Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens - Research Task

Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens - Research Task





Producers/ Production Companies: This film was produced by JJ Abrams (also the film's director), Kathleen Kennedy (previously producing E.T. and Jurassic Park) and Bryan Burk (previously producing Cloverfield and Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol). It also was attached to the production companies of Lucasfilm (which is George Lucas' own production company, now owned by Disney, which helped to produce the other films in the Star Wars series), Bad Robot (which is Director JJ Abram's own production company) as well as True North Productions (an independent British production company).

Director: This film was directed by JJ Abrams, who has previously directed Cloverfield, both Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness, Super 8 and Mission Impossible III, as well as previously producing several other TV Shows (under his production company) as well as the sequels to some of the films he directed (like Star Trek Beyond, Mission Impossible 4 and 5 or 10 Cloverfield Lane).

Screen Writer: It was written collaboratively by Lawrence Kasdan (writer of previous instalments like Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark), JJ Abrams and Michael Arndt (writer of Toy Story 3 as well as Oblivion and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, both of which he wrote under the pseudonym Michael deBruyn).

Actors: The movie stars many actors, from the virtually unknown to some of Hollywood's greatest. The Cast includes: Harrison Ford reprising his role as Han Solo, who also previously starred as Indiana Jones, as well as in Blade Runner and Cowboys and Aliens; Mark Hamill returning as Luke Skywalker, who is also famous for being the voice of the Joker in many animated series, cartoons and video games; Carrie Fisher reprising the Princess Leia Organa role, also famous for her role in When Harry Met Sally; Adam Driver as the new baddie, Kylo Ren, who since has went on to star in Midnight Special; Daisy Ridley as the new protagonist Rey, who was virtually unknown before; John Boyega as Finn, who previously starred in Attack the Block; Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, who previously starred in Ex_Machina and has since been in X-Men: Apocalypse; Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata, who previously starred in 12 Years a Slave and The Jungle Book; Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux, famous for Frank, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (both parts as Bill Weasley) as well as Ex_Machina; as well as Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma, who is famous for her role as Brien of Tarth on Game of Thrones as well as one of the aliens in CBBC's Wizards VS Aliens.

Budget:  The film had a budget of roughly $245 Million (the second highest of all time).

Locations: This film used locations in England, Ireland, Iceland and United Arab Emirates.

Green Light Date: 30th October 2012, after Lucas Films was bought by Disney.

Screens Shown On: The film was shown on roughly 5,500 screens worldwide on its opening weekend, which was its peak for the first 4 weeks of it being shown. The film lasted roughly 22 weeks at the cinema worldwide

Critical Reception: Generally well received with an IMDb rating of 8.2, a Rotten Tomatoes score of 92% and a Metacritic score of 81%.

Box Office Figures: It grossed just over $2 Billion worldwide over its time in the box office, with a $528 Million global opening weekend and a $900 Million US Domestic take (record breaking), as well as a record breaking global take of $1 Billion in its first 12 days.

Music Composer: The soundtrack was done by John Williams, who was the composer of the prequel Star Wars trilogy, the Indianna Jones films and the Harry Potter films.

Marketing: The first teaser trailer was released on 28th November 2014, over a year before the film was released. This was subsequently followed by several full trailers and a wave of TV spots and film clips. There was also several posters released, including the iconic main poster, as well as several individual character posters. There was also interviews on many iconic talk shows including Konan, Graham Norton and Jimmy Fallon.

 

Tie-in Products: Many products were released to market off of the Star Wars craze, including Lego, action figures, costumes, toy Lightsabers, kitchen apparel and models.

Special Effects: Although the majority of the film has practical effects, there is a lot of SFX used. SFX is used for animation, motion capture and digital make-up, which was done by various companies and studios.

Any Issues: As with most films, there was many problems with the film. Two major problems both involved Harrison Ford, who had a door on the Millennium Falcon set land on him, breaking his leg, as well as having a plane crash during filming. Daisy Ridley also apparently almost quit due to pressure from JJ Abrams, who thought her acting was stale and was trying to get her to open up. There was also problems with the film's rights as they were transferred from Lucasfilm to Disney.