'Star Wars Episode 7' News Update: JJ Abrams Opens Up About Upcoming 2015 Film

J.J Abrams recently revealed details about the upcoming "Star Wars Episode 7" movie he is set to direct.

In an interview with Empire Magazine, Abrams spoke about the process of being chosen as the director and his love for the Star Wars franchise. When he was first offered the job by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, the director stated, "My knee-jerk reaction was that I'm in the middle of working on the 'Star Trek' movie and I can't even consider it. But then time went by and I got further along working on the movie and getting to a place where I had done most of the heavy lifting."

He then added, "So when I met with Kathy Kennedy we just started discussing it and I was able to actually engage in the conversation. I went down to tell Katie, my wife and I said, 'I had just a very interesting conversation with Kathy.' That was the beginning." Abrams then said that it was Steven Spielberg who eventually convinced him to the job. He said, "I will say that Steven [Spielberg] was very encouraging of Star Wars. It's funny because I talked to him about it and it turned out he knew all about what was going on."

As far as the movie goes, Abrams said he is still unsure where he will go with the franchise. "I don't know because we're just getting started," said Abrams. "So it's a great question that I hope I'll have a good answer to when I know what the answer is. There are infinitely more questions than answers right now, but to me, they're not that dissimilar."

During the interview Abrams also took the time to speak about Star Trek and even compared his process with that franchise. "Though I came at these both from very different places, where they both meet is a place of 'Ooh, that's really exciting.' And even though I was never a 'Star Trek' fan, I felt like there was a version of it that would make me excited, that I would think 'That's cool, that feels right, I actually would want to see that,'" he added

Abrams continued, "How we were going to get there, what the choices were going to be, who was going to be in it - all of those things I knew would have to be figured out, but it was all based on a foundation of this indescribable, guttural passion for something that could be."

Star Wars is set for release in 2015 while Abrams' next Star Trek movie "Star Trek Into Darkness" will hit the silver screen on May 17^th.