While announcing that principal photography has completed for J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII, starwars.com let it be known that the complete title is The Force Awakens.
At first glance, it seems a fitting title for the generational hand-off and rebirth of the Jedi. Now the VFX heavy lifting by ILM intensifies as they ready for next year’s Dec. 18 release.
Star Wars: Episode VII (Dec. 18, 2015) continues 30 years later with a generational conflict that no doubt bridges the saga as well as the diverse demo.
The script is by Lawrence Kasdan and Abrams. Kathleen Kennedy, Abrams, and Bryan Burk are producing, and John Williams returns as the composer.
Industrial Light & Magic has opened VFX office in London’s Soho district to serve as the Star Wars while also expanding its Vancouver facility and relocating ILM Singapore to the newly constructed Sandcrawler building located in the Fusionopolis business district.
Roger Guyett (Star Trek Into Darkness) will be the VFX supervisor on Episode VII, with ILM handling all of the work in London (where the pipeline will be located), the San Francisco headquarters, Vancouver, and Singapore along with strategic partner Base FX in Beijing.
ILM London hopes to ramp up to 200 initially, including creative director Ben Morris (formerly with Framestore); animation director Michael Eames (most recently with Prime Focus); VFX producer Nina Fallon (formerly with Dneg); and director of operations Sue Lyster (also from Framestore).
The dream team also includes director of photography Dan Mindel (Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness), who shot on film, production designers Rick Carter (Lincoln, Avatar, Forrest Gump) and Darren Gilford (Oblivion, TRON: Legacy), costume designer Michael Kaplan (Star Trek Into Darkness, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, Fight Club), special effects supervisor Chris Corbould (Skyfall,The Dark Knight Rises, Inception), sound designer Ben Burtt (Lincoln, Wall-E, Star Wars: Episodes I-VI), re-recording mixer Gary Rydstrom (Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Toy Story, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol), and supervising sound editor Matthew Wood (Star Trek Into Darkness, The Master, There Will Be Blood) of Skywalker Sound.