Star Wars: Episode VIII News Recap
Check out the following small stories about Episode VIII form the last few days: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Benicio Del Toro talk Star Wars: Episode VIII. Acclaimed concept artist Jock joins the crew. Rian Johnson tweets pic with the script.
First, CinemaBlend spoke with actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt who is good friends with director Rian Johnson, and who appeared in all of his movies. We can say that their relationship is similar to the one between J.J. Abrams and Simon Pegg. Seeing him in a cameo in Episode VIII seems quite possible, and here’s what Gordon-Levitt had to say on the possibility to reunite with Johnson in the galaxy far, far away:
Of course! I knock on his door every day, and I’m like, ‘Am I in the movie yet? Am I in the movie yet? Dude! No, seriously dude. It’s important to me! I want to be in the movie!’ [Shrugs] We’ll see.
Next, /Film is reporting that during a panel dedicated to his work, comic book, poster and movie concept artist Jock revealed that he’s been hired to work on Episode VIII:
Although he is best known for drawing major comic book characters like Batman, Wolverine, Green Arrow, and John Constantine, Jock has spent the past several years lending his artistic talents to all kinds of cool movies (including a scuttled version of Dune for director Peter Berg) like Children of Men, Hancock, Dredd, Battleship, Ex Machina, and X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Jock has a very specific style which doesn’t match with the posters for the previous Star Wars movies, so probably he will do only concept art work for the movie. You can check out his movie art HERE (click on each movie).
Recently Mondo announced the release of the book “The Art of Jock”, which will feature material from throughout the British artist’s entire career from 2000AD through a long collaboration with DC Entertainment to his movie work.
Empire caught up with actor Benicio Del Toro and asked him about his own relationship with the Star Wars franchise, and what he felt Rian Johnson, would be bringing to the Star Wars movie:
“[He’s going to] bring a cool, sci-fi realism, if I may say that,” del Toro explained of Johnson’s aesthetic. “I love his film Looper, and I just like talking to him about the film. He’s one of those new talented people that Star Wars is hiring to infuse the franchise with new steroids.”
Back in September Del Toro revealed that he will be playing a villainous role in Episode VIII and that he will start filming in March.
Last but not least, here’s a very funny tweet that Rian Johnson posted yesterday.
Our friend Germain Lussier from io9 was asking fans on Twitter to send him a pic of the favorite Star Wars thing they own, for a chance to win an early Beta code for Star Wars: Battlefornt. Check out what Rian Johnson sent him:
@keithcalder @mattsinger @EricDSnider @GermainLussier pic.twitter.com/l2mADmZwzK
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) October 6, 2015
Yep, that’s right. It’s the first page from the Episode VIII script. We think Mr. Johnson is playing Battlefront Beta right now! 🙂
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
Yeah Joseph Gordon Lewitt should be doing something important in the films
Hopefully in make up,he is a great actor but he could take me out of the film being so recognisable(same with any famous actor really,only matters with SW for me for some reason?)…mocap or stick him in a mask.
uhm… He wouldn’t be the first actor famous for other stuff that appears in star wars… ewan mcgregor… liam neeson… harrison ford… samuel l. jackson… christopher lee….
Yeah,and they took me out of the movie,save for Ford because Star Wars was the first film I ever saw him in. Unknowns is the way to go,just my opinion though 🙂 .
This is stupid, show me episode 9 before you shove episode 8 down my throat.
So much Star Wars on the way,I never even dreamed of this much as a kid .
The prequel disappointment has melted away,it doesn’t matter any more.
it will really go away for good if EP7 is good, and we now have more good SW than bad ones.
i think people will forget the prequels even existed in the near future
If we believe current grapevine, Rian will introduce a couple of female leads plus Benicio. I don’t think there leaves room for another actor like JGL, presumably Rey , Finn, Poe, Luke, Leia ,Kylo, Phasma, Maz are back from TFA. Benicio seems to be really excited by the script, which is very good sign.
Really doubt he’d have more than a cameo. I think Del Toro fills the requisite star power in this one and I hope he’s as awesome in this as he is in Sicario which you should see if you haven’t already. Kind of slow placed by today’s standards but he’s awesome in it.
Is JGL supposed to be in SW8?
I don’t know why…but for some reason I am worried about Episode VIII…I am not familiar with Rian’s work.
Watch Looper dude. It’s really good.
I actually have more faith in Rian than JJ.
I’m still positive for TFA. Nothing I’ve seen yet has left me questioning the quality of the movie. Maybe that will change with the trailer release. On paper, Rian sounds like a director who could pull off a really strong SW sequel.
Looper is highly overrated IMO, Ozymandyas on other hand is a masterpiece, i think JJ career and Work is much more solid.
Each to their own. I really enjoyed Looper.
7 and 8 will be really good. 9 may be average
I also feel (because of Jurassic world) that Ep. 9 will be the poorest of the three but the most entertaining. If you get what I’m saying?
Check out Brick, Brothers Bloom, and Looper. His range is ridiculous. I think Rian has the potential to make the best Star Wars movie ever.
I’m definitely going to check these out.
Easily the best Star Wars director of all 9 films without question far as it comes to their non-Star Wars films.
In addition to the aforementioned movies, also check out ‘Breaking Bad’. He directed ‘Ozymandias’ in season 5, which is considered by many journalists as the best episode of TV ever! I have a lot of faith in Rian Johnson…Looper was a fantastic Sci-fi film that is sorely underrated IMHO.
Perspective is needed here
Uh-Oh asghetti oh’s!
Also this is compete bullshit because this entire site is pretty much run and commented on by the nostalgia-driven fan base who also buy all the shit with the Star Wars label slapped on it. But it’s the same deal with Hasblow who still think kids are their main customers.
They’ve done market research that kids are half of their customers. Of course nostalgia is part of it, and why shouldn’t it be?
They also said the 12 inch shampoo bottles I see everywhere are massive hits just as Sadamm never got under 100 percent approval rating either. So you can see why they are hesitant to make their research public knowledge.
Why you come here then?
I never said the site was bullshit just the “research” done by the house of mouse.
I agree with everything you said 100% Your suggested timeline would make it very similar to the OT timeline between films which was great.
The OT happened with real-time gaps between movies. I think these should do the same. The only break that wasn’t real-time was between 1 & 2 which, I would agree feels pretty disjointed because of it.
Except for Empire and Jedi where only a year passed but three years did in real life. Something that is cool though is that about 30 years have passed between the release of Jedi and The Force Awakens just like in the film.
I guess I just never realized that it was only a year in-universe between those two…huh, I guess you really do learn something new every day.
It seems like three though what with everything going on then. I guess they figured it was cruel to have Han in carbonite any longer and he would likely have long term effects if they did. Shadows Of The Empire was the perfect bridge but it’s no longer canon anymore.
I agree on Shadows, it had the “movie” feel to it that so many of the novels have been lacking, from the beginning.
Far as I’m considered it is all canon to me unless another story or film directly contradicts it. So far as I’m concerned all those events happened.
Good for you. I’m fine with it all being non-canon as most of the novels prior to the re-structure were just the various authors stroking their own characters/ego’s for their own sake. Very few of the novels after Zhan’s trilogy captured the Star Wars feel and even Zhan’s trilogy was inconsistent. The last two series in particular were the worst though as there were characters just forgotten about from book to book/author to author. It had gotten to the point where it was too convoluted and contradictory and it left no room to be creative without causing more contradictions and having to retcon other authors stories to fit whatever the current ridiculous galaxy threatening plot device happened to be. Besides it was stated from the beginning that it was all basically alternate timeline events anyway so who cares?
Yeah, I never cared much for the post Jedi content as it was pretty unbelievable to see senior citizens still as active as they were in their 20’s saving the galaxy which is why I prefer they all die before the end of the trilogy in this one to focus more on the new characters. I did enjoy most of the stuff that took place before the films or in between like Shadows as a lot of them fleshed out the many plotholes that Lucas created for himself (the PT especially). I just read Lost Stars too but it’s the only real new EU I can recommened so far as everything else I looked at so far seems to be aimed at very young readers who have only seen the films on TV once or twice. Ironic that the one YA book would be more mature than the “adult” stuff is. Lol
Agreed. I would have to say that the new novels seem to be designed to ease non-fanboys into things while throwing a little bone here and there to those that don’t need the introduction. The old Eu was huge, bloated, and was it’s own barrier in getting new readers. The last series they did before ending it was so convoluted and all over the place it felt like the three writers of the series had no idea what each other were writing half the time. That, along with the trying to cram every single EU character into the series just because they could, was stupid. The new novels so far may not be the greatest, but at their worst they’re better than most of the old EU. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed 90% of the old books, it just got too beholden to itself and it’s own history to be accessible to new people.
I think the main problem was trying to outdo what came before. I’m way more interested in learning the characters backstories (which books/comics do better than film) than I am in seeing them outdo the films. Which is why I hope this stuff about the Starkiller base being able to destroy star systems is bunk because we already seen it done in Dark Empire II/The Jedi Academy trilogy and it was not a highpoint in the EU. I think the term EU should be retired too. The old EU should be the AU for Alternate Universe and the new EU should be NU for New Universe. I can’t help but think of The European Union whenever I see EU anyway.
Well, since none of those things happened within the actual timeline and 98% of the movie audience has no idea that they ever happened to begin with, no, it hasn’t been seen before. As far as we know there haven’t been any super weapons since the second Death Star and as far as we know there haven’t been any prior to the first Death Star.
The superweapon idea was already hackneyed by 1983 and not just in the OT or EU but all the Star Wars clones we had over the past 30 years, It smacks of creative laziness. When the EU got cancelled, The first books I was happy to see get decanonized were the ones centered around superweapons…..yet we get another superweapon centered film. From a story standpoint, It’s straight up retarded that they’d try again after losing all their best guys and flagships at Yavin and Endor. Not even the PT was desperate enough to resort to superweapons outside some lame ass CW episode. Empire is the best film not since the plot is so complex since it’s basically one big chase film but since it places character rightly above story which is why it holds up the best compared with the rest since anyone can relate to it regardless of age and themes in it are timeless. A new superweapon screams the worst excesses of modern day Hollywood and I hope this is the last one we see in any film.
And again, outside of hardcore sci-fi fans and old EU readers it hasn’t been overdone. What other major sci-fi film that has been popular outside of specific genre lines has centered around a superweapon?
Never heard of a small little film series known as 007 which practically invented the trope before anyone here were zygotes? As for Sci-Fi, Look no further than the last two Treks who were by no coincidence both directed by Abrams. The reason why Thrawn was so memorable was because like a real military genius he still won with outdated technology while being greatly outnumbered. My vain hope is that Hux is some kind of nepotistic idiot who gets what he deserves so that Kylo Ren can fully take over as Vader did with Tarkin after IV. It’s also suicicidal to base your planet killer on a giant target like a planet….unless they borrow from dreck like Rogue Planet and make it living with a hyperdrive.
I think that there’s more to it than just “find and destroy the superweapon.” I have a feeling that we’re in for something special that will hopefully take the old tropes and turn them on their heads while giving us plenty of new to get behind. Thrawn was well done as a character, but the stories that introduced him were very hit-and-miss. They felt like Star Wars while simultaneously not feeling like Star Wars at all while essentially being entirely fan-service. Fun the first time but boring and tedious on subsequent readings. On the movie however, I hope Hux is part Tarkin/Thrawn and I hope he is given some room to shine. I want to see Kylo and Phasma get their hand dirty too but I’m pretty sure that one of them isn’t going to make it through the movie.
A New Hope was pretty much find and destroy the superweapon but I was okay with it since that was the plot of most of the serials it was based on and despite what Lucas says now, It was pretty much intended as a standalone film and is the only episode that can be viewed that way today. Zahn peaked after The Thrawn trilogy and like Lucas let the success go to his head until he nearly ruined his own creation. My money is on Hux dying becase he’s the most boring visually of the three, Gleeson never said anything about the sequels, and Kylo/Phasma are early fan favorites. I really doubt Disney will repeat the PT’s mistakes of killing off the big villain of every film they were introduced, Corporate also talked a lot of including more female characters and they’d get all kinds of crap if they did with her early on.
Here’s hoping then. I heard rumors of Episode X-XII happening if these films are sucessful but I’d prefer they wait about a decade in real time before they do them and hopefully not forever like they did between Episode VI and VII.
Lucas’ original vision was to have a total of 12 episodes so I can definitely see them getting to that point.
Long as this trilogy shows Disney knows what they are doing then I’m all for it. Hopefully the new leads are good enough to carry it as all the OT characters minus the droids and Chewie will likely be dead but Spirit Luke would be cool. It would probably be about the new trio’s kids. Hopefully they end IX on a note where that can happen unlike VI.
I agree, but for some reason I’very had this inkling they’re going to make this trilogy very tight.. maybe months between episodes at most. Could be PotC playing head games with me, LoL.
Hunger Games, Spectre, Good Dinosaur have all recently received their final full trailers.
Guess what major release hasn’t yet?
Not to mention Dawn Of Justice and probably Civil War next.
none of these are Star Wars, Star Wars can do whatever they want
I pray that Joseph Gordon-Levitt does not appear in any of these films. I’m sure he’s a nice person in life, but I cannot stand seeing him in anything. I would not be able to enjoy anything that he is in. In general, I feel that any major film stars in these movies will be too distracting.
Same goes for Daniel Craig, Greg Gutfeld, and Simon Pegg.
Honestly, this is the most concerning thing that I have heard so far regarding the sequel.
Agreed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Star Wars are a huge mismatch.
Hiring Jock as a concept artist is just one of the many reasons why I feel this will be the Empire of the new trilogy. Glad we only have to wait a mere two years for it.
I really like JGL. I totally agree about major film stars being too distracting. That being said, you could dress him up in makeup or as an alien and give him a small part (as said earlier there is already a ton of other characters in the sequels) I think in that role he could be great.
Riddle me this anyone? Do you think they have the entire trilogy (7-9, the story portion of it anyways) planned out already?? Or do you think that they are just handing it off to each new director saying, “take the story wherever you want.”
Pretty sure they said the rough overall story is set out,but things are always up for change i would guess
From my original understanding from some dated material, JJ wrote a treatment for VIII. Johnson will likewise do a treatment for IX. Just how bound the directors are to these treatments has never been specified.
If i had to Bet JJ and KK decided the overall ideas and how the entire trilogy will pan out, i think Rian Johnson will have some freedom but inside the guidelines of what they decided, i don’t think they would let an “outsider” decide the future of Star Wars
Would not be the first time Gordon-Levitt and Hamill have worked together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XjRiO8cOGc