Carrie Fisher Cuts NY Comic Con Visit Short For Star Wars Filming.
Two things have suggested that additional photography of some sequences for Star Wars Episode VIII has taken place, is filming right now, or will be shot soon – Lupita Nyong’o stating that she has yet to film her motion-capture scenes as of September and Chloe Bruce mentioning that she recently filmed something in Croatia (where a chase sequence for the movie was shot). Now, a third bit of evidence has come to light – Carrie Fisher is cutting the amount of time she’ll be available at the New York Comic Con a bit short due to involvement with a Star Wars project.
Just to clarify, for those not in-the-know about the film-making process: additional photography and pick-ups are not quite the same thing as reshoots. What we think of as reshoots are what happen after an assembly cut of a movie is made in order to completely overhaul (and hopefully improve upon) scenes in order to ensure that the finished product is up-to-snuff with what the studio, audience, and creators are expecting. (The controversial Rogue One reshoots, for instance, are likely a result of implementing Christopher McQuarrie’s finalized version of the script as opposed to radically altering the entire narrative structure of the movie.)
Additional photography is what happens when there are sequences that need to be filmed outside of principal photography due to conflicts in scheduling (such as Lupita Nyong’o having a commitment to the chess movie The Queen Of Katwe while most of Episode VIII‘s filming took place) and other minute problems, while pick-ups are usually put into place to correct continuity errors (in essence, those are reshoots on a much smaller scale) – both terms are used interchangeably, along with the term “reshoot”, but bear in mind that this is the gist of what each term means connotation-wise. We already know that John Williams is looking at a very early cut of the movie so he can work ahead on the film’s soundtrack, so an assembly cut may already be in place (and the use of the term “reshoot” might not necessarily be inaccurate in describing some – though definitely not all – of what’s going on right now).
With all that explaining about film terminology out of the way, it’s pretty clear that the term “#StarWars production” used by the NYCC refers to Episode VIII – it seems as if even though principal photography has been completed, there are still chunks of the movie that aren’t yet filmed. Chunks which seemingly involve Maz Kanata, General Leia, and possibly even Rey at varying points in the film’s chronology (and I say “possibly” for Rey, given the possibility that Chloe Bruce might be a stunt double for more than one character). This might also explain why Mark Hamill shaved his beard so late after principal photography wrapped up – perhaps he still needed to film something extra as Jedi Master Luke during the period between principal photography and the filming of that humorous little video linked to above. It’s also worth mentioning that last week, Pablo Hidalgo essentially said that there was still a good amount of work to be done on Episode VIII:
There could be several reasons that additional photography is starting so soon after production wraps, but I think that the most likely option (aside from the easy explanation of scheduling conflicts) is that whatever they’re filming is something they want kept under wraps. (This would be the ideal time to film some spoiler-heavy stuff – it would most likely be much harder to leak documents at this stage without the guilty party being found out – or to get some surprise cameos into the movie.) It’s early enough into post-production that there shouldn’t be any real issues with integrating the changes into the existing film itself – and it seems like Disney is going to be in the business of making sure the production process on future Star Wars movies go more smoothly as Lucasfilm keeps cranking them out. In any case, we’ll be sure to help you guys weather the storm as some people take the news of more filming as a harbinger of the apocalypse. (Kidding aside, watch this space for more updates on the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Rogue One, Rebels, Battlefront, and more as new information breaks.)
Thanks to The Cantina user MagnarTheGreat for pointing this story out to us.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
Oh Carrie, always full on surprises. 🙂
HOPEFULLY this means we get MORE LEIA in Ep 8 ! So Three Cheers for this news !
As much as I’d like to see more leia, I think she’d do fine in a mon mothma role. Be back at base to chat to people for a bit and then everyone goes and has their adventure
She was GOLD in TFA. The crowd at theaters nationwide ROARED when she came out. I saw the film in 14 different cities – so I”m kind of “educated” on the subject.
Did they roar b/c of nostalgia or her performance?
She was fine. A little shaky, but good.
I think one part of the problem with Fisher’s performance in TFA was the way the dialogue for Leia was written. It wasn’t bad but didn’t “spark” like the way Fisher acted in the original movies. This could also be tied with Fisher not having acted in so many years and feeling insecure.
I do hope this time around, Johnson has written scenes and dialogue that make Fisher more comfortable and natural at performing. The Carrie Fisher who speaks in public with a dry, jaded sense of humor, saying what’s on her mind, is what General Leia should be more like. I’d like to imagine she’s gotten her confidence back and has even improvised a little her lines in the movie where it works. And that maybe Disney and the producers saw how well this was working, so they wanted to write and shoot some more scenes with Leia.
“ITsh Wash SHNOKE who shoodooshed our shon to the dark shide”
Terrible. I love, LOVE Carrie, but the dialogue she was given was terrible – worse than anything she ever had to chew out in the OT. That somehow it sounded like her dentures were threatening to come out didn’t exactly help.
So much for being in a coma.
I liked TFA but Maz ehh didn’t like her at all. Not sure why, could have been the bad CG.
OMFG. Please shut up.
I liked the character generally, but to be honest, I’m not sure if she would be missed in Episode 8. Is she really needed for the next story? I could see her showing up in Episode 9 to explain how she came into possession of Luke’s lightsaber, maybe.
It just seems like her purpose to the overall story was fulfilled in TFA.
“Is the character absolutely needed for the next story?”
A question none of us can answer.
True. But things seem to be getting awfully crowded in Episode VIII: We have Rey’s arc, Finn’s, Poe’s, Kylo’s. In connection to them (the new generation), there’s Luke and Leia, but also Del Toro’s new character and a new young female character. And Snoke is probably really important to all of this as well.
And somehow, the droids have to be worked in (BB-8, C3PO, R2), and Chewbacca. And furthermore there are rumors about Yoda making a significant appearance. And what about Phasma and Hux? This movie sounds crowded. I am just speculating, I will admit, but Maz doesn’t seem needed in this movie. It wouldn’t surprise me if they cut her role down a lot or cut her out completely.
Yeah, that was my biggest problem. I didn’t feel like she served the story well at all in TFA. Maybe I’ll like her better in 8.
More Leia = Better Ep 8
This may not have anything to do with re-shoots at all. It’s possible she could be coming in to overdub her lines. Remember the audio from the filming is not used and the actors come in after the initial filming to re-record their parts and get a clean soundtrack. I would not be surprised if that is the point where they are in the production process.
oh no! reshoots! the sky is falling
Leia should have died on Hosnian prime…Love Carrie Fisher.but she has lost her acting chops completely…I have to fast forward her scenes in TFA because they are embarrassing.i’m not trying to be a troll here…just being honest…how can any of you say she did on a good job on TFA and keep a straight face? we all wanted to love her return..but cmon..she obviously fell flat on her face in the very few scenes she even had, and it is pretty obvious why she hard hardly any scenes at all….when she is talking to Han about Snoke..I cringe everytime…can’t help it..and the scene where she say’s “LUKE”..just came across as super cheesy..she put no effort at all into transforming herself back into leia…it feels like shes doing a skit on SNL and reading cue cards…I really hope that if she survives in EPisode 8..that she redeems herself and make’s me eat my words…but prolly not, as it looks like she will be absent from most of this movie as well…freeze Leia in carbonite or something. haha