Star Wars: The Force Awakens [** SPOILERS FROM POST 4472 ONWARD **]

jaykhunter

jaykhunter wrote: »

Reading through the conversation of how badly the prequel CGI stands up - whilst I agree, they all have this artificial sheen to them, they still look pretty nice. And remember you're probably viewing it now on BluRay on a huge TV. Not the same TV you had in 2002 or 2005 on DVD. The CGI was much better than the average other film going at the time.

Watched whichever one was on UTV last Saturday and it looked horrible.

Tony EH

What I'd like to see is a prequel trilogy showing the 18 or 19 years between 'Revenge of the Sith' and 'Star Wars', focusing on Vader and the Empire's military campaigns across the galaxy and the oppression of non-compliant planets and people...

...and the elimination of the Jedi. The boring farts.

Mr Freeze

Tony EH wrote: »

What I'd like to see is a prequel trilogy showing the 18 or 19 years between 'Revenge of the Sith' and 'Star Wars', focusing on Vader and the Empire's military campaigns across the galaxy and the oppression of non-compliant planets and people...

...and the elimination of the Jedi. The boring farts.

That's what I thought we were gonna get with the prequels.

thegreengoblin

A few words from Abrams on the recent scriptwriting changes. Something along the lines of 'No big deal...you can go about your business...move along...'

http://www.deadline.com/2013/11/j-j-abrams-says-time-frame-of-new-star-wars-movie-was-why-he-lawrence-kasdan-took-over-writing-script/

david75

Release date announced
http://starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-vii-to-open-december-18-2015.html

FlashD

Mr Freeze wrote: »

That's what I thought we were gonna get with the prequels.

Yep me too,

The final minutes of 'Revenge of the SIth' should have been the slotting into 'The Phantom Menace' which would have given us an extra 2.5 movies worth of Vader kicking ass.

'Attack of the Clones' should never have existed. It's boring trash!

Radiosonde

david75 wrote: »

Release date announced
http://starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-vii-to-open-december-18-2015.html

But, but, they just sacked the screenwriter and Abrams and Kasden just took over?And they're STILL going ahead with shooting next spring? I was optimistic when it was announced, but this is thing looks like it's destined to be a mess.

FlashD

Radiosonde wrote: »

But, but, they just sacked the screenwriter

They didn't sack the screenwriter, inform yourself!

Radiosonde

FlashD wrote: »

They didn't sack the screenwriter, inform yourself!

That is what sacking a screenwriter looks like in Hollywood.

Sad Professor

Abrams's "time frame" comments make this sound like a comprise. Disney gave into his script demands in exchange for him commiting to their release date. If so, he has to start shooting in the Spring even if the script isn't finished, which it probably won't be.

I have a lot of faith in Abrams/Kennedy and expect the film will turn out okay regardless, but I don't believe Disney has this franchise's best interests at heart. Delaying the release by a year wasn't going to kill them.

uncleoswald

FlashD wrote: »

The final minutes of 'Revenge of the SIth' should have been the slotting into 'The Phantom Menace' which would have given us an extra 2.5 movies worth of Vader kicking ass.

Nah it definitely should have taken it's time to follow the rise and fall of Anakin and then the rise of Vader. If it was done right it would have added to the redemptive ending of Jedi. They just should have followed the story already laid down in A New Hope of Anakin and Ben becoming great friends while adventuring around the Galaxy instead of the whiny master-pupil/political crap we got.

I wonder what would have happened if Abrams had held his ground and demanded a 2016 release? I really can't imagine Disney taking him off the project and parachuting someone else in, too risky surely. It's a pity it will most likely suffer from been rushed but we'll see.

pixelburp

Sad Professor wrote: »

Abrams's "time frame" comments make this sound like a comprise. Disney gave into his script demands in exchange for him commiting to their release date. If so, he has to start shooting in the Spring even if the script isn't finished, which it probably won't be.

I have a lot of faith in Abrams/Kennedy and expect the film will turn out okay regardless, but I don't believe Disney has this franchise's best interests at heart. Delaying the release by a year wasn't going to kill them.

Regarding people's natural skepticism about the compressed shooting schedule, Empire Strikes Back started filming on March 5 1979, with its premiere then occurring on May 17 1980. Going by previous Star Wars films, Episode VII has it good!

Now, granted, film productions have become more logistically complex since then, and there'll be a lot of FX work (hopefully not as much as the prequels mind), but I presume with the right number of storyboards and good management this work could be going on while primary shooting took place.

johnny_ultimate

Two years is a helluva long time, even for blockbuster cinema, especially given the fact that the script has already been in development for over a year. Even if they're radically revising it, I'm pretty sure at this point they have a very good idea of the general story and narrative/character places they need to get to! Heck, great scripts have been worked out in days before - maybe not in the bureaucracy of Disney, but it's amazing what good screenwriters can do if they're serious and focused for a few days or weeks.

Disney will be hurling resources at this, meaning a lot of post and effects work will surely be getting underway during the shooting process. Not only that, even giving for the shoot time, it's likely Abrams will be left with close to 12-15 months of exclusive post production time. That's relatively generous compared to the tight deadlines of a lot of Hollywood efforts these days...

Sure, if it's not ready, delay away. But even for a big budget, SFX heavy production, I think we're still looking at an achievable timeframe here without totally compromising quality. Heck, bringing it down to scale when they don't have all the time in the world might is actually the sort of development that would be beneficial to this particular franchise!

thegreengoblin

I was hoping it would have its usual May release date as I'm a bit of a traditionalist but now that I think about it, it will be nice to be able to see a brand new Star Wars film in the cinema in the week leading up to Xmas. Now bring on that first teaser trailer! :cool:

Hematocyte

thegreengoblin wrote: »

I was hoping it would have its usual May release date as I'm a bit of a traditionalist but now that I think about it, it will be nice to be able to see a brand new Star Wars film in the cinema in the week leading up to Xmas. Now bring on that first teaser trailer! :cool:

The original SW was released in the UK (not sure about Ireland?) in December 77. So it almost is a sort of return to tradition in this part of the world at least.

Then you have fans of a certain age (pre-home video) for whom Christmas was Star Wars. It was pretty much the only time we got to see one of the movies when they were shown on tv.

TBH I never really liked Summer blockbusters anyway. I consider Summer a time to be out enjoying the world as much as possible, not stuck inside some building in the dark avoiding the sun.

So I'm excited for this winter release and I hope it becomes the new tradition!

Adamantium

Rumour has it they're building extensive physical sets in Pinewood, London at the moment

krudler

Adamantium wrote: »

Rumour has it they're building extensive physical sets in Pinewood, London at the moment

Good if true, the prequels look so fake and sterile aside from the scenes on Tatooine, which at least look like a Star Wars film.

pixelburp

I'll be honest, the more concrete info that's creeping out about this film, the more I'm feeling tentatively excited. Let's be pragmatic here: while it's easy to think of Disney simply milking the Star Wars franchise for all its worth - which Lucas was already doing anyway so it's silly to call them out on merely continuing a policy of creative bankruptcy - they're no mugs either and they'll know the movie brand was severely poisoned by the burning wreckage that was the Prequel trilogy.

While many will point to how popular they were with kids, in particular elements such as the much hated Jar Jar Binks - face it people the kiddies loved him - the movie franchise is a dead duck; unless it generates significant goodwill from its potential audience there's no reason Episode VII couldn't end up as another John Carter of Mars and severely under-perform. So to me, it's within Disney's interests to make sure these new films at least attain some level of competence and quality, to generate genuine excitement. Abrams, Kasdan and Ardnt have so far been small signs they're being vaguely serious about this.

Mind you, Episode VII will want to be the cinematic equivalent of crack cocaine if it hopes to triumph over the hype this film will invariably generate. I suspect it'll end up being enjoyably mediocre all told, which I guess considering the previous films will be triumph enough.

Gbear

pixelburp wrote: »

Let's be pragmatic here: while it's easy to think of Disney simply milking the Star Wars franchise for all its worth - which Lucas was already doing anyway so it's silly to call them out on merely continuing a policy of creative bankruptcy

If it was going to be a stand alone film that might be likely.

But given the investment that they've put in it makes it even more likely that they'll want to keep people coming back, not just for VIII and IX but also for whatever games and TV shows they spawn off the back of them.

It mightn't guarantee incredible quality, but a competent Star Wars film, arguably for the first time since Empire, would be just amazing.

david75

I always thought slaying all the Jedi and *then* Vader being born after that, rendered him sort of impotent. Should have been the other way round in the films/prequels I think.

ScrubsfanChris

Thought the December release was a bit odd myself, until a friend reminded me about Avengers 2 coming out in May 2015.

Nice to hear about big practical sets being put together for the film, along the lines of Prometheus then and not Phantom Menace :rolleyes:

Sad Professor

Radiosonde wrote: »

Because they chose Anakin as basically the main character for episodes 2 and 3, which ruled out him completely becoming the villain before the very end of the last one. Some would quibble that they were both the leads, but the overall story is about Anakin's fall, he's the character who really changes over the course of the films. The Obi-Wan character's growth from I to III comes mostly in the form of a beard.

Really, Obi-Wan should have been the main focus of the prequel trilogy, which would have allowed a more fun adventure with the two meeting up in the first movie, their relationship to sour in the second and end with the showdown where Obi-Wan defeats Anakin, and a concluding to the trilogy with an Empire style ending where Vader triumphs and Obi-Wan goes into hiding, setting up Episode IV.

I agree that Anakin as the main character didn't work, but I don't think Obi-wan is any more relatable than the future-Darth Vader. Obi-wan would have worked better as the Han Solo of the trilogy.

I think the main character should have been Padme as she had the most potential for growth without turning into a villain. But Lucas screwed that up by making her a queen who disguises herself as a handmaiden rather than the other way around, which would have been much more interesting.

Her being a lowly handmaiden/decoy for the real queen would have made opened loads of storyline possibilities. What if the real queen died and she had to take over the role? What if she was later exposed forcing her to seek protection with the Organas or being killed? But Lucas seemed to think because Leia was a princess that her mother had to be royalty as well.

Thrill

First behind the scenes pic from SW7. A nice shiny r2d2.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=111392

Agent Coulson

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

Thought the December release was a bit odd myself, until a friend reminded me about Avengers 2 coming out in May 2015.

December is also a nice time for all those Disney Christmas presents to be bought or delivered by Santa!

johnny_ultimate

2015 is a farcical year for blockbusters. It's crazy the amount of franchise titles and big budget titles already scheduled for the year. It'll be a year when we'll really need good, solid counter programming from world and independent cinema (and original studio fare like Brad Bird's Tomorrowland) - even looking at the 2015 in film Wikipedia page gives me premature blockbuster fatigue!

Adamantium

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/28/star-wars-vii-millennium-falcon-harrison-ford

Rumor: The Millenium Falcon on a 1:1 scale inside and out, has already been built/is currently being built at Pinewood Studios, London, UK



http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/star-wars-vii-heading-sith-home-world-221600515.html

Rumours of Sith Homeworld Korriban being filmed in New Mexico and Rebel base on Dantooine.


Found these
amazing fan made posters, the war aftermath ones are my favourite

http://www.buzzfeed.com/paulaersly/star-wars-episode-vii-fan-posters














These posters will all be better than the actual movie/trilogy, I'm afraid!

david75

I'm not sure of this is real but dammit I hope it is

Hematocyte

Nope, that was done by a photographer named Cedric Delsaux who likes to do scenes of 'Star Wars on earth' among other things.

http://mattbrookestudio.blogspot.ie/2012/01/cedric-delsaux-dark-lens-star-wars.html

I think if there is a real Falcon set built then it's most likely safely indoors away from the elements (and the cameras).

FutureGuy

I've never been a big fan of Star Wars or that universe, but I am incredibly excited o see what JJ will do with.

Huge fan of his versions of Trek.

krudler

FutureGuy wrote: »

I've never been a big fan of Star Wars or that universe, but I am incredibly excited o see what JJ will do with.

Huge fan of his versions of Trek.

It'll at least be interesting to see if he shoots in the in the style of the other movies, where the camera is kept relatively still and there's lots of wide shots or go with more handheld kinetic stuff like in the Trek movies.
I'm cautiously optimistic about it, as long as he's open to new ideas and isn't surrounded by people who just tell him what he wants to hear like Lucas and the prequels then it could be just what the franchise needs.