Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
As we all guessed after that tweet two weeks ago, The Hollywood Reporter is now saying that Peter Mayhew will return as Chewbacca in Episode VII.
Mayhew last donned the Chewbacca suit in Revenge of the Sith, and many speculated he’d be returning after he recovered from knee surgery last year.
The Hollywood Reporter makes this a much stronger report, but we only consider information confirmed if it’s openly from Lucasfilm/Disney or appears on StarWars.com.
We have a lot of them, we’re just not completely done yet,” Disney’s Alan Horn said about the cast at a live interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s Stephen Galloway at Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television in Los Angeles.
Horn acknowledged there had been some problems getting the script right. “It’s all about the screenplay,” he said. “It has to be screenplay, screenplay, screenplay.” Asked if the screenplay was fully where it needed to be, he added: “It actually is now.” The script has been co-written by Lawrence Kasdan and J.J. Abrams, following an early draft by Michael Arndt.
What’s being shot now could be, as many have speculated based on the various rumors, second unit work for use by ILM.
Horn also says that in-universe, the film will take place 35 years after Return of the Jedi. StarWars.com said in March that the film takes place “about 30 years after,” (emphasis mine.)
Rumor: Dominic Monaghan to play a Jedi? Well, we already know he wants in on Episode VII, and we certainly wouldn’t rule out a possible cameo, but who the hell knows?
Rumor: Episode VII already filming in Cairo? And they’re going to Abu Dhabi as well, Jedi News has heard from a “solid source.” Okay? I’m starting to run out of salt here.
Episode VII is still searching for actors? Granted, this is second hand, but according to a friend of Brien Bell (aka James T. Skywalker) they’re auditioning for leads today at CalArts. Right down to the wire…
No Jesse Plemons for Episode VII? The actor is in talks for the Whitey Bulger biopic Black Mass with Johnny Depp, says The Hollywood Reporter. Black Mass, like Episode VII, is slated to begin filming in May.
Plemons’ name first came up for Star Wars in January; he was even confirmed as a possible contender (well, someone “we’ve talked to”) by J.J. Abrams not long after. Plemons, along with another actor THR mentions as probably being out, Matthew James Thomas, were reportedly in the mix last month.
“I’m having a blast,” J.J. Abrams says about the new Star Wars in a lengthy new Daily Mail interview.
Peter Mayhew has had to cancel a convention appearance “due to filming.” Comicpalooza runs Memorial Day weekend – May 23-26. That’s right about the time a certain movie is expected to be shooting in London…
Andrew Bikichky, a working cameraman in Los Angeles, tweeted a picture of this “custom blacked-out Panaflex XL” that J.J. Abrams and crew will use to film Episode VII. There’s a second one, and they both have names… Head under the cut to learn them!
In an interview with with Andy Riesmeyer on Ora.Tv’s Dweebcast, Dominic Monaghan reveals a little of what J.J. Abrams told him about casting Episode VII:
“We’ve talked a few times about it and he just said, ‘look, we’re putting together a cast of essentially unknowns, you know. We want to follow the kind of ’77, [A] New Hope type cast…. We don’t want to fall into that mistake of People going ‘Oh, it’s that guy from the thing!'”
Not a big surprise or a big reveal, but at this point, every little bit helps. (via)