Entertainment Weekly has an audio feature of J.J. Abrams and the effects teams talking about the visual effects of The Force Awakens.
John Boyega, The Force Awakens VFX win at BAFTAs
John Boyega won the EE Rising Star Award at last night’s BAFTA Awards. He later joined The Force Awakens effects team, who won for Special Visual Effects:
On the red carpet, John revealed he starts filming on Episode VIII Monday.
Domhnall Gleeson and Carrie Fisher were also at the awards, where they presented the award for Film Not in the English Language and goofed off backstage.
Rey’s bread was real, and other things we learned about The Force Awakens VFX today
Given the visual effects nod from the Oscars and yesterday’s leak of the VFX reel, it’s not so surprising that The Force Awakens effects talk is all over today.
At MTV, we learn that the film’s really most talked-about effect – Rey’s green instant bread – is practical. It does, however, taste terrible. They also look into BB-8’s thumbs-up. (It might be time to release an official GIF of that one.) Neal Scalan talked about how Rogue One’s approach to aliens will be different. Also: Easter eggs!
/Film has an interview with Visual Effects Supervisor Roger Guyett, including the tidbit that The Force Awakens had more CG than The Phantom Menace, and more about how and why Kylo Ren’s helmet was added digitally.
Over at Collider, Scanlan, Guyett, Chris Corbould and Patrick Tubach talk about some of The Force Awakens’ cut scenes, including one with Maz.
Video: The Force Awakens VFX reel
Check out this extensive, ten-minute effects reel for The Force Awakens. It gives us a look at the entirely digital parts of Jakku, Maz Kanata, the lightsaber battle and more. Recommended additional reading: Studio Daily’s interview with ILM VFX Supervisor Roger Guyett. (via)
Roundup: J.J. Abrams addresses The Force Awakens’ throwback feel, Roger Guyett on VFX
J.J. Abrams discusses The Force Awakens with The Hollywood Reporter, including the criticisms that the film is too similar to A New Hope, and why it was important “to go backwards to go forwards.”
Today, Abrams was at TCA for Hulu’s 11.22.63, where he told Entertainment Weekly not to expect an extended edition of The Force Awakens and addressed the lack of Rey toys.
→ At Studio Daily, ILM VFX Supervisor Roger Guyett talks about the film’s visual effects, including the Falcon on Jakku.
→ The Force Awakens has opened strong in China with a record $33M Saturday opening. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., there’s some real box office competition this weekend thanks to The Revenant. Who wins? Either way, Domhnall Gleeson.
→ Speaking of actors, The Force Awakens has let Harrison Ford reclaim the title of highest grossing actor of all time from fellow Star Wars alumni Samuel L. Jackson.
→ Business Insider profiles Joonas Suotamo, who doubled for Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca.
→ Award watch: John Boyega is a nominee for the BAFTA’s Rising Star award. TFA itself is up for BAFTAs in production design, sound, music and visual effects. The film is also up for a Costume Designers Guild Award.
Roundup: The Force Awakens passes Jurassic World’s key opening weekend box office records
The numbers are in, and The Force Awakens made an astounding $529 million worldwide this weekend, $248 million of it domestically. That takes it past both Jurassic World’s key opening weekend records.
Jurassic World producer Frank Marshall (and husband of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy) tweeted the traditional congratulation ad, seen at right. Meanwhile the film also continued to rule on social media.
→ Want the nitty-gritty of what the actors made in The Force Awakens? Variety has a report, but beware of spoilers.
→ Video: Phil Tippett and his team on recreating the Millennium Falcon’s Dejarik holochess game.
→ The Force Awakens is among the ten films making the shortlist for the visual effects Oscar. Five will make the cut. Also on the shortlist are Mad Max: Fury Road, Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Ex Machina, The Martian, The Revenant, Tomorrowland and The Walk.
→ Finn’s ID number is a particularly easy-to-miss Easter egg. Also on Buzzfeed: Finn/Poe shippers. Hey, at least it’s not Reylo.
→ Matt Patches did it. He stayed spoiler-free for The Force Awakens for three whole years. I think he’s nuts, but respect.
→ Also: Mike Ryan on the redemption of Han Solo, Hasbro’s first look at Leia and Maz Kanata figures in a new motion poster, and how will The Force Awakens influence fashion?
The Force Awakens: Special effects, sets, names and… toy packaging?
Despite a hefty amount of fan grumbling over the focus on ‘practical effects’ coming out of The Force Awakens publicity machine, I doubt anyone actually believes that the film isn’t going to have any CGI. (And, let’s face it, us hardcore fans aren’t the audience that they’re going for by saying that in the first place.) But if you’re wondering, and don’t mind spoilers, Making Star Wars has some (supposed) details about the completely CGI shots that are in the film, and where practical effects are are used.
→ Also on MSW, a few Rogue One details, and how they relate (or not) to The Force Awakens, via a bit of creative recycling.
→ We have a name, or maybe just a designation, for Miltos Yerolemou’s character. This, naturally, leads to some details of a certain sequence at MSW.
→ The Force Awakens toy packaging has been spotted in the wild… On a Rebels-themed item, naturally.
→ Look who’s talking: Simon Pegg and (sort of) Jessica Henwick.
Star Wars virtual reality is coming
Lucasfilm and ILM today announced that they’ve formed the ILM Experience Lab (ILMxLab) to create “immersive content” – aka virtual reality and such. Coming one day to a theme park or gaming console near you, probably!
If that doesn’t do it for you, there’s also a new George Lucas interview.
Wired’s oral history of Industrial Light & Magic
Vanity Fair isn’t the only magazine borrowing some Star Wars mojo this month. Wired today has ‘the definitive oral history of ILM,’ with George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg, Dennis Muren and more. (Including J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson.)
Video: J.J. Abrams actually talks about The Force Awakens
When I heard that J.J. Abrams was at the VES awards last night, I wasn’t expecting much more than the standard boilerplate quotes. But he spoke to Collider on the red carpet, discussing the broadsaber (and the “many contradictory emails” he’s received about it,) IMAX, CGI, and more. Watch the video, or head over to Collider for the most pertinent quotes.
The basics, though: They’re still putting together the first cut of the film, he’ll be executive producing VIII and IX, there will still be “an enormous amount of CG effects,” (duh) and the broadsaber “was not done without a lot of conversation and it’s fun to see people have the conversation that we had, but in reverse.” None of these are huge revelations (we’ve known that only one scene is in IMAX for months,) but considering how little we’ve had out of Abrams overall, this is a bonanza.