After the announcement that John Williams will be scoring Star Wars: Episode VII Executive producer Kathleen Kennedy has provided a few not-too-revealing but interesting updates on the production while speaking on a panel hosted by Warwick Davis (Wicket). Kennedy says she's dividing her time between Lucasfilm and Bad Robot, and has had extensive story meetings with J.J. Abrams and the rest of the writing team, including The Empire Strikes Back scribe Lawrence Kasdan and of course Toy Story 3 scribe Michael Arndt. It sounds as if they are determined not top make the same mistake as the prequels did anyway, by putting more emphasis on character and not excessive CGI "spectacle".
"The story and characters are all we’re talking about right now. We have an amazing team at ILM, who can create fantastic effects, but if we don’t have a great story and characters, the effects mean nothing. I do think making huge popular culture – and I’ve had the good fortune to be a part of a lot it – is really hard to do and get right. And if you don’t spend the time you need on developing characters, and finding stories, complicated stories, the audience gets tired because they think they’re seeing the same thing again and again."
Much to the delight of the fans in attendance, Kennedy also revealed that they will be "combining real locations and special effects" on
Star Wars: Episode VII, adding that they'll be using "every single tool in the toolbox to create the look of these movies." What are those tools?
"It's using model makers; it's using real droids; it's taking advantage of artwork that you actually can touch and feel," replied Kennedy when pressed by Davis.
"And we want to do that in combination with CG effects. We figure that's what will make it real."
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Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.