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.

"Stranger" Teaser For a New Novel

The mystery of the Bad Robot trailer from a few weeks ago has been revealed to be a book titled "S." Yep just the letter S. The book is by Doug Dorst (Alive in Necropolis) based on a concept by JJ Abrams for release on October 29. I would not be surprised if Abrams hopes to use the book as a way to get funding for a movie from one of the studios.

Book description:

One book. Two readers. A world of mystery, menace, and desire.

A young woman picks up a book left behind by a stranger. Inside it are his margin notes, which reveal a reader entranced by the story and by its mysterious author. She responds with notes of her own, leaving the book for the stranger, and so begins an unlikely conversation that plunges them both into the unknown.

The book: Ship of Theseus, the final novel by a prolific but enigmatic writer named V.M. Straka, in which a man with no past is shanghaied onto a strange ship with a monstrous crew and launched onto a disorienting and perilous journey.

The writer: Straka, the incendiary and secretive subject of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a revolutionary about whom the world knows nothing apart from the words he wrote and the rumors that swirl around him.

The readers: Jennifer and Eric, a college senior and a disgraced grad student, both facing crucial decisions about who they are, who they might become, and how much they’re willing to trust another person with their passions, hurts, and fears.

S., conceived by filmmaker J. J. Abrams and written by award-winning novelist Doug Dorst, is the chronicle of two readers finding each other in the margins of a book and enmeshing themselves in a deadly struggle between forces they don’t understand, and it is also Abrams and Dorst’s love letter to the written word.

Rumored Star Wars Episode 7 Production Start Date

It looks like Star Wars Episode 7 may hit its expected 2015 release date, but instead of its traditional May release it will be a Christmas time release. According to the Latino Review, the rumored principal photography start date is January 21, 2015 to make a Christmas 2015 release date. Depending on the volume of special effects, the start date actually gives Disney the choice of Summer or Christmas depending on how the already crowded summer 2015 schedule shakes out. Other major releases include Superman vs Batman and Avengers 2.

I base this on the Transformers production schedules when principal photography starts about a year (early June) the year before) before its intended release date (late June), with post-production starting about 8 months before the intended release date (October). Considering that franchises' budget and special effects are in the same scope as Star Wars, then the extra 6 six months that the January start date is giving Star Wars should be more than enough breathing room for Disney to make an informed decision on the best release date to maximize their profits.