Hey dudes, happened across this bit of info over at Slate. So Felicity Jones may be a member of Rogue Squadron in a movie directed by Gareth Edwards. So maybe a SW movie focusing on space battles? I’m in!
HOLY CRAP WHAT YES PLEASE THANK YOU
I really, really liked the Rogue Squadron series of books, even the unapologetically stupid shit like the ace Ewok pilot. I ate it up. It helped that Aaron Allston wrote 5 of them.
So, yeah. A movie based around Rogue Squadron? I’m there.
Ace Ewok pilot? I may have made a mistake skipping all those Star Wars novels!
Ewok chogglepants.
Official PR:
ROGUE ONE IS THE FIRST STAR WARS STAND-ALONE FILM, RIAN JOHNSON TO WRITE AND DIRECT STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII
THE TITLE FOR DIRECTOR GARETH EDWARDS’ STAND-ALONE MOVIE, FEATURING ACTRESS FELICITY JONES, IS REVEALED, AND RIAN JOHNSON IS CONFIRMED FOR STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII – COMING TO THEATERS MAY 26, 2017.
“Always in motion is the future,” Yoda said. The future of the Star Wars cinematic galaxy, however, is taking shape.
This morning at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, across the street from Lucasfilm, Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger hosted a shareholder meeting where he announced news regarding the first Star Wars stand-alone movie as well as Star Wars: Episode VIII.
Rogue One is the title for the first film in a unique series of big-screen adventures that explores the characters and events beyond the core Star Wars saga. Rogue One will be directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) and written by Oscar nominee Chris Weitz (Cinderella, About a Boy, Antz). The first actress cast is Felicity Jones, who garnered an Academy Award nomination and critical acclaim for her performance in The Theory of Everything. The idea for the story of Rogue One came from John Knoll, an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic. He will executive produce along with Simon Emanuel (The Dark Knight Rises, Fast & Furious 6) and Jason McGatlin (Tintin, War of the Worlds). Kathleen Kennedy and Tony To (Band of Brothers, The Pacific) are on board to produce and John Swartz (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) will co-produce. The film starts shooting this summer in London and is due for release on December 16, 2016.
In addition, Iger confirmed that Rian Johnson will write and direct Star Wars: Episode VIII. The film, which continues the saga after the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is set for release on May 26, 2017 — forty years and a day after the release of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. Johnson is widely considered one of cinema’s most gifted young filmmakers, having directed the modern sci-fi classic, Looper, as well as Brick and The Brothers Bloom. He was also behind the camera for three episodes of the critically-acclaimed TV series Breaking Bad, including “Ozymandias,” which series creator Vince Gilligan named as the best installment of the show. Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman, producer of Looper, Don Jon, Brick, and The Brothers Bloom, are on board to produce.
At least the title.
https://twitter.com/garywhitta/status/576071947190030336
Well I can now say that I named a @starwars movie! That’s pretty cool. #RogueOne
Whitta went on to say that his proposed plot for the film, featuring a 1st level Human Rogue attempting to survive a randomly generated dungeon environment using strict 1st Edition D&D rules, did not go over as well with Disney management, prompting the re-write.
“The arrows - they’ve stopped!”
“Stabilize your tower shields … Watch for enemy fighters.”
“They’re coming in! Three marks at 2-10!”
“AAARRRGH!” <party leader drops dead>
“It’s no good, I can’t maneuver!”
“Hide in shadows.”
“We’re too close!”
“HIDE IN SHADOWS!”
“Loosen up!”
“Noooooo!!” <two more party members drop>
“Gold Five to Red leader, lost Tiree, lost Dutch. We’ll need a new rogue.”
“I copy, Gold Leader.”
“They came from… behind!” <he gets backstabbed>
Shit, how much did they pay Gary? Cuz Dan here has got that shit on lock, as the kids say.
This thread is making me so happy.
I don’t even care if they’ll expose my childhood for the shoddy, trashy writing that it had, I’m gonna go read the Rogue Squadron books again, or X-Wing, or whatever that series was called.
Makes me think of the Star Trek books with Ensign Naraht, a Horta navigator. It had to be sprayed with teflon because Oxygen is caustic to horta.
Alexandre Desplat will be creating the score for this movie.
Good lord. This is the stupidest thing.
The wiki authors seem really dedicated to using the phrase “semi-fictional”, “semi” is really not necessary at all.
Edit: Haha, I forgot about the Star Wars wiki convention of using past tense. So infuriating.
Oh, nice. It will be really weird seeing anything Star Wars on the big screen that doesn’t have a John Williams score. But I’ve enjoyed what Desplat has done for Wes Anderson’s last two movies. He really knows his instruments.
Not a huge fan of his work (though I do like one particular track on Zero Dark Thirty), and can’t really remember any of his Harry Potter stuff. Guess it’ll be interesting.
Williams will still be doing Force Awakens apparently, another another Spielberg movie (The BFG), though not Spielberg’s latest, due to a health issue (which apparently has been “resolved”)–that’s being handed over to Thomas Newman.
— Alan
Williams is 83 now, so it’s not surprising that health issues come up. Glad he’s still working though.
It will be a sad day when the age of iconic Williams themes is truly over.