Could Star Wars be Heading Back to Norway?

Trolltunga 02

There are rumblings this morning that Lucasfilm may be eyeing Norway for possible location shooting for an upcoming Star Wars film. Will the Scandinavian landscape be returning to the GFFA for the first time since The Empire Strikes Back? Let’s take a look…

 

 

Details are sketchy on Lucasfilm’s intentions or the extent to which they’ve made any formal arrangements to film in Norway, but here’s what we know so far…

 

According to an article in Norway’s venerable Aftenposten newspaper, producers for an as-yet unidentified Star Wars movie have been scouting a spectacular scenic overlook – Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) in Rogaland, in Norway’s southwestern fjord region.

 

What’s more, Aftenposten reports that Pulpit Rock is under consideration for one of the film’s closing shots.

The biggest movie studios in Hollywood are sniffing around Pulpit Rock, Trolltunga, Folgefonna and Lofoten as locations for new blockbuster films.

 

Among other things, the final scenes in a brand new Star Wars movie from Lucasfilm will be shot at Pulpit Rock in Rogaland, if the American producers get their way. 

 

But the limited scope of Norway’s incentive schemes for foreign filmmakers, combined with Norwegian bureaucracy, could be a sticking point for foreign countries looking to film here, warn film producers Per-Henry Borch and Tor Arne Øvrebø.

Preikestolen
Preikestolen

 

The article mentions that Borch accompanied LFL location scouts on a number of visits to Pulpit Rock and similar sites in western Norway in June and July.

 

Although the article doesn’t identify the specific Star Wars movie that would film in Norway, it’s reasonable to assume that locations were being scouted for the upcoming Han Solo spin-off movie or even Star Wars: Episode IX, which is scheduled for a December 2019 release.

 

As Star Wars fans know, the Hoth scenes in The Empire Strikes Back were filmed small town of Finse, Norway and nearby Hardangerjøkulen Glacier in 1979. This makes the prospect of Pulpit Rock or a comparable Norwegian site being selected for an upcoming Star Wars film particularly noteworthy, as it would be the first time in almost 40 years that a Star Wars production has used Norway for location shooting.

 

More on this as we uncover additional details!

 

Thanks to Harald Nystuen for the heads up.

 

Source: Aftenposten

 

 

+ posts

69 thoughts on “Could Star Wars be Heading Back to Norway?

  • August 22, 2016 at 8:51 pm
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    Please god let this be true! Would love to have Star Wars be shot in my country! 😀

    • August 22, 2016 at 9:06 pm
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      I can’t promise anything

    • August 22, 2016 at 11:15 pm
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      We’ll try our best

    • August 24, 2016 at 11:48 am
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      Fellow Norwegian here. Yes, that would be great. There even seem to be hints that the CLIMAX of the ENTIRE SEQUEL TRILOGY could take place on a site like Pulpit Rock!

      Tourists would flock to Norway like a huge herds of banthas!

  • August 22, 2016 at 8:56 pm
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    I lived in Norway for the best part of 8 years. Would love to see it feature in another SW movie. Somewhere up north like Lofoten or Lyngen shot in mid-winter/spring time with the warm Scandinavian sunsets would make an interesting composition.

  • August 22, 2016 at 9:10 pm
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    I love that LFL is willing to travel all over the world to find and use the most beautiful, dramatic, interesting locations possible for a SW film! Much better than a computer generated landscape!

    • August 22, 2016 at 9:31 pm
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      I don´t know. The worlds from TFA and Rogue One are boring, they looked like the Earth and not another worlds. There is no creativity, nothing special. More realistic, but boring. Just another random forest/desert.

      • August 22, 2016 at 10:27 pm
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        They’re damned in some people’s eyes if they do either one.

        • August 22, 2016 at 10:39 pm
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          Eww! I always hated Fellucia. Keep it real. Star Wars always had a grounded reality to it besides Episode III. I don’t want Avatar’s Pandora in my Star Wars.

          • August 22, 2016 at 11:14 pm
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            How do you know that sort of planet isn’t a reality someplace in our galaxy? The OT only showed desert (twice), snow, swamp and forest. You could include as locations Bespin and the Death Star (twice), but those are not planets.

          • August 23, 2016 at 1:50 am
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            Bespin’s a planet. A gas giant is a planet.

          • August 23, 2016 at 6:07 pm
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            Yes it is, but I was referring more to the mining operation itself as a location.

          • August 23, 2016 at 8:20 pm
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            that’s cloud city.

          • August 23, 2016 at 9:35 pm
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            You don’t say.

          • August 23, 2016 at 11:30 pm
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            I do.

          • August 24, 2016 at 12:12 am
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            Indeed

          • August 23, 2016 at 10:36 am
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            It’s not reality from what we know. The majesty of Star Wars and why it became so popular has been the realism. Things look like they could exist in our world. Felucia doesn’t look like anything that could exist in our world. That’s why it doesn’t work for most people who grew up with the old movies and that’s why Disney will never do anything similar I believe.

          • August 23, 2016 at 6:19 pm
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            Well Felucia is basically a ‘Honey I’ve shrunk the kids’ location, a jungle on steroids, if Disney is calling the shots and isn’t allowing Lucasfilm to continue to introduce new locations that are different we’re going to get pretty fed up with desert planets.

          • August 22, 2016 at 11:19 pm
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            Well maybe not exactly like that but something that’s not so earth like would be nice every once in a while.

      • August 22, 2016 at 11:14 pm
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        we’re having this very same discussion every week. I’ll say it again: this is the SW look, earth-like with a multicultural alien civilization (95% of what we’ve seen on screen from naboo to alderaan to hoth). You may not like the look, but then you don’t like the SW look (and dont mention clone wars, the tv show is an offspring of SW, not the other way round, its aesthetic is very different).

        • August 23, 2016 at 1:49 am
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          one difference: neither Naboo or Alderaan looked strictly earthly. We had all sorts of strange architectures there, also we had plenty of other planets in the prequels aswell (although the clone wars is not a movie, it is still part of the Star Wars universe, a much large part, if I might say). The “SW Look” had included many non-earth like planets even in the prequels. Bespin is a Gas giant for instance. Dagobah too seems alien enough, although we see earth creatures. The look of star wars has always included non-earthlike planets. The problem is that it starts to seem in the sequels that they overuse the skellig-like places. There nice and all, but nowadays we can make photorealistic CG droids (Rogue One’s K-2SO), and also photorealistic fantasy environments (Limbo in Inception; in the scene where they get to limbo the first time all the buildings where CG; or Gravity, 99% of the film was CG without once failing). Not using these new disponible means of technology because fans whined about it not being realistic in a time it still was not yet fully developed is plain stupid.

          • August 23, 2016 at 2:18 am
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            You hit the nail on the head Clone 11038. I wish more fans (and Lucasfilm higher-ups) would realize this.

          • August 23, 2016 at 7:55 am
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            Thank you! Very well put! People hear cgi like its synonymous with “bad green screen”. Some of the greatest visuals in the history of film, including a large amount of The Force awakens were only possible through CGI. It’s an industry staple. The realistic melds with the digital when done well. Honestly despite building the models, they cgi over a lot of them anyway to touch up and fix various things and nobody knows the difference.

          • August 23, 2016 at 12:11 pm
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            Exactly!

          • August 23, 2016 at 12:19 pm
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            it’s not a problem of CGI vs practical effects. It’s a problem of design. CGI environments can be great but a lot of the times they go for over-the-top stuff and it ruins the experience. A nice blend of practical effects and CGI with grounded but beautiful design is still the best way to go IMO

          • August 23, 2016 at 10:42 am
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            So you’re saying let’s go back to green screen? Fine everybody! let’s have the actors run through green screen environments again and have wooden performances again…

          • August 23, 2016 at 12:10 pm
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            read my comment again.

          • August 23, 2016 at 12:18 pm
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            yes Naboo and Aldreraan were made “alien” because of the architecture, not the environment. It’s the same for tatooine or jakku, jedha or – i suppose- this new planet. Of course if they shoot in norway they will probably add some strange architecture. And this is how they usually do in Star Wars. And that’s the look. one eath-like biosphere applied to a whole planet + alien civilisation/architecture.

            Bespin is a gas giant but in the movie it looks like…earth sky. I agree with you that dagobah looks more alien, i didn’t say there was zero alien-looking worlds. The design was beautiful though. Not video gamey like in some modern blockbusters.

            Now what do you mean by “alien looking world”. If it means 100% digital environments i’m against it, i found Pandora very ugly visually. And again, the 100% digital world is not the SW look. If you mean something like dabobah or Bespin then it’s alright, nice design. And if you mean Felucia…well, i know it was a blend of CGIs and miniatures but the design was just awful. It’s all a matter of taste, but i don’t want THAT to ever be Star Wars.

            It’s not about being realistic. There’s nothing realistic in SW; it’s about the aesthetic. The one of the OT and 80% of the PT. I’d rather have them stick to that feel

          • August 23, 2016 at 8:24 pm
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            Yeah, but here we have the thpusandt location that just looks exactly the same. We have something very similar on Skellig. Also, this starts to look more LOTRish than SWish

          • August 24, 2016 at 2:04 am
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            forest/green/moutain planets are very common in SW, i saw lots of them in films, books (legends and new EU), comics etc during 25 years of fandom and they never bothered me or anyone i know. AND norway and ireland don’t look the same visually at all, please, geography! (+ imagine what they can do with CGIs that will extend/modify the landscape)

          • August 28, 2016 at 12:25 am
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            So… first of all, I do know geography, but the fact that Ireland is not at all close to Norway doesn’t mean that a place cannot look similar to another. There are plenty of more exotic looking places in Norway, and by judging on that photo that setting seems to me something I’ve already seen. If I must say, Skellig is very similar to many places in Ireland itself aswell, so much that they shot in different similar locations. I wasn’t complaining because they’re shooting in real locations, but because the locations they seem to choose are so similar to each other. If I wasn’t an all-nerd Star Wars fan that understands that it’s a different planet, a more casual star wars fan will say: “Is that the same planet?”
            Other than that, Considering the amount of CGI they pulled in TFA, you might want to call that a generic soul-less blockbuster… there where quite a few scenes entirely CGId.

          • August 28, 2016 at 1:03 pm
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            I get your point but even if from afar it can look a bit similar for the casual audience (although i think it looks quite different but nevermind) we’re talking about the locations, not how they will end up in the movie. It’s like you’re assuming they won’t change anything to make it look very different. Who knows, there could add a city, remove all the “green” and focus on the grey rocky stuff, add strange things etc…the point is we don’t know how it will look like and we may have a surprise. Or maybe not. But when i see beautiful locations like this my first reaction is “wow it looks great, i wonder what they’re gonna do with it”, not “oh no, another real-world locations, boring!” i don’t understand that attitude.

            TFA had a lot of CGIs, i don’t deny this, but the problem is not the use of them, but how you use them. TFA’s use of CGIs were perfect IMO, it nicely blended with the real locations and sets. it wasn’t a full-on over-the-top CGI fest. Only stuff i was disappointed with was the rathtars, bad designs, moved like cartoon beasts, that was a let down…I like Snoke’s design but the CGI wasn’t that great IMO, he looks a bit cartoon-y too…

      • August 23, 2016 at 12:41 am
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        Real locations will always be more convincing and more genuinely Star Wars than CGI rendered crap. There are many more types of earth terrains that could be used and still seem other-worldly. But giant plastic-looking flower covered planets are not the answer.

      • August 23, 2016 at 2:44 am
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        And yet, no one minded it when the OT did it. Apparently, you can’t have an alien planet unless it’s covered in CGI mushrooms.

      • August 24, 2016 at 1:07 pm
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        Definitely have to disagree. Sure they look grounded and earthly, but they’re far from nothing special. Every shot from TFA and rogue one, looks amazing. And never once did I feel like they were just on earth. Rogue One definitely “looks” amazing. Especially those beach shots

  • August 22, 2016 at 10:59 pm
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    That’s fine and all but PLEASEEE PLEASSSSSSSSEEEEEEEE!!! Show us Coruscant at least once during the ST.

    • August 23, 2016 at 12:43 am
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      We saw Coruscant extensively in all 3 prequels. Why do we need to go back there? It’s no longer the capital.

      • August 23, 2016 at 12:46 am
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        I would like to see Luke restore the Jedi temple with Rey.

        • August 23, 2016 at 2:14 am
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          Agree. Imagine how cool that would be if Luke and Rey stumble on the dusty remains of the Jedi Temple and bring it to its original former glory.

          • August 23, 2016 at 2:22 am
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            It would be something of epic proportions lol..it would also be cool if while they’re exploring, Rey has a moment where she senses the darkness and destruction Vader caused the temple. Similarly to how Leia sensed Maul on Naboo.

          • August 24, 2016 at 1:05 pm
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            Nice comic reference there! Love the new ones.

      • August 23, 2016 at 1:11 am
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        yeah but i woulb be intereste to see what she has become

        • August 23, 2016 at 1:27 am
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          She has become a city with tall buildings still, most likely

      • August 23, 2016 at 2:12 am
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        We saw Han Solo in four movies. Why do we need to go back to that character in an Anthology movie?

        • August 23, 2016 at 2:39 am
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          Because characters have a hell of a lot more to do with a story than a setting does.

  • August 23, 2016 at 1:40 am
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    nice place for some final duel, but looks too skellig michael-ish. I personally want more different looking planets…

    • August 23, 2016 at 2:43 am
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      Maybe it’s supposed to look like Skellig….

  • August 23, 2016 at 2:13 am
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    These new Star Wars films are really into the Earth-looking planets. I long to see something more alien like in the prequels.

    • August 23, 2016 at 2:42 am
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      Oh yeah, I long for the beautiful green screen abominations that the prequels acquainted me with.

        • August 23, 2016 at 5:58 am
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          Maybe. Modern technology would certainly make Felucia look BETTER. But that’s a relative term.

          • August 23, 2016 at 10:52 am
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            I was 16 when I watched Revenge of The Sith, and I remember sitting in the theater and when I saw the snipped of Felucia, I was thrown off. It doesn’t scream Star Wars to me whatsoever. It fits more into Star Trek or Avatar. It’s not grounded in reality. If they at least kept the big flower trees look like flowers we have on earth, but even then. We have to admit that worlds like that don’t exist in Star Wars because the don’t feel grounded or real. Star Wars has the esthetics of making us believe that it could exist in our world. Therefore we need real locations, real backgrounds, real actors, real props. And if we still need some CGI then we need to make it resemble the real world and not create phantasy shapes. Sure we have aliens. That’s about as phantastical as Star Wars gets. But, these aliens wear real clothes. Think about that…

        • August 23, 2016 at 7:08 am
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          agreed. look what james cameron did with avatar and that was seven years ago. i’m not saying i want a return to the blue screen trilogy, but a mix could be something really special.

      • August 23, 2016 at 1:52 pm
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        You people have 0,000 % fantasy. The Star Wars galaxy has millions of planets. Lets make them all earth like because thats what Star Wars is. Star Wars is bigger then the OT so get used to that.

        • August 23, 2016 at 1:53 pm
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          That’s literally not what my comment was about, lol.

  • August 23, 2016 at 9:45 am
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    Corellia perhaps???

  • August 23, 2016 at 4:33 pm
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    I think it’s strange when people talk about alien worlds and what they should look like in a movie. Many places that we see and think are alien at times are real places on our own planet. This is a movie, in reality it is unlikely humans would survive on any other planet without some kind of space suit, and vice versa with them being in our environment. The script will be written and the site chosen will resemble the script, what can’t be filmed will be added with green screen and cgi. Looking forward to seeing whatever comes of this location if it is chosen.

  • August 23, 2016 at 10:20 pm
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    I want more traillers

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