If there is one filmmaker who is not hiding his excitement for J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars Episode VII, it’s Kevin Smith. The Clerks director is currently in the UK touring animated film Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie along with Jason Mewes and his podcast Hollywood Babble-On with Ralph Garman. Before the show last night in London however, Kevin Smith was invited to the set of Star Wars Episode VII, the details of which he spoke about before the Hollywood Babble-On show.

Smith noted that he had signed a non-disclosure agreement so he couldn’t talk any specifics, but he did say that he saw costumes, characters and sets that took him back to his childhood.

“They had a sign at on the stage – I can’t even say which stage – which had the Imperial Starship logo and it said, ‘loose lips sink starships”.

“I’m really excited and you know, people keep saying that I liked the last trilogy and I did. I liked 1, 2 and 3. But I liked them as an adult, when I watched them they didn’t give me the same feeling I had when I was seven watching them for the first time and that’s fine. This movie though… Dude, I cried four times. The seven year old in me came. [J.J] has ******* captured it, man. He has nailed it.”

Due to the non-disclosure agreement, Smith couldn’t say much more but he gave his co-host Ralph Garman a pad with some words to read out which he then nodded to in agreement. When asked, “did you see Stormtroopers?”, Smith nodded his head with the biggest smile on his face.

Smith also confirmed lightsabres and blasters, but that was pretty much a given.

Electronic Arts' E3 press conference will take place this Monday at 12:00pm Pacific on Twitch and Spike TV. Packed day that's going to be -- there's also showings from Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Sony.

Confirmed games for the event include Battlefield Hardline, Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Sims 4, FIFA 15, Madden NFL 15, EA Sports UFC, NHL 15, and "behind-the-scenes" looks at what DICE (Star Wars Battlefront), BioWare (Mass Effect 4), Criterion (?), and Waystone Games (??) have been up to lately. I'd hope and expect to hear a lot more about Mirror's Edge, too.

In addition to the episodes of a new Star Wars trilogy, Lucasfilm and Disney have begun development on multiple stand-alone movies that will offer new stories beyond the core Saga. Gareth Edwards will direct the first stand-alone film, with a screenplay by Gary Whitta. The film is due out December 16, 2016.

Gareth Edwards blazed into the filmmaking forefront with his acclaimed work on Monsters, a film he wrote, directed and served on as cinematographer and visual effects artist. The skill and vision readily apparent in Monsters earned him the high-profile spot directing this year's smash hit Godzilla.

"Ever since I saw Star Wars I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life -- join the Rebel Alliance! I could not be more excited and honored to go on this mission with Lucasfilm," said Edwards.

Gary Whittas screenwriting credits include 2010's The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington. He is also well known as a journalist and editor in the video game industry, as well as part of the BAFTA award-winning team on Telltale Games adaptation of The Walking Dead.

Whitta states, "From the moment I first saw the original movie as a wide-eyed kid, Star Wars has been the single most profound inspiration to my imagination and to my career as a writer. It is deeply special to me,so to be given the opportunity to contribute to its ongoing legacy, especially in collaboration with a film-maker as talented as Gareth, is literally a dream come true. I'm still pinching myself."

By Sean O'Neal
May 19, 2014 12:34 PM

Much as we are already ignoring our current political issues and looking forward to the 2016 elections, we have begun looking past Star Wars: Episode VII—which has already become a reality, and therefore can no longer be shaped by outsider pundits—to the future, where those untold numbers of sequels and spinoffs await. Disney has previously discussed plans to alternate chapters of the new Star Wars trilogy with standalone “origin story” films, with many reports saying the first two of those would follow a young Han Solo and a younger-and-not-yet-eaten Boba Fett.

And now new rumors confirming those—and hinting at the third spinoff film—have emerged through a German fan site that was reporting on a strategy meeting from Hasbro, thus creating the secondhand, speculative chain of hearsay and disorder in which Star Wars news thrives. According to those rumors, the timeline for new Star Wars projects (and their action-figure tie-ins) is as follows:

    • 2014: Rebels
    • 2015: Episode VII
    • 2016: Boba Fett
    • 2017: Episode VIII
    • 2018: Solo
    • 2019: Episode IX
    • 2020: Red Five