With everyone’s focus primarily on the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, work has still been quietly going on for the other announced Star Wars films from Disney. We know that Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank will be helming the standalone films that will appear between installments of the new trilogy of films that serve as sequels to the original, classic trilogy, while Rian Johnson will be following in Episode VII director JJ Abrams’ shoes and directing Episode VIII. But beyond that, not much. Until now.
Joining Edwards behind the camera for that standalone film will be Zero Dark Thirty cinematographer Greig Fraser. Speaking to In Contention, Fraser stated –
I’m doing a fucking Star Wars movie, which is like – I don’t know about you but Star Wars is like my first film love, do you know what I mean?… Gareth is doing a standalone film. Of course I do know some specifics, but it’s obviously something I’ve signed my kidneys away for.
We still have no idea as to what the storylines will be for this film, but it has been reported that Lucasfilm has been developing screenplays that serve as “origin stories” of sorts for favorite characters like Han Solo, Yoda and Boba Fett. Edwards film is scheduled for a December 16, 2016 release, between 2015’s Episode VII and 2017’s Episode VIII.
While Fraser has a lot of smaller films on his resume such as Bright Star (2009), the Let Me In remake (2010) and the upcoming Foxcatcher, he also has Snow White And The Huntsman to his credit so he’s no stranger to visual effects heavy projects. While we haven’t yet seen an actual frame of footage from what Abrams is doing right now for Episode VII, and we probably won’t for a good while yet, it is interesting to see Disney hiring on a number of diverse creators to tackle these films. On a corporate level, I am sure that there is an urge to preserve a certain degree of homogeny between each film, but hopefully, Disney/Lucasfilm will be daring enough to allow these directors and their crews to spread their wings a bit a bring their own visions to the Star Wars universe.
