The set for the next Star Wars film may finally bring its historic name to life. During the Power of Story: The Art of Film panel at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, Star Wars: Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow expressed his desire to film part of his installment of the storied franchise in space.
Before you think he’s just saying it to drum up interest in the coming film, the Jurassic World director says he has already pitched the idea of filming in space. “I asked the question, ‘Is it possible for us to shoot IMAX film plates in actual space for Star Wars,” Trevorrow said during the panel. “I haven’t gotten an answer yet, but they’ve shot IMAX in space.” Trevorrow may be referring to Giant Green Films’ 2015 Journey to Space, a movie about NASA and the space communities working in space.
Trevorrow didn’t even have to go far to get tips on how to film in space since Interstellar director Christopher Nolan was also on the panel. Nolan admitted the same conversations about filming in space were brought up during the making of Interstellar. “There’s incredible footage from space with those film cameras,” Nolan stated.
The 90-minute panel touched on a variety of topics, including the fact that all of the new Star Wars movies will be shot on film, as opposed to digital cameras. But none of the topics elicited a more impassioned response from the two directors than that of “motion smoothing.” Trevorrow proclaimed “motion smoothing is the worst thing to happen to movies in recent history.”
Also known as frame or motion interpolation, “motion smoothing” is when TV manufacturers digitally add frames to a movie or TV show to eliminate judder and other motion artifacts on TVs. The feature is colloquially known as “the soap opera effect” as many believe it creates a cheaper-looking visual aesthetic to film and TV content.
Trevorrow was so passionate about his distaste for motion smoothing he stipulated Samsung could show exclusive content of Jurassic World on TV’s in Best Buys across the world, as long as none of the TVs had motion smoothing turned on. Nolan emphatically agreed with Trevorrow’s disdain.
Rian Johnson is set to write the script for Episode IX. He also wrote the script for his Star Wars directorial debut, Episode VIII, a script so good it made The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams wish he was directing it. With the Episode IX script potentially being out of this world and a director who literally wants to take the film there, the new Star Wars trilogy could break new ground.
Star Wars: Episode IX is set to hit theaters in 2019.
