During the Star Wars event at Disney’s D23 Expo, fans were able to get their first look at the upcoming stand alone film, Star Wars: Rogue One.
Gareth Edwards of Godzilla fame has been directing the movie that takes place just before the start of A New Hope, as a team of rebels unite to steal the plans to the Death Star. The movie stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk and Riz Ahmend.
“‘Rogue One’ takes place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope and will be a departure from the saga films but have elements that are familiar to the Star Wars universe,” said Kennedy in a statement. “It goes into new territory, exploring the galactic struggle from a ground-war perspective while maintaining that essential ‘Star Wars’ feel that fans have come to know. Gareth is such an innovative director and I’m so excited to be working with him and the extraordinary ensemble cast he’s selected for ‘Rogue One.’”
L to R: Actors Riz Ahmed, Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen
Photo Credit: Jonathan Olley
©Lucasfilm 2016
The idea comes from ILM’s John Knoll – for those of you who are into lens flares, this is the guy that created them for digital applications like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, and he even has a stand alone plug-in from Red Giant called the Knoll Light Factory – with Chris Weitz taking the idea and running with it.
Of all the upcoming Star Wars movies, this going to be the one to watch as it will set the tone for audiences who will need to step away from the main story to explore other regions of the “expanded universe.” I for one am most looking forward to this one when Star Wars: Rogue One arrives in theaters on December 16, 2016.
