In today’s preview clip from the Blu-ray documentary ‘Secrets of The Force Awakens,’ John Boyega boards the Millennium Falcon for the first time.
The Force Awakens is out digitally on Friday, and on Blu-ray/DVD Tuesday.
Rian Johnson posts picture from the Episode VIII set
“Hard to believe we’re wrapping up week four already, it’s just flying by,” Director Rian Johnson said as he shared an Episode VIII set picture on his Tumblr this morning. The pic features cinematographer Steve Yedlin and the Millennium Falcon cockpit.
Meanwhile, there are more detailed rumors on the Dubrovnik shooting – including someone’s stunt double, which is more than a little surprising.
UPDATE: Some (apparent) extras, possibly guards or part of a police force, have been spotted.
Video: The Force Awakens effects wizards speak
There’s another behind-the-scenes look at the visual effects of The Force Awakens at Variety. The nearly 11-minute video features visual effects supervisors Roger Guyett and Patrick Tubach, creature supervisor Neal Scanlan, and special effects supervisor Chris Corbould.
Today in The Force Awakens: Why Leia isn’t a Jedi, lightsabers coming to ESPN
→ ESPN will air ‘The Evolution of the Lightsaber Duel’ on December 15th at 7 p.m.
→ “It’s like we’re collaborating over this vast public field,” Oscar Isaac says of his imagined backstory for Poe becoming canon.
→ Vulture runs through the Journey to The Force Awakens books and stories. Some minor errors (Poe is namedropped in Shattered Empire #2) but overall a decent roundup.
→ Spoiler corner, book edition: Jedi Bibliothek has screenshots of picture book leaks and the beginning of Finn’s tale in Before the Awakening.
→ Spoiler corner, Hasbro edition: A Rey action figure featuring her second outfit (which we first saw yesterday) has a pretty hefty spoiler on the packaging. (It’s not her last name.)
→ Also: A new BB-8 poster, a few of John Boyega’s impressions and Anthony Breznican on the Millennium Falcon.
Boyega and Ridley on diversity, the Millennium Falcon, and lightsabers in The Force Awakens
I’m not sure if we’re coming up on the last of the Entertainment Weekly stuff or not (my issue did not arrive in a timely fashion, as per usual, and the app is awful) but this afternoon brought interviews with Daisy Ridley and John Boyega. Addressed is some of the backlash:
“We see through the eyes of children that they’re not talking about race the way we grown folks are. They’re not talking about color or how much melanin is in someone’s skin. That should teach us something,” Boyega says.
The bigots trying to sully things? He has no time for them. “We’ve been having a continuous struggle with idiots, and now we should just force them to understand – and I love the way I just used Force there, by the way – just force people to see this is the new world,” he says. “There are loads of people of different shades and backgrounds. Get used to it.”
Ridley talks about Harrison Ford and the Millennium Falcon:
She even got some sage starship-flying advice from Harrison Ford. “I was doing random switch-flipping and Harrison kind of put his hand out and said, no, everything had to have a purpose. Like, you flip a switch and then you see what it does, before you do anything else,” she says. “I was probably flipping switches too quickly!”
There was one other awkward moment. “Um, probably when I sat in his pilot seat,” Ridley says. “There’s a shot where I pilot the Falcon by myself. And then [on another day] Harrison and I went to film together. I went to get into the pilot seat and he was like, ‘That’s mine,’ and I was genuinely mortified. And J.J. was sitting there like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’ And, you know, I moved into the co-pilot seat.”
And Boyega on lightsabers:
“It started in rehearsals. We had [Kylo Ren actor] Adam Driver. That was the first time ever I had a stick in my hand that I could pretend was a lightsaber, which was the first stage of excitement,” he says. “I had to do all the sound effects and stuff by myself.”
In front of the cameras, he was given a much more elaborate prop. “That’s when I got the real saber, which is blue, it’s lighted, and just looks really epic,” Boyega says. “It felt monumental in my hand. I knew not to play like I used to when I was a kid, but to actually use it in serious combat for a scene. It’s absolutely crazy to have in your hand. It’s a bit heavy but it’s worth it. “
I believe that’s confirmation of something Making Star Wars posted last month, about how custom versions of Force FX lightsabers were used on set to help with lighting and other effects.
Spoilerphobes beware: LEGO leaks give us a few more names from The Force Awakens to chew over
The toy leaks for The Force Awakens have begun.
Earlier today, From Bricks to Bothans posted a few leaked images of two upcoming LEGO sets from the film. One is an (officially) unrevealed X-wing that we saw at a certain filming location, and the second is the Millennium Falcon. Both include multiple mini-figures – and the Falcon one gives us a few new names. (Though it’s noteworthy that both Finn and Rey remain just ‘Finn’ and ‘Rey.’)
FBTB has since deleted the images, but since they’ve been widely distributed across the internet, I’m putting them up below the cut. Check them out, or not…
Mark Hamill: Walking onto the Millennium Falcon “still seems surreal”
We’ve seen a lot of Mark Hamill around the past few days, thanks to Kingsman, but most of what he’s said about The Force Awakens are takes on things we’ve already heard. However, for Extra, he had a few things to say about the Millennium Falcon: “I can’t describe the feeling… the déjà vu of walking onto the Millennium Falcon, remembering all these details that they’ve gotten exactly right… It still seems surreal to me and hard to believe it’s actually happening.”
Note it’s not a confirmation he actually filmed something on the set.
The big picture: Bob Iger and the Millennium Falcon
Fortune has a photo of Bob Iger with The Force Awaken’s Millennium Falcon, courtesy Industrial Light & Magic:
Yannick Dusseault, visual effects art director for The Force Awakens, and his team gave Fortune six options showing the Falcon in different ways. The resulting image required the custom rendering of ILM’s computer generated Falcon. According to ILM, the fabled ship was rendered in wireframe form (a skeletal version) as well as a more layered “textured render,” which were combined in Photoshop to create the final image.
Iger is the magazine’s latest cover story, one focusing on Disney and technology.
Roundup: How Abu Dhabi nabbed Episode VII and more
→ Abu Dhabi nabbed Star Wars from Jordan at the very last minute, according to a new article in The Hollywood Reporter.
→ Harrison Ford is flying around England, while John Boyega and Lupita Nyong’o are either hanging out with his likeness or they both have the same one. Mystery!
→ And finally, in the possible spoiler department, Making Star Wars describes a ship that is either very Falcon-like or an alternate Falcon model. Jason has also seen two more alphabet fighters and X-wing concepts. And then he heard from someone who witnessed some filming at Pinewood.
Bad Robot shows off the Falcon’s Bat-secret
Your move, Zack Snyder.