Episode VII adds two new cast members

Pip Andersen, Crystal Clarke

StarWars.com interrupts this holiday weekend to bring us… “Thomas” and “Rachel.” For real, this time: Pip Andersen and Crystal Clarke have won the coveted open call parts.

The update also contains some brief production information, including a two-week hiatus coming in August. Meanwhile, Harrison Ford is “doing well and is looking forward to returning to the set soon” as shooting – and the release date – remain “on track.”

This morning in Episode VII: Kevin Smith says Abrams “has nailed it”

ksmith-pinewoodHe may have signed an NDA, but Kevin Smith has let loose some details about his Episode VII set visit, most notably that the film will involve stormtroopers. (Which has been bandied about so much that it’s not really a surprise at this point.) Also, this:

“I’m really excited and you know, people keep saying that I liked the last trilogy and I did. I liked 1, 2 and 3. But I liked them as an adult, when I watched them they didn’t give me the same feeling I had when I was seven watching them for the first time and that’s fine. This movie though… Dude, I cried four times. The seven year old in me came. [J.J] has f*cking captured it, man. He has nailed it.”

Anklewatch! People is all over Harrison Ford’s crutch situation. “I wish everybody was so easy. He gets it. He’s mechanically inclined,” Brad Hunter, the director of business development for the iWalk crutch told them. “It’s a very active way to do recovery.”

Mystery! Why are there “Star Wars 7” signs in Atlanta? Is someone pulling a prank?

Rumors! Making Star Wars has a couple things that I’m about 99.9% sure are complete and utter bullshit from the same well as that Reclamation treatment from last year. Not buying the Boyega thing, either.

Today in Episode VII: Han Solo to be pastede on yay?

STAR WARS RUMORS: Take seriously at your own risk.According to Hollywood Elsewhere’s “director friend,” Harrison Ford’s head will probably be digitally imposed on a body double. It’s a rumor, yes, but the effect is not exactly unheard of – it was used for several fight scenes in the prequels involving Ian McDiarmid and Christopher Lee. (via)

And yes, headline aside, I do have the upmost faith that ILM can achieve better than some random girl on the internet in 2004. Assuming they’re just not going to have Han sitting in the cockpit of the Falcon for the whole film.

Meanwhile, Jedi News has heard that while there is a production break on set right now for the necessary shuffling, the crew are “in amazingly high and confident spirits” with “no sense of panic whatsoever.”

Today in Episode VII: More release date shenanigans

STAR WARS RUMORS: Take seriously at your own risk.→ Friday means Da7e’s Star Wars column over at Latino Review, and while he mostly unpacks the rumors from earlier this week, the real meat here? Is that despite Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams really wanting to move the film back to May 4, Bob Iger isn’t letting them do it, no matter what’s going on with Harrison Ford’s extremities. Lots of doom-and-gloom going on here, so please remember that rumors are rumors and don’t let yourself go into full Threepio panic mode over them.

/Film’s Germain Lussier on why Iger would be so firm on the December date. In short: MONEY. Naturally.

→ In the ‘well, yeah’ department, Latino Review is also saying that Carrie Fisher’s daughter Billie Lourd will be in the movie. We had plenty of friends-and-family cameos throughout the prequels (all the Lucas kids, Nathan Hamill, Sofia Coppola, etc.) so naturally we’ll probably see some in this round as well. And then, of course, there’s this tweet, which also names Maisie Richardson Sellers. Abe Gurko is, depending on who you listen to, Carrie Fisher’s current or former assistant.

→ Only a matter of hours left to donate to A Force for Change if you want a chance at lunch with J.J. Abrams.