'Star Wars: Episode VIII' Open Casting Call for Extras
Star Wars movie.
Do you want to join the cast and crew of Star Wars: Episode VIII? Well, casting directors are now casting and hiring photo doubles and background actors to work on the latest movie in the Star Wars franchise.
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According to reports, casting directors are now casting background extras to appear in the latest Disney production.
Production for the new Star Wars: Episode VIII began in September in Ireland. Initial reports suggested the latest Star Wars movie was headed to Ireland in order to film reshoots for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But, Lucasfilm confirmed that director Rian Johnson (known for directing Looper) started filming for Episode VIII.
According to The Irish Examiner, "A crew of around 100 people and cast members, including Mark Hamill who will reprise his Luke Skywalker role, are expected to be on the boats due to leave Portmagee today at 7 am."
Shooting is set to begin as early as February 2016 in Pinewood Studios, but production suffered a slight delay. According to reports, director-writer Rian Johnson was going through some major rewrites for the movie's script. Apparently, the focus of the rewrites is to make Rey and Finn's roles bigger, while shrinking some of the newer roles.
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It was revealed parts of the island Skellig Michael, where the Luke Skywalker scenes are being shot, has been reproduced for filming in Pinewood Studios.
In other news, J.J. Abrams' buddy Greg Grunberg, who plays Resistance pilot Snap Wexley in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, told Washington Post that Abrams is starting to regret not directing Episode VIII, especially after reading writer-director Rian Johnson's script for the upcoming installment.
Grunberg said, "[Abrams] read it and said something he never, ever says. He said: 'It’s so good, I wish I were making it.'"
In an interview with Wired, The Force Awakens director confirmed that Rian Johnson's script for Star Wars: Episode VIII is finished. "I’m sure rewrites are going to be endless, like they always are," he cautions. "We had meetings with Rian and Ram Bergman, the producer of Episode VIII. They were watching dailies when we were shooting our movie. We wanted them to be part of the process, to make the transition to their film as seamless as possible. I showed Rian an early cut of the movie, because I knew he was doing his rewrite and prepping."
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What's interesting is how Rian Johnson's story appears to have also impacted The Force Awakens, as well. "Rian has asked for a couple of things here and there that he needs for his story," Mr. Abrams said. "He is an incredibly accomplished filmmaker and an incredibly strong writer. So the story he told took what we were doing and went in the direction that he felt was best but that is very much in line with what we were thinking as well."
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Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan had a few things tos ay about Rian Johnson's new movie to LA Times. He wants us to know that what Johnson is doing is very different from what we've seen before:
These movies will all be so different. [Episode VIII director] Rian Johnson is a friend of mine — he’s going to make some weird thing. If you’ve seen Rian’s work, you know it’s not going be like anything that’s ever been in Star Wars. You couldn’t have three more different people than J.J., Rian and Colin [Trevorrow, Episode IX director].Meanwhile, J.J. Abrams told EW that we shouldn't worry too much about the lack of backstories for some of the characters in The Force Awakens. Those backstories and revelations are being spread out through the rest of the films:
Everyone who has seen these movies thinks about ‘I am your father …’ and ‘There is another …’ But neither of those things were in [1977’s original] Star Wars. Star Wars didn’t say Luke was the son of Vader. Star Wars didn’t say Leia was the sister of Luke. You didn’t understand what these references were: the Empire, dark times, Clone Wars. There were these things that were discussed that don’t get explained. George [Lucas] dropped you into a story and respected you to infer everything necessary to understand what you need to know…Can this movie actually also hold, ‘And Rey is this … And Finn is that … And this is where Poe is from …’ This is the first of a series. There is a story to be told. And it will be.Talking to Vogue, John Boyega, who is reprising his role as Finn in Episode VIII, revealed one or two major details about Rian Johnson's upcoming installment. He said, "[The script is] great. Much darker, but we’re very excited…My part in the next film will be much more physical so I might be in the gym a bit more.” Star Wars
Daisy Ridley, speaking with Variety, also showed support for Johnson's script, saying, "It's very good."
