JJ Abrams was asked about the use of 3D for Episode VII among other questions.  While he doesn’t actually answer the question in typical Abrams fashion, he sure seem hint that plastic glasses may be part of the experience.

Could Judi Dench be making the transition from “M” to “Mon”?

JJ Abrams discussed Episode VII as the Television Critics Association.  Click the link below to see what he had to say.  The most reassuring tidbit is that the script is complete.

As we get closer to production, it’s important to set expectations on the news that is delivered.  These are just rumors and should only be considering talking points and not things to get your hopes up for. Having said that, I LOVE everything that is being discussed.

Going hand in hand with the script change rumors mentioned in the post below is a new set of casting rumors.  These rumors finally make me feel like Episode VII IS NOT being adapted from some young reader romance novel when every casting rumor seemed to mirror the latest cover of Teen Beat magazine.

I’ve been worried about the direction Episode VII was supposedly heading, so this latest rumor is music to my ears.

Sam Jackson is the king of pre-production subterfuge, so take this with a grain of salt, but according to his interview on Letterman, neither Ewan McGregor nor Mark Hamill have been contacted by JJ Abrams for Star Wars 7.  This is probably a ruse.  A cunning attempt to trick you.

Can’t get down to Bristol to audition in person? Now you can submit a video audition online!

Not really any surprises:

“Well, this is obviously one of the most important films that we are working on right now. And one of the things that was very important to us is that we give the creative team, J.J. Abrams and his writing team, the time to design, write and produce the film so we can optimize quality, so they can create a great film. Very, very important.

And at one point we considered the summer of 2015, but it felt like, particularly with some changes we made in the writing team, that that was going to create a bit of a rush and didn’t think that was optimal for obvious reasons. So Christmas 2015 became the date.”

And if you’d like to read the whole thing…

This comes straight from the horse’s mouth (starwars.com).  The release date of Episode VII will be December 18th, 2015.

And Episode VII casting call was released yesterday which gives better indication of the female and male leads and flies in the face of all previous rumors. Does this lend credence to the “starting over” rumors that surfaced when the writing change was made?

According to the Hollywood Reporter, LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy requested a 2016 extension for Episode VII due to the the writing change, but was denied by Disney CEO Robert Iger who insists on holding firm to a summer 2015 release.

The official site just posted a statement announcing that J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan are taking over screen writing duties for Michael Arndt.  This is a bit of a bombshell and the internet is abuzz with rumors including some that indicate that dissatisfaction with the scrip was the reason Abrams considered abandoning the project around the time of San Diego Comic Con.  There are also rumors that the pair of Abrams and Kasdan are starting over form scratch including all new characters, thus leading to the delay in casting news.

One fact from the official statement is that filming is now delayed until Spring 2014.

A bit of this is following the breadcrumb trail of weekly trailer releases (expect Episode VI today) that we mentioned last Wednesday, but Comic Book Blog is reporting that a major Episode VII announcement is expected a week from today.  They do point out that 10/30 is a significant Star Wars date which has heretofore gone unnoticed in these circles.

I think we all assume the droid tandem of C-3PO and R2-D2 will appear in Episode VII.  Athony Daniels let slip at NYCC that he is the only actor to “appear in all seven movies” before realizing he divulged a mild spoiler.  Hollywood.com erroneously reports this as confirmation of C-3PO’s appearance in Episode VII, but as we all know from the character Dannl Faytonni, it’s not 100% confirmation of C-3PO (but it’s a safe bet).