Production Design in Star Wars VII This article was posted on Wednesday, 15th January 2014

As I'm sure everyone knows, there will be a new Star Wars movie, to be released in 2015. I am cautiously optimistic about it- they can't do any worse than the three Star Wars prequels:

"Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo; so long ago when there was nothing but our love."

Anyway, JJ Abrams is an interesting choice of director, and I saw today that Darren Gilford has been listed on IMDB as the Production Designer, along with Rick Carter. I think this is a very good thing. I've mentioned Darren Gilford here before, in relation to his design work for Tron Legacy and Oblivion.

Rick Carter's previous work is stellar and Oscar-winning, whereas Darren Gilford's previous work is, so far, limited to his work on Tron Legacy and Oblivion. However, I think it's obvious that he has a serious talent at designing a very futuristic look and feel, which is also quite practical and functional. More importantly, his work is believable, regardless of the context. I have likened him to designers like Ron Cobb and Syd Mead.

The original Star Wars trilogy had a very tangible feel to it- it was futuristic, but believable. I think Rick Carter and Darren Gilford will do a great job, I think it's going to be a fantastic looking movie. I may even be getting a little excited about the movie.

Sidenote- I find it interesting, the number of items in Oblivion, that are contemporary items, that you can get today. The first of the two images above is quite obviously a Leatherman Skeletool, in custom white, and in the second image, there is a white Bieffe Boby Taboret. Good design is timeless.

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