Honest Trailer for Rogue One

The Screen Junkies guys have posted their "Honest Trailer" For Rogue One. Per usual, they provide an amusing spot-on thrashing of a film.

Rogue One Director Talks Darth Vader Attack Sequence

With the upcoming release of Rogue One on home video it means the director is a bit more free to talk about the behind the scenes decision making of the film. One such part was the late decision to add a Darth Vader scene into the movie. You know the one, but if not its included in the video below as director Gareth Edwards talks about the decision to add the scene and other tidbits about it. Thanks to Feris O. for the link.

Rogue One Blu-Ray Trailer

The date has been set for the home video release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Digital release is set for March 24 with the Blu-ray editions coming April 4. You can pre-order now via Amazon. Thanks to Feris O. for the link.


Special Features
A Rogue Idea – Hear how ILM’s John Knoll came up with the movie’s concept – and why it’s the right film to launch the Star Wars stand-alone films.

Jyn: The Rebel – Get to know Rogue One’s defiant, resourceful survivor, and hear what it was like for Felicity Jones to bring her to life onscreen.

Cassian: The Spy – Diego Luna shares insights into his complex, driven character, who becomes a hero through selflessness, perseverance and passion.

K-2SO: The Droid – Explore the development of this reprogrammed Imperial droid, from initial pitch and character design through Alan Tudyk’s performance.

Baze & Chirrut: Guardians of the Whills – Go deeper into the relationship between these two very different characters, with Chinese superstars Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen.

Bodhi & Saw: The Pilot & The Revolutionary – Forest Whitaker and Riz Ahmed reflect on Saw Gerrera, the broken Rebel leader, and Bodhi Rook, the Imperial pilot who defects.

The Empire – Meet a dangerous new Imperial adversary…and cross paths once more with the most iconic villain of all time.
Visions of Hope: The Look of “Rogue One” – The filmmakers describe the challenges and thrills of developing a bold new look for the movie that can fit within the world of the original trilogy.

The Princess & The Governor – See what it took to bring the vibrant young princess of “Star Wars: A New Hope” – as well as one of her most memorable foes­ – back to the screen.

Epilogue: The Story Continues – Filmmakers and cast celebrate Rogue One’s premiere and look forward into the future, to the Star Wars stories yet to be told.

Rogue Connections – Uncover Easter eggs and film facts hidden throughout the movie that connect “Rogue One” to the Star Wars universe.

Behind the Visual Effects of Tarkin

In the latest video from ILM for Rogue One, they give a look at how they created the CGI character of Moff Wilhuff Tarkin since the original actor died decades ago. Thanks to Feris O. for the link.

Behind the Visual Effects of The Battle of Scarif

ILM has released another new but too short look at how they did some of the visual effects for climatic Battle of Scarif in Rogue One. Thanks once again to Feris O. for the link.

Behind the VFX of Star Wars Rogue One Planets

ILM have released the below video that gives a little bit of a look at how the visual effects for the planets of Jedha and Scarif were created in Rogue One. Hopefully this will be the first of several from the Oscar nominated film for Best Visual Effects Oscar. Thanks to Feris O. for the link.

Rogue One Secrets Explained

In an interview with the Lucasfilm Story Group, the team reveals some of the secrets, details and Easter eggs that are in Rogue One.

Creating CGI Leia and Grand Moff Tarkin

Below is a video from ABC News that provides a little behind the scenes footage of how Rogue One brought to "life" a young Princess Leia and Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin. They do somewhat discuss the ethics of creating a dead actor's performance but ultimately the legal issues are "does the family give permission" and unless current actors follow in Robin Williams' footsteps of specifically stipulating in their wills that their likeness cannot be used in such a manner, I suspect this will become more common. Personally I don't have a problem with it as long as done for purpose of story and not just theatrics or attention. In this case, showing how Tarkin took control of the Death Star was fine as was using Leia as connective tissue between the end of Rogue One to A New Hope.

Rogue One Locations, K-2S0, and Missing Trailer Scenes

Rogue One is doing very well at the box office with a worldwide total of $388.1 million. Despite that the featureless continue to promote the film. The first video called "Locations" discusses the various locations that were used by the film to look like a galaxy far away while the second film from Wired has Alan Tudyk discuss his approach to his character of K-2SO. Thanks to Feris O. for the links.

On the slight info front, you may have noticed that some of the early trailers contained scenes that were not in the movie. You can thank the re-shoots for that which do appear more extensive then Disney wanted to let on as it seems major acts were re-written, especially the ending. Here is a breakdown of those missing scenes. Lastly if it seemed a few scenes from Rogue One matched A New Hope for more closely then seemed should have, it was because they likely were actually footage from the cutting room floor for that film that was remastered by ILM. What scenes were not mentioned but Rogue One director discusses the footage with Collider.

Rogue One In Theaters Now

The long wait ends as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is out in theaters now.

Rogue One K-2SO Featurette

Here is a very brief behind the scenes of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that focuses on Alan Tudyk as K-2S0 in the movie. He voices and performs the motion capture of the character.

New Rogue One IMAX TV Spot

Here is the latest Rogue One: A Star Wars Story TV Spot from IMAX. Keep in mind the movie was not filmed in IMAX but will be post-production converted. Generally Real IMAX is filled im 70mm scale vs 35mm for all the films you normally see so my best guess is this just means that scenes might be crisper and scaled for the giant screens but you still have the black bars along the top and the bottom.

Rogue One Official Chinese Trailer

Star Wars YouTube page has posted the Chinese trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It does include a few new scenes but otherwise not much different then seen before.

New Rogue One TV Spot With 10 Days To Go

T-minus 10 days and counting to the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as this new TV spot reminds us.

Two New Rogue One TV Spots

Here are two more TV spots for Rogue One which is hitting theaters on December 16.

Losing the Opening Crawl and Info on Star Wars Future

In interviews to promote Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Lucasfilm President and Star Wars executive producer Kathleen Kennedy spoke about the franchise as a whole. The tidbits include dropping the opening crawl on Rogue One (and likely any non Episode/Saga films for the franchise), how tone will change for story films, and more. Quotes below.

Opening Crawl

“We felt that’s so indicative of what those saga films are. Initially, we probably will begin the film in a way that is traditional, with just the title.”

Female Director

“We want to make sure that when we bring a female director in to do ‘Star Wars,’ they’re set up for success. They’re gigantic films, and you can’t come into them with essentially no experience… We want to really start to focus in on people we would love to work with and see what kinds of things they’re doing to progress up that ladder now, and then pull them in when the time is right.”

Boba Fett Film

No direct quote but no update after director Josh Trank left (or fired). With the set back the Han Solo film was moved up and the third "Star Wars Story" film's focus officially remains unknown.

Tone

While “Rogue One” is described as a “World War II-style adventure film,” Kennedy says the Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Han Solo spin-off: “…moves closer to a heist or Western type feel. We’ve talked about [Frederic] Remington and those primary colors that are used in his paintings defining the look and feel of the film.”

After Episode IX

“There are [possible movies] that we have been talking a lot about. But we are planning to sit down in January, since we will have had The Force Awakens released, now Rogue One, and we’ve finished shooting Episode VIII. We have enough information where we can step back a little bit and say, What are we doing? What do we feel is exciting? And what are some of the things we want to explore? That’s a conversation going on right now, too.

I have to honestly tell you, could we [do nothing but stand-alones]? Sure. But I don’t know. We are looking at all of that. I think [the idea of new stories] is exciting for fans. It’s certainly exciting as a filmmaker, the notion that we can explore these stories that genuinely have a beginning, middle and an end, and don’t necessarily have to tie into something specific.”

I suspect if the every other year trilogy with stand-alones in between remains as lucrative in the long term as it currently seems it will be, Disney will insist they continue the pattern for as long as audiences show up. So the question is less "will they" and more "what story will they tell next." Personally I would just like to see the Jedi actually fight with complete mastery of the force. It has only been hinted at but mostly devolved to literal saber rattling but there has be more to their capabilities. The Extended Universe suggested it multiple times (once with the death of Anakin Solo) but the books were really the only time force abilities had been pushed beyond the narrow film scope of moving few things, moving themselves quickly, being good with lightsabers, and vaguely sensing others.

Three New TV Spots for Rogue One

Here are three new TV spots for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Rogue One Featurette

Below is a new featurette for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that gives a behind the scenes peek at the movie.

Rogue One International Trailer #2

Here is the second international trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Not a whole lot of new footage, probably the most significant is an additional second or two of Vader.

New Rogue One Character Posters

If you are interested, there are eight new character posters for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that will hit theaters on December 16 (in US) or December 15 (in UK). To the left is the poster for Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) but the rest of the posters for the Rogue One team can be found here.