By Creative Media Times

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The highly-anticipated second Star Wars spin-off is set to premiere at the prestigious festival on May 15, 2018, that is ten full days before its official release in the United States on May 25, 2018.

The premiere is certainly a surprise given that the Cannes Film Fest is known to platform artsy highbrow films than Hollywood blockbusters. But that is actually not always the case. In fact, George Lucas’ “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” officially premiered on the same day thirteen years ago at the festival.

Directed by Ron Howard and produced by Lucasfilm from a screenplay by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, the film is an origin story of the iconic character and focuses on his adventures, with Alden Ehrenreich playing the younger version of the title character. Also in the film are Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Joonas Suotamo.

Cannes Film Festival will run from May 8 to 19, with the competition jury headed by Cate Blanchett. Asghar Farhadi’s psychological thriller “Everybody Knows” starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem is scheduled to open the festival.

By Creative Media Times

Lucasfilm/Disney

Today, the Star Wars Twitter account gave us a trailer (which contains a few spoilers if you have not seen the film) as well as some details of on starwars.com, and it’s packed with a lot of bonus features to excite fans, all 14 of them.

Here is the list of bonus features:

The Director and the Jedi – Go deep behind the scenes with writer-director Rian Johnson on an intimate and personal journey through the production of the movie—and experience what it’s like to helm a global franchise and cultural phenomenon.

Balance of the Force – Explore the mythology of the Force and why Rian Johnson chose to interpret its role in such a unique way.

Scene Breakdowns

• Lighting the Spark: Creating the Space Battle – Get a close-up look at the epic space battle, from the sounds that help propel the action, through the practical and visual effects, to the characters who bring it all to life.
• Snoke and Mirrors – Motion capture and Star Wars collide as the filmmakers take us through the detailed process of creating the movie’s malevolent master villain.
• Showdown on Crait – Break down everything that went into creating the stunning world seen in the movie’s final confrontation, including the interplay between real-word locations and visual effects, reimagining the walkers, designing the crystal foxes, and much more.

Andy Serkis Live! (One Night Only) – Writer-director Rian Johnson presents two exclusive sequences from the movie featuring Andy Serkis’ riveting, raw on-set performance before his digital makeover into Snoke.

Deleted Scenes – With an introduction and optional commentary by writer-director Rian Johnson.

Audio Commentary – View the movie with in-depth feature audio commentary by writer-director Rian Johnson.

By Creative Media Times

Lucasfilm Ltd. – Walt Disney Studios

Though it didn’t beat its predecessor, The Last Jedi easily beats last year’s Rogue One, which made $29 million for its Thursday night opening.

Released by the Walt Disney Co., The Last Jedi is on pace to collect around $200 million in the United States and Canada over the weekend based on its Thursday night performance. If it reaches that number, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t at this point, The Last Jedi will only be the fourth film top cross that milestone.

Internationally, “The Last Jedi” made $60.8 million from its early two day run so far through Thursday night, with more major market still to follow including China where the film opens on January 5.

This is another big news for Disney this week, if not slightly overshadowed by the recent announcement of the company’s historic $52.4 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets.

Critics are also embracing the film, scoring 86 from Metacritic.com, indicating universal acclaim, with The Guardian’s Jordan Hoffman describing The Last Jedi “first post-Lucas Star Wars film that feels free to dance to its own beat.”

The Last Jedi is currently playing in theaters.

By Creative Media Times

Lucasfilm Ltd.

The title was revealed after the director posted a video on Twitter announcing that production is finished and thanking fans for following the director’s production updates. “Hey #Twitterville we just wrapped production so here’s a special message #StarWars,” Howard announced on Twitter.

The origin story written by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan is the second Star Wars spin-office and continue it franchise tradition following last year’s Rogue One which also made use of “A Star Wars Story” on its subtitle.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker joined the project last June after original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were reportedly fired due to “creative differences.” Since then, Howard has been actively teasing behind-the-scenes photos on social media to the delight of fans.

Focusing on the adventures of Han Solo, and stars lden Ehrenreich in the title role, alongside Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Joonas Suotamo.

‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ is currently slated for release on May 25, 2018.

Hey #Twitterville we just wrapped production so here's a special message #StarWars pic.twitter.com/8QJqN5BGxr

— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) October 17, 2017