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The official Star Wars site has today posted an interesting announcement that Lawrence Kasdan and J.J. Abrams have officially "assumed screenwriting duties for Star Wars: Episode VII. The language of the release makes it difficult to tell if this is an expected transfer with Michael Arndt having fulfilled his role in producing the basic screenplay, or whether something else is going on behind the scenes.

What this'll mean for the final product is yet to be seen, but it's certainly good news to hear that Kasdan (with writing credits for both Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) is on board. The release also contains an official announcement of other crew that will be working on the film, including Star Wars veterans Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood.

I've put my Eeyore costume on again (well it is soon Halloween ) ... I just read this on ComingSoon.net's Weekly Star Wars Roundup ...

It's a bit of a surprise, but with Kasdan on board it is certainly encouraging. By why the change? Eric Vespe comments

• I've heard from sources that those who read Arndt's EpVII draft thought it was pure Star Wars and fantastic. Apparently Abrams disagreed.
  — Eric Vespe (@EricVespe) October 24, 2013

And this ...

Badass Digest had additional analysis:

• A couple of months ago I reported that I heard there was tension inside the production, and that JJ Abrams had been making noise about leaving. That got picked up (erroneously) by other outlets saying Abrams WAS leaving. My understanding is that the tension was about a lot of issues, including release dates and schedules, but also about the script. Abrams wasn't satisfied with what Michael Arndt had written and wanted to take a crack at it. While it was announced today, I heard they scrapped the entire Arndt script as early as July, but I didn't know that meant they were scrapping Arndt as well.
  
  What's the big change? My sources tell me that the focus of the story has changed in a big way, that it's a whole new set of characters being followed than in the Arndt script. I don't want to say much more than that, because I just don't know how in flux things are and I'm sick of being misquoted on this stuff, but it seems like there's a complete overhaul. Top to bottom. This isn't a rewrite, this is a completely different movie with different main characters.

Visit the link for more.

Rumouredly Harrison Ford has agreed to more movies than just Episode VII and also wants to do an Indiana Jones 5 movie ...

Jedi News UK had their source return to give details on the deal with Harrison Ford:

A verbal agreement with Ford to play Han Solo once more has been in principle place since before the Disney deal. Over the course of this summer financial settlements were reached. The outstanding points that had dragged on but are now resolved are:

• Ford wanted to see the synopsis for his character's development over more than just Episode 7. He saw this in August and is happy with the story arc.
• Ford wanted a commitment to Indy 5. He did not get this as there is no plot line or script in place. What did happen was an agreement was made wherein an outline would be developed by the end of calendar year 2014, and if all parties can agree to it moving forward, efforts would be made to move on Indy 5 for release before the end of 2016.
• Disney wanted a multi film deal with Ford which transcends Episode 7. This has now been agreed.

Looks like we have an official release date: December 18th 2015!

Archon Revuge wrote:Looks like we have an official release date: December 18th 2015!

Only 769 days to go...!

The countdown is on for the first trailer! Even though it'll be a teaser with no actual images... still!

R2-D2 confirmed.

A week or so ago, the Bad Robot Twitter account posted a photo at Pinewood, of Kathleen, JJ, a fan-made R2-D2, and two members of the R2 Builders club (Oliver Steeples and Lee Towersey). There was little additional description or information associated with the photo, and when questioned on various prop/R2 forums, Oliver seemed like he was constrained to give only a specific, pre-ordained response.

Today, though, the official SW Blog has posted details...Oliver and Lee have been hired as full time members of the Creature Effects team for VII, as astromech-builders!

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/2013/1 ... -fan-made/

As i'm reading through i'll likely edit my post but i wanted to say something after reading the first two pages (before that i guess!)
My preference would be in order.
(1)The Thrawn books into flims, old actors redone as best as can be.

(2)Dark forces/Jedi knight Era with some imput from the main actors but putting set pieces into place perhaps making a stand alone Jedi knight (dark forces 2) Movie to explain Kyle as a jedi master and an ally in the films.

(3)The Yuuzhan Vong but i think the timeline is too far for that.

(4)If they introduce mara jade which i feel they have to, shes too popular of a character not to introduce they will be hard pressed to do a better job than the books did.
Thrawn is a perfect likeable bad guy, he's smart and ruthless a perfect bad guy without having to setup new sith right away (whom some still exist in Eu stories)

(5)I could deal with a re-told version of kyle's jedi knight story with more imput from the main cast to help him along on the journey but he still needs to be the main character and leia needs to be pregnant before then i believe? (she can still be active)

(6)My last option is that they skip the books and they take a leap into the future peroid between the books and the Yuuzhan Vong and find a sweet spot where the children are getting old enough to become jedi so they can pass the torch that way, Then we'd have "the young jedi adventures!" but i don't think it'll run as a movie plot as well as it could a animated series.
--

The clone wars in my opinion was fantastic, the Mandalorian history wasn't a huge problem for me as it was a lull between periods of greatness nobody during that period was worthy enough to really rally the entire race behind them, Pre Viszla was a puppeter not a Mandalore.

I will be really unhappy if they just try to remake the image or story of starwars because that is what everyone else is doing.
And i'd like a stormtrooper army enemy because they are great bad guys faceless evil and i need more for my collection! ^_^

*edit 1* lol!
Vader coming back, Ugh! i think they do need to setup sith to come back but Thrawn is a really good villian who will stand out well they can include a subplot to have a sith rise during that time for their *next* series they wont need vader as that villian will start to push jacen's buttons until the end of those films he becomes the new vader, then break before another three films! muhahahaha......
But i hope they don't bring vader back unless in ghost form like when he tries to get leia to forgive him and talk to her.
(And i kind of feel like Ewan as good as he is shouldn't be a ghost of old ben ever, Young might be okay.)

- Episode 1 best fights.. HUH? Man i loved the final fight because it was so retarded, Maul and Qui-jon slowly back up while dueling through the energy shield and get past it in two moves, Obi-wan sprints and doesn't make it, That has always bothered me it might as well be labeled plot device, Which could've been done better by having his fall knock him out or anything else.

Staff vs sword is a really cool looking fight but really tricky to do and its easy to counter and judge if you've had any training it was more a weapon of fear and he should've only used it for short periods perhaps even having a backup light saber. (imo)

J.J. I hate him for his lens flare bullshit and his bad choices allowing *censored* to flow, He's had some lucky breaks but even a monkey can figure out how to use tools if they are all in front of him, Seeing a puzzle that doesn't fit and changing it is what makes a good film maker.
I'm a Scifi fan, i don't favor trek or wars over each other, my favorite is babylon 5.
But the last star trek movie was horrible and time travel in the reboot was such a poorly played ploy device/excuse, Aside from laziness there was no reason to go back to kirk/tos there are so many decent time periods you can create in any scifi.
I hated the second movie because Khan was an un-needed money grabber, to be a parasite to the better film and try to trick fans with a watered down version. Which explains the entire re-boot.
Star-Trek - Explosions in space - THE MOVIE! *cry*

I have mixed feelings on his other works some i liked for a while others i didn't like at all but as i said about what makes a film maker applies to his other works sometimes he had things fall in place, maybe other times he made good choices but in star trek he didn't make good choices.

Really long post, Having more of the later info;
I still feel like skipping the romance between luke/mara (or whoever it is now) is stupid I think stepping all over Thrawn will be a huge mistake, the rest of the EU before/after till the Vong/ish period could be skipped.
But skipping Thrawn is like throwing money away there is no reason you can't have this special awesome new starwars scirpt which uses the children but we are jumping ahead *again* and they'll fill it in 10-15 years from now with some mediocre filler which should've been thrawn to start with lol.

We'll all have to see what they decide to do but recent abysmal failures don't give me much hope.
I had hoped they would attempt the stand alone film before they jumped into the 3 part to see how it was received before committing to a story line.

Amidst the torrents of rumours, we get a tiny tease of actual information...

StarWars.com wrote:Disney and Lucasfilm are excited to announce that principal photography on Star Wars: Episode VII, directed by J.J. Abrams, will commence May 2014, and will be based at London's historic Pinewood Studios.