Star Wars: The Force Awakens J.J. Abrams

Development

Star Wars creator George Lucas discussed ideas for a sequel trilogy several times after the conclusion of the original trilogy, but denied any intent to make it.[69] A seventh entry in the "Skywalker Saga", a nine-part Star Wars series,[70][71] began development shortly after Lucas sold his production company Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company in October 2012.[72][73][74] Speaking alongside Lucasfilm's new president, Kathleen Kennedy, Lucas said: "I always said I wasn't going to do any more and that's true, because I'm not going to do any more, but that doesn't mean I'm unwilling to turn it over to Kathy to do more."[75]

As creative consultant on the film, Lucas attended early story meetings and advised on the details of the Star Wars universe.[76] Among the materials he turned over to the production team were his rough story treatments for Episodes VII–IX, which Lucas requested be read only by Kennedy, Bob Iger, Alan F. Horn, and Kevin A. Mayer.[76] Lucas later said Disney had discarded his story ideas and that he had no further involvement with the film.[77][78][79] Lucas' son Jett told The Guardian that his father was "very torn" about having sold the rights to the franchise and that his father was "there to guide" but that "he wants to let it go and become its new generation".[80]

The Force Awakens' first screenplay was written by Michael Arndt.[81] At the time of his hiring, Arndt was also tapped to pen story treatments for the following installments.[82] Arndt took part in a writers room with Simon Kinberg, Lawrence Kasdan, Pablo Hidalgo, and Kiri Hart to discuss and plan the overall trilogy.[83] Early drafts had Luke Skywalker appear midway through the film, but Arndt found that "every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over. Suddenly you didn't care about your main character anymore."[84] The writers decided to use Luke as the film's MacGuffin and, as something that the protagonists needed to find, would not appear in person until the final scene.[84] Arndt also developed some backstory elements for the returning characters from the original trilogy, such as how Leia was instrumental in rebuilding the Republic after the fall of the Empire before being discredited when it was publicly revealed that her biological father was Darth Vader (this would go on to become a central plot point in the canonical novel Star Wars: Bloodline).[85]

Several directors were considered, including David Fincher,[86] Brad Bird,[87] Jon Favreau,[88] and Guillermo del Toro.[89] Bird was reportedly the "top choice" to helm the film, but his commitments to Tomorrowland forced him to withdraw.[90] Matthew Vaughn was an early candidate for the job, even dropping out of X-Men: Days of Future Past in favor for the film.[91] Colin Trevorrow was also under consideration by the studio, while Ben Affleck and Neill Blomkamp passed on the project.[92][93][94][95] After a suggestion by Steven Spielberg to Kennedy,[96] J. J. Abrams was named director in January 2013,[97] with Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg as project consultants.[98] Kasdan worked to convince Abrams to direct the film after the filmmaker initially rejected the offer.[99][100] Arndt worked on the script for eight months, but said he needed 18 more, which was more time than Disney or Abrams could give him.[101] The production announced Arndt's exit from the project on October 24, 2013. That same day, Kasdan and Abrams took over script duties,[102] both of whom planned the story while walking in Santa Monica, California, New York City, Paris, and London. The first draft was completed in six weeks.[103] Abrams said the key to the film was that it return to the roots of the first Star Wars films and be based more on emotion than explanation.[104] In January 2014, Abrams confirmed that the script was complete.[105] In April 2014, Lucasfilm clarified that Episodes VII–IX would not feature storylines from the Star Wars expanded universe, though other elements could be included, as with the TV series Star Wars Rebels.[106]

Abrams stated that he purposely withheld some plot elements from The Force Awakens, such as Rey and Finn's last names and backgrounds. Kennedy admitted that "we haven't mapped out every single detail [of the sequel trilogy] yet", but said that Abrams was collaborating with The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, and that Johnson would work with The Rise of Skywalker's then-director Colin Trevorrow to ensure a smooth transition and that "everybody's got a say in how we move forward with this".[107] Daisy Ridley later recounted that J. J. Abrams had written drafts for episodes 8 and 9.[108]

A fictional language was developed for use in the film by YouTube star Sara Forsberg, who created the viral video series "What Languages Sound Like To Foreigners"; Forsberg developed the language by studying various languages, such as Hindi and Gujarati.[109]

In November 2015, Lucas recorded an hour-long interview with CBS News reporter Charlie Rose in which he said Disney had not been "keen" to involve him and conceded: "If I get in there, I'm just going to cause trouble because they're not going to do what I want them to do, and I don't have the control to do that any more, and all it would do is just muck everything up."[110] He also said, "They wanted to do a retro movie. I don't like that. Every movie, I worked very hard to make them different [...] I made them completely different—different planets, different spaceships to make it new."[111][112] In early December 2015, Kathleen Kennedy told The Hollywood Reporter that Lucas had seen the movie and "liked it".[113] In the same month, at the Kennedy Center Honors, Lucas stated, "I think the fans are going to love it, It's very much the kind of movie they've been looking for."[114] Abrams felt that, as the first in a new trilogy, the film "needed to take a couple of steps backwards into very familiar terrain" and use plot elements from previous Star Wars films.[115]

Pre-production

In May 2013, it was confirmed that The Force Awakens would be filmed in the United Kingdom. Representatives from Lucasfilm met with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to agree to produce The Force Awakens in the UK.[116] Osborne committed £25 million of public money towards the film, claiming it was a boost for British culture and its film industry.[117] According to production company account filings in the United Kingdom, The Force Awakens ultimately received a total of £31.6 million ($47.4 million) from the government.[118][119]

Beginning in September 2013, production spaces at the Bad Robot facility were converted for shooting of The Force Awakens for the benefit of shooting a minor portion of the film in the United States.[120] The film's costume designer was Michael Kaplan, who had previously worked with Abrams on the films Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).[121] Film editors Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon, long-term collaborators with Abrams, were also signed.[122] In August 2013, it was announced that cinematographer Daniel Mindel would be shooting the film on 35 mm film (specifically Kodak 5219).[123] In October 2013, other crew members were confirmed, including sound designer Ben Burtt, director of photography Mindel, production designers Rick Carter and Darren Gilford, costume designer Michael Kaplan, special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, re-recording mixer Gary Rydstrom, supervising sound editor Matthew Wood, visual effects supervisors Roger Guyett, and executive producer Jason McGatlin.[124]

Casting

Open auditions were held in the United Kingdom and the United States in November 2013 for the roles of "Rachel" and "Thomas".[125] Casting began in earnest in January 2014, because of changes to the script by Kasdan and Abrams.[126] Screen tests with actors continued until at least three weeks before the official announcement in April 2014, with final casting decisions made only a few weeks earlier. Actors testing had strict nondisclosure agreements, preventing them, their agents or their publicists from commenting on their involvement.[127] Though Lucas intimated that previous cast members Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill would return for the new film as early as March 2013,[76] their casting was not confirmed until over a year later.[28]

Abrams set out to have a more diverse cast than previous installments.[128] A very early report claimed the studio wanted Ryan Gosling, Leonardo DiCaprio and Zac Efron for roles.[129][130] In September 2013, Michael B. Jordan, Saoirse Ronan, and David Oyelowo were among the first to meet with the director.[131] In January 2014, The Hollywood Reporter revealed Benedict Cumberbatch, Jack O'Connell, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alex Pettyfer, Jesse Plemons, Sullivan Stapleton, Tye Sheridan, Hugo Weaving, Michael Fassbender, and Adam Driver all met with Abrams for the film. The role Sheridan met for was ultimately rewritten to be played by a 40 year old actor, while Weaving was in talks for an "Imperial commander".[132] Ronan, Jordan, Frida Gustavsson, and later Miles Teller would go on to confirm their auditions for the film.[133][134][135][136] Industry publications speculated that Plemons could possibly be playing Luke Skywalker's son.[137] In February, Driver was in final negotiations for an unnamed villain, while Gary Oldman revealed he was approached for an undisclosed role.[138][139] In March, John Boyega, Plemons, Ray Fisher, Matthew James Thomas and Ed Speleers were Abrams' top choice for the lead role.[128] Boyega began talks after dropping out of the Jesse Owens biopic Race.[127] That same month, Lupita Nyong'o was said to have met also met with Abrams for the female lead.[140] In April 2014, Plemons and Thomas were no longer in contention for the film.[141] That same month, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, an "unknown Oxford actress", and Dev Patel were up for unknown roles.[142][143] Ronan, Richardson-Sellers, Eiza Gonzalez, Elizabeth Olsen and Jessica Henwick auditioned for Rey.[144][145][146][147] Joseph David-Jones, Tom Holland, and Daryl McCormack were later reported to have auditioned for Finn while McCormack made it to the final round of auditions for the part.[148][149][150] Eddie Redmayne and Joel Kinnaman tested for Kylo Ren.[151][152]

Daisy Ridley was cast by February 2014, and by the end of that month a deal had been worked out with Driver, who was able to work around his Girls schedule. Talks with Andy Serkis and Oscar Isaac began by March and continued into April.[127] Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles in the original trilogy, declined to reprise his role, saying it would have "bored" him.[153]

In April, Ridley, Boyega, Isaac, Driver, Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow were announced as part of the cast; while Ford, Hamill, Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Baker reprised their roles from the original trilogy.[28] In June, cast additions Lupita Nyong'o and Gwendoline Christie were announced.[32] To prepare for his role, Hamill was assigned a personal trainer and a nutritionist at the request of the producers, who wanted him to resemble an older Luke.[154] Fisher was also assigned a personal trainer and a nutritionist.[154] Abrams initially considered using Daniels only in a voice role for C-3PO,[155] but Daniels opted to reprise the role physically as well; the production team built a new C-3PO costume to accommodate him.[156] A flashback scene was cut from Rey's vision (following her discovery of Luke's lightsaber), which would have featured Robert Boulter standing in for Luke as he appeared in his duel with Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.[157]

In May, Abrams announced a donation contest for UNICEF from the Star Wars set in Abu Dhabi; the winner was allowed to visit the set, meet members of the cast and appear in the film.[158] In October, Warwick Davis, who played Wicket in Return of the Jedi, as well as Wald and Weazle in The Phantom Menace (1999), announced that he would appear in The Force Awakens, but did not reveal his role.[159] In November, Debbie Reynolds confirmed that her granddaughter (Fisher's daughter), Billie Lourd, was in the film.[50] Lourd first auditioned for the role of Rey prior to her casting.[160]

Filming

In February 2014, Abrams said filming would begin in May and last about three months.[104] The official announcement came in March, when Disney and Lucasfilm announced that principal photography would commence in May and be based at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England.[161] That month, it was revealed that pre-production filming would take place in Iceland prior to the start of official filming in May, consisting of landscape shots that would be used for scenery in the film.[162] In April, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn confirmed that filming had begun,[163] filming in secret in the United Arab Emirates around Liwa Oasis, part of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, by a second unit.[164] Later that month, it was revealed that in addition to 35 mm film, segments of the film were being shot in the 65 mm IMAX format.[165] In July, Bad Robot reported via Twitter that the film would be at least partially shot on IMAX cameras.[166]

Principal photography began in Abu Dhabi on May 16, 2014.[167] The budget was initially estimated to be between $259 million and $306 million,[118][168] but in 2023 the actual cost was revealed to be $447 million.[2] Abrams and the cast members went to Abu Dhabi in early May, where large sets were built on location—including a shuttle-like spacecraft, a large tower, and a big market—and where explosives were used to create a "blast crater". Cast members were spotted practicing driving vehicles that would be used during filming.[169] Production moved to Pinewood Studios in June.[170]

That same month, Harrison Ford fractured his leg while filming at Pinewood after a hydraulic door on the Millennium Falcon set fell on him, and was taken to a hospital. According to Abrams, Ford's ankle "went to a 90-degree angle".[101] Production was suspended for two weeks because of Ford's injury.[171] Ford's son Ben said the ankle would likely need a plate and screws and that filming could be altered slightly, with the crew needing to shoot Ford from the waist up for a short time until he recovered.[172] A month later, Jake Steinfeld, Ford's personal trainer, said Ford was recovering rapidly.[173] Abrams also suffered a fractured vertebra in his back when he was trying to help lift the door after Ford's accident,[101] but he kept this to himself for over a month.[174] In February 2016, it was reported that the Health and Safety Executive brought four criminal charges against Disney subsidiary Foodles Production (UK), Ltd. for alleged health and safety breaches relating to Ford's accident.[175] Foodles Production (UK) Ltd was subsequently fined $1.95 million in October 2016 for two health and safety breaches, after admitting the counts at an earlier hearing.[176]

On July 28, 2014, filming took place over three days at Skellig Michael, an island off the coast of County Kerry, Ireland, with a cast including Mark Hamill and Daisy Ridley.[177] Landscape shots for the planet Takodana were shot in July in the Lake District in the northwest of England.[178] Production was halted for two weeks in early August 2014 so Abrams could rework shooting in Ford's absence and resumed with a fully healed Ford in mid-August.[179][180] In September, the former RAF Greenham Common military base in Berkshire was used and featured set constructions of several spaceships.[181][182] Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean Gloucestershire England was used for some scenes.[183] Principal photography ended on November 3, 2014.[184]

Post-production

Kennedy said The Force Awakens would use real locations and models over computer-generated imagery.[185] Johnson reiterated that Abrams would use little CGI and more practical, traditional special effects, saying: "I think people are coming back around to [practical effects]. It feels like there is sort of that gravity pulling us back toward it. I think that more and more people are hitting kind of a critical mass in terms of the CG-driven action scene lending itself to a very specific type of action scene, where physics go out the window and it becomes so big so quick."[186] Abrams' intention in prioritizing practical special effects was to recreate the visual realism and authenticity of the original Star Wars.[187] To that end, the droid BB-8 was a physical prop developed by Disney Research,[188] created by special effects artist Neal Scanlan and operated live on set with the actors.[189][190] The Holochess sequence was created using stop-motion, which was supervised by Tippett Studio and overseen by Phil Tippett, who also worked on the stop-motion sequence in the original Star Wars film.[191][192]

In February 2014, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) announced plans to open a facility in London, citing Disney's Star Wars films as a catalyst for the expansion. ILM's Vancouver branch also worked on the special effects for the film.[193] Abrams supervised post-production and editing of the film at Bad Robot's headquarters in Santa Monica.[101] In August 2015, he gave the film's estimated running time of 124 minutes.[194] Abrams made changes to the film's plot in the editing process to simplify the film, by removing some sequences shown in trailers: "At one point, Maz used to continue along with the characters back to the Resistance base, but we realised that she really had nothing to do there of value [...] So we ended up leaving those things out."[195] The final cut of the film runs for 138 minutes.[196]

On November 6, 2014, the film's title was announced as Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[197] In December 2015, Pablo Hidalgo, the creative executive at the Lucasfilm Story Group which handles all the canonical continuity for the Star Wars universe, revealed that the working title for the film was Shadow of the Empire "for the longest time".[198]

Music

In July 2013, John Williams was confirmed to return to compose the sequel trilogy, beginning with The Force Awakens.[199] He began working on the film in December 2014, and by June 2015 had been through most of the film reels, working on a daily basis.[200][201] In May 2015, Williams said he would return to themes from the previous films, such as those for Luke, Leia, and Han, in ways that "there are a few that I think are important and will seem very much a part of the fabric of the piece in a positive and constructive way." He said that working with Abrams was similar to the process he went through with Lucas in the earlier films.[202]

Recording sessions for The Force Awakens began in June 2015 at the Sony Pictures Studios' Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage in Culver City, with William Ross conducting most of the music.[203] The first day of recording was June 1, 2015.[204] Williams attended the sessions and conducted the remainder of the recordings in Los Angeles.[205]

The score was recorded in 12 sessions within a five-month period between June and mid-November. The 90-piece orchestra recorded 175 minutes of music; however, Abrams reedited the film, which discarded, modified, or rerecorded the score's part for nearly an hour. Williams' theme for Snoke was recorded by a 24-voice men's chorus.[206] Gustavo Dudamel conducted the opening and end title music for the film at Williams' behest.[207] Recording of the score was completed on November 14, 2015.[208] The film's soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on December 18, 2015.[209] Williams' score is more than two hours long.[201]

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Abrams contributed music to the film's cantina scene. Abrams met Miranda at a performance of his Broadway musical Hamilton, where Miranda jokingly offered to compose cantina music, should it be needed. Unknown to Miranda, Williams had previously told Abrams that he did not want to compose the music for that scene, wanting to focus on the orchestral score. Abrams then contacted Miranda, and the two collaborated on the music for the scene over a period of two months.[210]