At a Producer’s Guild event Saturday, J.J. Abrams said that things will start moving on the Episode VII production “at the end of the year,” Variety reports. Producer Bryan Burke said much the same – though a little more tentatively – in May.
Overall Star Wars talk continues to be vague, but Abrams said:
“It is so massive and so important to people,” he said. “I think the key to moving forward on something like this is honoring but not revering what came before.”
Variety said that quote was related to the novels; The Hollywood Reporter says it was about the existing movies. Unless video comes out from this, I give up guessing if it refers to any specifics.
He also said he’s not a fan of going overseas to shoot, but apparently the U.K. thing was in the works before he was on board.
Abrams also talked about his affection for the medium of film – covered in more detail by The Hollywood Reporter – which opens up some questions. Did committing to Episode VII mean committing to shooting digitally?
On one hand I’m glad most of my SW novel reading has been limited to those that occurred during or right around the time period of the original trilogy, including Zahn’s trilogy. It has been sooooo long since I’ve read those, however, that I don’t think I’ll be too upset if he veers away from the novels. I do think a film maker needs to approach this sort of thing with some respect to the fans who have continued to support the universe though.
Was he actually referring to the books with the whole “honored but not revered” thing? I thought he was talking about the movies. Meaning that the Big Three might not come back as demi-gods but rather as living, breathing characters.
(And if so: HOW DARE HE?!)
;-)
Variety says that was in response to a novel question.
Okay, wow. Honoring the EU, then? Maybe those Mara Jade Florence What’s-her-face rumors were true. ;-)
Ugh.
Hollywood Reporter specifically says he declined to talk about the novels, and that the honor but not revere stuff was about the movies:
“”It is so massive and so important to people,” he said. “I think the key to moving forward on something like this is honoring but not revering what came before.” The Bad Robot head also declined to comment on a question concerning the many Star Wars novels’ relation to the upcoming film, which will be scripted by The Hunger Games: Catching Fire scribe Michael Arndt.”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jj-abrams-star-wars-plans-565077
Aargh.
I have a feeling the EU will become an AU…
I can see Han Solo and Chewbacca in the hold of the Falcon: “Is the ship out of danger?”
Star Wars going back to being shot on real film would be SO COOL! It would really sell the throwback feel if that’s what Abrams is shooting for, and now with all the technology that Lucas helped forward, it’s not that difficult to add CG to film.
Either it’s the novels or the movies, I think it’s a sound attitude. So far, the news have been so encouraging that from fearing for my EU, I’ve started to become curious about what they’ll offer us.