Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
At D23 Expo Japan, Disney Marketing President Ricky Strauss revealed that J.J. Abrams will begin filming Episode IX this coming summer. A special greeting from Abrams and some behind-the-scenes footage from Solo: A Star Wars Story was also shown.
Episode IX is due out on December 20, 2019.
Fantha Tracks reports that the business name for producing Episode IX is Carbonado Industries (UK) Ltd. The working title of the film will be Black Diamond, they say. (Both terms refer to the same substance.)
The article also contains a short history of the recent production companies and working titles, many of which were uncovered by the same folks when they were with Jedi News.
Episode IX, which will be directed by The Force Awakens’ J.J. Abrams, is due in December 2019. Other reports says that the returning crew also includes visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett and costume designer Michael Kaplan (who also stayed on for The Last Jedi.)
J.J. Abrams was pitching Episode IX today, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed in a conference call. Uh, good luck, J.J. You’ll need it.
With J.J. Abrams on board as director, Episode IX has been pushed back to December 20, 2019. Looks like the Han Solo movie will remain the only post-Disney Star Wars film to release in May… At least for the moment.
Well, this is somewhat unexpected. The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams will return to helm Episode IX. He’ll co-write the script with Chris Terrio (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, seriously.)
Last week, Lucasfilm announced that they had parted ways with original IX director Colin Trevorrow. Abrams’ name was being thrown around, along with The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, but he was considered the longer shot… Jokes on us, I suppose.
UPDATE: Deadline reports that Johnson was offered the slot, but declined.
Rogue One didn’t take home either of the two Oscars it was nominated for last night. Hacksaw Ridge took sound mixing, while The Jungle Book won VFX. (Having Felicity Jones and Riz Ahmed present it was a bit weird when a win wasn’t really expected, but hey, that’s Hollywood.) Alas. Unlike last year’s Ex Machina upset, this was far from a surprise – and the ceremony had even bigger shocks later on with a Best Picture mixup.
Kenny Baker and Carrie Fisher were both part of the In Memoriam segment. Mom Debbie Reynolds and Carrie closed it out, with the “May the Force be with you” clip from The Force Awakens.
Alum Natalie Portman – who didn’t attend due to her pregnancy – lost out Best Actress to La La Land’s Emma Stone.
Better luck next year, Star Wars – J.J. Abrams is already campaigning for Mark Hamill in The Last Jedi. Is his guilt is getting to him?
USA Today has a preview clip of director J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens commentary during the scene between Han Solo and Kylo Ren at Starkiller Base.
The commentary is a feature on the upcoming 3D collector’s edition that will be out on November 15 in the U.S. and October 31 internationally.
Adam Driver is the latest Star Wars star to show up at the Toronto International Film Festival. (We previously heard from Lupita Nyong’o.) He’s actually there for Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, but of course no one can resist asking him about Star Wars.
In the Toronto Sun, Driver praises Star Wars directors J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, citing their “very specific vision.” He went into further detail (on director technique, anyway) with Collider, and compared the VIII script to Empire… Sort of:
It’s great. It’s similar to how The Empire Strikes Back has a different tone. For that people always go “oooh, it’s dark” but I don’t know that it necessarily is. It’s just different in tone in a way that I think is great and necessary but also very clear. He trusts [that] his audience is ready for nuance and ambiguity. He’s not dumbing anything down for someone and that’s really fun to play.
He also talks about originally being overwhelmed with the scope of Star Wars, and how Abrams helped break that down. A full interview will be coming to Collider soon, and Patterson will be in theaters at the end of the year.
A second The Force Awakens Blu-Ray set is on tap for fall, this time in 3D. The Force Awakens 3D Collector’s Edition features a few new extras, most notably an audio commentary from director J.J. Abrams.
The release, which contains a Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, Digital HD, and DVD, will begin rolling out on October 31 and arrive in the U.S. and Canada on November 15.
No word yet on that rumored prequel 3D set, though.
