Abrams Pleased With Star Wars Release Date Change

In an interview with MTV to promote his new novel "S", Star Wars Episode VII director and writer JJ Abrams commented on the movies change of release date from Summer to Christmas 2015. He joked about the "casting" of R2-D2 and how tough a negotiator his agent was.

"I will say that it is an infinitely better situation now than when they were saying that they wanted it in the summer [of 2015]," he said. "Before I even came onto the project, they were talking about 2015, and they made this announcement very early on, which I understand. I understand why they'd want that, but it didn't necessarily have anything to do with the reality of where anything was creatively. I think that it's a hugely important thing that [the creative process] come first," Abrams said. "A release date is great, but you have to release something great. To me, the new release date is a huge improvement."

First Official Star Wars Episode VII Picture (Updated)

JJ Abrams or an intern at Bad Robot has tweeted what is technically the first official picture from Star Wars Episode VII. The picture shows director JJ Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and others as they stand around R2D2. The guess is they are at Pinewood Studios in England working on pre-production for the movie coming in 2015. The tweet:

Hi from the workshop! #StarWarsVII pic.twitter.com/9R7JGSfxlC

Update: The two builders in the picture has been identified as Lee Towersey and Oliver Steeples. The long time Star Wars fans were hired to built R2D2 for the movie and keep him running for whatever film conditions require of the famous robot. The pair have been building replicas of R2 and other Star Wars droids for years so they have the experience and the fan credentials to re-create the famous droid to meet fan expectations.

Star Wars Episode VII Gets Official Release Date

Today Disney has announced the planned official release date for JJ Abrams' directed Star Wars: Episode VII as December 18, 2015. It was assumed for a while that the goal was a summer 2015 but most felt that date was unrealistic considering no meaningful pre-production has started on the film. Combined with that was a recent decision to switch writers from Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3) to Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan (Eps III, IV). Along with the release date, Abrams explained the switch as a factor of time.

It became clear that given the time frame and given the process and the way the thing was going that working with Larry in this way was going to get us where we need to be and when we needed to be. Working with Larry Kasdan, especially on a Star Wars movie is kind of unbeatable. ...

Working with Michael was a wonderful experience and I couldn’t be a bigger fan of his or adore him more, He’s a wonderful guy and was incredibly helpful in the process. [This event] doesn’t preclude working with Michael again in the future, he is one of the best writers around.

The average production cycle of a big budget movie is around two years so the extra six or so months should provide the time he needed. It also has the bonus of removing Star Wars from a crowded summer season to the Holiday movie season which tends to be mostly crowded with Oscar bait.