Fire up your lightsabers, the force is strong with this one: Mark Hamill - Luke Skywalker himself - is currently in talks to reprise his role in the upcoming "Star Wars: Episode VII."
Hamill let the news of his involvement in "Episode VII" slip during a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight to promote his straight-to-DVD release film, "Sushi Girl."
"It's all very, very exciting and so unexpected," Hamill told Entertainment Tonight. "I think that's the quality I like about it most - it's like getting a pair of pants out of the closet you haven't worn in three years and finding a $20 bill in the pocket. It's just so unexpected."
Hamill says "Episode VII" is still in the early development stages, but he does reveal that he and the other principal actors from the original films are all in discussions with the production team to hammer things down.
"They're talking to us," Hamill said. "George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we'd be interested. He did say that if we didn't want to do it, they wouldn't cast another actor in our parts - they would write us out. ... I can tell you right away that we haven't signed any contracts. We're in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm. Both have had meetings set that were postponed -- on their end, not mine. They're more busy than I am."
Hamill's enthralled by the thought of once again acting in the series, but he admits he doesn't know much about the story line for "Episode VII" yet. "I probably learn more from Entertainment Tonight than I do directly from Lucasfilm - like for instance, when George told us he wanted to do the next trilogy, he didn't tell us it was going to be done for Disney. He saved that little nugget, and I read it online like anybody else," Hamill said.
But while Hamill won't divulge plot details for now, he does have some opinions about the direction the new trilogy should take. "I hope they find the right balance of CGI with practical effects. I love props, I love models, miniatures, matte paintings -- I'm sort of old school. I think if you go too far in the direction of CGI it winds up looking like just a giant a video game, and that's unfortunate. ... If they listen to me at all, it'll be, 'Lighten up and go retro with the way it looks.'"
We're fairly certain Hamill isn't alone in hoping "Episode VII" goes for a more "retro" approach than the prequels used.
Hamill concluded of the film: "I said to George that I wanted to go back to the way it was, in the sense that ours was much more carefree and lighthearted and humorous - in my opinion, anyway. And another thing I'd want to make sure of is are we going to have the whole gang back? Is Carrie and Harrison and Billy Dee and Tony Daniels, everybody that's around from the original [returning]? I want to make sure that everybody's on board here, rather than just one."
Well, that's definitely enough to intrigue us. Hear that Leia, Han, Lando, and, uh, C3PO? Luke needs you!
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