It has finally been officially confirmed. Gareth Edwards will direct the first stand-alone STAR WARS movie, and it will be called ROGUE ONE. The news has just been announced at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco by Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger. Also confirmed to star in the movie is Britain’s own Felicity Jones in a role that is to be confirmed.
ROGUE ONE will be based on a story by Industrial Light and Magic chief creative officer John Knoll, and will be released on December 16th, 2016. Chris Weitz (ABOUT A BOY) is scripting. Shooting takes place in London this summer.
In additional STAR WARS news, LOOPER and BRICK helmer Rian Johnson has officially been unveiled as the writer and director of STAR WARS EPISODE VII. It will be released exactly forty years and one day after the debut of the first movie. The date for your diaries is May 26, 2017, just six months after ROGUE ONE.
Here is how it appeared on StarWars.com
Iger confirmed that Rian Johnson will write and direct Star Wars: Episode VIII. The film, which continues the saga after the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is set for release on May 26, 2017 — forty years and a day after the release of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. Johnson is widely considered one of cinema’s most gifted young filmmakers, having directed the modern sci-fi classic, Looper, as well as Brick and The Brothers Bloom. He was also behind the camera for three episodes of the critically-acclaimed TV series Breaking Bad, including “Ozymandias,” which series creator Vince Gilligan named as the best installment of the show. Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman, producer of Looper, Don Jon, Brick, and The Brothers Bloom, are on board to produce.
Before all of that, Disney and LucasFilm will release the first movie in the new STAR WARS saga, STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, which is directed by JJ Abrams, this coming December. The countdown continues.
Source: StarWars.com
