When it comes to Star Wars: Episode VII, even the tiniest nugget of new information is considered worthwhile.  In that spirit, we now have confirmation of who will be handling all the costume designs for director J.J. Abrams’ eagerly awaited sequel.  Michael Kaplan confirmed that he will be the costume designer on Star Wars: Episode VII, reuniting with Abrams after having worked together on Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness.  Kaplan’s impressive resume also includes the 1982 classic Blade Runner, Fight Club, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.  Hit the jump for more, including Kaplan’s statement on the matter.

Hey, remember when Patton Oswalt did a guest spot on NBC’s Parks and Recreation and did an eight-minute filibuster on his pitch for Star Wars: Episode VII?  Well, it took the internets about a month to do it, but that dream is now a reality.  Animated by Isaac Moores, the eight-minute video features your favorite Star Wars characters reimagined for a contemporary audience and quite a few crossovers from the Marvel realm (now that both are owned by Disney).  If you haven’t heard Oswalt’s original speech, I won’t ruin the surprises for you here.  Hit the jump to check the short out instead.

Now that Star Trek Into Darkness has finally been released in theaters, director J.J. Abrams is free to focus the majority of his time on that other beloved franchise that he’s reviving: Star Wars.  While plot details have been (and will be) kept under firm wraps for quite some time, we do know that Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3) is hard at work on the screenplay, and he was even seen with Abrams in London at the Into Darkness premiere, so it’s clear that the two are knee-deep in development on Episode VII.

With production looking to get underway in London in early 2014, Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy are likely starting to think about casting.  A recent report has now surfaced that claims Abrams has already zeroed in on one actor for the film: Jonathan Rhys Meyers.  Hit the jump for more.

Brad Bird is currently at work on Tomorrowland, but he recently discussed a road he could take one day and a road not taken.  For the former, Bird commented on the possibility of making a sequel to The Incredibles.  Briefly, Bird says he hasn’t forgotten about the characters and that world.  The issue is how to “get ‘em to click all together.”  Bird adds that he wants to keep creative control, but he also has other projects he’s trying to work on (among them could be the historical drama, 1906).  There’s also the issue of getting Pixar on board when that studio has its next four films lined-up, and while a possible sequel to one of their movies is in development, I doubt it’s Incredibles without Bird’s involvement.

Hit the jump for his full quote and what he had to say about passing on Star Wars: Episode VII.

While everyone associates Bad Robot with J.J. Abrams, he actually has a producing partner that rarely does press and usually stays out of the limelight: Bryan Burk.  If you look over his IMDb profile, you’ll see he’s tremendously involved in all Bad Robot productions and was a key component in both Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness.

With the movie getting ready to premiere around the world, I recently landed an exclusive interview with the busy producer.  During our wide-ranging interview, we talked about making the sequel, the editing process, the secrecy, the title, if we’ll get Star Trek 3 in less than four years, whether a new Star Trek TV show could happen in the near future, and more.  We also talked about other Bad Robot productions like Star Wars, Mission: Impossible 5, Infinitely Polar Bear,  Person of Interest, Revolution, Alfonso Cuaron‘s pilot Believe, Karl Urban‘s pilot Almost Human, and more.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.

J.J. Abrams was the guest on The Daily Show last night, and lest you think that host Jon Stewart is somehow not a nerd, the conversation between the two quickly delved into a Star Wars vs. Star Trek discussion that had Stewart lambasting Abrams for saying he wasn’t a fan of Trek growing up.  It’s a pretty great (and candid) conversation, and Abrams also talks a bit about how his approach to Star Wars differs to that of Star Trek.  Moreover, the two talk briefly about Stewart’s upcoming directorial debut, Rosewater, with Abrams revealing that he provided some input on Stewart’s script for the film, which is slated to shoot this summer.  Hit the jump to watch the full interview.

Star Wars: Episode VII will follow in the footsteps of its live-action predecessors which all went through production in United Kingdom studios.  A press release from Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that the J.J. Abrams-directed sequel to the original Star Wars trilogy will indeed find its home in the U.K. once again.

Hit the jump to check out the full press release.

When Disney first announced that it had acquired Lucasfilm and was moving forward with new Star Wars films, the level of fan excitement was understandably very, very high.  Not only did Disney have new Star Wars films in the pipeline, but the studio was hoping to release the next one—Episode VII—in just three short years.  With the potential 2015 release date looming, the search for a director began, culminating with producer Kathleen Kennedy finally tapping Mr. J.J. Abrams to take the helm.

While Abrams is clearly busy promoting the release of Star Trek Into Darkness at the moment, he’s also very deep in development on Star Wars: Episode VII.  Steve recently spoke with Abrams’ producer Bryan Burk about Into Darkness, and during the course of their conversation Burk also talked briefly about Star Wars, which he is also producing alongside Abrams and Kennedy.  While he was understandably tight-lipped, Burk did reveal that they’re hoping to start filming early next year.  Hit the jump to read on.

As part of this weekend’s celebration of “Star Wars Day”, a special screening of Return of the Jedi was hosted in Los Angeles by Entertainment Weekly, followed by a surprise Q&A with Mark Hamill.  As one can imagine, a great deal of the conversation revolved around the new trilogy and director J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII.  All signs have pointed to Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford all appearing in Episode VII in some capacity, and during the Q&A Hamill talked about the meeting he and Fisher had with George Lucas in which Lucas first told them about the new movies.  He also confirmed that he’s had one meeting with Episode VII producer Kathleen Kennedy about Abrams’ film, and talked about what he hopes to see in the new films.  Hit the jump for much, much more.

In light of today’s national Star Wars holiday, Star Trek Into Darkness director J.J. Abrams and star Simon Pegg recently sat down to discuss their massive fandom for that other popular sci-fi franchise.  In the ensuing video, the two swap stories about seeing Star Wars on the screen for the first time, how his love for that series that affected Abrams’ take on Star Trek, and Pegg speaks to why Abrams is a swell fit to direct the impending Star Wars: Episode VII.  Abrams even briefly touches on his wholly different approaches to the Star Trek and Star Wars worlds.  Hit the jump to watch, and may the fourth be with you.

While we know next to nothing about the developing Star Wars: Episode VII other than who’s writing (Michael Arndt), producing (Kathleen Kennedy), and directing it (J.J. Abrams), it appears that at least one detail about the project has become clear in this early production phase.  When Abrams was first announced as the director of the new Star Wars film, my immediate thought was, “It sure would be neat to hear composer Michael Giacchino’s take on a Star Wars score.”  Given that Abrams and Giacchino have been close collaborators since their days on Alias, many wondered whether the director would stick with Giacchino as his composer or if he’d bring in Star Wars staple John Williams to handle the score.

A couple of months ago Williams revealed that he hoped to be asked back to score the new Star Wars films, and now Abrams has chipped in with his two cents saying that he believes Williams will indeed return to the franchise.  Hit the jump to read on.

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.