Wanna know something wild? We’re less than a year removed from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Yet already we’ll have Rogue One: A Star Wars Story next month with the eighth episode to follow next December and that Han Solo anthology spinoff right behind that for May 2018. In other words, four Star Wars films will have come out in the same amount of time it used to take George Lucas to make one. Hey, they always said Disney worked with magic.
So, it makes sense that plans are already in motion for Colin Trevorrow’s Episode IX. Previously, the Jurassic World filmmaker has expressed a ludicrous interest in shooting in space, but now we have confirmation on something a little more grounded. According to The Playlist, Kodak has announced that their film processing facility in the U.K. can now handle 65mm film and wouldn’t you know that Episode IX is listed as an expected project.
If you’re scratching your head at the value of 65mm, that’s fine. The size of the film refers to the width of the film cell, which allows filmmakers to work with larger frames at a higher quality — basically at IMAX size. You’ve seen this previously with Christopher Nolan’s work, specifically parts of The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and Interstellar. His forthcoming World War II epic, Dunkirk, is said to be shot almost entirely on 65mm.
Trevorrow and cinematographer John Schwartzman, who will also lens Episode IX, actually worked with 65mm for parts of last year’s Jurassic World. But really, that’s not the best example considering the entire film looked like one long PS4 cut scene. Here’s hoping they tone things down substantially when they hit up our favorite far away galaxy.
Alas, Episode IX hits theaters on May 23, 2019.
