'Star Wars' rumors are heating up

Posted Friday, July 26, 2013 at 4:52 PM Central

by John Couture

You knew it was only a matter of time.

Ever since the news broke that Disney was buying LucasFilm and producing new Star Wars films, the Internet has been buzzing. Like the idling hum of well-oiled machine, the Internet waited patiently for news and rumors to start leaking out.

With the promise of a new film by 2015, you knew that the wait would be a short one.

In the nine months that have since passed, we have learned who the writer is and we were overjoyed to find out that one of our favorite choices had been selected to direct Star Wars: Episode VII. Of course, given J.J. Abrams' role with this Summer's Star Trek Into Darkness, it wasn't surprising that Star Wars news was temporarily relegated to the back burner.

Naturally, we assumed that Star Wars: Episode VII news would ramp back up around Comic Con, but Disney has been notoriously quiet at the King of all Cons. Instead, they prefer to share information about their upcoming projects at their own event, the D23 Expo.

This year's expo is slated to take place from August 9-11 at the Anaheim Convention Center and while there is at least one Star Wars event on the schedule, the worst-kept secret in Hollywood is that this will be the venue that Disney chooses to first showcase Star Wars: Episode VII.

What's most interesting though is that these Star Wars films are going to be the first ones that have to deal with social media and the reality of news being shared world-wide instantaneously. Sure, the Internet existed when the prequel trilogy was being shot and released, but it was still new and its potential was still many years from being realized.

Now, that same explosion in technology that makes filming these films both easier and more economically will also challenge them to keep their secrets. And don't forget, J.J. Abrams is the master of the mystery box.

If you haven't seen J.J.'s TED talk then I highly recommend you take 18 minutes and watch it. I mean this is the man who holds the reins to Star Wars: Episode VII, so why not try and get inside his head? Oh yeah, he also talks specifically about Star Wars a couple of times.

Speaking of J.J. Abrams, despite rumors to the contrary that arose during Comic Con, he is still directing Episode VII. No seriously, LucasFilm had to actually release a statement confirming his continued involvement.

That wasn't the only Episode VII "news" to leak out this week. Latino Review reported that one of their sources claim that Disney is looking at Ryan Gosling and Zac Efron for key roles in Episode VII.

One of my biggest concerns when Disney bought LucasFilm was them trying to "Disney-fy" Star Wars where they exert too much influence and the films suffer. Both Gosling and Efron are vets of the Disney machine with the former getting his start as a Mouseketeer on The All New Mickey Mouse Club while everyone knows that the latter got his break in High School Musical.

They further said that they were told that Gosling read for the role of Luke's kid, while they didn't know which role Efron was being considered for. Again, these are rumors, so take them with a huge grain of salt.

Personally, I'd be alright with Gosling's casting. He has demonstrated great acting chops recently and I think he could bring a bit of a darker edge to the film. On the other hand, I would hate Zac Efron's casting. I just think he's too pretty and polished for the films. I know that the new trilogy excelled at being those things, but I think it's time to go back to the originals and dirty it up a bit.

Granted, now that the franchise is in the hands of Disney, these films will only become even more family friendly, but is it wrong to wish for the darker tones of The Empire Strikes Back to make an encore performance?

With that in mind, we started spit-balling some ideas and a kernel of a story started to form. We have great respect for J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt, but we wondered if we could deliver something that would play a little darker, with more mature themes.

Yes, that's the title page of our script. I've started writing a few things here and there and so far, we like what we've come up with. Here's where you come in. If this is something that interests you, let us know and we'll continue to develop the screenplay.

If nothing else, this "fan fiction" will be a nice distraction to carry us through until 2015, when we will finally see a new Star Wars film. To whet your appetite, here's the opening crawl. You can't have a Star Wars film without one, now can you?