By: Benjamin Hart
A couple months back we received information from various sources indicating that Star Wars: The Last Jedi could be the longest Star Wars film to date. Because those sources were sketchy at best, we could not confirm the news, but today the director of the film did just that.
Star Wars was given some much deserved acknowledgements at the 43rd annual Saturn Awards, which was held in Burbank, California in last night! The event was hosted by Guardians Of The Galaxy star Sean Gunn and presented accolades to an assortment of film and television productions. Among them were the most recent Star Wars film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and the ongoing animated series, Star Wars Rebels.
Rogue One received several nominations, including nods for Best Film Make-Up, Best Film Costume Design, Best Film Music, Best Film Production Design, and Best Film Editing. Rogue One stars Felicity Jones and Diego Luna were also nominated for Best Actress in a Film and Best Supporting Actor in a Film, respectively.
Lucasfilm announced that Gareth Edwards would be the director for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story three years ago today.
The movie, which was released in December 2016, is the first of a set of Star Wars stand alone movies to hit cinemas.
In an interview with StarWars.com, the Rogue One director said: "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 and honored to go on this mission with Lucasfilm."
One of the most iconic moments of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is when Darth Vader faces off against a group of Rebel soldiers in a darkened hallway. Director Gareth Edwards recently sat down with Wired to discuss the making of that final scene. He reveals that the scene was a late addition, being shot only four months before the film's release. He also spoke about the difficulty in recreating the Death Star plans prop that Leia places in R2 in A New Hope, as well as what it was like filming his own cameo in that scene. You can check out the video below,
When the first trailers for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story began to hit the film was still evolving and going through significant changes. This resulted in several shots appearing in the trailers but not the final film. Perhaps the most famous of these shots featured Jyn Erso on the roof of the Imprial complex on Scarif only to have a TIE appear in front of her. Many fans wanted to know what happened next, unfortunately there is no true answer.
Over the past week, the creatives involved in the making of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story have been revealing how the story of the film changed through various editions of the script. We've heard about alternate endings, alternate beginnings, and even an alternate death for Director Krennic. Now, Riz Ahmed has revealed that Bodhi Rook was, at one point, a completely different character. In an interview with EW's Anthony Breznican, Ahmed revealed that Bodhi wasn't always the well-intentioned, if nervous, Imperial pilot turned Rebel. In fact, he wasn't even named Bodhi.
One of the things that sets Rogue One: A Star Wars Story apart from the rest of the Star Wars films is that the first scene takes place fifteen years before the rest of the film.In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rogue One director Gareth Edwards and the film's first writer Gary Whitta revealed that, while the plan was always to open with a prologue, the specifics of the scene were very different in the first draft. The main difference, Krennic wasn't there for Galen. He was after Lyra, who was secretly a Jedi knight.
Entertainment Weekly has released a new preview for the special features on the upcoming home media release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The preview focuses in on the return of Darth Vader to the silver screen, featuring interviews with director Gareth Edwards, cinematographer Greg Frasier, and Director Orson Krennic actor Ben Mendelsohn. They discuss what it meant to bring Vader back and his climactic final scene. Check it out below,
While Rogue One: A Star Wars Story did not end up scoring an award at the Oscars a few weeks back, awards season is far from over, and the film just received one its highest honors yet!
The Three Empire Awards were held recently and Rogue One picked up an assortment of nominations going into the ceremony, including Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Best Costume Design, Best Make-Up And Hairstyling, Best Visual Effects, and Best Production Design. Riz Ahmed was also nominated for Best Male Newcomer for his role as Bodhi Rook.
One of the things that sets Rogue One: A Star Wars Story apart from most Hollywood blockbusters is that all the main characters died at the end. But this wasn't always the case, director Gareth Edwards has spoken in the past about how originally some of the characters would have survived because he didn't think Disney would let them kill of all the characters (even though he felt they all should). Now, with the the film being released on digital download this week (and DVD and blu-ray on April 4th), Edwards and the film's first writer Gary Whitta have revealed to Entertainment Weekly's Anthony Breznican how they originally envisioned the film ending.
When the release date and bonus features for the home media release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story were announced, one feature that was conspicuous by its absence was the deleted scenes. Given how much we heard about reshoots during the film's production, and how many shots were in the trailer but not in the film, many fans assumed the home media release would be chock full of deleted and extended scenes. But this was not the case and the release will not feature any deleted scenes.
One story that followed any member of the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story cast and crew everywhere they went in the months leading up to, and following, the film's release was the infamous reshoots. There were conflicting reports about the extent of the reshoots, though official channels maintain that they were the regularly scheduled reshoots. While few would argue that Rogue One did not deliver, there are still questions about what was changed in the reshoots. Those questions are backed up by several shots that were seen in the film's trailers. These shots seemed to indicate a more intricate battle on the beach on the planet Scarif, with Jyn (Felicity Jones), Cassian (Diego Luna), and K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) carrying the Death Star as they evaded the Empire.
There are many iconic names in the Star Wars galaxy and one of the challenges the new filmmakers have is coming up with new names that live up to them. Sometime they hit them out of the park (Director Orson Krennic), other times they fall a bit short (Supreme Leader Snoke). But it's not just characters, the names spaceships and planets are just as important to the feel of Star Wars.
Star Wars fans attending the South By Southwest Festival this weekend in Austin, Texas will want to take time to check out the all new immersive Rogue One: A Star Wars Story experience that Lucasfilm is running. The details about the experience are vague but it will involve participants stealing the Death Star plans and trying to get the off Scarif. The experience will run from 10am-7pm from March 10th to 12th at Grimes Studio (500 E. Fifth St., Austin, TX 78701).
The Force is strong with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars Rebels at this year's Saturn Awards. The Star Wars franchise was nominated for twelve awards at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror annual Saturn Awards, which will be handed out on June 28th at a ceremony in Burbank, California. Rogue One led all films this year with nominations for eleven awards including Best Science Fiction Film, Best Director, and Best Actress. Check out the complete list of categories Star Wars was nominated in below,
Earlier this week, Industrial Light and Magic released a VFX reel breaking down the creation of some of the more dramatic effects in the ground battles in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Today, they released another VFX Breakdown reel focusing on the space battle above Scarif during the third act of the film. The reel shows the many layers that go into creating the amazing CGI (including practical models) as well as director Gareth Edwards using ILM's virtual camera system. Check it out for yourself below,
The award nominations continue to pour in for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. So far the film has received nods for everything from the Academy Awards to the Kids Choice Awards, and today we can add the Empire Awards to that list. The film picked up nine nominations, including best Sci-fi/Fantasy film and best actress for Felicity Jones (Jyn Erso). The awards show take place on March 19th. The categories Rogue One has been nominated for (and their competition) are listed below,
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has been in theaters for over two weeks now and director Gareth Edwards is now able to freely discuss a film that has been shrouded in secrecy for over two years now. Edwards spoke with Empire Magazine recently about the film, divulging details regards why some scenes were in the trailers and not the film, the lack of an opening crawl on the film, and what it was like to film scenes with Darth Vader.
The latest 'Rogue One' behind the scenes feature has been released.
The featurette focuses on the chief locations used in Rogue One.
Cast and crew give their take on the set locations used in the film in a featurette which also includes footage from the locations themselves.
Take a look at the featurette down below:
The fact Gareth Edwards used set locations in this film adds another layer into the making of the film, it shows the dedication that the producers put into ensuring Rogue One was visually depicted as a part of the larger Star Wars film franchise, even if the film itself did not focus on the main 'Star Wars' story.
One of the elements that makes Rogue One: A Star Wars Story so unique is that ever principle character dies. Given the weight of what they were doing and the stakes of their mission, it makes sense that the crew of Rogue One would have to make the ultimate sacrifice. You might think that this was something the filmmakers and the studio would fight over. That Disney would want at least some of the characters to survive to set up sequels and spin offs, or at least to make the ending less distressing for audiences.
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