The names of characters played by John Boyega, Oscar Isaac and Daisy Ridley in Star Wars: The Force Awakens have been revealed in a set of trading cards.
Director JJ Abrams confirmed the names via some old school trading cards, in a humorous nod to when the films were first released in the 1970s.
Boyega's card showed his character to be called Finn, with Ridley's named Rey and Isaac's known as Poe Dameron.
The football-like droid, seen in the recent trailer, was revealed as BB:8.
Oscar Isaac is X-Wing fighter pilot Poe Dameron
The trading cards also feature a Sith warrior named Kylo Ren.
The seventh instalment of the sci-fi saga is set about 30 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.
The film, which reunites original stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, is scheduled to be released in cinemas on 18 December 2015.
Two more films are planned as part of the latest Star Wars chapter.
The original Star Wars trilogy, released between 1977 and 1983, was envisioned by director Lucas as the central chunk of a nine-movie cycle.
Disney are behind the forthcoming trilogy in the franchise following a deal which saw them buy Lucasfilm for more than $4bn (£2.5bn).
An 88-second trailer was released last month, revealing a new cross-shaped lightsaber and Tie Fighters pursuing the Millennium Falcon.
The teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has just been released. What does it reveal about the movie that is the biggest mystery in Hollywood?
It’s the trailer that has perhaps seen more speculation than any other in movie history. The teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has just been released, revealing details about a film that’s been kept under wraps to a remarkable degree.
While some facts have been made public – the original line-up is returning, with Mark Hamill playing Luke Skywalker, Harrison Ford appearing as Han Solo and Carrie Fisher reprising her role as Princess Leia, and the Millennium Falcon is getting a showing – crucial details were held back.
What are the iconic characters doing now? What roles are the new actors playing? What does Star Wars look like through the eyes of writer-director JJ Abrams? As online commentators have complained, everything was a mystery. Until now.
The level of secrecy and speculation has prompted fans to create and release their own fake versions of trailers (not the trailers you are looking for), many of which have had millions of views. So when the real one was finally released, it caused a great disturbance in the force… well, the internet. The 88-second trailer finally reveals director JJ Abrams’ hand, disclosing the briefest of hints about what takes place in the years after Darth Vader’s death and the presumed fall of the Empire.
The first of these suggests that the Empire has not disappeared. We see soaring shots of Tie fighters in battle with the Millennium Falcon. Ships full of heavily-armed Stormtroopers get ready for battle. X-wing fighters cruise across a lake and a faceless Sith advances through a forest before revealing a T-shaped lightsaber.
But beyond that broad narrative of good v evil, the trailer does not give too much away. Fans hoping for details of the story will be disappointed. Instead, Abrams – a master of teasing audiences (remember the Cloverfield trailers?) – leaves the viewer wanting more.
The trailer opens on what looks like the planet of Tatooine – although without the double sunset, it is difficult to be sure. We see a terrified looking character (John Boyega) dressed as a Stormtrooper but without his helmet. A voiceover declares: “There has been an awakening”. Fans will want to know what that means: Has there been an awakening in the Force? The title of the film would suggest so. But on which side? The shot suggests it may be on the Dark Side, but the trailer does not give enough to say one way or another.
The sequence then cuts to a fast-moving droid. In the background are parts of what look like an X-Wing fighter. Is this where Luke Skywalker has retired following the death of his father? Skywalker does not appear in the clip. Neither do the other two members of the original trio, Princess Leia or Han Solo.
It then cuts to classic fast-moving action sequences, where we see glimpses of familiar characters and craft interspersed with new faces, like a female character played by Daisy Ridley on a speeder and what we can only presume is one of the leaders of the Dark Side – a dark, faceless character that looks like the Phantom Menace’s Darth Maul complete with his shimmering, red saber. A soaring sequence showing a sleeker Millennium Falcon dog-fighting with swirling Tie fighters completes the trailer.
(YouTube/Star Wars)
All of this is set to iconic and rousing John Williams scores – including the original Star Wars fanfare. But while the music may be the same, it already feels like a very different film. The tone of the trailer is dark, as many expected from a director that updated the Star Trek franchise in a similar way. They also appear to be more complex and serious than the prequels – perhaps a nod to the many fans who felt bitterly disappointed by George Lucas’ Phantom Menace. Those same fans will also be pleased to see there is no sign of an annoying – and for many unforgivable – Jar Jar Binks type character, who went on to define the superficial nature of the prequels.
The new trailer will delight fans, but will leave them with as many questions as it answers. And they will know from JJ Abrams’ previous work that all is not always what it seems.
With the film itself set for release in December 2015, will fans learn much more in the coming months? Abrams has called the process of keeping details secret “rather extreme”, describing how people in his office covered up his windows with black paper when he was working on the script; yet he believes in the power of the big reveal. “It feels to me like there’s a purity in not knowing every little thing.”
One thing is for sure: The Phantom Menace looks like it will be forgiven.
The title of the new Star Wars movie has been revealed as The Force Awakens.
The seventh instalment of the sci-fi saga is set about 30 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.
The film sees a new cast including Daisy Ridley and John Boyega joining original cast members Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
The announcement was made on the movie's final day of production at Pinewood Studios, just outside London.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been directed by J J Abrams, who successfully reinvigorated the Star Trek movie franchise in 2009, and is due to be released on 18 December 2015.
Carrie Fisher and Billie Lourd. Photo / Getty Images
Carrie Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd has been cast in Disney's eagerly anticipatedStar Wars: Episode VII.
The 57-year-old actress reprises her role as Princess Leia in the upcoming latest instalment of the sci-fi series, which is currently being filmed at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, southeast England.
And although her daughter Billie Lourd, 21, is a relative unknown, director JJ Abrams is said to have chosen her to play a young version of her mother's character because of their visual similarities.
A source told The Sun newspaper: "Billie flew into the UK to join her mother earlier this month.
"She will even have her hair tied up in Princess Leia-style buns. She's an aspiring actress and singer so she grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
"Carrie backed the move as she wanted somebody in her family to play her most famous role."
Lourd - whose father is entertainment agent Bryan Lourd - will feature in flashback scenes as a younger version of Princess Leia, hero Luke Skywalker's sister, whom her mother portrayed in the first three Star Wars films.
Abrams has also created walk-on parts for his father Gerald and father-in law James H McGrath Jr, who both appeared in Star Trek under his direction.
Meanwhile Harrison Ford is recovering after breaking his leg on set and will soon begin rehab.
Ford was injured a week ago during filming of the much-anticipated sequel at Pinewood Studios outside of London.
The accident involved a spacecraft door falling on the 71-year-old actor's leg.
Ford's Han Solo pilots the Millennium Falcon, which is returning in Episode VII.
The film is scheduled for release in December 2015.
Those childhood dreams of doing the commute on a Star Wars Speeder Bike might be possible if a revolutionary hoverbike design takes off. (Video above has no sound)
Getting from A to B is very rarely boring in the world of science fiction – sadly real life is often a let-down in comparison. We do not have many floating, hovering, flying vehicles, despite a great deal of engineering effort from entrepreneurs to develop jetpacks, flying cars, and radical hovercraft.
But if the hoverbike currently being developed by Los Angeles-basedAerofex, gets off the ground, this could change. It is uncannily reminiscent of a Speeder Bike from the original Star Wars trilogy.
The device is named the Aero-X and it takes up about as much room as a small car. Eventually there will be space for just two passengers though, and early prototypes show only one brave test-rider, who perches on top of two horizontal spinning blades encased in circular housings.
The company calls it a crossover vehicle. It is technically a hovercraft, but it apparently feels like riding a motorbike. It is designed for low-altitude flying, and can zoom over ground that even an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) would struggle with. Aerofex says it will be capable of 72km/h (45mph).
But at a cost of $85,000, who is a crossover hoverbike aimed at, beyond the odd rich eccentric with a head for heights? Although it’s a niche product, the company’s CTO and founder Mark DeRoche told me it could be a lucrative niche. “There’s really nothing between a ground vehicle and an aircraft,” he says, apart from much more expensive helicopters and small planes. Aerofex thinks its vehicle could be useful for farmers, both for agriculture (crops) and herding animals. It could also be used by emergency services, for disaster relief or search and rescue, as well as for border patrols.
The vehicles are due to go on sale in 2017 - and will cost $80,000 each (Aerofex)
None of these people fly aircraft for a living, so the vehicle will have to be easy enough for a non-pilot to fly. The company says that should be possible, and that the rider sits in a position where the vehicle responds to his movements similar to the way a motorcycle would. Aerofex says it has found that, for this type of vehicle, it makes sense to fly up to around 20ft (6m) above the ground.
The concept behind the Aero-X isn’t new, with similar designs dating back to the 1950s. Piasecki Helicopter Co (now Piasecki Aircraft) built three variants of "flying Jeep" for the US army. Cutbacks in military spending meant the vehicles were never developed further, but they serve as a proof-of-concept for tandem-duct aircraft like the hoverbike, says DeRoche.
Flight controls
The video (above) shows early test flights of the Aero-X, with no computer interface between the pilot and the controls. DeRoche says this is to prove that the controls are as intuitive as possible. It’s important to prove that stable flight is possible without constant, complicated computer intervention, says DeRoche. “If we had said, ‘Oh by the way there’s a computer in there’ it would be like photoshopping our videos.”
Production hoverbikes will probably have more computers to help guide the pilot, particularly in extreme circumstances. Like traction control technology in a modern car, the computer could help a driver going too fast, or who, in a flying vehicle, encounters strong winds for example.
Another significant design consideration is the engine. The Aero-X uses a special rotary engine, which DeRoche says offers additional safety benefits. “They have some features that we need,” he says. “For example a piston engine could seize – we can’t allow that.”
Aerofex says the vehicle could have a variety of uses, including agricultural work and border patrols (Aerofex)
A rotary engine design should continue to allow the blades to rotate, even if it stops running, which could help in landing the craft in an emergency. A conventional engine, on the other hand, can lock in one position if a major component fails. That’s because rotary engines do away with conventional pistons which reciprocate, up and down – action that has to be then converted into rotational movement. Instead they have a spinning rotor to do the jobs of compression, ignition, combustion and exhaust in sequence.
It will be interesting to see if the company can overcome some of the well-known limitations of rotary engines. Mazda was one leading car-maker that used them, in their RX line of vehicles, but in general they have proven to be difficult to make clean and fuel efficient, and they need scrupulous regular maintenance to avoid engine failures. (Mazda has since stopped rotary engine car sales, as they could not meet emissions standards).
Aerofex says it is working on three different proposals to bring vehicles such as the Aero-X into commercial production. The company is talking to the US government, looking at the commercial market, and also working on an unmanned version of the vehicle – a drone that could be used for crop dusting, for instance.
The company says deliveries should start in 2017 – if you’re feeling optimistic you can place a deposit for one now.
The Aerofex may not whisk you between giant trees at 200mph – sorry Star Wars fans – but it is definitely more out-of-this-world than your average hatchback.
It's just over 24 hours since JJ Abrams finally revealed who he had cast to appear in the eagerly anticipated Disney and Lucas Film Star Wars sequel, Episode VII.
And the announcement proved a mixed bag.
On the one hand, fans were delighted to hear of the return of Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Kenny Baker (R2-D2).
On the other, they were left scratching their heads and frantically googling the names of several relative unknowns, seemingly plucked from obscurity and thrown into the most high-profile roles that the entertainment industry has going.
Among the most puzzling were John Boyega, a 22-year-old London-based actor best known for starring in Attack The Block, Adam Driver of Girls fame, Domhnall Gleeson, the son of Irish actor Brendan Gleeson who played Ron Weasley's brother in Harry Potter, and Oscar Isaac, the star of the Coen brothers'Inside Llewyn Davis.
By far the most Googled, however, was Daisy Ridley, who quickly became an overnight internet sensation. Partly because of the role she's rumoured to be taking on, and partly because she's the only new major female character in the film.
But who the hell is she? Allow us to enlighten you.
She's most famous for...
Erm. Appearing in Star Wars: Episode VII. Before she's actually appeared in it. Or so credits her IMDB account, which was updated moments after JJ Abrams' big casting announcement was made:
Her other most noted roles were in the second season of Mr Selfridge, in which she starred opposite Jeremy Piven as Roxie Starlet. She also had roles in Blue Season,Scrawl and Youngers (cue tumbleweed) as well as guest stints in Casualty andSilent Witness. She makes her silver screen debut in Inbetweeners 2, due for release in August.
She might well be set to play the daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia, Jaina Solo...
Which, if the rumours surrounding the as of yet unknown character she will be playing are true, will instantly make her the coolest member of the entire cast. Back of the class, Mark Hamill. Back of the class.
She was briefly on Twitter...
If you wanted to stalk her every waking movement for any possible nuggets of information regarding the above, her handle is: @DaisyRidley. She only set the account up last night, tweeting "Hello everyone!" and "Overwhelmed by all the support. This is the greatest day of my life. I'm told I can't say who I'm playing yet, but it's exciting!" The account hasn't been verified, and it's since been suspended, but it's probably her and not a 50-year-old man eating mackerel out of a can and playing WOW.
She's also newly on Instagram...
And this is all she wants you to know about her:
Except, of course, for this. Her vital statistics. Which are described thusly on her agency site...
Just in case you wanted to know how tall she was or something:
Alec Guinness described the Star Wars films as “fairytale nonsense”, calling the dialogue “rubbish”. (Photo: Lucas Film)
When a film star like Jim Carrey refuses to promote the movie he appears in – who is to blame? Tom Brook takes a look at both sides of the story.
You can usually count on Hollywood’s well-oiled marketing machine to bring its a stars together to sell a picture. So it can be quite a spectacle when a big player refuses to go by the rules and throws a spanner in the works. That happened when Jim Carrey, star of the superhero action comedy Kick-Ass 2, declared he wouldn’t promote the film that opens in cinemas this week.
Carrey, long an advocate of gun control legislation, was concerned by the fatal Sandy Hook school shootings in Connecticut last December. The actor told his 11 million Twitter followers: “I did Kick-Ass a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence.”
His announcement caused shock waves in Hollywood because big name stars who are unhappy with their films normally keep their mouths shut – although they sometimes open up afterwards. Christopher Plummer loathed The Sound of Music and subsequently referred to it as “The Sound of Mucus”. Alec Guinness, not a fan of Star Wars in which he appeared as Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi, described the dialogue as “mumbo jumbo”.
But a big star like Carrey distancing himself from a picture before its release is highly unusual – and it certainly got people talking. “I don’t remember any actor doing something like this ever before,” says Tim Gray, International Editor at Variety – Hollywood’s oldest industry trade publication. “Jim Carrey said ‘Look, I made this before Sandy Hook shootings in Connecticut and now I’m having second thoughts about it.’ So the fact that he did it on principle – I like him for that.”
Carrey’s decision hasn’t pleased Universal Pictures, the studio backing the film. Kick-Ass 2 creator Mark Miller gave his own response online stating: “As you may know Jim is a passionate advocate of gun-control and I respect both his politics and his opinion but I’m baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn’t in the screenplay 18 months ago – yes the body count is very high – but a movie called Kick-Ass 2 really has to do what it says on the tin.”
Among film critics the response to Carrey’s action has in some instances been sympathetic. Screen International reviewer David D’Arcy believes the star’s decision suggests he had come to his senses. D’Arcy argues that unstable gun users often fail to differentiate fiction from everyday life and imitate characters in fiction. “Carrey’s concerns are well-founded,” he says.
While not necessarily supporting his decision to renege on his Kick-Ass 2 promotional commitments, Carrey has support from some of the biggest names in American entertainment who share his distaste for screen violence. When I asked Oprah Winfrey, who’s been promoting her new film The Butler, how she viewed Carrey’s decision she said: “I can only speak for myself, I don’t watch violent films, I certainly could not participate in one, I don’t want to create that kind of energy for myself.”
Breaking the rules
For individuals involved in promoting movies Carrey enjoys less support. New York publicist Ronn Torossian views the stars decision to disassociate himself from the film as “tremendously unorthodox”.
“I think when you take a paycheck,” he says, “you have responsibility to do promotions. I think when you take a paycheck you have a certain responsibility to the business of entertainment.”
Most movie stars do adhere to the rules. Doing publicity is a contractual agreement and whether or not they support Carrey’s actions, most actors see it as their duty. “I feel I have total responsibility to promote a film – I think it’s part of my job,” says the actor Peter Sarsgaard. “I try to be honest when promoting it on whatever level that you can be. There are certainly movies that you like less well than other ones you try to concentrate on the positive.”
The precise details of Carrey’s contract for Kick-Ass 2 aren’t known but it’s almost certain it stated he had an obligation to participate in the film’s promotional activities – but it’s thought unlikely that Universal Pictures will take legal action.
Tim Gray says: “I think it would make them look very bad if they sued him for not doing publicity – they don’t want bad publicity on this film - so I think they’ll let it go – but it’s either contractual – or at least an unspoken law that if they want you to do publicity you’ll do it.”
Show me the money
Some of Carrey’s critics see an element of hypocrisy in his actions – arguing that if he feels so strongly on the issue he shouldn’t hang on to the money he’s made from the film. “I wonder if he’s donating his salary to charity to show his tremendous dissatisfaction with the movie?” says Torossian. “If he wants to speak out against it then frankly he should give back his salary.”
It’s hard to know what the fallout of Carrey’s disassociation from Kick-Ass 2 will have on the film’s prospects. Kick-Ass creator Mark Miller has been arguing that it’s generated reams of helpful publicity because TV programmes have been discussing the picture and bringing attention to the Kick-Ass franchise.
But some think the film’s box office prospects have been damaged by Carrey’s action. “I don’t think it’s a game-changer I think that it could hurt the movie and I think it could hurt his career as well,” says Torossian.
That’s the big question: Will Carrey now find that producers are less likely to employ him in the future, fearful he’s too much of a wild card and might renege on publicity commitments?
David D’Arcy predicts it “will be hard for his agent to guarantee good behaviour from Carrey, whose career and persona have been based on a character that can’t be controlled. My sense is that Carrey will self-regulate, choosing roles more carefully and self producing.”
Carrey certainly hasn’t lost his ability to engage his followers – and he is a very talented actor. Carrey’s fate in the wake of his Kick-Ass 2 remarks will to some extent be determined by what happens at the box office. As Tim Gray at Variety puts it: “I think in Hollywood the bottom line is, ‘Do you make money?’ So I think for Jim Carrey the more important question for Hollywood is, ‘Is Kick-Ass 2 gonna make money?' And if it is all is forgiven.”
Oscar Isaac is X-Wing fighter pilot Poe Dameron
