In an update to yesterday's post about Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3, Little Miss Sunshine) writing the next installment of the Star Wars saga, Lucasfilm confirmed on StarWars.com that it's official: Arndt is writing the screenplay for Star Wars: Episode VII, slated for release in 2015. No news yet on a title, but the Oscar-winner has been meeting with George Lucas and new Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy for story conferences. The wheels are in motion, ladies and gentlemen -- new Star Wars movies are totally happening. (via Deadline)

  • grimc

    I will have faith in a new trilogy as soon as I see news stories that don’t mention Lucas’ involvement.

    • sam1148

       The original 3 are classics.
      Lucas had a great vision….but in the early movies the true star was his wife and editor; who was the only one able to tell him “no, dear…cut this move this get the pacing right”. On his own he would have muddled it up…Marcia Lucas knew editing and as a team they were great. Lucas owes A LOT to Marcia for skills.

      • Tynam

        Exactly.  Marcia is (thanks to George) the forgotten figure of Star Wars history, but she was arguably the most important.  (The difference between Phantom Menace and New Hope says everything there is to say about the importance of a good editor.)

  • http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

    It’s already better than the prequels. 

    • amarx

      That’s because Lucas isn’t directing: http://hollywoodandswine.com/disney-pays-4-billion-to-george-lucas-in-exchange-for-him-promising-never-to-direct-another-star-wars-sequel/

  • BarBarSeven

    Star Wars VII: The Rise of the Ewoks

    From the ashes of the “Battle of Endor” comes the Ewoks. With the abandoned munitions & battle equipment left behind by a defeated Empire, the Ewoks expand their reach beyond their Endor moon & into a whole new galaxy of adventure!

    • http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood

      Never forget that Ewoks are vicious little people-eatin’ fuzzy motherfuckers.

  • amarx
  • EH

    Looking for Dan Harmon for Episode VIII

  • Mister44

    I… I’m a little excited. It would be nice for it to be ~25/30 years after RotJ and have the story focus on Luke’s and Han’s kids. I know there is a RICH amount of Extended Universe to pull from.

    • BarBarSeven

      Ehhh… I for one am tired of the inbred Star Wars universe. Just bring new characters in to create a new thread of a plot. If it does end up being the kids of Han, Luke, Leia & whoever what a disappointment that would be to me.  It was bad enough that C3P0 was Vader’s childhood electronics project.

      • http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

         Eh, sorry, but that does make sense. The droids were always to be the thread. That C3PO was a project of Anikin’s childhood is something of a revelation to me. Just shows how little attention I could muster for that crap.

        • Mister44

           re: “That C3PO was a project of Anikin’s childhood is something of a revelation to me”

          Seriously – did you not see the first film?

          • Tynam

            Shhh. If B E Pratt actually didn’t see it, there’s no excuse for spoiling that innocence.

          • EH

            But a point must be made! Internet!!

      • Mister44

         The two droids were supposed to be the common thread through the whole saga – but I agree it was total weak sauce that 3PO started out as a project by Anakin.

        It would just be nice to see the old characters of Luke, Han, etc again. Though they are getting up there and maybe a film focused on them wouldn’t be a good idea. The next generation would be a natural progression.

        OR like you said, a whole new set of films with new characters ect might be cool too.

  • http://www.geekforce.com Hugh Johnson

    As long as it’s not done with green screen and CGI, I’ll give it the benefit of my doubt. Just don’t resurrect Jar Jar Binks!

    • ocker3

       Unless Gungans have a Very long life-span, he’d be dead. Most of the Ep 1-3 chars are dead or very old by Ep 4-6, and Ep 7 is a few decades after that. But I am scared about Jar Jar Jr.

      • Diogenes

         Time travel!!!

        • Editz

           Scrappy Doo!

      • http://billmcgonigle.com bill_mcgonigle

         Which is why Eps 1-3 and 4-6 are set in different universes.  Luke ages 16 years, but ObiWan ages a minimum of 50 (more like 100 since he’s a Jedi).  “Surely he must be dead by now?”  Vader also.
        This means Ep 1-3 can get a ‘reboot’ in the consistent universe, and the trash can be properly discarded.

  • http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

    Ok, I was sad when it seemed like there would be no promised third part. Then again, I saw Episode One. God, what a train wreck. I once accidentally saw that at the food stamp office. The sound was off, but it didn’t matter. What I saw was one fucking unholy mess of film. Jesus! It was just awful!! Here’s a test:  who is the lead in that film? What in holy hell is the center of that piece of crap??

    • http://twitter.com/HubrisSonic HubrisSonic

       George Lucas.

    • Tynam

      That’s not actually much of a test.  Avengers is a frakkin’ awesome action movie, but it doesn’t have a lead.  It doesn’t need one.

    • niktemadur

      who is the lead in that film? What in holy hell is the center of that piece of crap??

      As the YouTube review by Red Letter Media/Mr Plinkett pointed out, Episode One has no story arc and the characters are hazy, to say the least.

      Then I’m reminded of a potentially similar situation in 2001: A Space Odyssey.  But Kubrick is my hero for a reason (so is John Coltrane, but that is another story for another time).
      In A Space Odyssey, the hazy humans in the middle act are supposed to be bland and polite semi-drones stuck in a rut.  The true arc of the film is nothing less than the evolution of mankind, over a stretch of four million years, from hopeless to transcendent.

      Anyway, Lucas has been a very cool, Kubrick-inspired, avant-garde kinda guy, I highly recommend watching the remastered version of THX-1138 over the original one.  In the remaster, the new effects were used for adding texture and depth, and they actually turned a good and intriguing low-budget film into a great one. Also, THX-1138 is essential (and compelling) viewing if you want to see exactly where those trench bomber runs in Star Wars (1977) came from. Star Wars. No prefix, no suffix. Just Star Wars.

      • GlenBlank

        Actually, if you want to see exactly where the attack-the-Death-Star bomber runs came from, you need to dig up a copy of “The Dam Busters.” 

        It’s a docudrama account of a British engineer during WWII who developed a special bomb to try to destroy the massive hydroelectric dams in Germany’s industrial Ruhr Valley.

        The bomb is a large spinning cylinder dropped from a plane skimming low and level over the surface of the reservoir, which skips across the water surface until it hits the face of the dam, then sinks and explodes at the desired depth. 

        The plane has to approach at a precise height, holding steady as it flies through the tracers of the anti-aircraft fire from the dam’s gun towers, until it reaches a precise release point. Once the bomb is released, the plane pulls up into a hard turn to clear the dam.

        It was used (along with another WWII movie whose name escapes me at the moment) to storyboard the bomber runs on the Death Star.  The resemblance is unmistakable.

  • FourFeetOfCurl

    Star Wars Episode VII: Ewoks Raise A Ruckus

    On his last mission before retirement, Luke Skywalker leads a squadron of young Jedi cadets to put down a brewing Ewok rebellion and restore order on the Ewok home planet.

    Meanwhile, R2D2′s CPU has been mistakenly installed into a garbage droid, and it’s up to Chewbacca to sort out the terrible mess before Han and Leia get back from house shopping on Tatooine.

    • ocker3

       So you think the guy who wrote the mainstream-culture-challenging film “Little Miss Sunshine” and the at times quite dark “Toy Story 3″ (beloved toy characters facing inceneration??) would write a movie like you’ve described?? Both of those films would be funny for kids, but the layers in them speak volumes to anyone old enough to understand, about facing death, losing your long-held dreams, fighting for your place in the world and sometimes your very survival.

      • FourFeetOfCurl

        I think a film like “Little Miss Sunshine” leads into “Ewoks Raise A Rukus” quite nicely.  I’m sure that’s why Michael Arndt was selected for Episode 7.

        • ocker3

           Please give a synopsis of Little Miss Sunshine’s story, perhaps we saw two different films. I’m assuming that you Have seen Little Miss Sunshine??

          • Diogenes

             It’s about a bunch of people stuck in a car on a long miserable trip, and the damn camera is stuck with them.  Great advertising for commercial air travel.

  • Mister44

    This guy from Red Letter Media on youtube has the BEST, LOL critiques of the sequels. He has a back ground in film so he can articulate WHY Phantom Menace sucked so hard, but why the First movies were so good. The reviews are long, but 5 minutes into the first one I was hooked and watched them all at once. There is some dark humor and cussing  mixed in, for those of us with delicate ears and minds.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI

    • niktemadur

      Did you get any pizza rolls?
      I concur, Mr Plinkett is as fun as a barrel full of monkeys and if you’re not careful, you might learn a bit about the art of cinema storytelling before it’s done.

      But Plinkett does reviews only.  For the full deal, there’s Mike J Nichols, who did “The Phantom Edit” for episodes 1 and 2.  That guy knows what he’s doing and talking about.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_Edit

  • http://twitter.com/Soul_cake_duck Soul Cake Duck

    There are a ton of story lines in the expanded universe to draw from. If this guy has half a brain, that’s where he will look for inspiration.

  • Nathan Castle

    Stop harping on about the ‘expanded universe’.  The films are based on story treatments Lucas has already written.

    • Mister44

      Story treatments are vague outlines. Lots of wiggle room.

  • niktemadur

    I said it in a recent Boing Boing thread and I’ll repeat it here:
    Since Irvin Keshner sadly passed away a couple of years ago, pass the torch to Christopher Nolan.
    With Nolan, it would mean no more CGI than absolutely necessary.  Let’s take it back to the matte paintings.
    It would mean some good old fashioned popcorn substance, but substance nonetheless, to sink one’s teeth into.
    PLEASE!

  • mysterymoil

    Grandpa Luke Skywalker: Are you listening? Kill a lot of Sith. Not just one Sith. A lot of Sith.

  • Andy Reilly

    Of course there will be more Star Wars films. You don’t let a franchise like that die off, ESPECIALLY if you’re Disney. There’s $$$$ to be had, movies will be made. They will milk every last dollar they can from it.

  • http://beautifulsynthesis.com Andrea

    This is all just so bizarre to me. Sixteen years between episodes VI and I, and III really looked like the end. And then, ten years after III – WHAM! New Star Wars out of NOWHERE! Mind = blown.

  • miasm

    Bring back Carrie and Mark!