Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
You can bid on an autographed copy of The Force Awakens table read photo to help raises funds for Arts in the Armed Forces. Donated by Adam Driver, the picture is signed by him, J.J. Abrams and most of the cast. (Including some not in the picture.) The winner also gets a private tour of Lucasfilm and ILM.
→ In rumorville, aka Making Star Wars, we have a Millenium Falcon itinerary and the details of one scene from it.
Making Star Wars has a new rumor today regarding that long-rumored flashback sequence. It sounds like something that couple very well fill out a couple of important puzzle pieces to all the other things we’ve heard, as well as the big era gap.
The weekend’s big Star Wars rumor is that Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) is in the running to play a young Han Solo. It comes from UK tabloid The Sun, via The Daily Mail (which drops a rumor/spoiler about The Force Awakens at the link, so maybe stop reading when you see Egerton’s face.)
The only fairly solid thing we know about casting the first spin-off is that Felicity Jones is the female lead (she can’t talk about it) – and the Hollywood trade reports that broke that said that Aaron Paul and Edgar Ramirez were up for the male lead. People seem to like Egerton for it, but I can’t say I see all three of these guys being up for Han Solo.
Kingman writer Mark Millar did tweet “Taron shot first,” but take that as you will. Whatever the case, it’s a British tabloid rumor, so I can’t put much faith in it just yet.
Since we just found out that Mark Hamill will be at Celebration, it seems appropriate that Jason at Making Star Wars is talking about Luke Skywalker’s role in the film today. Naturally, this is pretty spoilery stuff that references that last big spoiler, so you know the drill.
If you’d rather not, Mike Ryan has a nice piece about being into spoilers that contains no actual spoilers. Well, not for any movie that’s not already been out for years, anyway.
At the the Irish Oscar Wilde awards – which honored Carrie Fisher – The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams had a less harsh take on the rumors than one might expect. From the BBC:
Asked about the secrecy surrounding the script, Abrams added: “We did the best we can to preserve the story for the audience, but it doesn’t always work.
“There are a ton of rumours – some true, some false. But I’m grateful for everyone who would want to read a spoiler because it means that they care and want to see the movie.
“I know what it feels like, as an enormous Star Wars fan myself.”
Stephen Fry presented Fisher with her award.
Florian of Jedi Bibliothek (translated) found a listing for The Art of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens on Amazon.de with a release date of November 2 – well ahead of the film’s release on December 18. Will that date hold? Well, it is Amazon, so: A not-at-all-firm maybe.
He also notes that the entries for most of the Journey to Episode VII series for young readers have been deleted, though the one that seems to feature new/original characters remains.
→ Spoiler corner: We also have two new rumors from Making Star Wars. There’s a rundown of the opening sequences, plus furthur details on some potential (or not?) offspring. On that note, Donna Dickens at Hitfix defends “Luke Skywalker’s right to get laid,” and I am totally jealous I did not think of that headline.
Jason has a lot of trust in his source on this report, but it’s a big one. I don’t think this is the biggest (possible) spoiler out there by any means (though consider how our last ‘big spoiler’ fizzled with additional leaks/information) but it’s still a pretty big thing if it’s true, and extremely probable.
So, consider yourself warned. Still want it? Head to Making Star Wars for even more warnings.
Greg Grunberg may have more than a mere cameo in The Force Awakens. He told E! that he was in London for six weeks, and from his description it sounds like he was involved with the Greenham Common shoot.
→ Making Star Wars has a costume analysis of the main cast and a big dump of pretty iffy rumors.
→ A speeder similar to the one Rey rides in the trailer was found in the depths of The Old Republic.
→ The president of design at Apple had a conversation with J.J. Abrams about lightsabers that may have influenced the broadsaber.
→ In corporate moves, ILM president and general manager Lynwen Brennan has been promoted to general manager of Lucasfilm itself.
The latest batch of rumors from Making Star Wars include a sketch of Leia’s costume, Imperial ranks and symbols and, from an extra, a line of Han Solo dialogue.
Jason also learned that the new Battlefront game will span the entire saga – including some post-Return of the Jedi stuff. (“Lucasfilm has a lot of plans for that era.” Damn right they do.) The final section of the game will involve a battle early on in The Force Awakens. The game is apparently due to drop only a month before the movie’s release… It’ll be interesting to see if it actually makes that window.
First it was ‘why aren’t stormtroopers clones?,’ now it’s ‘Luke Skywalker’s Jedi should be carbon copy of the Old Republic Jedi, right?’
Over at /Film, and in light of the latest rumor regarding possible Skywalker offspring, Germain Lussier gives his view on the rumors, and Jason at Making Star Wars has a response as well. (Possible spoilers at all those links, though I’m trying my best to avoid them here.)
I don’t agree with ether of them entirely (okay, I really don’t agree with Lussier and, full disclosure, went a-ranting on Twitter this morning over it) but there’s something kind of funny about all this: The old arguments never die, do they?