Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII 32 ( plus about eight months ). Google is your friend. We better get more than that. His "stand here" material in ROTS wasn't memorable enough. I want to see him pulling arms out of sockets as originally advertised in ANH. And shooting his gun.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Which wouldn't prevent the droids from appearing, though I think it's a save bet that Anthony will do at least voice work for 3P0 for as long as he can.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII At this point it will probably cost more to put Kenny in costume than it would to fully automate R2.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Technically all they'd need to do to validate putting Kenny's name in the end credits would be putting him in the Artoo shell for just one or two scenes involving closeups where his dome rotates and he does the astromech droid equivalent of emoting (twitching, wobbling, etc.) and then they could use a remote control, automated Artoo for all the other scenes in the film. There were plenty of shots in the OT and PT where Kenny was never actually inside the Artoo shell at a given moment, but a lot of fans thought he was. I hope he does indeed return for at least a couple of scenes just for old times' sake.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII They should just let Baker and Mayhew cameo as aliens in some background scene. Hell, Lucas let Davis play multiple parts in the PT I think.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII ^ Seconded. I know someone who's had a casting call which, reading between the lines of what they described, makes me suspect there will be live-action Wookies (as opposed to just CGI) in the new film.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Anthony Daniels played two roles each in both Episodes II and III (Threepio and the Coruscant uniformed officer Lt. - later Capt. - Dannl Faytonni, seen first in the Outlander Nightclub and three years later at the huge Opera House), so it wouldn't be the first time one of the lead actors pulled some overtime as a background human or alien.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII I'd say that's pretty much all he did do in the prequels. In fact http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1029304/
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Yep. As he got older and the technology to create remote controlled Artoo shells progressed and became more reliable Kenny appeared inside them less and less often. R2 was also fairly heavily CGI'ed throughout the Prequels so that also took away from opportunities for Kenny to don the costume. All he'd need to do is shoot one or two quick scenes that make it into the final cut and they can slide his name into the closing credits and maintain the tradition of him co-starring in each film in the Saga.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Yeah, it'd be a shame for him to not be included. I suspect that he will be.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII I can't imagine Anthony Daniels at least, not being involved. I could see them noting bring Kenny Baker back, but I doubt they'd want to deal with the fan backlash if they found out. So yeah, at this point I foresee them both coming back, even if like you guys said, it was just for one or two scenes.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Do they actually need Kenny to be in the can? I'd just let him man the radio controls and give him the credit.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII I'd suspect that it depends on SAG rules, which I know nothing about.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Me neither, but I get the suspicion based on past films that Kenny would need to be inside the Artoo shell at least once and appear on-screen in order to be included in the film's credits. I could be wrong, but that's the impression I've been getting since the Prequels. The credits and their composition have always been a big sticking point for the industry, and when Empire was being readied for release back in 1980 Hollywood bigwigs at 20th Century Fox demanded Lucas place the credits for the second film at the beginning of the movie to comply with how the typical film is structured. They had made an exception with the original back in 1977 but that time they made demands of Lucas and he and Irvin Kershner chose to defy them, incurring fines that George had to pay.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empire_Strikes_Back#Production:
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Thanks for that, CC. I knew I'd heard it mentioned several times that important people within Hollywood came after both George and Irvin before Empire was edited and released but I'd forgotten it was the Writers and Director's Guilds and not the studio itself.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII http://www.starwars7news.com/2014/01/new-star-wars-episode-7-rumors-more-on.html