J.J. Abrams Shakes Things Up in Latest Interview

Earlier this afternoon, Collider posted a video of Star Wars director J.J. Abrams being interviewed by Steven Weintraub at a recent event. During the interview, Abrams touched on several juicy topics surrounding the production and release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

While attending the Visual Effects Society Awards in Los Angeles on Wednesday evening, J.J. Abrams stopped to reveal some of his insight on the process of filming a new Star Wars film with Collider’s Steven Weintraub.

The use of “practical effects” as opposed to “computer generated imagery” has been a popular topic of speculation among fans and media, specifically as to how much of each was to be implemented in the new film.

Abrams revealed as much to Weintraub during last night’s interview.

From the Collider interview:

"“I feel like the beauty of this age of filmmaking is that there are more tools at your disposal, but it doesn’t mean that any of these new tools are automatically the right tools. And there are a lot of situations where we went very much old school and in fact used CG more to remove things than to add things.”"

While it has been assumed that Abrams would stay on to help oversee the production of future Star Wars installments, there had been no confirmation from either Bad Robot or Lucasfilm. During his talk with Weintraub, Abrams briefly mentions just how much of a role he’d be playing during the production of Star Wars: Episode VIII and Star Wars: Episode IX.

More from the Collider interview:

"“I wouldn’t say 8 and 9 are my baby, Rian will be working at least on 8, but I’m executive producing those films, yeah.”"

Though still not confirmed by Lucasfilm, it has been widely reported that Rian Johnson will be writing and directing the next two episodic installments of the Star Wars saga.

Rian Johnson is reported to be writing and directing Star Wars.

For more from Abrams, including just how much of the new film was shot in IMAX, check out the full interview at Collider.

You can watch the full interview with J.J. Abrams and Steven Weintraub, in the video below:

Following on the heels of this exciting J.J. Abrams interview, new rumors have already begun to spring up. The entertainment news site IKWIZ has reported that Abrams is now lobbying for an earlier release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

From the IKWIZ report:

"Adamant about the project’s secrecy, Disney is reportedly taking Abrams’ request very seriously and is looking at a possible summer release. This would put Star Wars up against other giant franchise releases, namely Jurassic World and Avengers 2: Age Of Ultron. Does this make sense for Star Wars’ highly anticipated return to the silver-screen?Earlier this week, Disney issued a subpoena over Star Wars: The Force Awakens leaked photos. This indicates that the company is taking measures to prevent further leaks, making Abrams’ desire to move up the current December 18th, 2015 opening date a very real scenario."

This latest rumor contains unconfirmed information, and should be taken with a huge grain of salt. The likelihood of the Walt Disney Co. changing their current film release schedule at this point is not high. Still, anything is possible.

It’s a good bet that fans will see the worldwide premiere of the next Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer at Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, this April. The trailer will then most likely be attached to the May 1st, 2015 release of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

What do you think of the latest rumors surrounding the release of The Force Awakens? Is it possible that we’ll see a new Star Wars movie this summer?

How do you feel about J.J. Abrams’ approach to producing the new Star Wars film?

Make your voice heard! Leave us a comment below, Dork Siders!