The last life-size Falcon was built for the deleted sandstorm scene in Return of the Jedi, or as it was known when filming Revenge of the Jedi.

What i am worried about is a cgi falcon instead of a model for the actual shots of it in space.

The new Enterprise 1701 in the Star Trek reboot was all cgi and no model and that was ILM and JJ Abrams.

I am also worried about lens flares.

Today the Falcon flying through the asteroid field would just be man hours to render in cgi. You would not have ILM painstakingly creating the effect with miniatures, models, motion control cameras and matte paintings.

There are some promising things we do know so far however about Episode VII being shot on real film 35mm, Kasdan is writing it. But again the promises to limit cgi remind me a bit of Crystal Skull and that was Shot on film. Kathy Kennedy worked on that. And it was shit.