Sources close to the production of director J.J. Abrams' "Star Wars: Episode VII" claim filming will begin on May 14 of this year. Badass Digest has learned that the first two weeks of production will take place in Morocco and will possible shift to Tunisia.
Given the desert features of these two countries, it is highly possible that "Episode VII" will return to Tatooine, the fictional home planet of Anakin and Luke Skywalker. It is also important to take note that Tunisia was also used for location shoots in "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" for its Tatooine scenes. Abrams might even use the abandoned "Star Wars" set left in that country which was featured by photographer Ra di Martino.
Cinema Blend speculated that a return to the desert planet might mean that the director is planning on returning to the original "Star Wars" roots for his new saga. Unlike in the prequel trilogies, the use of authentic locations could also minimize the use of CGI in the new film.
"Star Wars: Episode VII" is scheduled for release on Dec. 18, 2015. As stated on the film's Twitter account, the latest installment in the series will take place 30 years after the events of "Return of the Jedi".
As for the new actors in "Episode VII", the director said he wants to use relatively unknown celebrities to stay true to the authenticity set by "A New Hope", according to a previous article on Cinema Blend.
Abrams said, "We're putting together a cast of unknowns - we want to follow the '77 New Hope cast because obviously Harrison Ford wasn't well known at that point, Mark Hamill wasn't and Carrie Fisher wasn't either...We don't want to fall into that mistake of people going, 'Oh it's that guy from that thing' and then you're completely out of the 'Star Wars' universe."
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