaii Writers Conference, its central characters' main goals all are met on pages 89 through 91 of the original Lucas script: At the crescendo of Star Wars, a spectral Obi Wan urges, ?Use the Force, Luke,? and he does, thus reaching his inner goal (fighting self-doubt to become a hero). Han Solo reappears (meeting the philosophical goal of overcoming selfishness with altruism) to shoot down Darth Vader, which allows Luke to use the Force to mentally guide his shot and blow up the Death Star (outer goal and inner goals simultaneously met).

So while it remains to be seen whether Arndt will forge ahead with an entire script for Episode VII, clearly, as Vader might say, ?The Force is strong with this one.?

http://www.vulture.com/2012/11/star-wars-episode-vii-may-have-found-its-writer.html

[Rappy Veteran]

Steven Spielberg Says No To STAR WARS: EPISODE VII

No! No!? ?It?s not my genre, the director explained. ?It?s my best friend George?s genre.?

[Rappy Veteran]

Star Wars: Episode VII May Have Found Its Writer

It's Official: Michael Arndt to Draft Star Wars: Episode VII

Following yesterday's report that claimed Michael Arndt had provided an extensive treatment for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, comes official word not only of Arndt's involvement, but of the fact that he will be providing the full screenplay for the highly anticipated 2015 release.

Arndt, who also wrote Little Miss Sunshine (winning him an Academy Award) and the upcoming Oblivion and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, is a noted fan of George Lucas's seminal film series and has publicly lectured about their merits.

Still not confirmed, however, is the rumor that Arndt's treatment includes the characters of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo. That being said, recent news suggest that, if the rumor does pan out, it's very likely that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford will return to their respective roles.

[Growled Member]

This is getting better all the time.