HBO has been filming Game of Thrones in the Paint Hall at Titanic Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland since its first season. They’re shooting stuff for season 8 there right now, but soon enough, when the last scene is in the can, they’ll move on, and Titanic Studios will have to welcome new clients.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, that client may be Disney, which is apparently eying Titanic Studios as a place to film a new Star Wars spinoff film. “We’ve been told there will be work throughout 2019 because Star Wars is coming to Belfast,” said “an insider.”
Apparently, Star Wars creator George Lucas himself was on sight touring the Paint Hall last year, scoping it out. That insider filled in the details:
It was all very low key, only a few people knew that the old guy walking round the set was George Lucas. It was only when we were told about Star Wars coming here next year that it dawned on us that was why he was here before Christmas.
Reportedly, Lucas was impressed. And if you’re looking at the studio where Game of Thrones was filmed for seven years, how could you not be?
This report is a rumor, and there are some odd things about it. For example, Lucas really isn’t a part of the Star Wars machine anymore, so it’s strange that he’d be scouting locations. Also, Star Wars movies have been filmed at Pinewood Studios in London since forever, so it doesn’t make a ton of sense for them to switch locales.
On the other hand, Pinewood Studios was used before the current explosion of Star Wars movies in development — in addition to the mainline episodes, Disney has commissioned The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson to helm a separate series, is making a bunch of spinoffs films (Solo, starring Emilia Clarke, is out in May), and even tapped Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss to make their own Star Wars movies. With all those movies to produce, maybe one studio wasn’t cutting, and hey, new team members Benioff and Weiss can recommend this great place…
Anyway, the Telegraph has it that the movie to be filmed at Titanic Studios is a long-rumored Obi-Wan Kenobi standalone film, with The Crown director Stephen Daldry in the director’s chair. Lucas was the last director to film a scene with Obi-Wan Kenobi, with Ewan McGregor portraying the legendary Jedi Master. And since an Obi-Wan standalone film would most likely star McGregor in the title role, perhaps George Lucas has been asked to consult.
Ewan McGregor has been asked numerous times if he would reprise the role of Obi-Wan, and told The Hollywood Reporter there’s been “a lot of talk, and I’d be happy to play him again.”
Who knows? If Stephen Daldry doesn’t work out, maybe David Benioff and Dan Weiss will begin their Star Wars career with an Obi-Wan film. At least they’d know their way around Titanic Studios.
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