The low budget experimental art film, ‘Rogue One’ seems to be doing quite well at present having made $790m internationally on its $200m budget and is still going strong and proves that the December release spot is proving a highly lucrative one for Disney. However the next Star Wars spin off about a young Han Solo which starts filming next month (February 2017) is intended for a May 2018 release but it seems that they want to make Christmas the Star Wars month and are looking to push it back to December 2018. Quite whether this will happen is anyone’s guess as it will be up against some proper competition in the form of the first Avatar sequel which has been almost 10 years in the making. Who will blink first and move their release date?
Tragically the recent passing of Carrie Fisher has had a knock on effect on Star Wars IX where she was tied into a three film deal. Though she had finished filming her role in Star Wars VIII and it will be released December 2017 as expected she had not begun filming her role in the last film and consequently it’s expected that the film is undergoing dramatic rewrites. Quite whether we will see her image in CGI form as with Rogue One – who knows?
As with all major films the studios take out insurance for the unexpected (accidents, bad weather etc) and the Star Wars films are no different and Fisher’s tragic unexpected death has meant a claim has been instigated which will see an insurance payout believed to be up to $50m for Disney.
