"Star Wars" good news only lasts so long. The most infamous ankle break in the history of below the waist bone breaks—since Joe Namath of course— is causing so much pain for so many. In case you’ve been living under an embargo of no ligament-related news, you’ve probably heard by now that Harrison Ford sustained an injury on the set of J.J. Abrams‘ "Star Wars: Episode VII” ("We have proudly worked 15 6 days with no accidents,” the production work sign said sheepishly). The actor broke his ankle when a door from the life-sized Millennium Falcon came crashing down on Han Solo. Original reports had him laid out for eight weeks, with production going on without him.
But a relatively new report from the Daily Mail confirms that Ford actually broke his leg, has undergone surgery and could be out for six months. Ruh roh? Regardless of how long Ford is on the disabled list, Abrams, producer Kathleen Kennedy and co. will of course soldier on, shooting everything they can in the meantime and then simply wait until Ford is well enough to work again. And even if his leg is broken as the report suggests, they can still shoot all kinds of scenes with him, just likely no running or action scenes. Hollywood does this all the time and obviously even manages to shoot around women who are 8 months pregnant. There’s also this thing called stunt doubles who I hear work Hollywood movie magic.
Still, this news coupled with a new rumor that says production could be further delayed, has led the Internet to wonder aloud if ‘Episode VII’ could be pushed back until summer 2016. The move would be what Abrams wanted, at least initially: the director originally asked for a 2016 date so he and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan would have more time to work on the script, but Disney denied them, likely because they told their shareholders that the $4.4 billion dollar acquisition of Lucasfilm would be profitable by 2015. Hence, having to push the film until the end of the year in December instead of the May dates ‘Star Wars’ films usually occupy.. But that’s already past the end of the 2015 fiscal year, so they’re already pushing it.
So you can be assured that multi-tiered business and merchandizing plans for fourth quarter 2015 are already being drawn up if not locked and loaded. Or as our pal Russ Fisher aptly put it: “How many holiday 2015 licensing plans would be screwed by STAR WARS pushing to 2016? Figure Disney will do anything possible to stay in ’15.” And that is absolutely correct.
In short, it remains doubtful that ‘Episode VII’ won’t come out as scheduled. It would take a disaster much bigger than a broken limb to prevent this Titanic landing in port as scheduled. There’s just too much banking on it. But how much do you think the set props master wanted to die after Ford was hurt? We wonder if the guy still has a job. One also has to wonder about the morale of a crew just about to begin one of the biggest film endeavors ever and then lose one of their starring veterans. Of course, Harrison Ford always wanted Han Solo to die in ‘Return Of The Jedi,’ so maybe this is a strong omen that he’ll get his wish. Killing off a major character like that would certainly signal to audiences and skeptics that this new ‘Star Wars’ means business and is putting real stakes and real drama ahead of action figure concerns. We can only have…a new hope.
Really not looking forward to these nexts movies. Just feel like Disney is going to follow the story line and just **** it all up.
You do know that the manuscript for VII, VIII & IX can be read on the internet, don't you?
He's 70 years old and has no business being the star of the movie. If the plot is going to be sort of consistent with the expanded, him and Leia will have a kid, Luke eventually has a kid as well. Maybe have the "Jedi Hunters" kill off Han Solo and Leia right from the start. Their child eventually becomes the next big Jedi.
Greedo's son will kill Solo in a revenge attack for his father, sorted! Never underestimate the power of a the strange Lizard face people
The Falcon clearly must have been manufactured by General Motors.
I want to see this door that broke his leg so bad it is going to take six months to heal
Haven't you heard the latest news. It's not weeks, it's months. According to a statement, the injury is much worse than originally reported. He has a metal plate in his leg, flown back to The US for a 6 month recovery. Production will stop in August & the movie will be delayed. Listen to reports, it's not about what you want to happen. The guy has been seriously injured.
I heard a rumour that production is going to hault in August &
That this will delay the release of the movie. Apparently it's a complete mess & rewrites are happening. Confidence is low.
Delay would be painful, but writing Ford out or reducing his part if the story doesn't call for it could screw up the movie and having a successful first movie is the overriding factor after the debacle of the prequels. Disney needs to prove it can handle this franchise well.
It should be delayed! Harrison Ford is too important to the movie to be written out! And then if they delay it until May 2016, then it can come out in May like every other Star Wars film…
It won't be delayed. All Disney will do is spend couple million more it'll cost to re-arrange the shooting schedule to film most of Ford's stuff last. I'm sure there are a lot of scenes he could do even in his current state. . .It'll be a pain, but probably still less of a pain than delaying the release (bad press, more crowded summer competition, more time/money promoting and paying other people working on the movie, etc.) Disney has the money. They'll just work around the injury. Not the end of the world, people.
Delay the release? Lol.
Disney has this franchise stacked up like jets at O'Hare the day before Thanksgiving. Licensing obligations are the least of it. They also have talent commitments for something like 3 additional pictures, all of which would have to be paid off and/or renegotiated.
This movie is coming out on time because 1) it would be prohibitively expensive to delay and 2) quality does not matter because you mindless bitches would stand in line even if it was Abrams with 2 sock puppets humming the "Star Wars" theme.
So, no. "Star Wars" is not going to be delayed.
I think you mean Joe Theisman
Kenny, you do know that Abrams has a much better critics rating than Lucas, right? Abrams knows how to write dialogue and how to get emotion out of his actors, that is two gigantic things that Lucas is NO good at. Lucas is an amazing overarching storyline writer but that's it. Abrams movies also look cool and better. If anything, Abram's Star Wars will be better, not to mention the fact that Abrams is continuing a tradition that Lucas gave up on, animatronics and make-up effects. I trust Abrams with the job more than Lucas 100%.
I'd be pissed if they killed Han Solo off, but only if I didn't see Disney Star Wars as a series of bad fan films. With the "hip", inexperienced, faux-fanboy directors they are hiring, these movies are guaranteed to blow. The news about this movie is more entertaining than the film will be. As for the movies, we won't need MAD Magazine parodies anymore, because the films will be the best kind of parodies (unintentional). Long live Lucas! Down with Red Letter Media, Disney, Bad Robot and "The People vs George Lucas".
Best-case scenario if movie is delayed: Push Captain America 3 to April 2016, move Episode VII to May 6, 2016 (Star Wars weekend), which just happens to be the same release date as Batman vs Superman, and then flip two middle fingers to Warner Bros.
I never got this notion of Lucas's that killing off Han Solo would negatively impact the sale of Han action figures. Did they not sell truckloads of Vader, Obi-Wan and Boba Fett toys?
I heard some indonesian shaman cast a spell on Ford after grilling indonesian forestry minister.