Hot on the heels of the news that David Oyelowo might have a part in Rebels, Jedi News’ spy is saying that Oyelowo has actually been cast in Episode VII. His Rebels character will be part of the setup for his character in the movie: “All part of the major EpVII co-ordinated push being pulled together by Simon Kinberg and the first major sign that Rebels will be the vehicle to setup the masses for EpVII fever!!”
Likely? Maybe. Official? Not by a long shot. As always, we wait on word from Lucasfilm before we really believe anything.
Did no one tell the guys over in the U.K. that we had a major awards show here in the states last night? Have mercy, dudes. Post-Emmy mornings are for reading dress snark and bitching about Modern Family stealing 30 Rock’s (or Veep’s, whatever) milkshake.
In any case, there was quite a spread of rumors coming out last night… Bleeding Cool reports another casting, which sounds a lot like it’s for a Wookiee – though I’d hesitate to say it’s for Chewbacca specifically:
Tall Man (Male, 21 – 60) Male, 7 ft to 7.3 ft tall with a slim/thin build and upright posture. Not too worked out or too ‘thick set’ especially in the shoulders. Broad facial features would be a bonus.
But it could be for Chewbacca, and that’s rumorland for you. How tall is Benedict Cumberbatch, again? (Bryan Young has a theory.) Maybe that’s why Daniel Day Lewis was having lunch with George and Kathleen? Everyone wants to be a Wookiee!
Somewhere in space… I don’t read speculation and I try not to even link outright speculation, but our own JawaJames is one of the fans that Hollywood.com’s Christian Blauvelt asked to help ‘storyboard’ their hopes for a beginning to Episode VII.
Wonder twin powers activate? Hot around the internet yesterday was a report from The Inquirer about a presentation where they talk about using gaming engines to drive VFX. I’m not an expert, but there’s a video if you’re really into that sort of thing. And 1313 is referred to as still being in production? Okaaaay…
Your moment of zen. I already wrote up that J.J. Abrams quotes from the other day, but the undisputed champion of that round is clearly The A.V. Club’s Sean O’Neal.
Well, it’s not a J.J. Abrams quote about Star Wars if it’s not super-vague… The Episode VII director tells Entertainment Weekly that he wants the film to feel “as emotional and authentic and exciting as possible.” Naturally.
“It’s been nice see that how important it is and to be reminded how important it is to so many people. We all know that [creator George Lucas’] dream has become almost a religion to some people. I remember reading a thing somewhere, someone wrote about just wanting [the new film] to feel real; to feel authentic. I remember I felt that way when I was 11 years old when I saw the first one. As much of a fairy tale as it was, it felt real. And to me, that is exactly right.”
Alrightly then. I feel like we’ve all learned something here. Or not.
Latino Review’s El Mayimbe is dropping names again. He doesn’t know what role or roles they went in for, but both David Oyelowo (The Butler) and Michael B. Jordan have auditioned… And Jordan, who’s getting a lot of buzz for Fruitvale Station, has met with J.J. Abrams personally. He’s also been rumored as a top contender to play Johnny Storm in The Fantastic Four reboot.
It’s also somewhat amusing to see that even the rumormongers are getting frustrated with the cloud of secrecy from Disney, Lucasfilm and Bad Robot… But this is a good start for everyone disappointed in the lack of diversity seen thus far in the rumors.
Latino Review is at it again! Today, Kellvin Chavez says that the New Mexico filming location will be Las Cruces, but very little will actually be shot there and in Los Angeles: “90%” of the filming will happen in London.
As for actors, Chavez claims that Saoirse Ronan has read for a part. And while they don’t know what exactly she read for, their source does say there’s a female villain in the movie.
UPDATE: Bleeding Cool’s Brendon Connelly has also heard about Ronan, and talks about how great it is that there are two female leads in the film.
And he maintains that Benedict Cumberbatchwill be in the entire trilogy, with his Episode VII role being “very small” but getting much bigger in the two later films.
Will Las Cruces pan out? Will Ronan get a part? Will the Cumberbatch runaround ever not be tedious? For now, we have no idea, but as always, remember that none of this is official until Lucasfilm says so.
RumorOne Headlight Ink is reporting that New Mexico may also host some Episode VII shooting. Hopefully to some of the less familiar areas, if this pans out.
The Hollywood Reporter says this morning thatJ.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm have struck a compromise to keep at least some of Episode VII’s post-production at bad Robot’s Santa Monica headquarters. They include a few renovations:
A green room, sound studios and other new facilities will be developed within the three-story, 18,000-square-foot Santa Monica building, which already includes editing bays, a workshop for making props, a screening room that can double as a set and Abrams’ personal suite of offices.
Abrams has mainly shot all his films thus far in Los Angeles, but Episode VII is expected to start production in January at Pinewood Studios outside of London. The supposed friction over Lucasfilm’s U.K. plans led to some quickly denied rumors that he might drop out last month.
All hail @rafaeloca for discovering the hidden R2-D2 in Star Trek Into Darkness. Also last week, the My Lemony Falcon, the littlest Lando, Vader deals with those meddling kids and remembering A.C. Crispin.
We first heard last year that A New Dawn was a possible Episode VII title, but now it’s come up again, via newbie rumormonger TalkBacker. More interesting perhaps is this:
“… yes the falcon will make a big appearance, 1.1 scale size cross section is being constructed over at Pinewood, along with a power plant set and the famous cantina.”
The Millennium Falcon is pretty much a given if Harrison Ford signs on – maybe even if he doesn’t – but thecantina? Hrm. As always, I remain skeptical, particularly of the title bit. But whatever Episode VII turns out to be named, I don’t expect we’ll hear for a while.
We first heard