Back in January, director Colin Trevorrow confirmed that he’d be following in the footsteps of J.J. Abrams on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rian Johnson on Star Wars: Episode VIII by shooting the final chapter of the Sequel Trilogy on film, and now it has been announced that he’ll be using the large format 65mm (as opposed to the 35mm of Episode IX’s two predecessors).
The announcement was made by Kodak, who revealed that Episode IX, Murder of the Orient Express, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms and Dunkirk will all be making use of the 65mm format, which is enjoying a resurgence of late after being used on Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.
“The film comeback is accelerating and the epic, big screen experience is well and truly back,” said Steven Overman, Chief Marketing Officer and President of Consumer and Film Division at Kodak. “The creative and aesthetic distinctiveness of 65mm film is still well beyond the capability of digital capture, so when discerning filmmakers want to a create work of memorable grandeur and lasting visual quality, they know that only real film delivers.”
Star Wars: Episode IX is set for release on May 24th 2019.