The Star Wars crew may have abandoned Abu Dhabi, but global Star Wars spotters are still out in force. The latest alleged sighting took place at Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean, in the south west of the England, and only a couple of hours from the movie's Pinewood base.
A mystery film crew apparently descended on the location amid tight security last week, then disappeared as quickly as they had arrived after the weekend. A quick Google Image search or look on the wood's website certainly reveals the kind of location that could easily stand in for the wooded Moon of Endor, shot in California in the original trilogy, and photos in the UK press today reveal that whoever the crew were, they left in such a hurry that they have left a host of cables, tripods and other film equipment in the forest behind them – either a costly oversight, and environmental faux pas, or an attempt to keep the publicity machine turning out stories, perhaps?
For now, it all remains speculation, and the only person we know has definitely been on set and spoken out publicly is director and well-known Star Wars fan Kevin Smith. Smith has never been afraid to litter his films such as Clerks (1994) with Star Wars references, while 2001's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was positively deferential, both in title and Mark Hammill's appearance as a light sabre wielding villain.
Smith's review was good news for those who hated the excessive use of green screen in the most recent trilogy: "It was tactile, it wasn't a series of green and bluescreens in which later on digital characters would be added. It was there, it was happening," he told Hollywood Reporter. "I saw uniforms, I saw artillery that I haven't seen since I was a kid. I saw them shooting an actual sequence in a set that is real — I walked across the set, there were explosions — and it looked like a shot right out of a Star Wars movie."
In more good news for Star Wars fans, Smith added that Abrams is “building a tactile world, a world you can touch. And he’s replicating it with all the love of somebody that has the world’s greatest collection of Star Wars figures.”
