SUPER STAR WATCH
A bumper round-up of happenings in a galaxy far, far away…
A bumper round-up of news from a galaxy far, far away.
star wars: rogUE oNE ETA: 14 DEcEmbEr 2016
may wasn’t the best of months Pr-wise for the hunt-forthe-Death Star-plans standalone movie. First, leaked images from a visual story guide to the movie revealed numerous previously-under-wraps character names; second, news of reshoots this summer led many to assume that all was not well on Gareth Edwards’ A New Hope prequel.
So, alongside the already known Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), we now know about captain cassian Andor (Diego Luna), assassin baze (Jiang Wen), enforcer droid K-250 (a performance-captured Alan Tudyk), rebel soldier bodhi (riz Ahmed), and the warrior chirrut (Donnie Wen). There are also VErY LOUD hints that Darth Vader is, as we suspected, in the movie.
As for those reshoots, early rumours suggested that Disney really didn’t like the film’s dark tone and craved more adventure and excitement. However, quoting “high level sources” at Lucasfilm, Entertainment Weekly says that the reshoots were planned all along, and that “the changes have everything to do with clarity and character development and all take place within scenes we’ve already shot.”
EpisoDE Viii ETA: 15 DEcEmbEr 2017
JJ Abrams did a spectacular job of keeping us in the dark about the plot of The Force Awakens, and rian Johnson is picking up where he left off. We do know that mark Hamill, Daisy ridley and Adam Driver have been spotted arriving in Ireland to shoot in Donegal, so the smart money’s on Luke Skywalker and rey facing off against Kylo ren and his knights of, er, ren.
John boyega, meanwhile, has described Episode VIII as “a different take, darker, bigger [than The Force Awakens], while Oscar Isaac told Rolling Stone, “there’s a lot more to do. What happens now is the heroes get tested. All three of them. bb-8 gets tested too! Everybody gets tested! It’s the dark second chapter, but not really dark.” We’ll undoubtedly learn more about both movies at Star Wars celebration, which takes place in London from 15-17 July. (www.starwarscelebration.com)
HaN soLo: tHE MoViE ETA: 25 mAY 2018
We now know, of course, that the unenviable task of stepping into Harrison Ford’s very tight trousers falls to newcomer Alden Ehrenreich – only time will tell if he’s both scruffy and nerfherdery enough for the Han Solo gig. The prequel movie’s writer (and Empire Strikes Back and Force Awakens scripter) Lawrence Kasdan has also revealed that the movie – which will show Han and chewbacca’s origins – will start shooting in January. but rumour has it that the solo Solo movie won’t be Ehrenreich’s first appearance in the famous waistcoat – he might just be required for those Rogue One reshoots...