Disney buys LucasFilms/Star Wars Episode VII News

[Daniel Armour]

IF the female lead rumors are true, I think they should - and will - go with an unknown. However, just to play devil advocate, here's some choices I'd go with (I'm also assuming - for this anyway - that the female need isn't necessarily a Skywalker/Solo):

Females 14-30

Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, Hanna)
Claire Bowen (Nashville)
AnnaSophia Robb (Bridge To Terabithia, Soul Surfer)
Molly C. Quinn (Castle)
Elle Fanning (Super 8, Somewhere)
Hailee Steinfield (True Grit)
Skyler Samuels (The Gates, The Nine Lives Of Chloe King)
Jurnee Smollett-Bell (Friday Night Lights, Eve's Bayou)
Tessa Thompson (For Colored Girls)
Christian Serratos (American Horror Story, Twilight)
Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen, Across the Universe)


Females 31-40

Michelle Monaghan (Trucker, Gone Baby Gone)
Andrea Risenborough (W.E, Disconnect)
Rebecca Hall (The Prestige, Vicky Christina Barcelona)
Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle Of Nowhere)
Carmen Ejogo (Sparkle, Boycott)
Abbie Cornish (Bright Star, W.E)
Wei Tang (Lust, Caution)

[lazarus]

They're not going to go 30-40. No fucking way. Not when the OT people are pushing 60.

[RRA]

They're not going to go 30-40. No fucking way. Not when the OT people are pushing 60.

I was gonna say it might have to if this female lead is Han/Leia's kid, but who says it will be?

[Jonathan]

They're not going to go 30-40. No fucking way. Not when the OT people are pushing 60.

Also, this is a major action-adventure franchise aimed primarily at kids. I'm not sure women over the age of 30 even enter the conversation for leading roles in those kind of movies.

[Dent]

Yeah, they'll definitely be looking for someone younger. Steinfeld would be great and - throwing out a name that's older but not too old - Alison Brie as Han and Leia's daughter.

Now, it is entirely possible that this could be residual buzz from the fact that Matthew Vaughn's pitch involved Chloe Moretz as the lead. But they clearly liked what he had to say enough to get him to the top 3, and Abrams certainly has a history in TV of going with female lead characters (even Lost was supposed to have one until they decided not to kill off Jack - man, the alternate version of that show where Michael Keaton's Jack got killed off in the pilot and Yunjin Kim is the lead as a younger version of Rose would've been fascinating). So it is definitely very possible and would be a great move for the franchise and franchise films as a whole.

[Dent]

Latino Review says Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is in talks to join, unknown role:

http://latino-review.com/2013/05/20/...s-episode-vii/

Hm. Dunno what I think about that. Though it's nice to have some casting rumors that aren't just Ford/Fisher/Hamill. Still, Abrams generally casts well, so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt (and while Latino Review has had some swing-and-a-miss reports recently, they do tend to get casting rumors pretty accurate - Ledger for one back in the day, and they were the first to report that the villain in STID was BIG SPOILERS Khan ).

Thinking about it, it'd be fun if it were more like his roles in Match Point or Titus - he could be nicely scummy or unpleasant, instead of being vaguely bland and heroic. Then again, maybe it's a Chris Pine as Kirk situation - who saw THAT coming?

[Artimus]

I fell like Latino Review got Ledger right and then basically guessed. Their Hulk scoop was complete and utter bullshit. Which makes no sense if they generally relied on legit sources. Seems to me they got lucky somehow on Ledger and then have guessed based on general buzz ever since. Their Star Trek scoop didn't require any intel, just the willingness to commit to a possibility before anyone else.

[Dent]

Sure. JRM is probably a little too old anyway to, say, play Han and Leia's kid or whatever. So we'll see.

In the meantime, though, we've got confirmation on a new animated show from Dave Filoni (The Clone Wars), Simon Kinberg, and Greg Weisman (Gargoyles, Young Justice) - Star Wars: Rebels, taking place in the 19 years between Episode III and Episode IV:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/05/20/st...isney-channel/

[RRA]

In the meantime, though, we've got confirmation on a new animated show from Dave Filoni (The Clone Wars), Simon Kinberg, and Greg Weisman (Gargoyles, Young Justice) - Star Wars: Rebels, taking place in the 19 years between Episode III and Episode IV:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/05/20/st...isney-channel/

Will they reuse in any form any of those scripts already written for the now cancelled live-action series?

Also, I guess since this will have several of the same people from CLONE WARS that they'll use the new series as the opportunity to do a pseudo-series finale for that show.

[Dent]

It sounds like those scripts were pretty dark and I'd guess they're being saved for a SHIELD-type thing after Ep. VII opens (there's no way that won't be the first live-action Star Wars thing to hit the screen. Kennedy killed the 3D rereleases for that purpose) - they were more about the underworld and smugglers, from what I understand.

On the other hand, the new animated series is going to be done in the style of Ralph McQuarrie's original artwork for the OT and using OT-style camera set-ups and transitions which, holy shit I'm already sold.