The Next Star Wars Films: Locations

Director J.J. Abrams is getting ready to begin filming of the next cycle of “Star Wars” movies.  And every studio and location in the world — literally — wants to host them.  Variety quotes Albuquerque Studios president Gary Arnold:

“Every location and facility across the globe and every state in the U.S. must be offering the moon and stars,” Arnold says. “And they’re all willing to offer things on a one-shot basis, everything they can imagine the producers might want, just to be able to say they got the new ‘Star Wars’ shoot. That din is probably the first challenge facing any location or facility that wants to be seriously considered.”

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Says Arnold: “The irony of ‘Star Wars’ is there won’t be a single location that is identifiable. We had one of the biggest-grossing films in history, ‘The Avengers’ shoot here, but ‘Breaking Bad’ has more impact on tourism than anything we’ve ever done in New Mexico. Identifiable locales are what drives tourism.”

According to Variety, they will be shooting at the legendary Pinewood Studios in London.  The original “Star Wars” script for what is now chapter IV was set in a jungle environment, but that was switched to desert for budgetary reasons.  I wonder what factors will enter into the decision about the settings for this one, especially now that so much can be done digitally.