Rogue One Currently Filming in the Maldives!
Here’s a little bit of Rogue One news from last week that no one seemed to notice. Hit the jump for the full report.
According to Haveeru Online, filming began last week in Laamu Atoll, in the archipelago nation of the Republic of Maldives. Reportedly, the cast of the upcoming 2016 Star Wars anthology film started popping up in the gorgeous island nation early last week, with actress Felicity Jones arriving on Monday and actor Forest Whitaker arriving on Tuesday at the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport. The title of the film and the production company have been kept secret but Maldives tourism minister Moosa Zameer confirmed that a Hollywood movie was being filmed in Laamu Atoll.
Also, a helicopter was brought in for filming, presumably to be used to shoot the island’s scenic beauty. Â According to Zameer, the scenes will be filmed on two islands in Laamu Atoll. One island is Baresdhu island, which has been designated by the government for its guest house island project. Â Haveeru also reports that over 200 locals have been deployed for shooting.
As you can see, the scenery is very similar to what we’ve seen from the few leaked photos from the Rogue One set a few months ago (here and here). We speculate that the old leaked photos are from a set built in the UK to look like a beach, and now the cast is going to a real beach to conclude the sequence taking place on the same planet.
Also, back in September, Rogue One filmed in Iceland (here). It seems that there will be some really stunning scenery in this movie.
With The Force Awakens almost upon us, expect more Rogue One news to start trickling in.  We’re already almost a year away from the December 16th release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  Stay tuned for more news on Rogue One and more from Star Wars News Net, your Force for News.
Special thanks to Rieekan for the interesting find.
Jordan Pate is Co-Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net, of which he is also a member of the book and comic review team. He loves all things Star Wars, but when he's not spending time in the galaxy far far away, he might be found in our own galaxy hanging out in Gotham City or at 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, NY.
Last picture looks like it could be a good stand-in for a coastal Ewok village. Fingers crossed! 😀
I still hate the “A Star Wars Story” monica. “Anthology” sounds so much more civilised.
I guess it’s too much of a high-register word for the average and below-average person. Remember that LFL is trying to sell this movie to everyone, not just those with lots of education.
because to know what does anthology mean you need a lot of education…
Yes you’re right. Money wins again….
It has “Star Wars” in the title. It’s going to sell.
Exactly.
You don’t need to have lots of education to know what anthology means, you just need to have read a few books.
Yes, but the dumb masses have no idea what Anthology means, so it needs to be simplified.
This “needs to be simplified” attitude is exactly what is wrong with the world today. Why should we not expect everyone to be more educated than “just above stupid?”
Those who do not know the meaning of the word “nthology” were sleeping through their 6th grade English class.
Enough with the “dumbing down.” How about everyone “smarten up” instead.
Hear hear.
Well said !
Marketing firms have no interest in educating people. They are interested in selling stuff to them. So they aim low in explaining things to people when they market to them.
We have a major political party about to nominate a massive buffoon of epic proportions as its choice for president, defying all logic and common sense. The stupidity epidemic will only get worse.
I agree. Hilary Clinton is an idiot, and has no common sense. I’m an ordinary Republican, and will agree with you that Donald Trump is a much better candidate.
Donald Trump wouldn’t be a better candidate if a bag of dog shit was running on the other side.
I’d say your political party has more in common with the corrupt Trade Federation than the heroic Rebel Alliance.
I’d say yours has more in common with Nazi Germany.
For your information, I don’t favor Caucasian males like the Nazis did. I only favor LEGAL immigrants, whether they are Mexican, black, or white.
Great. If only your party felt the same way.
Maybe, but who is to define what level is dumbing down or not? WHO? You?
That isn’t important. What is important is to not oversimplify, and expect those that may come across something that they do not know about (whether it be a word or a scientific theory or whatever) to not be LAZY ASSES and LOOK SOMETHING UP! Dig?
It doesn’t “need” to me simplified. I’m tired of society pandering to idiots. If they don’t know what a word means they can go look it up. In a movie like this is should be obvious what sort of thing it is by the fact that it has “Star Wars” attached to it.
This is not my personal opinion. It’s what entertainment conglomerates and marketing firms do to sell their product to the masses.
Yes, I understand that. The willingness to forgo artistic integrity and intelligence to serve up tripe to the easily pleased masses is what frustrates me. In decades gone by there was at least some balance between the artistry and money making. Now it’s all just the latter – Michael Bay’s everlasting Transformers franchise being a good example. Intelligent filmmaking is now almost entirely left down to smaller independent moviemakers.
I just lament the fact that society is becoming increasingly dumbed down, and a contributing factor of that is what is served up as entertainment, from reality TV to endlessly repetitive blockbusters. I long for the day of true creativity and intelligence. People are no longer encouraged to think or be truly creative.
I agree. It’s like a reverse Renaissance.
Since when did the cartoon/toyline of Transformers to cater to the intellect? The 80s cartoon and toy line?
It’s funny to me how we all like to pretend the cartoons we loved were brilliant. When they weren’t portrayed that way to begin with.
I’m not saying Transformers was ever intellectual. But I am saying that the popularity of the franchise is evidence that all you need is two hours of the same mindless CGI fest, four times (or more) repeated to get people to flock to the cinema and hand over their cash. I mean, literally all those movies are are robots bashing each other to bits. Nothing more. They have even less character and world development than the toy and cartoon line you mention. Point is that it just shows you how plot and at least some level of story doesn’t matter to people anymore. As log as they have a few explosions to watch they’ll go in their droves and park any remainder of a brain they had at the door.
I’d also say that the basic concept of Transformers could actually have been built into something a lot more interesting in the right hands as a movie series, even if it’s predecessor was just a cartoon show. There was no bar to making it and interesting and detailed concept and world.
Some people just enjoy that stuff, why does every film “Have” to be deep with plot? Hell I am still waiting on my faithful to the original series live-action Masters of the Universe film that’s taking forever to get going.
It doesn’t “have to be”, but if you don’t see that there’s been a consistent dumbing down of mainstream cinema in recent years, with much of the current output formulaic and templated, then you’re either quite young, have been oblivious or just don’t care.
I’ve only seen the first Transformers and found it ok to good. I’m just stating that every film doesn’t have to something brilliant. Just can be a fun 2+ hours in a theater. Kind of like a ride on a rollercoaster at a theme park doesn’t take intellect, it’s just a 3 min or so fun ride.
The first one is the reason I will never again watch another Michael Bay film.
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE….(Transformers: The Movie, that is – still hands-down the winner. Unicron like a mofo, y’all)
In hindsight what a creative time the 70’s and 80’s were. Seems to me everything since that time period has just been re-booted, re-sung or re-imagined in a slightly different way. But maybe that’s just me ? I do however have some hope that the reality TV genre is slowly dying with the re-emergence of new shows and creativity. Netflix and new content creators are hopefully pushing the established stale out of ideas tv corporations to think again. I really hope this is the case and lasts.
Yup
I think you mean “moniker”
These pics look awesome. Nothing like great scenery in a motion picture. Take Iceland with Oblivion, breathtaking. Another reason I’m almost looking more forward to Rogue One than TFA. But only by a bit 🙂
The filming locations for this movie are amazing. Can’t wait to see how it looks on screen.
And filmed in 6K ! Even better !
Source?
Look it up. Rogue One will be one of the first films to use the Arri Alexa 65, which is 6K.
Interesting. I found some other souces that said only parts will be filmed with that camera in 6k. Others say the whole thing. Also noted that the 6K camera is digital, not film. Will be interesting to see how it looks, especially if they don’t shoot the whole thing that way.
I double that^
lord of the rings meets star wars= big yes.
So long as we don’t see stormtroopers on deckchairs I’m in !
Old skool stormtroopers filmed under the Maldives light. The cinematography will look amazing.
I think I’m even more excited for this movie than TFA, probably just because it will be a cool stylistic break. Love Gareth Edward’s direction in Godzilla, too bad that movie had a crappy script. His work in Godzilla really conveyed a larger, more epic world.
There was also a profound dearth of actual, ya know…GODZILLA…in the ‘Godzilla’ film too. So there’s that.
I just realised I seem to be taking refuge with the Rogue One stories, so as to stay away from the TFA stories. Too much info out there at the moment. Am scared it’ll wreck the TFA experience.
Rogue One info is also still very vague. Still safe to not wreck the experience.
we still know more the TFA, though. stealing the death star plans and i’m guessing we’ll see the rebels first major victory over the empire as teased in the OG crawl.
Planet Aqualaris?
I´m envisioning this is gonna be a better movie, plotwise speaking, then TFA.
Maybe. We’ll only know once we’ve sen both.
Especially since Disney seems to have less tighter reins on the story.
Still don’t have anything positive to say about a movie you haven’t seen yet?
The dogfights in TFA are wonderful! See?
Well done!
Planet Aqualaris?
Hoping for Despayre.
Or Dac/Mon Calamari.
Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. But yes, ROJ Producer Howard Kazajian told audiences in 1983 that the homeworld of the Mon Calamari is Dac. Where did you learn about this long forgotten detail?
I did not know that. I first heard it in The Clone Wars show where they apparently retconned the name of Mon Calamari back to Dac. No idea what it is under the new canon now.
Rebel base.
And ‘Star Wars Story’ needs to go,lame.
I wish they would change it back to “Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One”.
Exactly that.
Second that
I’ll third that, and hopefully Kathy Kennedy is listening 🙂
I bet they thought “Anthology” was too big of a word for kids.
I’d bet money.
Was thinking we might see a teaser prior to TFA, but they might be taking the soft approach to as not stuff too much SW down people’s throats right out of the gates with Disney.
Yes. There’s nothing worse than having too much SW stuffed down your throat while Vader growls ‘take it!’
Is that too much?
Probably more fun than Skellig
My dream is coming true, We’ll finally see a genuine tropical planet in Star Wars and a new location too. I’m already more excited for this one than TFA.
mon calamari? it would be cool to actually see it in one of the films.
Rakata Prime/Lehon.
Nice we have never seen a beach island planet. I always wanted to see that in the movies
«Tanned Leader, standing by.»
Mai-tais: Standing by. Bong: Standing by. What plans were we supposed to steal again, guys? Hey, I’d tear up the whole Imperial Fleet right now for a bag of Funyuns…
Can not wait.
This is where all the stormies were relaxing in the water park right!? 😛
Very attractive location , this movie might have much more practical effects than TFA.
Helicopter in saran wrap. To keep the 10 [and up] year-olds from trying to take off.
Vader Say : “Relax”
Reminded me of Rakata Prime!!
The Plagueis Awakens