STAR WARS EPISODE VII Needs IMAX, Doesn’t Need Comic Con
The Bad Robot Twitter account tweeted a photo of an IMAX camera shooting some sand dunes, which tells us that Star Wars Episode VII - which we knew would be released in IMAX - is being shot in IMAX. Or at least partially shot in IMAX; JJ Abrams shot select Star Trek Into Darkness sequences in IMAX, and it's likely he's doing the same here. I'd expect an equal amount of true IMAX in Episode VII, maybe 50-60 minutes of a probably 140 minute movie.
Meanwhile Lucasfilm made it official: they're not bringing the movie to San Diego Comic Con. I was just talking about this on the GeekNation podcast Far, Far Away (listen here), and I told hosts Kristian Harloff and Tiffany Smith that I didn't think Episode VII would be at SDCC. The reality is they just don't need to bring anything. They don't need to make the fans happy. There's no incentive for Lucasfilm or JJ Abrams to have fun with it, or to make this a remarkable event for the fans who travel halfway across the globe and wait in line for days to get into Hall H. Those people are going to see the movie anyway. While other movies have done amazing things - Sony had Spider-Man swing into a panel, Marvel has consistently won the weekend with its theatrics, Warner Bros' Batman v Superman announcement was enormous - Star Wars doesn't have to, and it's not going to come courting.
We might get something - a video message during the larger Disney presentation, or maybe they'll drop in the title - but realistically I think this is going to be a bust. And next year it's going to be just a standard press event, as the movie will be done shooting, we'll have seen footage (expect a teaser trailer at the end of this year, I'd say) and will even know the title. Hell, by next July we'll have seen the Lego sets and bed sheets.
The bummer is that the original Star Wars was the first major film to use Comic Con as a way to reach out to the fans. There's a proud tradition of Star Wars in San Diego, but it looks like Star Wars has outgrown SDCC.
