'Star Wars' Spinoff Hires 'Godzilla' Director Gareth Edwards

Fresh off the success of Godzilla, filmmaker Gareth Edwards has lined up his next project, something set in a galaxy far, far away.

Edwards is attached to direct one of the Star Wars spinoff films, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Gary Whitta (Book of Eli) is writing the script for the movie, which has a release date set for December 16, 2016, said Disney and Lucasfilm in a statement later posted on the official Star Wars website.

Due to the high level of secrecy surrounding the Star Wars development process, it is unclear which spinoff Edwards will tackle.

Speculation has focused on characters such as bounty hunter Boba Fett and Jedi master Yoda as those who might be getting their own movies. There are also rumors of a potential Han Solo origin story or at least something on the Solo clan, and untold adventures of Luke Skywalker.

"Ever since I saw Star Wars I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life - join the Rebel Alliance! I could not be more excited & honored to go on this mission with Lucasfilm," said Edwards in a statement release after THR broke the news.

Earlier in May, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that there was a plan to make at least three spinoff movies that would be released in between the main installments.

It has been reported that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are writing and producing the spinoffs.

The Star Wars project marks an amazing career trajectory for Edwards, who went from making a small creature feature for $500,000, 2010’s Monsters, to getting the assignment to take on Godzilla, a monster in need of a 21st century rehabilitation.

The mission was a success, with the Legendary/Warner Bros. movie overperforming when it opened last weekend, grossing $93.1 million. The movie also received strong critical reviews and plenty of fanboy love.

"Gareth's filmmaking talent makes him one of his generation's most creative and visionary directors,” said Legendary Entertainment’s chairman and CEO Thomas Tull in a statement in response to the Star Wars hire. "The plan has always been for Gareth to direct a different film before we started on another Godzilla, but who knew it would a Star Wars installment? We have a great plan in store for Godzilla fans and I am looking forward to seeing Gareth’s imprint on the Star Wars universe."

WME-repped Edwards is attached to direct Godzilla 2 and 3, but while story ideas exist, the Godzilla 2 project is still in early development and does not even have a script.

That frees up Edwards to be part of what is not only one of the biggest franchises in history, but also a project that is a dream for so many filmmakers who grew up loving and being inspired by the storied George Lucas universe.

Star Wars: Episode VII, with J.J. Abrams directing, just began production in Abu Dhabi. The film is set to hit theaters on Dec. 18, 2015.

Disney and Lucasfilm had no comment.

'Star Wars' Heading Back to London's Pinewood Studios

Star Wars: Episode VII, now titled Star Wars: The Force Awakens, may have finished shooting in London's Pinewood Studios only last week, but Disney isn't wasting any time locking down space for a future installment.

Speaking at the annual CBI conference in London, Pinewood Shepperton CEO Ivan Dunleavy announced that another Star Wars would be heading back to the studio facility, without offering any further details.

"The seventh Star Wars movie just finished shooting at Pinewood. And I'm delighted to be able to tell you that a new Star Wars movie is already booked in," he said.

Disney couldn’t be reached to confirm whether the film in question would be Star Wars VIII, to be written and directed by Rian Johnson, or one of the spinoffs, but another source later confirmed that it would be the first spinoff movie. The first stand-alone film, to be directed by Gareth Edwards, is due for release Dec. 16, 2016, so it would likely be shot in 2015.

"R2D2 was built in the U.K. 37 years ago," Dunleavy added, having introduced the Star Wars character onto the stage, bearing his script. "Since then, he's spent a lot of his life in foreign studios. But now he's back home."

A source revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that, following Star Wars: The Force Awakens wrapping, the latest James Bond movie would be moving into the same studio space.

Tatiana Maslany, Rooney Mara Testing for 'Star Wars' Stand-alone Movie

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Tatiana Maslany, the Canadian actress who stars as multiple replicants in BBC America's hit series Orphan Black, is testing for the female lead in the Star Wars spinoff that is being directed by Gareth Edwards.

Rooney Mara, who starred in the David Fincher version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, is also due to test this week among a handful of others, according to multiple sources.

Additionally Felicity Jones, who just received an Oscar nomination for best actress for her work in The Theory of Everything, is said to be on the want list, although there may be scheduling issues with Inferno, the Da Vinci Code sequel that Ron Howard is due to direct this spring and summer.

Plot and character details for the movie (will it focus on young Han Solo? Young Leia?) are being kept hidden deep in an R2 unit. Insiders say that reading and testing for the movie occurred in the U.K. in December and has now moved stateside.

At this stage, Lucasfilm has two Star Wars stand-alones in development, one with Edwards, the filmmaker behind last year's Godzilla movie, and Josh Trank. Only the Edwards one has a release date: Dec. 16, 2016.

Edwards' project is currently seeking writers after Garry Whitta completed a first draft and left the project.

In the aftermath, rumors surfaced that Simon Kinberg, who is already co-writing the Trank stand-alone with Lawrence Kasdan, would take over writing during. Sources, however, say that while Kinberg is creatively involved in Star Wars in an overall manner, there are no plans for him to take over. Kinberg is additionally crafting the X-Men universe, writing the X-Men: Apocalypse script for Fox and overseeing the upcoming Fantastic Four reshoots for which he did the rewrites.

Disney had no comment on the testing nor did the actress' reps.

'Star Wars' Stand-alone Movie to Star Felicity Jones

After a series of hush-hush readings and tests, Lucasfilm and Disney have zeroed in on Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Jones for the female lead in the Star Wars stand-alone film.

Jones is now in talks to star in the project, which Gareth Edwards is directing and Chris Weitz — who was just hired last week — is writing. Weitz is replacing Gary Whitta, who penned the first draft.

Actresses were meeting, reading and testing last week in Los Angeles for the role, with Tatiana Maslany and Rooney Mara among those in the mix.

The secrecy surrounding the project is thicker than the mists of Dagobah, and it is even unclear which character the stand-alone is focusing on. Sources say that Aaron Paul and Edgar Ramirez are on the interest list for the male lead.

Disney had no comment.

The movie has a release date of Dec. 16, 2016.

Jones is currently making the awards season rounds for The Theory of Everything, for which she snagged a best actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Jane Hawking, the first wife of physicist Stephen Hawking.

True Story, in which she stars with James Franco and Jonah Hill, just premiered at Sundance, and she is also shooting A Monster Calls, a family fantasy directed by J.A. Bayona that also stars Liam Neeson and Toby Kebbell.

She is repped by WME.

Director Gareth Edwards Reveals 'Star Wars: Rogue One' Centers on Death Star Heist

On the final day of the Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, one of the newest members of the Lucasfilm family — spinoff director Gareth Edwards — took the stage to talk about joining a galaxy far, far away.

Josh Trank, who was also slated to appear at the panel, was not able to attend. Moderator Pablo Hidalgo said he has been "under the weather."

Edwards is set to direct stand-alone film Star Wars: Rogue One, starring Felicity Jones, which is slated for release in December 2016. He was able to share more details about the film, including a logline, concept art and a bit of a sizzle reel at Sunday's event.

The helmer was joined by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and head of development Kiri Hart for the event, held at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Hidalgo revealed that the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer, which debuted on Thursday, was viewed 88 million times worldwide in the first 24 hours.

But the focus of the panel was the stand-alone films. "We really wanted freedom to do some films that could stand on their own, and tell new stories," said Hart, who revealed that they're calling them "anthology films."

Edwards says he'll start shooting this summer. But he did come with a sizzle reel, of sorts. It showed a jungle landscape, and then, hovering large in the sky, the Death Star.

"The Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic, before the dark times, before the Empire," said the voiceover.

Hidalgo also revealed an official logline for the film: "A rogue band of resistance fighters unite for a daring mission to steal the Death Star plans."

Edwards, who said that the film is set after Episode III and before Episode IV, added that his film won't have clear-cut villains and heroes. It's also very much a war film, he said. "It's called Star WARS," he joked, getting a laugh from the crowd.

“It’s about the fact that god’s not coming to save us, and we’re on our own,” said Edwards. “The absence of the Jedi is omnipresent in the film. It hangs over the whole movie.”

Edwards confirmed that the one castmember who has been announced, Jones, will play a Rebel in the film.

Star Wars Celebration, which runs April 16-19 at the Anaheim Convention Center, is a fan-centric event focused on all things Star Wars that began in 1999. Unlike most conventions, this one has traveled not only around the U.S. but around the planet. Six were held in the U.S., one in Japan and two in Europe. The last one occurred in 2013 in Essen, Germany, attracting more than 20,000 attendees.

"The absence of Jedi is omnipresent?" Interesting way with words there....

'Star Wars: Rogue One' to be Filmed With Arri's 6K Large Format Camera

Parts of Star Wars: Rogue One and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation were shot with Arri's Alexa 65, a large format, 6K resolution model of Arri's popular Alexa camera that is available exclusively through Arri Rental.

Many cinematographers are in line to get their hands on one of the still limited number of the new cameras, which really dazzled when unwrapped last fall, using test footage lensed by cinematographer Greig Fraser (Zero Dark Thirty), who’s using it on Rogue One (the production is also using film).

Oscar winning director of photography Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood) used the Alexa 65 for an underwater sequence in the upcoming Mission Impossible film, which is mostly shot with 35mm and 65mm film.

The Great Wall is in production with director Yimou Zhang and Oscar nominated cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh (The Piano), who’s using the camera, possibly, for the entire movie.

Also as previously reported in The Hollywood Reporter, Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki—who won back to back Oscars for Gravity and Birdman—used the Alexa 65 for part of Alejandro G. Inarritu’s The Revenant.

As part of a partnership with Imax, Arri is also co-developing a version of the Alexa 65 for Imax production. Avengers: Infinity War is set to be shot with it in its entirety, and Captain America: The Civil War will also use the Alexa 65 for an Imax format.

Last weekend, Munich-headquartered Arri -- which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2017 -- was awarded a technical lifetime achievement award at Cine Gear Expo. Presenting the award, American Society of Cinematographers past president Daryn Okada said, "It's pretty undeniable what their impact will be in the future. They keep innovating."

'Star Wars: Rogue One' Cast Revealed, First Photo Released



Lucasfilm announced the castmembers and crew who will make up Star Wars standalone Rogue One on Saturday, accompanied by the film's first cast photo.

The Gareth Edwards-directed film focuses on resistance fighters who unite to steal plans to Death Star.

Castmembers include Oscar-nominated Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk and Riz Ahmed.

"Rogue One takes place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope and will be a departure from the saga films but have elements that are familiar to the Star Wars universe," producer Kathleen Kennedy said in a release. "It goes into new territory, exploring the galactic struggle from a ground-war perspective while maintaining that essential Star Wars feel that fans have come to know."

Allison Shearmur, John Knoll, Simon Emanuel and Jason McGatlin are executive producers.

Disney chairman Bob Iger announced the creation of two Star Wars theme parks Saturday at D23 in Anaheim, Ca. "Everything we create will be part of our storytelling," said Iger. "These new lands at Disneyland and Walt Disney World will transport guests to a whole new Star Wars planet, including an epic Star Wars adventure that puts you in the middle of a climactic battle between the First Order and the Resistance."

Rogue One is slated for a Dec. 16, 2016 release.

Another chick as the main character?

Might as well change it from Rogue One to Hillary Won.

Bah humbug.