Colin Trevorrow will succeed both J.J Abrams (Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, 2015) and Rian Johnson (Star Wars Episode VIII, 2017) as the director of the newer trilogy's last film, Star Wars Episode IX, set to release sometime in 2019. Like episodes 7 and 8 before it, the director says he also wants to shoot the 9th movie using real film and not digital cameras.
"I could never shoot Star Wars on anything but [film] because it's a period film: It happened a long time ago," Trevorrow said Thursday at a panel at the Sundance Film Festival. "The only place where I tend to not be able to attach myself entirely to something shot digitally is when that's a period film. There's something in my brain that immediately says, 'Well, they didn't have video cameras then.'"
Directors Colin Trevorrow (left) and Christopher Nolan (right) at the Sundance Film Festival (January 30, 2016)
Trevorrow, who also directed the recent hit Jurassic World (2015), says he has also already pitched the idea of filming in space. "Is it possible for us to shoot IMAX film plates in actual space for Star Wars?," he asked during the panel session. Some suggest he may have been referring to Journey to Space (2015), a 45-minute film by Giant Screen Films about NASA and other communities in space — mostly using recycled footage from 2002's IMAX epic, Space Station in 3D.
Very little is currently known about Star Wars Episode IX, other than its 2019 release date, Trevorrow's involvement as director and that the screenplay will be written by Episode VIII director Rian Johnson.
On January 12th, Entertainment Tonight asked Trevorrow about Rey, his favorite character from Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. His carefully-crafted response to any possible origin story giveaways can be found here.
During the 90-minute panel at the Sundance Film Festival, the interviewers touched on a variety of topics, including the topic of "motion smoothing" (currently advertised on newer televisions as 120Hz, 240Hz and 600Hz "Smooth Motion" and shunned by many moviewatchers, including ourselves). We were quite surprised to see that the topic brought a passioned response from both Christopher Nolan and Colin Trevorrow, with the latter saying “motion smoothing is the worst thing to happen to movies in recent history.”
The feature is often referred to as “the soap opera effect” and many have insisted it adds an "unauthentic" quality to film and TV content.
Nevertheless, we are quite pleased that Trevorrow has come out against smooth motion technology "enhancements" and wants to film Episode IX in space using actual film. We hope to hear more in the days and months ahead following Rian Johnson's Episode VIII filming progression.
