Does that make it a slam-dunk Best Picture winner?

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Does that make it a slam-dunk Best Picture winner?

Watch The Lego Movie Online Since Star Wars Episode VII was announced, every fan has asked the same question: "Does this mean we’ll see the return of Luke Skywalker?" And while Disney and Lucasfilm have yet to say anything concrete on the matter, evidence suggests that the answer could be yes. Not only do we have the reports about a more Luke-Leia-Han centered screenplay, Mark Hamill has confirmed in interviews that he actually met with George Lucas about the new trilogy prior to the contracts being signed, and he has even offered up his own speculation about where the story will go, suggesting that Luke could end up being an influential character like Obi-Wan Kenobi. Carrie Fisher has evidently confirmed that she, Hamill and Harrison Ford will be back for the sequel, but it’s probably best not to believe anything until it’s printed in a press release from the studio.

Watch Frozen Online Oscar winning screenwriter Michael Arndt was one of the first people to be hired to work on Star Wars: Episode VII, signing a deal to pen the script for the film only about a week after the film was first announced. But not only is he now gone, it would appear that his script in the hands of Abrams and Kasdan has changed quite a bit. According to reports, Arndt’s original screenplay largely followed the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo’s offspring, but since Abrams and Kasdan have taken over they have switched the focus of the story to be more on the original trilogy characters. Whether or not those reports are accurate we don’t know, but what has been confirmed is that the screenplay has been finished.

Watch The Wolf of Wall Street Online It always helps to get things rolling with factual reports instead of rumors, so let’s start at the top, shall we? Though he initially declined the job, J.J. Abrams will not only be the director of Star Wars: Episode VII, but also one of the co-writers (working alongside Empire Strikes Back scribe Lawrence Kasdan. Production will begin later this year, as Disney has revealed that the film will be in theaters on December 18, 2015 (making it the first in the franchise not to have a summer release date).

Watch Frozen Online Thanks to all of these questions, we here at Cinema Blend have been sorting through all of the rumors trying to sort out exactly what we know about the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII, and just like we’ve done for both The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Batman vs. Superman we’ve constructed a handy guide to help sort out all of the facts and fictions. Read on below for the latest info!

Watch Endless Love Online But then along came Disney. In October 2012 the studio brokered a $4.05 billion deal to buy Lucasfilm, and with the deal came the announcement that they would be starting production on a whole new trilogy of Star Wars films that would keep the epic story going for years and years to come. Naturally, fanboys started to foam at the mouth with anticipation. What would the new movies be about? Would they bring back classic characters or merely focus on new ones? Would there be new stories set outside of the trilogy?

Watch Lone Survivor Online In 2005 it looked like the Star Wars saga was officially over. Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century Fox released Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which completed the prequels and tied the story back to the original trilogy. It was done, finished, kaput, and ended.

Watch The Hunger Games 2 Online Remove the technicality of Cuaron’s movie, however, and we’d still be incredibly invested in Stone’s plight because of Bullock’s amazing performance. Gravity has star power, carried –essentially – by the two biggest actors on the planet (and off it). But casting Bullock in place of a departed Angelina Jolie proved to be a blessing, as she sheds the glamour of an A-list performance and gives herself fully to the role. You notice, perhaps for the first time, that there is a frail, vulnerable human being in that weighty space suit when Bullock strips it of and floats, brifly, like a child returned to the womb. What a masterful shot, and a perfectly timed respite between harrowing sequences. You can hear Cuaron saying to us, "Have you caught your breath yet? Good. Because here we go again!"

Watch The Nut Job Online Technically speaking, Cuaron is light years ahead of its Oscar competitors. Gravity so fully immerses us in the celestial predicament of stranded astronaut Ryan Stone (Oscar nominee Sandra Bullock) that audiences complained of weightlessness and dizziness during IMAX screenings. Cuaron improves on his signature techniques in Gravity, mastering his characteristic "unbroken" long shots that allow his audience to float and glide in, over and around space crafts and satellites. When the shit hits the fan in Gravity, we are such a part of this atmosphere, we can practically smell it.

Watch 3 Days to Kill Online however, is the right choice. And it is one I have been "choosing" since seeing it in September. Following my initial screening I praised Cuaron’s film as "the best film of … the year so far." It held that spot as the year played out. I named it No. 1 on my year-end Top 10 list.

Does that make it a slam-dunk Best Picture winner? Of course not, but my rationale for putting Gravity in that position goes a very long way as to explaining why I think it deserves the Oscars… and why I think the Academy feels that way, as well.