Fang Zei

Natalie "I never even saw the original trilogy" Portman

With Mayhew at the first table read, I guess that pretty much seals it. Then again, I really wouldn't put anything past Abrams. He could very well have cast him not as Chewie but in some role as a human.

If the prequels are any indication, we won't know the title until March. Then again, I'm not sure how early Empire and Jedi's titles were revealed.

The most recent news on Lawson was that he wanted more than just a cameo. It's too early to rule him out.

And who knows, JJ's plan might be to mystery box Billy Dee. Nimoy flat out lied about not coming back for Into Darkness. Maybe they're saving Lando for a surprise cameo.

Duke Leto was also in Judge Dredd.

"So you are Dr. Kynes, the judge of the change."

"And the imperial ecologist, sire."

doubleofive said:

So we can keep the other thread on directing.

Speaking of which, we kinda left behind the original Episode VII thread (from before a director had been hired).

From a film theory perspective, this forum is decidedly auteurist ;)

Anyway, it's cool that Gollum and Dr. Kynes / Ming the Merciless will both be in this. Very unexpected as I'm pretty sure they hadn't even been rumored, so someone did a good job of keeping their names under wraps.

As Cobb pointed out, it's cool that Driver and Isaac will be going into outer ... space(!) yet again. Driver had a small role in Lincoln, which, like many of Steven's movies, was produced by Kathleen Kennedy. For all we know, that might've helped him get the role.

Does the absence of Billy Dee's name on this particular list mean he's not in the movie at all?

Also, is everyone on that list even there in that picture??? It's so low-res I had to zoom in before realizing the guy with the ponytail was Mayhew. Is that Tony talking to Mark? Is that Oscar Isaac sitting next to Boyega? Is the guy sitting between Driver and JJ von Sydow, because if it is I barely recognize him at this angle/resolution. There are a couple other dudes, I'm assuming one of them is Gleeson, but whoever the other guy is he's not on the list. Is that Kathy Kennedy sitting between them? What about Kenny?

It's pretty funny seeing Andy Serkis sitting at a meeting for yet another huge sci-fi/fantasy franchise like it's nothing. After LotR, Kong, Apes, and directing 2nd Unit on The Hobbit, he's probably use to this kind of thing.

It's not so much about stuff fitting together as it is about acknowledging "yes, this stuff you loved still happened." They don't have to bring up anything that's happened in the 35+ years since RotJ (in fact, I hope they don't), but the new movie can't make any blatant contradictions like Chewie being alive and still be in the same universe as the "old" EU. It's either one or the other.

Look, I don't mind minor inconsistencies. Star Wars is only slightly older now than Trek was when Enterprise started, and I can still remember being distracted when they played a clip of Zefram Cochrane from after he'd already left for Alpha Centauri.

darklordoftech said:

They wanted to kill Luke, but Lucas wouldn't let them.

Which is exactly why it would be total BS to just throw out the EU now. The big three are still alive in the books. Why else would Lucas be saving them if not to give at least one of them a dramatic death in the ST?

Rumor is that she got the role Lupita Nyongo was rumored for.

I'm going back through all these long months of news stories and it's making my head spin.

First table read is tomorrow. Oscar Isaac is rumored for a role, in addition to a newcomer.

http://badassdigest.com/2014/04/28/star-wars-vii-table-read-tomorrow-heres-whos-rumored-to-show-up/

Indeed it could just be a blanket statement, and if that's the case it doesn't really change anything. All they'd really be saying is that, going forward, everything will be on the same level as everything else. The "legends" thing might simply be a two-level distinction (G-Canon vs non-G-canon) for the layman that doesn't get into the more elaborate multi-tiered heirarchy of canon.

I'm hoping it doesn't mean a nullification of the EU, because as others have said, they'd be overwriting a whole lot of great stories in addition to the less well-recieved stuff.

I must echo what Hal and Tobar and Mr. Cobb have said. We need to wait and see how this all shakes out. For the moment, I'm still taking this news merely as confirmation that the new trilogy won't be an adaptation of any existing EU story. I'm sure I'll be proved wrong, but there ya go.

Tyrphanax said:

There was never any part of me that thought they would just take the existing EU books, comics, and games and just make a movie out of them, or even try to fit the story into the existing EU continuity. 

 I wasn't expecting the former, but I was expecting the latter.

I dunno, I think they should at least try to fit Episode 7 in the "old" continuity. I don't see any scenario as "too constraining" for the filmmakers. If anything, having parameters in which to work might actually breed creativity more than a blank slate would.

One big thing I'm curious about is whether Abrams and Mindel will be shooting some scenes in IMAX like on the last Star Trek movie. Brad Bird and Claudio Miranda are shooting some of Tomorrowland (also from Disney) in the format, just as Bird did with Robert Elswit on Ghost Protocol. I wanna say there was a story about JJ "wanting to," but no confirmation.

A Star Wars movie with scenes in native 15/70 is pretty much the only thing that would get me to see it anywhere other than the Uptown.

Anchorhead said:

I've taken a glance around the nerdosphere since the news release and there are plenty of fans who are put out or upset that the stories they love aren't official anymore. 

Which, as I said in the "EU like" thread, we don't even know LFL is technically saying. All they've said is that VII-IX won't tell the same story as the EU. They might simply be clarifying that this won't be an adaptation of an existing storyline, which we already knew prior to this news.

Then again, the part about "in order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers" certainly seems to imply they don't want continuity to bog them down.

imperialscum said:

As for EU sources that used big-time characters in order to try to increase their popularity they will pay the price now.

Here's the thing, though: they've had 20+ years to kill off Han, Luke and Leia in the EU and they haven't. Also, didn't Chewie's death need to be OK'd by GL himself? That, to me, makes it semi-official.

I just re-read the article yet again. All they technically said was "VII-IX won't tell the same story as the EU" (italics mine). For all we know, they're simply clarifying that this won't be an adaptation of any existing storyline, which is fine by me because I was never expecting a sequel trilogy to do that anyway.

It would make sense for Bane to make the cut, as I'm pretty sure he's an idea of GL's that made its way into the TPM novelization but not the movie itself.

What would be the reasoning for him never existing? Palpatine mentions that story to Anakin in RotS. Granted, he does call it "a Sith legend," meaning even if he'd heard it secondhand (and not just completely made it up himself) it still might not be true.

But are people saying now that because the Darth Plagueis novel is non-canon Palpatine might've completely made him up?

The policy I was kinda hoping LFL would take is to just "ignore" whatever's happened since RotJ. That is, don't bring it up, but don't directly contradict it either.*

I haven't closely followed the EU, but the mere fact that Han, Luke and Leia are still alive after 40 years seemed reason enough to keep Episode VII within the existing continuity. I guess the problem would be forcing Abrams and Kasdan to suddenly step into the EU "as is," whereas I'm sure they had their own idea for Episode VII independant of where the EU has taken things.

*Which, for all we know, could still be what they're doing. Chee and Hidalgo might've had a meeting with the new people, sat them down and said "this is where things currently sit, Chewie's dead, Ackbar, Mon Mothma and Crix Madine are dead, two of the three Solo children are dead and the surviving one has a husband and kid, Luke's son is now in his late teens but the wife Luke had him by is now dead, etc, etc." A meeting like this could have happened for all we know, and for all we know the new people found all of this interesting, a cool place to jump off from .... or they said "screw it, we're starting over from scratch."

DuracellEnergizer said:

I loathe the whole notion of "official" canon, so consider me one of those people who aren't pleased with the idea of making the films and the NuEU 110% compatible with one another. Continuity should be an option, not a prerequisite.

 And what a weird way to go about it, right?

"Hey, Everyone. Remember 20 years ago when we said this was the official continuation of the story? Well, we're making a new movie now, so any and all of that stuff may or may not be official anymore, sorry. But we're gonna be writing more stuff and starting right this moment it's officially official. We promise."

After re-reading the story on the official site, they are still being unclear (for obvious reasons) as to whether or not Episode VII will actively overwrite the existing EU. They probably just want to get this announcement out of the way now, before they head into main unit photography in a few weeks and story details inevitably leak out.

Like I said, this isn't without precedent. The Clone Wars movie/show is barely compatible with the older clone wars (lowercased) stuff. Maybe instead of making promises they know they can't keep, they're simply saying up front "there is no direct connection between the new material and the old. If old stuff gets contradicted, the new stuff trumps it every time, no retcons."

Another thing I was gonna say is that this isn't entirely without precedent. I remember feeling a bit annoyed when the 2008 clone wars was set only a couple months after AotC, creating a continuity mess. Chee and Hidalgo said they'd eventually make a revised clone wars timeline, but then five seasons of the show happened and it became its own thing.

Even back in '05, at the end of the grand clone wars multimedia project, there was a kerfuffle over Labyrinth of Evil and part 2 of Genndy's cartoon not quite matching up like the official site said they would. It was either Chee or Hidalgo (can't remember now) who bent over backwards to make it all work.

What about the handful of old books and comics that brought up stuff George would later do his own way in the PT (Boba Fett's backstory, young Kenobi, etc)? Did that stuff get retconned or was it rendered non-canon? The Bounty Hunter game and the Open Seasons comic reference Jaster Mereel and Concord Dawn, so some of it was clearly repurposed even if it wasn't retconned.

One of the dark horse clone wars comics (from '02-'05) even used the chemical spill on Honoghr mentioned in the Zahn books as a jumping-off point.

Oh, and someone was wondering about the character from the Marvel comics that eventually made their way to higher levels of canon? That would be Lumiya, who was brought back for the Legacy of the Force novels.

Honestly, what's happening now is doing the same thing regarding post-RotJ continuity as The Clone Wars was to the existing '02-'05 stuff: they're doing their own thing, but also feeling free to incorporate EU elements as they like.

Obviously we won't really know where the chips have fallen until the movie is finished and released. Obviously the official policy is now "No previous material is canon except the movies and TCW," but that doesn't mean some of the existing EU can't still count (until something comes along to contradict it, that is). Even if a story is rendered non-canon, it doesn't suddenly cease to exist.

Besides, as someone in the comments section at badass digest put it, personal canon is the only one that should ultimately matter.

If you liked a story more than the official one that contradicts it, so what?

Octorox said:

and all Star Wars content (books, films, games etc.) moving forward will be canon and overseen by Lucasfilm's story department.

Ummmmm, fool me once?

Seriously though, I wasn't planning on spending hard-earned cash on anything moving forward except a ticket to see Episode VII (although a restored OOT and OPT might change that).

I've barely read any of the EU set post-RotJ, mainly kept up with the gist of it via wookieepedia, so this doesn't exactly come as heart-breaking news or anything. It's what we all saw coming, anyway. At the same time though, I can't blame the continuity-obsessed fans for feeling a bit betrayed. While Lucasfilm did eventually say "not all canon is equal" several years ago, they were still calling it "canon." Rather than having a tiered system of dividing lines, it would seem they've settled on just one: there's the stuff George was involved with and then there's everything else.

The reality is that George let the EU get away from him because he never planned on doing Ep7. RotJ was THE END, all caps, and what happened afterward was hearsay, written by other people playing in his sandbox. Abrams may be directing, but it's still with George's involvement, unlike all those countless books.

Mike O said:

danny_boy said:

Fang Zei said:

But for a scope movie like Star Wars, it really should be the full 2048 that's being used. 2K for scope is 2048:853, 2K for 1.85:1 is 1998:1080 and for 16:9 it's, of course, 1920:1080. 

Yes---although commercial 2K  cinema projectors can scale/stretch  up the image in the vertical direction(thereby utilizing the full 1080 x 2048 panel)

And with the help of an anamorphic lens---optically expand the image horizontally.

For those who own projectors which have this same scalability function---It can also be done at home (but consumer anamorphic lens cost somewhere in the region of $5000-$10000).

P.S

I have a Sony 4K 1000es projector and have watched Eps IV,V and VI at a resolution of 1706 X 4096.

The below screenshot is from projectorreviews.com:

They scale up perfectly and look nothing short of amazing.

Same applies to the prequels with Revenge Of Sith being the standout.

This screenshot below is from an AVS forum member :

 How the hell does everyone know all of this home theater and technical information except for me?! God, I'm behind on everything. My life is a mess. Anyway, that last photo is frigging creepy. Is there a point to 4K unless you have a super-badass projector? I can't even tune my cheapo HDTV right. I fail at life.

Oh, I gave up on trying to calibrate a long time ago. It's impossible to do it "by eye," so I usually just pick whatever preset I like the most and stick with it. The tv manufacturers have gotten smarter about this, I've noticed. The 32" 720p lg lcd my mom got in 2012 with her credit card points actually looks pretty darn good on its out-of-the-box settings (blasphemy, I know). The only thing I did was change the aspect ratio from the default 16:9 (which overscans the image slightly) to "just scan," which matches the pixel ratio 1:1.

Compare that to the 40" 1080p sony lcd my dad got in 2008. For starters, its factory picture setting was "vivid," which always looks terrible. Motion-smoothing was also on by default, on a 60Hz tv no less (not a good combination). I remember hooking up the dvd player and gleefully switching the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9 after nine long years, throwing on RotS as demo material. It was straight-up unwatchable on those settings! I chose a different picture preset and then went into the tv's various menus to turn off motion-smoothing and various other things. Went through this all over again once we got a blu-ray player. I swear the tv companies throw in all these bells and whistles just to justify the high price point, which is probably why most people don't change a thing once they get their shiny new tv. I mean, they paid all this money for it, so clearly that's how everything's supposed to look, right? ;)

So yeah, watching blu-rays on a 720p tv's default settings, my brain tells me everything looks wrong but my eyes like what they see. In fact, the "cinema" picture presets on both tv's look all wrong to me, even though I know that's probably closer to a calibrated setting. Perhaps "closer" is the crucial word here, as a calibration would strike the perfect balance.

The sony now sits in the basement awaiting a proper viewing space. Once I have that, and a little extra income, I might possibly become interested in getting it isf-calibrated (the painful irony is that the smaller, 720p lg is much more suited for it as lg is one of the companies that makes their tv's isf-ready). But it's honestly not as big a deal to me now as it once was.

It makes me nostalgic for that day, more than 13 years ago, when I hooked up the year-and-a-half old dvd player to a brand new 27" panasonic tube over s-video and everything looked and sounded perfect. Ignorance really is bliss.