Mark Hamill talks "Star Wars: Episode VII"

With the rumour that Harrison Ford was returning as Han Solo confirmed earlier this week, all eyes turned to Mark Hamill. Now he is saying that other original stars have not officially signed on for the film, but they are in talks with Lucasfilms he said.

"They're talking to us," he said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we'd be interested. He did say that if we didn't want to do it, they wouldn't cast another actor in our parts – they would write us out. … I can tell you right away that we haven't signed any contracts. We're in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm. Both have had meetings set that were postponed -- on their end, not mine. They're more busy than I am."

Hamill went on to talk about that he doesn't know what the film is officially about, but by the way he said it, it really seemed like he knew more than he was letting on.


"I'm assuming, because I haven't talked to the writers, that these movies would be about our offspring -- like my character would be sort of in the Obi-Wan range [as] an influential character. … When I found out [while making the original trilogy] that ultimate good news/bad news joke – the good news is there's a real attractive, hot girl in the universe; the bad news is she's your sister – I thought, 'Well, I'm going to wind up like Sir Alec [Guinness]. I'm going to be a lonely old hermit living out in some kind of desert igloo with a couple of robots.'"

"Another thing I'd want to make sure of is are we going to have the whole gang back? Is Carrie and Harrison and Billy Dee and Tony Daniels, everybody that's around from the original [returning]? I want to make sure that everybody's on board here, rather than just one."

 "I said to George that I wanted to go back to the way it was, in the sense that ours was much more carefree and lighthearted and humorous – in my opinion, anyway....hope they find the right balance of CGI with practical effects. I love props, I love models, miniatures, matte paintings -- I'm sort of old school. I think if you go too far in the direction of CGI it winds up looking like just a giant a video game, and that's unfortunate. … If they listen to me at all, it'll be, 'Lighten up and go retro with the way it looks.'"

Star Wars getting spin offs?

Reports are suggesting that Disney are looking to make two spin off films within the Star Wars universe, these two films are going to focus on Han Solo & Boba Fett. The Han Solo film has been said to focus on "on the wisecracking smuggler’s origin story" while Boba Fett's feature is described as "bounty hunter adventure".

Bob Iger said in a recent interview;
"There has been speculation about some stand-alone films that have been in development and I can confirm to you today that in fact we are working on a few stand-alone films... We still plan to make Star Wars 7, 8, 9 roughly over a six-year period of time starting in 2015 but there are going to be a few other films released in that period too."

According to the report the Han Solo film will take place between "Revenge Of The Sith" and "A New Hope", while the Boba Fett film will take place between "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return Of The Jedi". This would leave the films open the return of some beloved characters that aren't yet dead within the story arc like, Darth Vader.

Star Wars 3D re-releases cancelled

We all remember a while back when George Lucas decided to re-release the entire Star Wars franchise in the chronological order, well looks like these plans have been scrapped, thankfully.

"Although plans were underway for theatrical 3D re-releases of both Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Deadline reports that Lucasfilm will instead concentrate their attention on the upcoming Episode VII instead.
It is unclear how much post-conversion work has already been accomplished on the two remaining prequels (Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menancesaw a 3D re-release last year), but it is possible that both films could find a theatrical re-release sometime in the future or that the 3D versions could be released directly to Blu-ray."

I for one am unbelievably happy with this news, I don't think they should mess with the original trilogy at all in my opinion its the greatest trilogy of all time. Mess around with the prequel trilogy all you want ha. 

"Star Wars: Episode VII" update

Well where do we start, since Walt Disney announced that they had acquired Lucasfilm back in October and they announced they were continuing the Star Wars franchise. The question on nearly everybody lips has been who will direct the first film? Well, yesterday we found out that the incredibly talented J. J. Abrams will be at the helm.

 If you aren't familiar with his work, where the heck have you been ha, here is an insight to the films an TV shows he has had parts in. J. J. has been co-creator of such of icon shows as "Lost", "Alias" & "Fringe" and films like "Armageddon", "Cloverfield" & "Star Trek"(2009) so you can see he has an affiliation to the Science Fiction world, so personally I think he is a great fit for the film. A lot of people moan about his usage of lens flare, which at times is annoying it really did wind me up at time when watching "Star Trek" at times it became hard to watch, but the film was great. The only downfall to J. J. Abrams to directing is his approach to marketing he likes to keep things under wrap and not leak much.

We also know that Michael Arndt s writing the screenplay for the film, he doesn't have a huge background behind him he did write the screenplays for Oscar winning "Little Miss Sunshine" and Oscar nominated "Toy Story 3". So with his first ever film he won an Oscar and his second film was nominated for one, good sign? Bad sign?

Star Wars old boy Lawrence Kasdan is returning franchise, he an fellow screenwriter Simon Kinberg are writing scripts for films that will either serve as Episode VII sequels or spin offs that will feature other characters, kind of like "The Avengers" lead up films would be my guess.

There is also a rumour that Zack Snyder the man behind DCs next big project "Man Of Steel" is set to direct a spin off film within the Star Wars universe. Whether there is any truth to this we don't know yet, lets see how well he does with "Man Of Steel" first before we get too excited.

BREAKING NEWS J.J. Abrams to direct...

"Star Wars: Episode VII"!!! This is the best movie news I've heard since I started this blog if its true, TheWrap are going with an exclusive that Walt Disney Productions and Lucasfilm have hired him to direct the upcoming film, they are also saying that Ben Affleck was in contention to direct thankfully they passed on him.

Back in November, Abrams commented on him possibly directing the film an it sounded like it might happen, looks like that day has come true!
"Look, Star Wars is one of my favorite movies of all time. I frankly feel that – I almost feel that, in a weird way, the opportunity for whomever it is to direct that movie, it comes with the burden of being that kind of iconic movie and series. I was never a big Star Trek fan growing up, so for me, working on Star Trek didn’t have any of that, you know, almost fatal sacrilege, and so, I am looking forward more then anyone to the next iterations of Star Wars, but I believe I will be going as a paying moviegoer!"