Chapter 891: Ready to Make a Move

It wasn't just Simon Pegg and Daniel Craig. Michael Fassbender and Hugo Weaving also wanted cameos. The specific roles didn't matter; what mattered was the chance for these die-hard Star Wars fans to actually be part of the movie.

Never mind the Hollywood stars—even a few members of Congress had written to Lucasfilm, asking to join the production. They were willing to appear as nothing more than masked stormtroopers.

As long as it didn't interfere with filming, Duke wasn't about to pass up such a perfect opportunity to hand out favors.

The production's operations had been kept strictly confidential, but with the launch of large-scale auditions, a few details inevitably leaked to become the focus of the entertainment press. This had its benefits. Even though Star Wars 7 was relying on a veil of secrecy to drum up interest among fans worldwide, it still needed to start building promotional momentum.

The producer, Lucasfilm, and the distributor, Warner Brothers, had also hammered out a detailed promotional strategy with their media partners.

"Instant Sharing news: Star Wars 7, scheduled to begin filming this April, is currently ramping up its casting. Insiders have leaked that the protagonists of the 'new Star Wars' story will be the son of Luke Skywalker and the daughter of Princess Leia and Han Solo. Previous rumors suggested that, given the current boom in young adult films, director Duke Rosenberg and his team wanted to take Star Wars 7 in a more youthful direction, featuring a female Jedi Knight as the lead. It seems this rumor is about to come true."

"Currently, many actresses are already auditioning. Rumor has it that one of them has already seen the script—the young British actress Rachel Hurd-Wood, known for her roles in Perfume, An American Haunting, and Peter Pan. On the male lead front, British heartthrob Alex Pettyfer is the most likely winner; he has starred in films like Wild Child, I Am Number Four, and Beastly. Both of these actors were born in the 1990s, and their shared trait is exceptional good looks. They are teen idols with acting skills that stand out among their peers."

"According to a scoop from George Lucas yesterday, 'Captain Han Solo' Harrison Ford, 'Luke Skywalker' Mark Hamill, and 'Princess Leia' Carrie Fisher have also signed contracts to return. However, he has no say over the specific arrangement of their screen time; that will depend entirely on director Duke Rosenberg's vision."

"The script for Star Wars 7 was personally penned by Duke Rosenberg, with Lawrence Kasdan, writer of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and Simon Kinberg, writer of Sherlock Holmes, serving as script consultants. On the scoring front, John Williams, the composer for the first six Star Wars films, is confirmed to return. In addition, Duke Rosenberg has pulled his go-to cinematographer, John Schwartzman, into the Star Wars team to shoot and produce Star Wars 7 entirely in IMAX."

"Since acquiring Lucasfilm, Duke Rosenberg clearly intends to make full use of its resources. Aside from the opening salvo of Star Wars 7, preparations for Star Wars 8 and Star Wars 9 are already underway, with plans to release one every two years. Furthermore, Lucasfilm plans to produce standalone Star Wars spin-offs to be released in the gaps between the '7-8-9 trilogy.' This means Lucasfilm will release a Star Wars-related movie every single year."

Ever since Star Wars 7 was announced, there had been almost no "concrete" or "definitive" official news. Both the media and eager fans had been tortured by endless rumors and casting possibilities.

The appearance of this news report instantly drew widespread attention, but it also sparked dissatisfaction among some veteran, die-hard Star Wars fans. The commercial flavor of releasing Star Wars films at such a high frequency went without saying. These fans worried that Duke's overly commercialized approach would ruin the Star Wars Series.

But Duke had poured over four billion dollars into acquiring Lucasfilm, and it was the very nature of commercial capital to chase profits. He couldn't possibly secure the Star Wars Series only to sit back and watch this treasure trove slowly recoup his investment. That was completely out of the question.

The dollar was constantly depreciating, and the time cost was also part of the equation.

As for whether this would over-exploit the potential of the Star Wars Series, Duke wasn't worried. As long as the films maintained a certain level of quality, it wouldn't be an issue. Even at their absolute worst, the Star Wars films he plotted out and shot would never be worse than The Clone Wars.

Duke paid no attention to the dissenting voices, focusing all his energy on the preparations for Star Wars 7.

He first met with Harrison Ford. Just as the media had reported, after a grueling negotiation, Harrison Ford finally signed the acting contract for Star Wars 7. Lucasfilm paid a 20-million-dollar salary for this. The only thing that brought Duke any comfort was that, in exchange for the massive 20-million-dollar payout, Harrison Ford and his agent had finally compromised—the signed contract involved absolutely no back-end profit participation.

Paying a 20-million-dollar salary for a single actor was an incredibly rare occurrence in Duke's films. In the past, only three people had ever commanded that kind of figure from his productions: Tom Cruise, Charlize Theron, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

People are always biased, and the latter three had relationships with Duke that went beyond simple commercial cooperation. Tom Cruise was his business partner, and his daughter was Duke's goddaughter; Charlize Theron and Leonardo DiCaprio were two of his very few genuine friends in the industry. Harrison Ford, on the other hand, had very little prior connection to him.

Lucasfilm was going to shoot far more than just Star Wars 7. If Han Solo continued to exist, Duke would inevitably have to pay out even more exorbitant salaries in the future. Neither he nor Lucasfilm wanted to see that, so Duke made a slight adjustment to the existing script.

And the result of this adjustment was directly killing off Han Solo...

Fans might complain or even curse him out after the film premiered, but in the face of commercial interests, none of that mattered.

Besides, the entire Star Wars story was essentially the history of the Skywalker Family's grudges and entanglements. It was perfectly normal for Han Solo to be taken out by his own son, a descendant of the Skywalkers.

Members of the Skywalker Family couldn't withstand the temptation of the Dark Side of the Force and fell to the dark side; on the flip side, other members of the Skywalker Family represented the light side of the Force to save the galaxy. That was, in essence, the summary of Star Wars.

Then again, the Force was basically a generous gift Anakin Skywalker left to his descendants.

Based on Duke's Eastern-oriented understanding, this thing called the Force was extremely profound and hard to explain. According to the packaging by Pablo Hidalgo, universally recognized by fans as the "living encyclopedia" of Star Wars, the Force was described as an energy field possessed only by living things. It had a grand, egalitarian vibe—all living beings possessed it, and all were equal—yet those who wielded the Force weren't necessarily Jedi Knights.

Jedi Knights had a ton of rules. Back in their glory days, accepting disciples was a highly formal affair: the council had to inspect the goods, and the apprentice had to be submissive.

This hurdle was incredibly hard to pass. Anakin was an unparalleled genius, yet he was still initially rejected for being "too old"; but after the Jedi Knights fell from grace, an older Luke was taken under their wing all the same.

As everyone knew, the Force was divided into the dark and light sides.

Under the current rules of the Hollywood game, the villain often determined the success or failure of a blockbuster. The success and brilliance of the Star Wars Series couldn't ignore the contributions that Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and Palpatine had made to the galactic epic.

Aside from being unable to achieve immortality as "Jedi Spirits," the Dark Side of the Force actually looked far more appealing than the light side.

In Duke's vision, Star Wars 7 would be even darker than the original Star Wars trilogy, perhaps even surpassing Star Wars Prequel 3: Revenge of the Sith. Although the villain he designed was entirely different from Luke's son as reported in the news, he was still a member of the Skywalker Family, and Duke had even specifically arranged a pair of heroic parents for him.

Of course, there would still be two main villains. This was tied to the Star Wars lore regarding the Sith.

According to the "Rule of Two" established by Sith Lord Darth Bane, apprentices could be swapped out like a revolving door—Darth Sidious, for instance, had gone through Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and Anakin—but there could only ever be two of them teaming up. Therefore, aside from the Skywalker Family villain, there absolutely had to be a mastermind pulling the strings behind the scenes.

As for the representative of the light side of the Force in the film, that would naturally be the female lead. She would also be the first true female Jedi Master.

Just like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, this female Jedi Master also hailed from a prestigious lineage. In the Star Wars Series, legacy and inheritance were of the utmost importance.

All the preparatory work was proceeding in a tense and orderly fashion. Compared to his previous films, Duke paid much closer attention to the casting for Star Wars 7. He absolutely refused to let the acting tragedies of Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman from the Star Wars Prequel trilogy repeat themselves.

This was especially true for the male and female leads. He was the only one with the final say on who would play those two roles.

The Rachel Hurd-Wood mentioned in the media reports had been booted by Duke right after her initial audition. Her image and acting skills were decent, but her height was an issue.

Duke's ideal candidate for the female lead needed to be at least around five foot seven, and she couldn't be overly slender or frail.

Having actresses who were as skinny as beanpoles play a formidable female Jedi Knight simply wouldn't be convincing, no matter how you looked at it.

Because the title and characters of Star Wars 7 were still under wraps, the casting flyers the production sent out to the media and the industry all used aliases.

For example, the male and female leads they were looking to cast went by the code names "Rachel" and "Thomas," both described as young adults around twenty years old.

Although they used aliases, Hollywood had a mature agency system. It wasn't hard for these talent agents to dig around and discover that these were the male and female leads for Star Wars 7. They were also extremely clear on exactly what kind of opportunities such roles could bring.

Given the natural limitations of the role, actresses from the five major English-speaking countries—America, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—undoubtedly held the biggest advantage. Actresses from all these places were already getting restless, ready to make their move.