Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

[eMeM]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/book ... /92308762/

The schematics of the Death Star are first seen in the prequel Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones, so Catalyst goes all the way back to the Clone Wars in its story. Grand Moff Tarkin, a villain well known from the original Star Wars movie, figures prominently

Hopefully it will clear up the confusion regarding Tarkin's and Krennic's role in the project.

[Adam Reynolds]

In the compilation trailer there also appears to be a shot of Tarkin from the back, with his distinctive haircut. I can't give a link at the moment because I am not on my computer, but I will post it later.

I also recall hearing that they used CGI to recreate Peter Cushing.

[Elheru Aran]

In the compilation trailer there also appears to be a shot of Tarkin from the back, with his distinctive haircut. I can't give a link at the moment because I am not on my computer, but I will post it later.

I also recall hearing that they used CGI to recreate Peter Cushing.

This?


Also:

Star Wars fans will forever remember Peter Cushing for his role as Grand Moff Tarkin in George Lucas' 1977 classic - and while the actor may have passed away back in 1994, apparently that may not stop him from reprising the part. That's because a new rumor is going saying that director Gareth Edwards is planning to create an entirely CGI version of the character for his upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One.

This story comes to us from the folks over at The Daily Mail (and should probably be taken with a grain of salt). According to an anonymous source, Grand Moff Tarkin will reportedly play a significant part in the plot of Star Wars: Rogue One, and that the process is one of the "most complex and costly CGI re-creations ever." No explicit details are given about how exactly the character will fit into the plot, but the source offers that it's a significant role "as he was the one to create Darth Vader." (It should be noted that this isn't actually part of the established canon, and could be proof that the news is spurious).

In case it isn't clear, we have some serious doubts about this story, but the source does offer up an interesting detail concerning what makes the process of creating a CGI Grand Moff Tarkin so complicated. During the filming of the original Star Wars, Peter Cushing found the boots worn by Imperial commanders to be incredibly uncomfortable, and got permission from George Lucas to just wear slippers on set. As a result, there's a limited amount of footage featuring Tarkin's feet, and this has reportedly necessitated the visual effects team on Star Wars: Rogue One to look back at Cushing's long film history in order to make sure the recreation is entirely realistic. If it were me, I would just make it so that his feet don't appear in any shots - partially as an ode to Cushing's performance - and, honestly, that could very well be more evidence against this accuracy of this report.

Described as a gritty war movie - in juxtaposition with the more standard space opera approach - Star Wars: Rogue One will be set in the time just before the events in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and follow the squadron sent in to steal the plans for the original Death Star. It is unknown at this time if there will be any familiar characters featured in the movie, but the impressive cast includes Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk.

Production has actually already begun on Star Wars: Rogue One, with the film targeting a release date in December 2016. We'll just have to wait and see if it includes a CGI Peter Cushing.

[Adam Reynolds]

I didn't notice that shot in the trailer. This is the one I was referring to, though I could be wrong.

https://youtu.be/D26gCL4CpKE?t=3m35s

[Galvatron]

I hope that picture doesn't indicate what it looks like it's indicating. I don't want Tarkin to wind up being subordinate to Krennic, but between the bio on the official web site and his cape it seems like they're building him up as a major Imperial bigwig.

[The Romulan Republic]

It may be that he is a personal representative of the Emperor in this film, and that thus Tarkin must defer to him even though he wouldn't normally outrank Tarkin. Their is some precedent for that, I believe.

[Adam Reynolds]

Krennic might have delusions of grandeur, while Tarkin is much more conservative. Look at the way Tarkin handled himself in the briefing in A New Hope. While Vader and Motti bickered and put themselves as the center of attention, he sat off to the side and let them do so, intervening at the end. Krennic might be the one who puts himself out there and allows Tarkin and possibly Vader to destroy him.

Also, another bit I heard recently is the idea that Rouge One might explain away the exhaust port flaw. Because Jyn Erso's father was involved in the construction, perhaps he included the exhaust port as a deliberate flaw as a means to sabotage the design enough that it could eventually be destroyed. Then there is the other somewhat more crackpot theory that Jyn infiltrates the Death Star and is the wingman that crashes into Vader.

[Rogue 9]

Krennic might have delusions of grandeur, while Tarkin is much more conservative. Look at the way Tarkin handled himself in the briefing in A New Hope. While Vader and Motti bickered and put themselves as the center of attention, he sat off to the side and let them do so, intervening at the end. Krennic might be the one who puts himself out there and allows Tarkin and possibly Vader to destroy him.

Also, another bit I heard recently is the idea that Rouge One might explain away the exhaust port flaw. Because Jyn Erso's father was involved in the construction, perhaps he included the exhaust port as a deliberate flaw as a means to sabotage the design enough that it could eventually be destroyed. Then there is the other somewhat more crackpot theory that Jyn infiltrates the Death Star and is the wingman that crashes into Vader.

We hear that wingman's voice, and it's very much not female.

[Kingmaker]

Then there is the other somewhat more crackpot theory that Jyn infiltrates the Death Star and is the wingman that crashes into Vader.

I don't think any of them are going to make it that far.

[Adam Reynolds]

Then there is the other somewhat more crackpot theory that Jyn infiltrates the Death Star and is the wingman that crashes into Vader.

I don't think any of them are going to make it that far.

Of course they won't. I wonder if the creator of this theory is actually making a clever point about plot holes, that Rouge One won't fix them.

We hear that wingman's voice, and it's very much not female.

The new EU seems to be claiming that the Empire is full of women we don't see. The novels Lost Stars and Battlefront both claim that Imperial starfighter pilots, officers, and stormtroopers are a mix of men and women, but that the women dress in a fashion in which we cannot determine this very easily. Given that, you could argue that the synthesized voices all sound male to prevent a female stormtrooper from being identified. I don't actually believe this to be the case, but there it is.

[Lord Revan]

Most imperial pilots/stormtroopers are essentially voiceless and faceless so you can't say there wasn't any females there either. That said FO female Stormtroopers sound female (Phasma and most likely an unnamed grunt ST reporting to Kylo Ren). So it's most likely that in movies we simply didn't hear the any female pilots/Stormtroopers (as military would still be male dominated) as for Rebels I would say that it's better assume it's a semi-documental work made after the fact (like for example: Band of Brothers) rather the footage shot on the spot so all ST sound identical could be because the rebels spoken to saw all Stormtroopers are faceless and identical.

[eMeM]

Krennic might have delusions of grandeur, while Tarkin is much more conservative. Look at the way Tarkin handled himself in the briefing in A New Hope. While Vader and Motti bickered and put themselves as the center of attention, he sat off to the side and let them do so, intervening at the end. Krennic might be the one who puts himself out there and allows Tarkin and possibly Vader to destroy him.

Also, another bit I heard recently is the idea that Rouge One might explain away the exhaust port flaw. Because Jyn Erso's father was involved in the construction, perhaps he included the exhaust port as a deliberate flaw as a means to sabotage the design enough that it could eventually be destroyed. Then there is the other somewhat more crackpot theory that Jyn infiltrates the Death Star and is the wingman that crashes into Vader.

But there is no design flaw. They have a 2m wide exhaust port for a 120km in diameter planet-destroying battlestation. Of course we have to assume that the exhaust port is necessary for this kind of weapon, as DS 2 also included exhaust ports, just smaller and more numerous.
Only an extremely fortunate chain of events, including a ghost Jedi, a pilot Jedi, and Tarkin's hesitation to lauch fighters allowed to exploit the "only weakness" of the Death Star.

[Lord Revan]

There was a signifigant enough risk of the rebel plan working without a jedi (the imperials didn't know about Luke) that Chief Blast thought it prudent to inform Tarkin about it, again if the rebels had a snowballs chance in hell to succeed informing Tarkin would at worst (for the imperials) be unneeded distraction that might allow the rebel leadership to escape.

Still any project as huge as the Death Star will have a design flaw or 2 in it, it's simply unavoidble since the builders/designers don't have infinite resources to make the thing. I think it's something of a brainbug of fans that exhaust port flaw had to be put there on purpose. Since lets be 100% honest here it wasn't a massive hole with neon signs saying hit this to blow the station, but a relatively tiny hole that wasn't even the main exhaust port, but a back-up below the main port, it was outright stated as so in the briefing in ANH, it was only important as it was the best shot the rebels had avaible, not because it was super important in and off itself.

[Elheru Aran]

Re Krennic and Tarkin:

I suspect Krennic is only in the forefront in that image because he's doing the usual show-and-tell dog-and-pony show to demonstrate to the various Imperial functionaries that the Death Star is *not* a colossal waste of resources. He doesn't have to be superior to Tarkin, just in charge of the Death Star project. The image doesn't give enough context for us to assume that Krennic outranks Tarkin in some fashion.

[Galvatron]

Re Krennic and Tarkin:

I suspect Krennic is only in the forefront in that image because he's doing the usual show-and-tell dog-and-pony show to demonstrate to the various Imperial functionaries that the Death Star is *not* a colossal waste of resources. He doesn't have to be superior to Tarkin, just in charge of the Death Star project. The image doesn't give enough context for us to assume that Krennic outranks Tarkin in some fashion.

I hope you're right. Now that Thrawn is back, I can't help but wonder where he fits into the Imperial hierarchy as described in the Tarkin novel. Maybe he's the only grand admiral in the new EU.
Spoiler

As of Darth Vader #25, Grand General Tagge is no more and Palpatine has officially replaced him with Vader. I therefore wonder if Thrawn dies before the Battle of Yavin.

[Lord Revan]

a) spoiler tags still don't work if you quote something before them b)It all depends what is the position of grand admiral/general is it a ceremonial rank that's given to say "this guy has the favor of the emperor and you should listen to him as you would the emperor" or is there additional duties related to that rank alone.

If the rank is a ceremonial rank to show merit, like the US 5-star general who have no additional duties then a regular 4-star but the new rank is a sign of merit then it wouldn't be odd or even atypical that there's no more then a handful of people who have qualified for this merit and it's also not odd that at certain points there wouldn't be any grand admirals what so ever. It would also makes sense if this was the case that junior ranks might be unfamiliar with the rank in question.

If grand admiral/general had new duties asociated with that rank alone (like the old EU Gr.-adm. was) then I'd suspect that any grand admiral who was KIA or removed from office would replaced ASAP and the number of grand admirals would stay essentially static. This would make most likely the top dogs of the imperial military.

[DarthPooky]

New international trailer with some new clips.

[Elheru Aran]

...so we get to see what it looks like from the planet when the Death Star shoots it?!

[Borgholio]

...so we get to see what it looks like from the planet when the Death Star shoots it?!

That had to be a low power shot. Alderaan blew up so fast there wouldn't be a chance to escape. Still, a very cool visual.

[Adam Reynolds]

I wonder if that crystal around her neck goes to a lightsaber. It would nicely fit the common theory that the Death Star and lightsabers are in some way related, that the greater energy density of the Death Star is due to something slightly exotic. For a nice touch, said crystal could eventually be the one Luke uses to make his own lightsaber.

That had to be a low power shot. Alderaan blew up so fast there wouldn't be a chance to escape. Still, a very cool visual.

It makes sense that it was a low power shot given that the station was not fully operation until ANH, as stated by the various Imperial officers. This was simply a test firing on lower power. In the old EU, this was stated to be the case with Despayre.

[Khaat]

I wonder if that crystal around her neck goes to a lightsaber. It would nicely fit the common theory that the Death Star and lightsabers are in some way related, that the greater energy density of the Death Star is due to something slightly exotic. For a nice touch, said crystal could eventually be the one Luke uses to make his own lightsaber.

Shush! You're going to ruin the surprise about who Rey's parents are!

[RogueIce]

I wonder if that crystal around her neck goes to a lightsaber. It would nicely fit the common theory that the Death Star and lightsabers are in some way related, that the greater energy density of the Death Star is due to something slightly exotic. For a nice touch, said crystal could eventually be the one Luke uses to make his own lightsaber.

I'm not sure they'll go that far to link it with Luke's lightsaber, but the Kyber Crystals have pretty much been linked to both lightsabers in general and the Death Star in the new Canon. Whether that is one around her neck will remain to be seen. I'm guessing not but you never know.

Anyway that scene with the Death Star firing as it eclipses the sun is pretty badass. Not quite as viscerally "end of the world" as the Starkiller shot from TFA, unless we get another angle from it in the final movie, but still pretty damn cool looking.

[eMeM]

Blue Leader/Blue One (note the markings) X-wing and what I'd say is a window in a planetary shield.

[Iroscato]

If nothing else, this film has some absolutely gorgeous imagery.

[Patroklos]

Great, they are using Space Balls to inform planetary shield rules.