Today during a Disney shareholder meeting, Bob Iger, announced the release date of “Star Wars: Episode VIII” will be May 26, 2017. He also confirmed that Rian Johnson (“Looper”) is set to director the next sequel in the new “Star Wars” trilogy.
Since every “Star Wars” movie has always been released in May, Disney and Lucafilm originally planned a May release date for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” They soon realized that there was not enough time for J J Abrams to adequately work and edit the final cut of the film to release it this May and the movie was pushed back to December 18, 2015. Having “Star Wars: Episode VIII” is a welcome return for fans and “Epidsode VIII” will actually be released 40 years and 1 day from the original release date of “Star Wars,” which was released on May 25, 1977.
Bob Iger wasnt done there. He also revealed the title for the first “Star Wars” spin off movie will be titled: “Star Wars: Rogue One.”
Rogue One is the title for the first film in a unique series of big-screen adventures that explores the characters and events beyond the core Star Wars saga. Rogue One will be directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) and written by Oscar nominee Chris Weitz (Cinderella, About a Boy, Antz). The first actress cast is Felicity Jones, who garnered an Academy Award nomination and critical acclaim for her performance in The Theory of Everything. The idea for the story of Rogue One came from John Knoll, an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic.
Source: StarWars.com
I don’t think this news surprises anybody the only thing I take out of this is that the first spinoff is called Rogue One and is potentially centered around Felicity Jones. I can’t wait for Episode 7 though!
I was a little surprised about the title of the spin-off. I have been talking about the spin-off, another sites too, and it sounded like it was going to be a heist movie with a bunch of bounty hunters and possibly include a young Han Solo and Boba Fett. I do like the idea of a Rogue Squadron. Just give me a lot of space battles and I’ll be happy. Another thing that surprised me is Iger didn’t mention the one Star Wars attraction.
Yeah I had heard that about the Han Solo and Boba Fett movie, and that would have been awesome! And I guarantee Disney would make money hands over fists with that movie, as all the Star Wars fanboys would turn out. I hope they do make that movie, but I get the feeling that Disney is more eager to develop their own Star Wars characters.
Hey Joe, just saw this this morning. Not sure if you’d come across it yet. Looks like we may finally get the original cuts on Blu-ray finally! http://epicstream.com/news/Disney-To-Release-Original-Unaltered-Cut-Of-Star-Wars-Trilogy-On-Blu-ray
Thanks Scott! I really hope this is true. Will have to check the sources on this and see if it is legit or wishful thinking. I have read stuff like this before and then Disney or Lucasfilm will deny it. This would be my dream come true. The biggest problem is FOX. There are fans of the Special Editions who say that we will be very disappointed if we have to accept the special effects of the original movies. They said Lucas did a great job cleaning up the special effects and yeah, I agree, to a point. But there are so m any additions that he made that really piss me off, especially what he did to Jedi. Adding Hayden Christensen and the “no!!!!!!” from Vader just ruins the whole movie. I have watched A New Hope and Empire many times after the Blu-ray release, but cant go back to Jedi because of the “that.” I’ll write something up and if Tom decides to go with it, you’ll see it. Will definitely give you a special thanks.
I actually couldn’t agree with you more on ANY of that, Joe. While I’m not adverse to the new versions, I do miss the originals in all their glory. They are what we grew up with. What galls me most about Jedi is the horrible transfer to Blu-ray. IMO, that’s even worse than the additions you mentioned (which are horrendous).
And yes, we’ve heard this before. I’m as skeptical as you, but thought it was worth bringing to your attention. Fingers crossed, right?
Scott, after reading what you said, I actually wrote this really nice article based on what Comicbook.com, the original source, said about Disney releasing the unaltered versions. I noticed that most sites were not covering it and thought it was strange. Turns out that that Comicbook.com article was written in August 2014. Why epicstream decided to report this now, I have no idea.
Unfortunately I decided to just leave the article as a draft for now until something concrete comes out. But I have an article ready to go. I may even just change the title to “Why Disney needs to release the unaltered versions of the Original Trilogy on Blu-ray.” I did put a bunch of videos up comparing the Original vs Special Edition scenes. I will admit that after watching the video comparisons, the Blu-rays “look” fantastic and there is a huge improvement over the original in color, contrast and detail. The main issue that I have, and I know you feel the same way, is the additional scenes that are in the Special Editions.
There is absolutely no reason why we cant have both the unaltered versions and the Special Editions. The only real reason is because Lucas wants us to embrace the Special Editions and his changes. I have heard Lucas say that he destroyed parts of the original negative while making the Special Editions and that even if he wanted to release unaltered versions, he couldn’t. First of all if he did that, he is either incredibly stupid or insane, or maybe a bit from column A and a bit from column B. Even if that is the case that no real negative exists anymore, I know that the Smithsonian has an original copy. Also I have seen fans restored the original versions online and they look beautiful. Just give us something like that. We dont need new special effects just remaster them and clean them up in HD, actually more like 4K now.
I think most people know that Disney has always been a fan of the Original Trilogy and not the Prequels. Since Disney purchased Star Wars in 2013, they cancelled Clone Wars; they cancelled the release of the Prequels (the last two) in 3D in theaters; we will be getting the video game, Star Wars Battlefront, which will be based around the time of the Original Trilogy; we have Rebels now and the biggest sign is that we are getting a sequel to the Original Trilogy. Disney never mentions The Prequels anymore. Even the recent merchandise for Star Wars Weekends has been pushing the Original Trilogy since Disney purchased Star Wars back in 2013. I am sure Bob Iger is like us, a huge Star Wars fan who saw the Original Trilogy in theaters and would like everyone to be able to see it that way again one day. Will we get the unaltered versions this year? Probably not but I am sure it is definitely being discussed and if Disney can work out something with Fox we may see it one day soon.
My personal favorite is the totally mobile and realistic looking Jabba the Hutt in A New Hope, who in the space of a few years turns into a giant slug incapable of moving (granted he was also equally mobile in the Clone Wars cartoon series, but still growing up watching the movies I had this vision of Jabba as a giant fat slug that had a platform to move him around…)
I agree, Jared. I’d think that you, Joe, and myself would agree that the additions to IV were actually quite good. I also thought the cloud city additions in Empire were outstanding.
Where things really went over the side of the cliff were in Jedi. The only decent thing they added there was the Bantha herd scene. Aside from that, it was all pretty awful. Scrubbing out the “yo mama!” quip, the music sequence in Jabba’s lair, “NOOOOO!”, the ending musical sequence, Anakin…
I don’t know if either of you saw, or remember, this. But before the “special edition” of IV came out, there was a sequence that was leaked. It was the opening scene of the movie. All of the star destroyers blasts hitting Leia’s ship had shock waves coming off of them. It looked incredibly cool. I was disappointed when that didn’t make it into the final cut.
Yes that Jabba was horrible. He looked a lot better in the Blu-ray release but the original Special Edition was awful. Still not needed at all.
Empire had a couple of weird choices. Like the guy in the new Wampa costume. Yeah, he looked better but they still had the old Wampa in that scene too. The part that annoys me is when Vader is leaving Bespin and he says, bring me my shuttle. It’s slow and the music doesn’t match the rest of the music that is playing before and after. And Luke falling after he finds out that Vader is his father. Originally he was quiet but in the first Special Edition they had him screaming all the way down,
I never saw Leia’s ship getting hit before. Saw a lot of Biggs and his friends.
However, if there was one good thing that came from the Special Edition it was this website http://nooooooooooooooo.com/ featuring a button to push only in times of dire need
That button would drive me crazy after 10 pushes. Definitely am glad that I am not alone. I have met a lot of Prequel lovers who hate my guts. I seriously would rather watch The Star Wars Christmas Special, which I own, then any of the Prequels and the Clone Wars.