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Confirmed: Carrie Fisher back for Star Wars As JJ Abrams puts the finishing touches to his new film, Star Trek Into Darkness, the pieces are gradually sliding into place for his next. Once he’s done with Star Trek, of course, he’s off to make Star Wars: Episode VII, for which Michael Arndt has been penning a script. Inevitably, solid concrete cast and story details are very thin on the ground. But there does now appear to be one firm piece of casting news we can bank on: Carrie Fisher has confirmed that she’ll be in the movie. She was asked by Palm Beach Illustrated if she would be reprising the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars: Episode VII, and she replied with a straight “yes”. When asked what she thought Leia would be like now, Fisher said “I just think she would be just like she was before, only slower and less inclined to be up for the big battle”. If Fisher is confirmed, that I’d imagine that confirmation of Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford’s involvement can’t be too far behind.

Confirmed: Carrie Fisher back for Star Wars

As JJ Abrams puts the finishing touches to his new film, Star Trek Into Darkness, the pieces are gradually sliding into place for his next. Once he’s done with Star Trek, of course, he’s off to make Star Wars: Episode VII, for which Michael Arndt has been penning a script.

Inevitably, solid concrete cast and story details are very thin on the ground. But there does now appear to be one firm piece of casting news we can bank on: Carrie Fisher has confirmed that she’ll be in the movie.

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Source: palmbeachillustrated.com

Mark Hamill Confirms The Obvious About STAR WARS EPISODE VII Luke Skywalker himself has confirmed what we all knew anyway: Lucasfilm is in talks with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford to return for Star Wars Episode VII. Talking to Entertainment Tonight, Hamill said: George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we’d be interested. He did say that if we didn’t want to do it, they wouldn’t cast another actor in our parts – they would write us out. I can tell you right away that we haven’t signed any contracts. We’re in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm. Both have had meetings set that were postponed — on their end, not mine. They’re more busy than I am. This is interesting to me because I know that these talks are a little farther along than Hamill makes them sound. I know that large sums of money have already been dangled in front of the actors. What makes my ears perk up is the idea that Han, Luke or Leia could be written out of the story if the actor doesn’t want to return; that indicates the roles will be fairly small, or at least not central to the film’s story. But with that in mind and with the amount of money they’re being offered, I would be shocked if any of them didn’t come back (Latino-Review has claimed that Ford’s return is an all-but done deal). I like the idea that they’ll just write the characters out rather than replace them. One of my problems with the proposed solo Han Solo movie is that Han is only Han when he’s Harrison Ford. These three characters are, for my money, inextricably linked to the three actors. If you can’t get those actors, just have the characters respectfully removed from the saga. Hamill claims to not know the story of the movie yet, but he’s making the same assumption about it that everybody else is: it’ll be about the next generation. I’m assuming, because I haven’t talked to the writers, that these movies would be about our offspring — like my character would be sort of in the Obi-Wan range [as] an influential character… When I found out [while making the original trilogy] that ultimate good news/bad news joke – the good news is there’s a real attractive, hot girl in the universe; the bad news is she’s your sister – I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to wind up like Sir Alec [Guinness]. I’m going to be a lonely old hermit living out in some kind of desert igloo with a couple of robots.’ That’s where I’ve always pictured Luke. In the Expanded Universe he got married to Mara Jade, but that always felt like fanservice to me. Luke’s married to the Force.

Mark Hamill Confirms The Obvious About STAR WARS EPISODE VII

Luke Skywalker himself has confirmed what we all knew anyway: Lucasfilm is in talks with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford to return for Star Wars Episode VII. Talking to Entertainment Tonight, Hamill said:

George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we’d be interested. He did say that if we didn’t want to do it, they wouldn’t cast another actor in our parts – they would write us out. I can tell you right away that we haven’t signed any contracts. We’re in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm. Both have had meetings set that were postponed — on their end, not mine. They’re more busy than I am.

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Source: Yahoo!

John Williams Wants To Score STAR WARS VII When we first heard about new Star Wars movies Mr Beaks, the very cromulent writer for Ain’t It Cool News, worried about one thing: would John Williams be around to score these movies? Williams is the unifying factor that ties all six movies together, and the idea of a Star Wars without a Williams score is… well, such a movie wouldn’t be Star Wars at all, would it? Williams is getting up there in years - he’s 81 years old. He’s still working hard, and he’s Oscar nominated this year for his Lincoln score. But there are still years to go before Star Wars Episode VII hits the scoring stage, and after that there are two more films in the new core trilogy. Wiliams would be around 88 when it came time to score Episode IX. But he don’t give a fuck! Williams - who is still conducting live shows - has gone on the record saying he’d quite like to come back and score the new films. Speaking just before launching into the main Star Wars fanfare at a gala this weekend, Williams said: We’re about to play Star Wars [audience interrupts with cheers] and each time we play it, I’m reminded of the first time we played it decades ago. Neither I, nor George, nor anyone else involved thought this would go far or in a few years there would be a sequel and I’d have to revisit the themes…and years later another trilogy. Now we’re hearing of a new set of movies coming in 2015, 2016…so I need to make sure I’m still ready to go in a few years for what I hope would be continued work with George…[more cheers]. There was some speculation that new director JJ Abrams would bring his usual collaborator, Michael Giacchino, along with him for Episode VII. And that would be great… if Williams couldn’t do it. But in a world where Williams is both willing and able, it would be madness not to have him come back for another go-round. I have to guess that even Giacchino would happily forego the opportunity in favor of the maestro.

John Williams Wants To Score STAR WARS VII

When we first heard about new Star Wars movies Mr Beaks, the very cromulent writer for Ain’t It Cool News, worried about one thing: would John Williams be around to score these movies? Williams is the unifying factor that ties all six movies together, and the idea of a Star Wars without a Williams score is… well, such a movie wouldn’t be Star Wars at all, would it?

Williams is getting up there in years - he’s 81 years old. He’s still working hard, and he’s Oscar nominated this year for his Lincoln score. But there are still years to go before Star Wars Episode VII hits the scoring stage, and after that there are two more films in the new core trilogy. Wiliams would be around 88 when it came time to score Episode IX.

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Source: slashfilm.com

Rumor: Harrison Ford Will Return as Han Solo in ‘Star Wars Episode VII’ Latino Review, the site known for dropping major scoops about superhero movies, has moved on to Star Wars, and their latest finding is a biggie. They’re reporting that Harrison Ford will return as Han Solo in Star Wars Episode VII. Now, we knew that he was interested in returning and we’ve heard that LucasFilm is interested in doing something with Solo, but this is the first time we’ve heard that Ford will, in fact, return. How will he fit in? Is this news legitimate? Until Disney and LucasFilm release a press release, I understand how people will take this piece of news with a grain of salt. But Latino Review would not report it unless they heard, from a very reliable source (or sources), that Ford, director J.J. Abrams, screenwriter Michael Ardnt and LucasFilm’s Kathleen Kennedy had discussed this and agreed on it. While there isn’t a finished script for Episode VII just yet, those four people all have an idea of what’s going to happen, what characters are going to appear and what they’re going to need to make it happen. Ford’s participation is something we assumed but now it sounds like the word is out. And the deal is “done” and ”significant.” It’s still early on the West Coast, so Disney hasn’t released an official response yet. Head to Latino Review to watch a video of @elmayimbe explaining this scoop and the process. So now that we’ve addressed the information itself, let’s take it and run. If Han Solo is in Star Wars Episode VII, how big a role do you want him to have? I have a strong feeling that it won’t be a large role, but an important one. His appearance would likely serve both as a passing of the torch to a new generation but also to link the original trilogy with this sequel trilogy.

Rumor: Harrison Ford Will Return as Han Solo in ‘Star Wars Episode VII’

Latino Review, the site known for dropping major scoops about superhero movies, has moved on to Star Wars, and their latest finding is a biggie.

They’re reporting that Harrison Ford will return as Han Solo in Star Wars Episode VII. Now, we knew that he was interested in returning and we’ve heard that LucasFilm is interested in doing something with Solo, but this is the first time we’ve heard that Ford will, in fact, return. How will he fit in? Is this news legitimate?

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Source: latino-review.com

Lawrence Kasdan talks Star Wars As you’re more than likely well aware, there’s been no shortage of Star Wars news since the announcement of the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney. We’ve had all manner of speculation as to who would be directing (JJ Abrams has, of course, now signed on for Star Wars: Episode VII), what the plot would be, and most recently the fact that spin off movies were planned also. And we’ve got years of this to look forward to, given how many Star Wars movies Disney is likely to want to juggle. So, when someone actively attached to the franchise talks about the projects it’s a refreshing change. The returning Lawrence Kasdan then (director of the underrated Grand Canyon), has been chatting about coming back to Star Wars. “I’m trying to start fresh”, he told the Los Angeles Times. “There are certain pleasures that we think the saga can bring to people that they’ve been missing, and we’re hoping to bring them that and at the same time have them feel it’s all new.” He continued, saying that “George sort of brought me into this part of it, and he’s stepping back from the company. He’s sort of given his blessing to everybody and he’ll be there if you need him. I think everyone’s interested to see where this can go. It’s been some very different places over the last 30 years … I think with JJ we’ll get something entirely new.” We’ll see what this fresh start will look like when Episode VII is released in 2015…

Lawrence Kasdan talks Star Wars

As you’re more than likely well aware, there’s been no shortage of Star Wars news since the announcement of the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney. We’ve had all manner of speculation as to who would be directing (JJ Abrams has, of course, now signed on for Star Wars: Episode VII), what the plot would be, and most recently the fact that spin off movies were planned also. And we’ve got years of this to look forward to, given how many Star Wars movies Disney is likely to want to juggle.

So, when someone actively attached to the franchise talks about the projects it’s a refreshing change. The returning Lawrence Kasdan then (director of the underrated Grand Canyon), has been chatting about coming back to Star Wars.

“I’m trying to start fresh”, he told the Los Angeles Times. “There are certain pleasures that we think the saga can bring to people that they’ve been missing, and we’re hoping to bring them that and at the same time have them feel it’s all new.”

He continued, saying that “George sort of brought me into this part of it, and he’s stepping back from the company. He’s sort of given his blessing to everybody and he’ll be there if you need him. I think everyone’s interested to see where this can go. It’s been some very different places over the last 30 years … I think with JJ we’ll get something entirely new.”

We’ll see what this fresh start will look like when Episode VII is released in 2015…

Han Solo, Boba Fett To Get STAR WARS Spin-Off Movies One of the things that people always mocked about the Star Wars expanded universe was the way it kept circling around to the same characters again and again, milking every moment possible from them. Say what you will about George Lucas’ tenure as the keeper of the Star Wars flame, he never treated the movies like Tales From the Cantina. But now Star Wars has gone corporate, and the kind of junk that used to be saved for comic books or poorly written young adult novels will be part of the cinematic canon. Entertainment Weekly reports on two more Star Wars standalone movies in the works: a Boba Fett movie and a Han Solo movie. The Boba Fett movie will probably have fanboys squealing with joy because it’ll be set in the scummy world of intergalactic bounty hunters, and we all know that fanboys love dark and gritty things. But the Han movie will likely appeal to no one, as this will be a young Han Solo movie. Disney thinks we’re all dying for the Han Solo origin story. I don’t know which feels more wrong-headed to me; the Boba Fett movie will be just the latest flogging of a character who only worked when he was mysterious and to the side. Everything we have learned about Boba Fett - including seeing him as a boy in the Prequels - has only lessened that mystique and made the character progressively lamer. It’s like The Osbournes; did you remember when Ozzy Osbourne used to be a dangerous rock and roll star who was considered a wild man? The Han movie is what makes me fear for the entire new Star Wars enterprise. The idea of a Young Han Solo Adventures is so dumb, so wrongheaded, so damaging to the character, that I have to think Disney has no clue what they’re doing with these movies. Not only will they attempt to run this shit into the ground with six movies in six years, they’re going to take Solo down with them. Here’s the problem: we like Han Solo because we like Harrison Ford. The multiple attempts to replace Harrison Ford with someone younger in the Indiana Jones franchise has proven that we just don’t like it. Whether it be the catastrophe of Mutt or the quiet, noble failure of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, nobody cares about Harrison Ford’s characters if Harrison Ford isn’t playing them. Period. Hey, maybe these will be good movies. I doubt it, but that possibility always exists. Still, the sheer money-grabbing nature of making movies intended to cash in on the most popular characters, whether or not those movies will help the legacies of those characters, bodes ill for everything coming in the Star Wars universe. I said it yesterday and I’ll repeat it today: we’re about to look back at the Lucas years as a model of restraint when it comes to whoring this stuff out. With that in mind, here are my five guesses for what awful stuff we’ll see in Solo Han Solo. My first guess, which is a meta guess, is that most of the Expanded Universe Solo origin/early years stuff is thrown right out the window. Han Will Shoot First. We already met young Greedo in The Phantom Menace. He’ll show back up in Solo Han Solo, and in their first encounter Young Han will open fire immediately. Greedo will say (subtitled) ‘He shot first!’ Fandom will implode with shame. We Will See The Origins of the Millenium Falcon. No, not just the thrilling card game where Han won the ship from Lando (although that will be in the movie and will be included in some wacky, unexpected way, like Han and Lando are playing cards in Jabba’s dungeon or something). We will actually see the Falcon being built. A young Han - four or five years old - will be transfixed by the ship under construction…. ALMOST AS IF IT’S HIS DESTINY. We’ll Get the Origin of His Vest. Maybe his dad wore it. Maybe an older scoundrel he idolizes wore it. Either way, this movie will go the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade route and show us the gripping origins of Han’s fashion sense. There Will Be A Portentuous Carbonite Scene. Imagine a younger Han in a shootout/chase, running and jumping and almost falling into a vat of Carbonite. Chewie grabs him by the vest at the last moment, saving his life. “Wouldn’t want to end up in that stuff,” Han says with a horrifying wink at the audience. We Will Get A Completely Deflating Connection To Obi Wan. One of the great things about the Prequels is that they don’t feature Baby Han Solo. George Lucas, for whatever reason, had at least that much common sense. Solo himself isn’t caught up in the web of destiny and small universe bullshit that has dragged the Star Wars saga down… yet. In Solo Han Solo we’ll learn that Obi Wan knew Han’s dad, and we’ll see him meeting a young Han, remarking on what a future the boy will have. This will mean that Obi Wan didn’t randomly come upon Han and Chewie at Mos Eisley… he was working towards it for decades.

Han Solo, Boba Fett To Get STAR WARS Spin-Off Movies

One of the things that people always mocked about the Star Wars expanded universe was the way it kept circling around to the same characters again and again, milking every moment possible from them. Say what you will about George Lucas’ tenure as the keeper of the Star Wars flame, he never treated the movies like Tales From the Cantina. But now Star Wars has gone corporate, and the kind of junk that used to be saved for comic books or poorly written young adult novels will be part of the cinematic canon.

Entertainment Weekly reports on two more Star Wars standalone movies in the works: a Boba Fett movie and a Han Solo movie. The Boba Fett movie will probably have fanboys squealing with joy because it’ll be set in the scummy world of intergalactic bounty hunters, and we all know that fanboys love dark and gritty things. But the Han movie will likely appeal to no one, as this will be a young Han Solo movie. Disney thinks we’re all dying for the Han Solo origin story.

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Source: insidemovies.ew.com

It’s Official: STAR WARS Standalone Films Are Coming Hot on the heels of a Disney investor call Bob Iger went on CNBC and fully confirmed what we’ve known for a while: Lucasfilm and Disney are developing Star Wars standalone films that will be outside of the expanding Star Wars saga of episodes 7, 8 and 9. Iger would not comment on which characters those movies would focus on, but he did say that they would feature beloved characters from the Star Wars universe, so at least the first few movies will be direct spin-offs. He also confirmed that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are writing standalone movies, and that they’re consulting with JJ Abrams on Star Wars Episode VII, probably to help maintain a cohesive universe. One of the most interesting things Iger said is that the next three films in the Star Wars saga will be released over the course of six years, starting in 2015, and that these standalone films will be coming out at the same time. I think what we’re going to see is alternating Star Wars movie, with one every year. That means from 2015 to 2021 we’re probably going to get six Star Wars movies, doubling the current total of Star Wars. And that’s not even counting the very likely TV series. I think we’re going to look back at the previous periods of Star Wars oversaturation as relative moments of restraint. What characters will be getting their own movie? We’ve heard the Yoda rumor, and we’ve heard the Seven Samurai rumor. Some people are wondering if those two films aren’t one and the same, and it would be kind of cool if they were. But who else deserves a film? The best guess is that none of the core characters get spin-offs, which means even R2D2 and C-3P0 remain central story characters. I’m trying to imagine a corporate scenario that doesn’t involve Boba Fett getting a whole film of his own, probably ending with him taking the job to capture Han Solo. I’d be down with more adventures of Biggs Darklighter. And maybe Kit Fisto could get his own movie, and his own catchphrase: “You’ve been Fisto’ed!”

It’s Official: STAR WARS Standalone Films Are Coming

Hot on the heels of a Disney investor call Bob Iger went on CNBC and fully confirmed what we’ve known for a while: Lucasfilm and Disney are developing Star Wars standalone films that will be outside of the expanding Star Wars saga of episodes 7, 8 and 9. Iger would not comment on which characters those movies would focus on, but he did say that they would feature beloved characters from the Star Wars universe, so at least the first few movies will be direct spin-offs. He also confirmed that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are writing standalone movies, and that they’re consulting with JJ Abrams on Star Wars Episode VII, probably to help maintain a cohesive universe.

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Source: deadline.com

JJ Abrams in talks for Star Wars Episode VII After weeks of speculation, of just about every noteworthy Hollywood director’s name added to a list and then subracted, it appears we’re one step closer to finding out who will helm Star Wars Episode VII. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s sources, JJ Abrams is in talks to take on the project, which is being written by Toy Story 3’s Michael Arndt, and thought to see the return of Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill to their roles. Obviously, “in talks” is by no means a confirmation, but multiple sources are suggesting that Abrams will indeed be the director for the gig - one Hollywood industry site has suggested it’s a “done deal”. With these things being the way they are, we’ll wait until we hear a formal confirmation before we speculate further, particularly since Abrams said only a month or so ago that he would remain to the Star Trek franchise. It could be that Disney and Lucasfilm have made Abrams an offer he couldn’t refuse. More on this as it comes in.

JJ Abrams in talks for Star Wars Episode VII

After weeks of speculation, of just about every noteworthy Hollywood director’s name added to a list and then subracted, it appears we’re one step closer to finding out who will helm Star Wars Episode VII. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s sources, JJ Abrams is in talks to take on the project, which is being written by Toy Story 3’s Michael Arndt, and thought to see the return of Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill to their roles.

Obviously, “in talks” is by no means a confirmation, but multiple sources are suggesting that Abrams will indeed be the director for the gig - one Hollywood industry site has suggested it’s a “done deal”. With these things being the way they are, we’ll wait until we hear a formal confirmation before we speculate further, particularly since Abrams said only a month or so ago that he would remain to the Star Trek franchise.

It could be that Disney and Lucasfilm have made Abrams an offer he couldn’t refuse.

More on this as it comes in.

Source: hollywoodreporter.com

ABC Is Considering A STAR WARS TV Show We’ve been promised/threatened with a live action Star Wars TV show for years. We heard all sorts of stuff, like that it would be about the underworld of the Star Wars universe. That it would be dark and challenging and more mature. That there were dozens of scripts written and ready to go, entire seasons of the show planned out in advance. And nothing ever came of it. George Lucas said a bunch of times that he was waiting for the economics of it to make sense, until TV budgets could handle the kind of FX work needed. That’s never going to happen - one of the great truths of the digital FX revolution is that it has not really made anything cheaper - but maybe now that ABC parent company Disney also owns Lucasfilm and Star Wars the economic realities have changed. Or at least the new people in charge aren’t as particular about the FX work. ABC entertainment president Paul Lee is certainly open-minded about it all. “We’d love to do something with Lucasfilm, we’re not sure what yet,” Lee exclusively told EW. “We haven’t even sat down with them. We’re going to look at [the live-action series], we’re going to look at all of them, and see what’s right. We weren’t able to discuss this with them until [the acquisition] closed and it just closed. It’s definitely going to be part of the conversation.” The only hold up that I can imagine is this: the current TV series was Rick McCallum’s baby, and he’s gone. When people leave projects their visions tend to leave with them. On top of that, since the whole series is written that leaves ABC out in the cold, creatively. Network execs are like all other execs: they love giving notes. Paul Lee and friends would, I am sure, love to be hands on with Star Wars: The TV Show, something they couldn’t be if 50 episodes are pre-written. That pre-writing worked in a scenario where Lucasfilm was doing all the heavy lifting and the network would have been partnered as a distributor (how 20th Century Fox was involved in all post-Star Wars movies in the series), but with everybody being a happy family I imagine there would be more cross-cooperation. More concrete is the fact that a lot of the concept art and worldbuilding for the show was used for the upcoming video game Star Wars 1313, which could mean Lucasfilm gutted the thing and used the spare parts for other areas of the franchise. I wonder if some TV show character designs/concepts won’t show up in the new trilogy, in fact. If ABC wanted my advice - and they’d be crazy not to take it! - I would approach a Star Wars TV show like an HBO series. I’d go with shorter episode orders, and I’d have each season be fairly self-contained. That way you can run all 13 episodes and get out if it fails, but still sell Blu-rays. Call me, Paul Lee.

ABC Is Considering A STAR WARS TV Show

We’ve been promised/threatened with a live action Star Wars TV show for years. We heard all sorts of stuff, like that it would be about the underworld of the Star Wars universe. That it would be dark and challenging and more mature. That there were dozens of scripts written and ready to go, entire seasons of the show planned out in advance.

And nothing ever came of it. George Lucas said a bunch of times that he was waiting for the economics of it to make sense, until TV budgets could handle the kind of FX work needed. That’s never going to happen - one of the great truths of the digital FX revolution is that it has not really made anything cheaper - but maybe now that ABC parent company Disney also owns Lucasfilm and Star Wars the economic realities have changed. Or at least the new people in charge aren’t as particular about the FX work. ABC entertainment president Paul Lee is certainly open-minded about it all.

“We’d love to do something with Lucasfilm, we’re not sure what yet,” Lee exclusively told EW. “We haven’t even sat down with them. We’re going to look at [the live-action series], we’re going to look at all of them, and see what’s right. We weren’t able to discuss this with them until [the acquisition] closed and it just closed. It’s definitely going to be part of the conversation.”

The only hold up that I can imagine is this: the current TV series was Rick McCallum’s baby, and he’s gone. When people leave projects their visions tend to leave with them. On top of that, since the whole series is written that leaves ABC out in the cold, creatively. Network execs are like all other execs: they love giving notes. Paul Lee and friends would, I am sure, love to be hands on with Star Wars: The TV Show, something they couldn’t be if 50 episodes are pre-written. That pre-writing worked in a scenario where Lucasfilm was doing all the heavy lifting and the network would have been partnered as a distributor (how 20th Century Fox was involved in all post-Star Wars movies in the series), but with everybody being a happy family I imagine there would be more cross-cooperation.

More concrete is the fact that a lot of the concept art and worldbuilding for the show was used for the upcoming video game Star Wars 1313, which could mean Lucasfilm gutted the thing and used the spare parts for other areas of the franchise. I wonder if some TV show character designs/concepts won’t show up in the new trilogy, in fact.

If ABC wanted my advice - and they’d be crazy not to take it! - I would approach a Star Wars TV show like an HBO series. I’d go with shorter episode orders, and I’d have each season be fairly self-contained. That way you can run all 13 episodes and get out if it fails, but still sell Blu-rays. Call me, Paul Lee.

Source: insidetv.ew.com

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