Yes, there are the legal documents and all that, but where does the Foodles name actually come from? Big Shiny Robot has a inkling: Foodles happens to be the name of a restaurant near the pre-Presidio ILM headquarters. Curiouser and curiouser…
Lucasfilm: Episode VII still shooting in 2014
They wouldn’t comment on the Foodles alias, but a Lucasfilm representative did tell Big Shiny Robot that as far as the shooting schedule for Episode VII goes, “nothing has changed.” Kathleen Kennedy said only days ago that filming won’t start until next year.
Rumor: Is ‘Foodles’ the Episode VII pseudonym… And is filming closer than we thought?
Jedi News reports that Episode VII pre-production is working under the pseudonym Foodles Productions Ltd., and that they’ve booked their block at Pinewood for 10 years, with facilities construction already underway for shooting as early as August 2013.
We’ve previously heard that filming was likely to begin in early 2014.
UPDATE: Jedi News did a bit more digging (and explaining!) on Foodles…
UPDATE #2: And now LFL is denying that filming begins in August.
CONFIRMED: John Williams to score Episode VII
Our big news out of Kathleen Kennedy’s Celebration Europe panel: John Williams has officially signed on to score Episode VII!
That was it as far as announcements go from Kennedy’s panel this morning. StarWars.com liveblogged it, and I’ve collected the tweets on Storify.
Ryan Gosling’s reps deny Episode VII interest
He’s the biggest new actor associated with the sequels so far, but Ryan Gosling is not pursuing a role in Episode VII, the actor’s representatives tell The Huffington Post. They also point out that the actor has recently said he’d like to take a break from acting.
And no, they haven’t heard back from Zac Efron’s people yet.
Of course, at this point a denial doesn’t mean much… And remember, J.J. Abrams denied, too!
Rumor: Ryan Gosling, Zac Efron up for Episode VII?
Is it April Fools already? Latino Review’s Kellvin Chavez is reporting that Ryan Gosling and Zac Efron are up for roles in Episode VII – and that Leonardo DiCaprio has already passed.
Chavez doesn’t know what role Efron could be up for, but apparently Gosling auditioned for the role of Luke’s son.
Gosling is among the hottest actors in Hollywood right now, and while I wouldn’t count on him – yes, he’s probably big enough these days to turn down Star Wars if the mood strikes – I also don’t entirely hate the idea. After all, how many people do you hear referencing his time as a Mouseketeer these days, as opposed to his meme? He’d be a pretty big get for any franchise.
Efron, on the other hand, has the opposite problem – he’s hard-wired to his Disney tweener past, namely as one of the stars of the High School Musical ‘franchise.’ Will the world ever be able to take this guy seriously? (On the other hand, he didn’t suck in Hairspray.) He was one of the Disney folks you saw photoshopped into every other Star Wars image a few months past. It was eye-rolling then – but expect to see those images a lot more as this rumor disperses out through the internet. With additional Gosling. Whoo.
I, as always, remain skeptical.
Lucasfilm denies rumor that J.J. Abrams is leaving Episode VII
UPDATE: Lucasfilm has denied the report. “There is no truth to the rumor,” a company spokesman told TheForce.Net. “JJ is having a great time working on the script and is looking forward to going into production next year.” Our original post is below.
Badass Digest is reporting that J.J. Abrams may be dropping out of Episode VII. They write:
…Why is it that I keep hearing tons of rumors that JJ Abrams is on the verge of dropping out of Star Wars? This has been something I’ve heard for a while now, and from multiple insiders. I know that he didn’t want to shoot the movie in England and was overruled, but that happened a while ago. This weekend at Comic Con I continued to hear these whispers. No director for Trek 3 has been found yet – might Abrams end up coming back after all, leaving Star Wars to someone else?
Big Shiny Robot is doubtful and so am I… After all, wouldn’t arrangements to film in England have already been in the works when he was signing on? Wouldn’t it have been a topic of discussion before he signed on the dotted line?
This could be nothing more than runaway fanboy paranoia at work, and it would be a big, public hit for Bad Robot, whether last week’s red scripts are Star Wars or not. But I do agree we should wait and see what comes out of Celebration Europe.
Harrison Ford: Abrams is a “great storyteller”
Is this the script for Episode VII?
The official Bad Robot account tweeted the above picture earlier this evening, with this text:
Hot off the presses. Can you guess what's behind the cover? #FoundAtBR #MysteryScript pic.twitter.com/VFvoxedpqC
Is it Episode VII? Could be. After all, what other projects that Bad Robot is working on are hotly anticipated enough for people to get excited about a script being done? I’m pretty sure that the next Star Trek isn’t that far along yet, but maybe one of their TV shows? (Pretty thick for a TV script.) Cloverfield 2?
Okay, okay, it’s probably Episode VII. Now let’s see if they admit anything further.
Stand down: No Episode VII at San Diego Comic-Con
There will be plenty of Star Wars at SDCC with Course of the Force, a huge floor presence and licensee panels, but there will be “no Episode VII content,” StarWars.com said last night. Cross your fingers for Celebration Europe and the D23 Expo.
Del Rey, Dark Horse and Hasbro will be holding Star Wars panels at SDCC on Friday, while Her Universe has one on Saturday. Del Rey released their signing schedule today while Dark Horse Comics posted their signing schedule yesterday.