I know it won't be based on an existing story.  According to the official announcement, Ep7 will be an original story.

Star Wars Episode 7: Movie Stars On J.J. Abrams' Sequel

Quite surprised by Mila Kunis' response and I love that last bit. =P

lastjedi said:

anyone know what book or story they might do for star wars VII?i hope they don't do timothy zahn's thrawn trilogy.i hated his books.jj abrams is a good choice.i liked what he did with star trek,except for the spock kissing ohura stuff.i didn't like his show lost.maybe in the future they can get peter jackson or ridley scott to direct a star wars film.

Small article at Empire. Nothing new.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=36884

georgec said:

Small article at Empire. Nothing new.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=36884

I wouldn't say this is nothing:

"There are infinitely more questions than answers right now, but to me, they’re not that dissimilar. Though I came at these both from very different places, where they both meet is a place of ‘Ooh, that’s really exciting.’ And even though I was never a Star Trek fan, I felt like there was a version of it that would make me excited, that I would think ‘that’s cool, that feels right, I actually would want to see that.

How we were going to get there, what the choices were going to be, who was going to be in it – all of those things I knew would have to be figured out, but it was all based on a foundation of this indescribable, guttural passion for something that could be. It’s a similar feeling that I have with Star Wars. I feel like I can identify a hunger for what I would want to see again and that is an incredibly exciting place to begin a project. The movies, the worlds could not be more different but that feeling that there’s something amazing here is the thing that they share.”

For what it's worth, I'm a huge Star Trek fan (my interest in watching it second only to Star Wars now, thanks to Harmy and Adywan, as I refuse to watch the SE's).

I've seen every episode of every (live action) series of Star Trek, many of them more than once. Granted, I'm a child of the TNG-era, and I don't like TOS much because of its campiness and over-acting. However, despite my not liking TOS, I do love most of the Kirk movies (2, 3, 4 and 6), having seen Star Trek IV in the theater when I was eight years old.

I liked Star Trek 2009 a lot.

The reason why JJ Abrams not initially being a Trek fan is a good thing, is because he's not intrinsically bound to the many constraints that the Trek universe had set for itself. I've seen the behind-the-scenes stuff for his Trek movie and he did seek a lot of input from various people, each of whom had different levels of interest in/knowledge about Trek (some of whom are serious die-hard fans).

Actually, the one thing I remember most about what JJ said Trek needed was that Star Trek is like classical music and Star Wars is like rock music; so he felt that Star Trek needed some "rock" injected into it in order for the franchise to capture new audiences. And you know... I agree with him about that. Star Trek, while awesome, had become so bound by its established canon, that it would have been difficult to continue the franchise with the intention of gaining new fans without rebooting it and/or finding a new and different approach for it to take.

It's perfectly fine for people to prefer the "Prime Universe," but they still have 24 seasons and 10 movies to fall back on. The problem wasn't with pleasing hardcore fans, it's with gaining new ones--which is the opposite of Star Wars' problem as I see it.

Tobar said:

georgec said:

Small article at Empire. Nothing new.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=36884

I wouldn't say this is nothing:

"There are infinitely more questions than answers right now, but to me, they’re not that dissimilar. Though I came at these both from very different places, where they both meet is a place of ‘Ooh, that’s really exciting.’ And even though I was never a Star Trek fan, I felt like there was a version of it that would make me excited, that I would think ‘that’s cool, that feels right, I actually would want to see that.

How we were going to get there, what the choices were going to be, who was going to be in it – all of those things I knew would have to be figured out, but it was all based on a foundation of this indescribable, guttural passion for something that could be. It’s a similar feeling that I have with Star Wars. I feel like I can identify a hunger for what I would want to see again and that is an incredibly exciting place to begin a project. The movies, the worlds could not be more different but that feeling that there’s something amazing here is the thing that they share.”

It's just a vague statement that people are excited about the movie.

chyron8472 said:

It's perfectly fine for people to prefer the "Prime Universe," but they still have 24 seasons and 10 movies to fall back on. The problem wasn't with pleasing hardcore fans, it's with gaining new ones--which is the opposite of Star Wars' problem as I see it.

This is pretty solid.

Not sure. It was posted on another forum without a source link, unless the poster made it himself.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=7329701&postcount=3565

georgec said:

This is pretty solid.

I imagine Grand Master Funk will have facefuzz.

timdiggerm said:

A little googling and: http://rampantimaginationa.deviantart.com/art/STAR-WARS-Episode-7-POSTER-360905377

Nice google-fu. The artist definitely channeled his inner Drew Struzan.

TV's Frink said:

Eh, Threepio should look older.

I think he's had work done.

Disney may feel that hiring the villain of John Carter might be tempting fate.

Personally I think he is brilliant, he was really good in the first Ritchie Holmes film.

georgec said:

This is pretty solid.

I refuse to see any new Star Wars film in which Han is wearing an ascot.