Filming has begun for Star Wars: Episode VIII, as we mentioned in last week’s episode of the podcast. Sadly, we may have jumped the gun a bit, as apparently they only started principal photography today (oops!).
Among the details released were a few new cast members, including Laura Dern (Jurassic Park), Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro, and the lesser-known Kelly Marie Tran. We’ll also see the return of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis. For whatever it’s worth, IMDB also lists Harrison Ford as a cast member, but we’re taking that with a grain of salt, and maybe entertaining a couple of kooky theories at the same time.
In terms of the faces behind the scenes, the movie is written and directed by Rian Johnson (Looper), with Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman as producers, and J.J. Abrams, Jason McGatlin, and Tom Karnowski as executive producers.
As we also mentioned earlier on our podcast, the movie’s release was pushed back to December 15th, 2017. As much as we’d like the earlier scheduled release, it was a fairly brilliant move on the part of Disney, as this will no longer be direct theatrical competition for Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
As a result of this delay, it should be noted that James Cameron’s Avatar 2 and Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, which were both set for release around the same time, have now both delayed the releases of their respective movies. Oh, and if you haven’t taken the time to read or listened to the book version of Ready Player One yet (or the audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton), we highly recommend it. It’s a really fun, somewhat campy nerd-tastic nostalgia-fest.
What do you think? I imagine we’re all excited that we’re getting so much more Star Wars, but do you think Johnson can handle this type of a directorial experience? And what are your thoughts on the cast? Feel free to drop us a line on our Facebook page, or on Twitter to let us know what you think!
Source: http://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-viii-now-filming
