J.J. Abrams is out on the town today, and naturally he’s asking about Episode VII. “We’re working really hard and we’ve got our script and we’re in deep prep,” he told The Wrap. “Full steam ahead, y’know.”
He also confirmed that Jesse Plemons has been in the mix, which Plemons himself denied yesterday:
“He is one of the actors that we’ve talked to, yeah,” Abrams said. “But, you know. It’s not often that I read about actors that I’m going to be meeting… that I get to read articles about actors who are going to come in. And so I get to see someone and say, ‘Oh, I read that I’m going to see you.’ … It’s usually agents talking to people about what’s happening. It’s a lot of noise.”
And on rumors in general:
“There’ve been so many of them,” he said. “It’s amazing to see how many there are. … But it’s sweet because it shows that there’s an interest in this movie that we all obviously know is there. But it is an incredible thing to see how many crazy things get thrown out that people often then write commentaries about. How happy they are, how disappointed they are about something that is completely false. It’s a lot of noise, frankly.”
He dodged a question about directing future Episodes, saying “I’m just focusing on Episode VII right now.”
Abrams was at the Television Critics Association press tour thanks to Bad Robot’s Believe, which premieres in March on NBC.