We’re in a bit of a holding pattern when it comes to the participation of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford in J.J. Abrams‘ Star Wars: Episode VII.  Ford “thinks it’s happening”, George Lucas says they’re “pretty much” signed on for the upcoming sequel, and now Fisher has reiterated her involvement in the film.  In November, she said she was on board, but a publicist said the comment was “tongue-in-cheek”.  In March, Fisher flat out said she’ll reprise her role as Princess Leia.  Speaking to fans at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, Fisher said, “I like being bought by Disney, because they never wanted to buy me before.”

Hit the jump for more.  Star Wars: Episode VII is tentatively set for 2015.

As the release of director J.J. Abrams’ sequel Star Trek Into Darkness, the filmmaker is understandably going to be inundated with questions about Star Wars: Episode VII.  While we will likely see all kinds of evasions and non-answers from Abrams while on the publicity circuit (and again, understandably so), the director recently sat down with the folks at Playboy for an extended interview, and it’s probably more revealing than anything you’re going to see in the coming months.  Abrams discusses his approach to Episode VII and how much input he has into the story, the possibility of him directing Star Trek 3, and even Cloverfield 2 and the prospect of an Alias movie.  Hit the jump to read on.

Though director J.J. Abrams is undoubtedly deep in development on the very highly anticipated Star Wars: Episode VII, we still have yet to hear any official word about the film’s plot or its characters.  Rumors have swirled that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford will be reprising their roles in the sequel, and the actors have hinted at, confirmed, denied, and walked back their involvement in the follow-up numerous times.  Understandably there are some potentially very lucrative contracts to be drawn up with the trio should they sign on, and it sounds like they’re currently in some stage of negotiations for their return but can’t really confirm as much until the terms are settled.

The notoriously prickly Ford has been lambasted with Star Wars questions recently while on the press tour for 42, and he stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live last night to promote the film.  During his appearance, he took part in a pretty funny bit in which he agreed to answer questions from audience members only if they didn’t ask about Star Wars.  As one can imagine, things didn’t exactly go as planned.  Hit the jump to watch Ford be a surprisingly good sport.

In addition to giving a moving response to the Boston Marathon tragedy, Patton Oswalt has been using his status as Lord High Geek to star in some amazing comedy videos this week.  The first is a bit from College Humor where he plays the Penguin in the site’s ongoing mockery of Batman, “Badman”.  In the sketch, Batman fails to understand the difference between death and being asleep.

The other video is a deleted scene from Parks and Recreation where he plays a citizen doing a filibuster by creating possibly the nerdiest fan-fiction crossover ever between Star Wars: Episode VII and The Avengers 2 while also bringing in the rest of the Marvel Universe, licensing rights be damned.  Eventually it just becomes geeky white noise where I stopped following the plot and just heard bits like “Lando Calrissian, Princess Leia, Han Solo love triangle”, “Robot Chewbacca”, and “Time Ribbon”.  I imagine that Oswalt wrote/riffed the uncut 8-minute scene, but since Parks has such amazing writers, I could believe they had input as well.  Hit the jump for comic greatness.

Get ready for a whole lot of Star Wars, folks.  Disney took the stage today for its presentation at CinemaCon—a convention for theater owners—in Las Vegas, and the studio made the bold announcement that it is planning on releasing a new Star Wars film into theaters every summer starting with 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII.  The studio will alternate every other year with an “Episode” film and a standalone film, and based on previous rumors there certainly won’t be a lack of characters for them to mine.  Hit the jump for more.

Entertainment Weekly has announced the complete lineup for the upcoming EW CapeTown Film Festival, and it’s chock-full of great films and exciting guests.  Screenings include Shaun of the Dead, The Thing, Escape from New York, The Goonies, Twelve Monkeys, and Star Trek (2009), with a special “May the 4th Be With You” all-day marathon of Return of the Jedi.  More excitingly, though, is the fact that Edgar Wright, John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, Richard Donner, Neil Gaiman, Terry Gilliam, Leonard Nemoy, and more will be onhand to introduce and discuss the various films.

Hit the jump to check out the full lineup, which also includes a special announcement that’s coming soon.  EW CapeTown Film Festival will run in Los Angeles from April 30th – May 6th.

With the release of Star Trek Into Darkness only a couple of months away, director J.J. Abrams is about to be hounded by countless questions about Star Wars: Episode VII as he starts to make the Trek press rounds.  The filmmaker has thus far been fairly quiet with regards to him taking the helm of the first pic in a new trilogy of Star Wars movies, but he recently opened up to Empire during what appears to be a wide-ranging interview.

Just yesterday we shared his comments with the magazine about his scrapped Superman script Flyby and how it relates to this summer’s Man of Steel, and now the outlet has unveiled what Abrams had to say about approaching the new Star Wars film as a massive fan and the similarities with his take on Star Trek.  Hit the jump to read on.

Another day, another semi-confirmation of a Star Wars return for an actor from the original trilogy.  Despite Joss Whedon’s thoughts on the matter, it seems inevitable now that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford will be reprising their roles from the original Star Wars trilogy in the J.J. Abrams-helmed Episode VII.  Hamill previously said the trio was in talks, Fisher has outright confirmed that she’ll be back, and George Lucas said it’s pretty much a done deal.  Now you can add the final piece of the puzzle to the pile, as Harrison Ford has essentially confirmed that they’ll all be back saying, “I think it’s happening.”  Hit the jump for more.

When it comes to the new Star Wars films, everybody has an opinion.  Of course it’s kind of hard to please absolutely everyone when it comes to arguably the most popular film franchise of all time, but ever since Disney announced that a new trilogy was on the way, fans have been speculating and debating like crazy over episodes 7, 8, and 9.  J.J. Abrams has officially been tapped to bring the first film to fruition and screenwriter Michael Arndt is currently working on the script, but unsurprisingly Disney and Lucasfilm have remained mum with regards to story details.

With a targeted 2015 release date looming, some minor pieces of info regarding the new trilogy have been surfacing here and there, and the biggest news nugget concerning Episode VII is undoubtedly the fact that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford are reportedly in discussions to reprise their characters in the new film.  Fans seem to be split on whether it’s a good idea to be revisiting old characters in the new trilogy, but one wildly popular filmmaker recently took sides in the debate as The Avengers director Joss Whedon says he wouldn’t be looking to the past in Episode VII if it were up to him.  Hit the jump for Whedon’s full thoughts on the subject.

Here’s some unfortunate news for fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  It looks like Lucasfilm has plans to wind down the animated series after five successful seasons.  No new episodes will be produced for Cartoon Network, but some story arcs are being developed and will be available elsewhere as bonus material.  Another animated series – Seth Green’s Star Wars: Detours – won’t even get off the ground as the execs have decided to postpone the comedy, which was planned before the new film trilogy was announced.  Hit the jump for the full press release as well as a new clip from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Over the past month, we’ve heard various stories about the involvement of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford for J.J. Abrams‘ Star Wars: Episode VII.  Ford was reportedly on board, but then another report said that contract signings were still a ways off.  Then Hamill said they were in talks, but nothing had been signed.  Yesterday, Fisher confirmed she would return to play Princess Leia.  Any way you slice it, it looks like the characters are in the script for the new movie, and the only question is when it will be declared official that the trio of actors are reprising their roles.

Your trust in George Lucas may have been shaken by the prequels, but you can still probably take his word when it comes to the business side of things even though he’s not actively involved in the new trilogy.  Hit the jump for what he had to say about Hamill, Fisher, and Ford’s return.

The cards for a Star Wars cast reunion look to be falling into place.  Ever since the announcement that Disney was moving forward with a new Star Wars trilogy, rumors have swirled regarding the involvement of the original trilogy’s cast members.  Multiple reports have popped up claiming that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford are eyeing a return to the series, and the subsequent denials/clarifications/etc. have made it clear that deals are likely being worked out.  Now we have a firm clarification straight from the source, as Carrie Fisher has confirmed that she will appear in director J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode: VII.  Hit the jump for more.

I’m opening myself up to complete public failure here, but in the spirit of Oscar weekend I thought it might be fun to share with peers and readers alike my picks for tomorrow’s 85th Academy Awards. Worst case scenario, I figure, is that my picks are so woefully off base that I’m quickly offered a well-compensated position within the Republican Party as a polling analyst. High hopes, I know, but ultimately it’s all in the name of fun. Here’s to hoping you the reader will enjoy comparing your predictions against my own and sleeping better at night as a result of your superior Oscar guessing power.

My half-witted Oscar picks aside, this week’s edition features category previews plus Adam and Matt’s own predictions, Snitch interviews with Dwayne Johnson and more, a character guide to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, a roundup of recent Star Wars: Episode VII talk, and Sony’s PlayStation 4 announcement. Something that resembles a brief recap and link to each is starved for your attention after the jump.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Mark Hamill spoke at length regarding his involvement with Star Wars: Episode VII.  Yesterday, Showbiz 411 reported that Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford were all set to return, although an earlier report said a deal with Ford wouldn’t be closed for weeks or possibly months.  In this case, it’s best to go straight to the source, and Hamill confirmed his earlier comments that George Lucas wanted to know if they were interested, and that the filmmakers have been talking to them.  Lucas also told Hamill that if they didn’t want to do the sequels, “they wouldn’t cast another actor in our parts; they would write us out.”  And on that day, George Lucas finally did something right again.  Hamill went on to say, “I can tell you right away that we haven’t signed any contracts. We’re in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm.”  Hamill added “Both have had meetings set that were postponed — on their end, not mine. They’re more busy than I am.”

Hit the jump for much more including what Hamill assumes will happen with the characters, other actors he’d like to see return, and the visual style of the sequels.

Another day, another Star Wars rumor.  As anticipation for Disney and Lucasfilm’s upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII continues to rise, fans are clamoring for every tiny bit of information concerning the new trilogy.  Firm details are incredibly scarce at the moment, and things will likely stay that way for some time now that “Mystery Man” J.J. Abrams has officially signed on to direct Episode VII.  The most recent unconfirmed rumor concerning the film states that Harrison Ford is in talks to reprise his role as Han Solo, and now a new rumor has surfaced that suggests Solo will be joined by his pals Luke and Leia, as Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher may or may not be returning in a storyline that focuses on the trio’s children.  Hit the jump for more.