STAR WARS: EPISODE VII On Schedule Shoot In Early 2014

Despite director J. J. Abrams initial reservations about meeting the film’s originally announced 2015 release, it is looking as if Star Wars: Episode VII is on its way to meeting that release.

Bryan Burk, Abrams’ longtime producing partner, has been along on the publicity rounds for Abrams’s Star Trek Into Darkness, and when speaking with Collider he confirmed that while it is still early in the development process, everything appears to be on schedule for a production start that will see the film releasing in its targeted year.

We’re progressing on a schedule to hopefully begin next year, or the beginning of next year, and the location is still kind of floating around in the air all depending on script and a whole bunch of other issues. As I just said, everything is kind of a free-flowing thing, and when we feel like the story level on this script and everything is really coming together and schedules are all working and pieces line up, we prowl ahead, and Star Wars will be no different.

Now we know that Abrams likes to take his time to make sure everything in his films are exactly as he wants them. Paramount was very good about giving him an extra six months to finish his initial Star Trek film in 2009, even though it meant moving that tentpole from the summer to Christmas. If he feels it necessary, will Disney do the same? Currently, they haven’t pinned a release for Episode VII to anything more definite than 2015. Maybe the studio is giving themselves some cushion as to when the film comes out during the year. Ideally I am sure that fans would love to see it open on the traditional Star Wars release date of the Wednesday before Memorial Day, but would they rather wait a few more months to allow Abrams to polish it into the jewel he wants it be?