With Disney boss Alan Horn taking the stage at CinemaCon to talk up the company’s slate of films for 2013 and beyond, we naturally wondered if he’d bring up Star War****s. Of course, he did just that, essentially promising J.J. Abrams’ Episode VII for 2015 (even if the director himself has said he wasn’t quite as locked into the timetable) and then going on to say that the Mouse House plans to release a Star Wars film every year from 2015.
Confirming earlier chatter about the films, which are being developed by Simon Kinberg and Lawrence Kasdan, Horn said the plan is to slot the standalones – which will draw from the deep pool of characters in the **Star Wars **universe and may explore new ones too – in between entries in the new trilogy, essentially promising a movie every year until at least 2020 and possibly until the heat death of the universe.
While there are concerns about keeping the quality up and franchise overkill, Disney certainly appears confident that it can deliver, and Kasdan in particular is an old hand at writing great **Wars **films, so we’ll keep an open mind.
Episode VII, meanwhile, appears ready (though no official word has arrived yet) to reunite Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher in some capacity, even if Horn wouldn’t be drawn on the specifics. From the sounds of it, the force will be with us for a while yet…[[Poll916]]
P.S. Young Adult star, Twitter hero and all-round super geek Patton Oswalt appeared on US sitcom Parks And Recreation recently, delivering perhaps the nerdiest filibuster ever filibustered. Take a look at it below, and try not to get too excited about his plans for Star Wars: Episode VII...
P.P.S. Entertainment Weekly asked artist Jef Castro make a poster for Oswalt's planned project, and you can check it out below.
P.P.P.S. Harrison Ford is perhaps the funniest he's ever been in this Jimmy Fallon Star Wars skit. Watch it and prepare to laugh your midi-chlorians off.