Two New Force Awakens TV Spots and BTS Short

In order below is a new behind the scenes short video with Daisy Ridley as she discusses Rey. After that are two TV spots that somewhat focuses on Rey and the movie bad guys.

New Force Awakens Extended TV Spot, Score List and Lightsaber Battle Inspirations

The steady drip of Star Wars: The Force Awakens promotional stuff continues. With it comes just a tiny itty bitty bit more info about the movie itself. The latest is a new TV spot (below) and the score list for John William's soundtrack (below). Technically it has spoilers but nothing that means a thing to me in regards to piecing together a story.

Also in an interview with Empire, JJ Abrams discussed his inspiration for the lightsaber battles came from Terrence Malick's "powerful stillness", Kurosawa's "unbelievable scene choreography and composition", and John Ford Western's "confidence" saying "When you look at Star Wars and Empire, they are very different lightsaber battles, but for me they felt more powerful because they were not quite as slick [as the prequels]. I was hoping to go for something much more primitive, aggressive and rougher, a throwback to the kind of heart-stopping lightsaber fights I remembered being so enthralled by as a kid."

New Omaze Force for Change Video, Empire Covers

Below is the latest video to support the Force for Change charity that will give you a chance to win a visit to the red carpet premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It includes brief videos with the cast as they talk about the different charities the money will go to. Also you can find six new covers featuring the cast of the movie from Empire Magazine.

Star Wars 7 Almost Finished, Phasma Image, New TV Spot, 1st Clip and Hamill in Episode 8

More tidbits about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. To start the image of Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) is care of Empire Magazine. Next during a Q&A with Stephen Colbert, director JJ Abrams indicated the movie is almost complete saying "We were working on the final mixes at 2:30 this morning. I left with six very small, but important things that (still) need to be done..." He can't wait to be finished with it saying “The truth is working on this movie for nearly three years, it has been like living with the greatest roommate in history for too long. It’s time for him to get his own place. It’s been great and I can’t tell you how much I want him to get out into the world and meet other people because we know each other really well. But really, ‘Star Wars’ is bigger than all of us. So I’m thrilled beyond words (to be involved) and terrified more than I can say.”

Mark Hamill has officially verified he is in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (yeah believe it or not that fact has never actually been confirmed, just assumed) and he is in Star Wars 8 via a tweet, "Last shaved on 10/22 after final day of my 2nd #TheFlash (which airs 12/8 #XmasTrix), just in time for Ep VIII-whew! https://t.co/UNsPDaqFT2". Finally below is the first clip and another TV spot for the film.

New TV Spot, SNL Force Awakens Skit

Here is a new spot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens along with Saturday Nights Live's skit as actors fake audition for the movie.

The Force Awakens Kylo Ren Image, Props and High Ticket Sales

Empire Magazine has published a new image of Kylo Ren that shows off one of the bad guys from the movie. No new information about the character was revealed so far now he just remains a wannabe Sith and Vader fan boy. To go with that, Wired has posted 50 pics of different props built for the film. Last is good news for Disney as ticket pre-sales have topped $50 million, breaking records. Those sales are indicators that the film will capture the largest North American debut of all time with a possible single weekend take of $300 million which would crush all previous records.

New Force for Change Omaze Charity for Star Wars Red Carpet Premiere

With a helping hand from Harrison Ford, Omaze has announced a new charity contest that will give 2 winners a chance to go to the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in London or LA and meet the cast of the movie. It essentially works like a raffle where you donate X amount of dollars for Y virtual raffle tickets along with additional items depending on which tier you donate from. Enjoy the video below and full details cam be found at Omaze.com.

New Force Awakens Spot Focuses on Finn

Here is the sixth TV spot released for Star Wars: The Force Awakens with a focus on Finn with a dash of Han Solo.

New Force Awakens TV Spot, Behind the Scenes Vid, Running Time and Zuvio

More from Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues to trickle in. The latest is another new TV spot with new footage (1st vid below) and a brief behind the scenes video from the UK (2nd vid). In addition the running time of the movie is set at 2 hours, 15 minutes. As for the weird looking character with cat eyes image, that character is called Zuvio who is a "vigilant law officer on a mostly lawless world" that "keeps order in a frontier trading post." Last is Disneyland has joined the Star Wars promotional march by redressing Tomorrowland with a much of Star Wars themed names, signage and more. A gallery of those changes can be found here.

EW: Info On Starkiller Base, General Hux, BB-8, Rey and Finn

For the third day in a row Entertainment Weekly has posted additional articles to promote their issue out on newsstands now for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This time the articles provide a tidbit about the Death Star like Starkiller Base, First Order General Hux, info on BB-8, and background on Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega). The highlights are below or click these links for the full articles: Starkiller Base & General Hux | BB-8 | Rey and Finn

Starkiller Base
“It is very much — and it’s acknowledged as such in the movie — apparently another Death Star,” Abrams says. “But what it’s capable of, how it works, and what the threat is, is far greater than what the Death Star could have done. Starkiller Base is another step forward, technologically speaking, in terms of power.” (My note: In sci-fi, the only step after destroying a planet is destroying a sun aka a star)

General Hux
Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina), who plays the young military leader, says this commander of the First Order is defined by arrogance and contempt. “There’s an air of superiority, and being better than those people around you,” he says. “He’s pretty ruthless. A strong disciplinarian would be a mild way of putting it.”

What’s the appeal of the First Order to Hux? “It’s in the title: order,” Gleeson says. “It’s a desire to lump everything in its place and just have power. The desire for power is hugely motivating for a lot of people and normally the people who want all the power are not the ones who should have it.”

New The Force Awakens 60 Second TV Spot Shows New Footage

Thursday night a new 60 second TV Spot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens aired that includes some new music and scenes including a touch more Han Solo.

More EW Interviews Teases Two New Characters in The Force Awakens

Entertainment Weekly has released more interviews with the cast of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The key piece of new information is a little bit of information on the character of Maz Kanata that is played via motion capture by Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave). The character is the big eyed alien standing next to R2D2 on the recent poster and has the line "I have lived long enough to see the same eyes in different people. I see your eyes. I know your eyes." in the trailer. Abrams says "Her history is that she was a pirate for a long time. She’s lived over a thousand years. She’s had this watering hole for about a century, and it’s like another bar that you’d find in a corner of the Star Wars universe." (basically she sounds like Guinan from Star Trek: The Next Generation). As for the poster, it was recently revealed by the IMAX twitter account.

Other articles:
Who is Supreme Leader Snoke? - Played by Andy Serkis using motion capture, the character is described as "...an enigmatic character, and strangely vulnerable at the same time as being quite powerful... He is large, he appears tall. And also just the facial design - you couldn't have gotten there with prosthetics. It's too extreme." That is pretty much it.

Where is Luke Skywalker? - Nothing revealed from Mark Hamill and JJ Abrams other then just saying keeping the surprise is good and the characters' are what fans choose to make them

Another New Force Awakens TV Spot and BTS Clip

The first video below is another new 15 second TV spot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens that is also just made up from bits from the last trailer. In addition is a commercial with some behind the scenes stuff to promote a sneak peak at the movie on the Disney Channel Friday night.

Entertainment Weekly Reveals Covers, Ford Interview and General Leia

This week's issue of Entertainment Weekly includes a bunch of new Star Wars: The Force Awakens stories. Some of which it seems that EW has already released to their website. The released articles include an interview with Harrison Ford talking about Han Solo and JJ Abrams and Carrie Fisher discuss Princess Leia (Solo or Organa isn't said). The highlights of those interviews are below. In addition click here (mirror) for a gallery of 20 new stills including the four covers to the magazine issue.

Harrison Ford:
- Despite years of claiming to be tired of Han Solo (or at least the questions about him), apparently Ford has changed his mind saying "I was glad that the character was still alive for me to play in this new iteration"

- On Indy 5: "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I’d love to do another Indiana Jones. A character that has a history and a potential, kind of a rollicking good movie ride for the audience, Steven Spielberg as a director — what’s not to like?"

- On Solo: "He was always the cynical member of the original characters. While we were invited to engage on the questions of some pretty arcane mysteries — the Force and the mythology that surrounds it — he was the guy who said, ‘What? Huh? Come on.’? It’s what made the interplay between the characters work. There was a callow youth, a beautiful princess, a wise old ­warrior, and there was a smart-ass. ...He does not aspire to the position of Obi-‘Ben’ Kenobi, nor do I aspire to be some New Age Alec Guinness. His development is consistent with the character, and there are emotional elements which have occasioned his growth. ...We spend a lot more time [in the movie] on his failure to master basic skills, like accounting. And accounting for his own behavior. There’s a lot of the rogue still left in Solo. Some things don’t change."

- Advise to whoever is cast as young Han Solo: "I would say, ‘Talk to your director. Watch the movies. And welcome aboard. Make it your own.'"

- Who shot first?: "Knock yourself out. Have fun with it.”

JJ Abrams on Carrie Fisher:
- Abrams: "She’s referred to as General. But … there’s a moment in the movie where a character sort of slips and calls her ‘Princess.’ ...The stakes are pretty high in the story for her, so there’s not much goofing around where Leia’s concerned. But it felt historic to have her, especially with Harrison, back in scenes together."

- Lesson from SW7 Leia: "Fisher’s response is simple and without sarcasm: 'Never give up.'"

The Force Awakens TV Spot #2

Here is the second TV spot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Its only fifteen seconds long and has uses same footage as the last trailer.

Kasdan Done With Star Wars After Han Solo Film

In an interview with German tabloid Bild, key Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan indicated he will be done with Star Wars soon. "I have now made four Star Wars movies. That's more than enough." He had intended to be done after Star Wars: The Force Awakens but apparently his family's excitement for a Han Solo film and working with his son Jon Kasdan reeled him back in. It could be argued that part of the reason that the recent prequel trilogy sucks so bad is because George Lucas wrote the films without Kasdan's input as he wrote the best films of the franchise (The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) so his absence will be missed. The Han Solo film is aiming for release in 2018.

JJ Abrams Talks Approach to Making Star Wars: The Force Awakens

In an interview with Wired, writer and director JJ Abrams discussed some of how he approached re-igniting the franchise without George Lucas and separating fan boy from storyteller when working on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. No real story spoilers were revealed but below are what I considered the core port of his response to each question. Having said that, worth reading the full interview. Behind the scenes pics can be found here.

How much of The Force Awakens is geared toward welcoming people back to the Star Wars franchise versus starting something completely new? How do you strike a balance between those two imperatives?
We wanted to tell a story that had its own self-contained beginning, middle, and end but at the same time, like A New Hope, implied a history that preceded it and also hinted at a future to follow.

Were there moments from your life or your own work from which you drew inspiration?
So I tried to not forget the mistakes I’d made, but I also tried to focus on things that I find inspiring about cinema. I asked questions like “How do we make this movie delightful?” That was really the only requirement Larry and I imposed on each other: The movie needed to be delightful. It was not about explaining everything away, not about introducing a certain number of toys for a corporation, not about trying to appease anyone. This has only ever been about what gets us excited.

The Force Awakens TV Spot #1

First TV spot to promote Star Wars: The Force Awakens with some new footage.

International Trailer for The Force Awakens Shows New Footage

An international trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens reveals some new scenes and new music for the upcoming movie.

Five New Character Posters for The Force Awakens

Below are five new character posters (defined by the tight focus on a single character) from Disney to promote Star Wars: The Force Awakens that opened on December 18. Click to embiggen.