Shortly after the release of the latest Godzilla movie in May 2014, the blockbuster film’s director, Gareth Edwards, was recruited by Disney to head one of the Star Wars spinoff pictures. It’s rumoured they will be a sequence of origin stories released between the new trilogy with Boba Fett, Yoda and Han Solo being primary candidates for the tales. But since that announcement 10 months ago, little else has been revealed about the film until today.
After its annual shareholders meeting, the studio posted the news to its website. The first stand-alone Star Wars movie will be named Rogue One. The story idea, which is still a secret, is based on a concept by executive producer John Knoll, chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic (the visual effects division of Lucasfilm). The script will be written by Chris Weitz, who also penned Cinderella which opens this weekend. He replaces Gary Whitta, who completed a first draft of the script with Edwards prior to leaving the project in January for undisclosed reasons. And finally it was revealed Oscar-nominated best actress Felicity Jones is the first to join picture’s cast. The film is set to begin shooting this summer in London and will be released December 16, 2016.
With J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens set for release this December, it’s time the studio begins to release details of the next chapter. Rian Johnson is confirmed to write and direct the subsequent episode in the saga, which is set for release May 26, 2017 — 40 years and a day after Star Wars: A New Hope was distributed in 1977.
