Over the past few months, Disney has been ramping up its IMAX output as part of the company’s recent deal with IMAX productions, with notable films including Maleficent and Guardians of the Galaxy being released in the format. And today we’ve learned that Star Wars: Episode VII — arguably the biggest film on the company’s slate — will also contain a single scene shot in IMAX.
News comes by way of Variety, who ran a piece about the evolving nature of the format in the industry and how J.J. Abrams plans to utilize IMAX in the upcoming reboot.
“The benefits outweigh the headache of shooting on Imax cameras,” says Abrams, who used them for a single sequence in “Star Wars.” “The opportunity to have an action sequence for this movie done in Imax’s natural format was too delicious an idea to pass up. As a filmgoer, it’s something I want to see.”
While the filmmaker didn’t go into the specifics of the scene itself, we expect that Episode VII’s IMAX segment will revolve around a chase sequence or one of the film’s crucial scenes. Either way, seeing Abrams’ take on a galaxy far, far away on the biggest screen and in the largest resolution possible is something we can’t help but be excited for — even if it is just one scene.
Fans of the format can look forward to Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar when it hits next week, considering the director utilized IMAX for over an hour of the sci-fi opus. In fact, just like Nolan, Abrams has remained loyal to film and chose to capture the action using the IMAX film camera (see above) as opposed to the digital system used on Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Star Wars: Episode VII will blast into theaters on December 18th, 2015.
