One of the most promising pieces of news we've heard about the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII ever since it was announced last year was that the studio had hired Academy Award winning screenwriter Michael Arndt to pen the script. Sadly, however, it appears that puzzle piece is no longer in place.

Lucas’s son, Jett, talks about his dad’s ongoing involvement in the developing series. He talks about his dad being “torn” on the matter of handing the franchise over to new creators (not just to Abrams, but to other directors who’ll be able to now play in this sandbox)

"I was showing my wife an early cut of Star Trek Into Darkness," he said, "and there was this one scene where she was literally like, ‘I just can’t see what’s going on. I don’t understand what that is.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I went too nuts on this.’”

With the 3D trend visibly dying out, movie theaters and studios are looking for even more ways to get people to actually leave their houses to go to the movies, and thus far the hippest new thing is IMAX. The large format that used to be limited to planetariums has been used to dazzling effect in films like The Dark Knight Rises and the upcoming Gravity, and more and more filmmakers are adopting it to make their big-budget spectacles all the more spectacular. Will J.J. Abrams be the next to jump on board?

David Oyelowo of Lee Daniel’s The Butler and Michael B. Jordan of Fruitvale Station have taken meetings about the film. Of course a meeting is far from a guarantee in casting, but Jordan is said to have met personally with Abrams, which is a bit more promising.

He throws the word “real” around a lot. Which is fine. It backs up this sentiment that Abrams is going to counter the digital chilliness of Lucas’ prequel trilogy with the promise of practical effects.

Sci-fi fans have known forever that you can't just step off the bridge of the Starship Enterprise and on to the Millennium Falcon, but J.J. Abrams has only now finally admitted it. The director of Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness is locked in and ready to start in January on Star Wars: Episode VII, and we've assumed since he first signed on that it meant he wouldn't be able to direct Star Trek 3

Working as a director of photography since the early 90s, Mindel has a long list of high-profile, blockbuster credits and worked with Abrams previously on Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek, and Star Trek Into Darkness (the only film they didn't work together on was Super 8, which was shot by Larry Fong).

The Bad Robot appears, followed by a shot of a field of stars. I don't blame you if your heart stopped at that point, since thos two elements will almost certainly be part of whatever eventual teaser we see for Star Wars: Episode VII, which Bad Robot is producing alongside Lucasfilm and Disney and their fearless leader, J.J. Abrams. This teaser trailer, which popped up today at Entertainment Weekly, is not for Episode VII… probably

Twice now in a four-week span, Walt Disney Studios has had opportunities to ease the minds of Star Wars fans around the globe by revealing even the slightest inkling of information regarding J.J. Abrams’ Episode VII: The As-Yet-Unnamed Sequel. And twice, the studio opted to remain silent.

J.J. Abrams’ second Star Trek movie and the twelfth in the franchise did well at the box office, grossing nearly $450,000 and paving the way for a third movie. Those who can’t wait for the new flick will at least be able to watch Star Trek into Darkness when it hits Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand on September 10.

When it was announced that J.J. Abrams was chosen to helm the next entry in the still sprawling Star Wars franchise, it was largely assumed he would be too busy to continue on with the Star Trek franchise he'd successfully rebooted. However, Star Trek into Darkness's Mr. Spock says we shouldn't count Abrams out just yet.

Just as J.J. Abrams managed to update Star Trek with younger, better-looking versions of all the original characters, he's apparently bringing a lot of more attractive faces to Star Wars. Bleeding Cool has gotten its hands on what they swear is a 100% verified casting breakdown for agents hoping to get their actors on the call sheet for Star Wars: Episode VII

This begs the question, though: How much insight would you want Lucas to have at this stage? We’ve seen the prequels. Many did not like the prequels. Do you want Lucas looking over Abrams’ shoulder as he preps Episode VII, or do you want Abrams to have creative freedom to establish his own version of this beloved universe?

Star Trek Into Darkness recently inched past the $200 million mark at the American box office, making it the fourth-biggest film of the year and, counting in international box office, already bigger than the first Star Trek

Star Trek Into Darkness is a hit. Not a giant hit, and not the kind of thing that has studios calling all of their rivals and screaming "Suck it!" while guzzling champagne at 8 a.m. (at least , that's how we picture it), but a big enough hit all the same. Especially when you account for its huge improvement with global audiences, Star Trek Into Darkness has done well enough to keep the franchise alive… which means, inevitably, it's time to start talking about sequels

ABC's affiliation with Disney seems to be paying off a bit more for Jimmy Kimmel Live since Disney acquired the Star Wars franchise. Last month, Kimmel staged a pretty heated (and amusing) confrontation between Harrison Ford and his old pal Chewbacca. Apparently the two had a falling out over an indiscretion between Chewy and Leia. The topic of the wookiee came up again this week when Star Wars and Star Trek director J.J. Abrams visited Kimmel's show.

Licensing and merchandising rights debates mired Bad Robot and Paramount in legal battles with CBS about what elements from Star Trek canon could be used … and which couldn’t. In fact, these hostile negotiations blocked Abrams from turning his 2009 reboot of the series into a multi-platform entertainment experience.

With Star Trek Into Darkness now playing all around the world and making its midnight debut last night in domestic theaters, J.J. Abrams has been keeping very busy. In addition to balancing all of his television projects and dealing with pre-production details on upcoming movies the filmmaker has been traveling around the world...

Abrams is famous for his "Mystery Box" approach to storytelling, the idea being that it's better not to know what you're getting before walking into a movie. And though there are surprises in Star Trek Into Darkness that you probably won't know in advance, there are also parts of the film that Abrams went to a lot of effort to keep secret… and don't seem to matter all that much when you know them

He did tell me about where he was when he learned that Abrams would be directing Star Wars, and how he got the director to confirm Trek won't be the older, less cool sibling left behind. We also talked about the serious sprinting Scotty does in one key action scene in Star Trek Into Darkness, what it's like being one of the older cast members, and why he, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost are being so vigilant about maintaining the secrets about their upcoming comedy The World's End

this week it was clearly time for the student to become the master, so Katey forced Mack into a sit-down anyway. Mack agreed to watch the first Abrams Star Trek and test a theory the rest of us had that the movie's energy and openness to non-Trekkies would persuade him to get on board. After all, Abrams is going to have the exact same challenge when he takes over the reins of Star Wars.

J.J. Abrams usually looks like the cat who ate the canary, as the geek who rose to become King of the World. Now that he's become King of the Universe-- or, er, galaxies-- by taking over both Star Trek and Star Wars, the guy really can't help himself. He seems both in disbelief that he's been handed these two massive worlds, and smugly sitting back with the knowledge that he's about to change geek lives, and nobody but him knows how he's going to do it

They're so firmly entrenched in pop culture legend that many of us want to believe the Star Wars films actually were shot somewhere in outer space. But even though J.J. Abrams will probably have all the money in the world to shoot Star Wars: Episode VII in the next year or so, that won't be enough to get him into orbit (yet). So how about London, England subbing for a galaxy far, far away this time?

Wiliams and Star Wars go hand in hand, and if he’s willing to come back to score Episode VII, then I understand why Abrams would welcome him with open arms (though the way he presents it, it almost makes it sounds like this is something he was told was going to happen, whether he wanted it or not).