LOS ANGELES — Star Wars is taking over a site near downtown Los Angeles in anticipation of the premiere of the franchise’s latest film.
Crews set up the Shrine Auditorium for Saturday’s world premiere of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” A giant assault vehicle and gun turrets towered over the carpet where guests will make their way into the venue.
It will be the first time the eighth film in the core Star Wars franchise, which includes the return of Luke Skywalker and Carrie Fisher’s final role, is shown beyond a select group of VIPs.
“The Last Jedi” is one of the year’s biggest releases. Early box office projections are for the film to debut in the $200 million range on its first weekend.
Laura Dern plays a prominent officer in the Resistance named Vice Admiral Holdo.
Holdo will bear watching. Dern, a recent Emmy winner for her role in “Big Little Lies,” is always worth watching in any film.
The actress said she “geeked out” when she first got to the Star Wars set, but despite its giant scope “The Last Jedi” felt almost like an indie movie under Johnson’s direction.
“The intimacy of discovering each character’s conflict is just extraordinary given the enormity of the cast,” Dern says. “Rian always urged us to explore this duality between light and dark within the characters.”
What we know about Holdo is that she has been put in charge of the Resistance, which is losing the war, and she is there to shake things up.
“I just want to pay tribute to Rian for being one of the most brilliantly subversive filmmakers I’ve ever worked with,” Dern says, noting she liked the look of her character developed by Johnson.
“I was moved by the fact that he really wanted her strength to lead with very deep femininity,” says Dern. “To see a very powerful character also be very feminine is to move away from a stereotype that a strong female character must be like the boys.”
Like Holdo, Johnson is taking command of a giant enterprise for the first time. So does he identify with Dern’s character?
“I would be thrilled,” Johnson says, “if Laura Dern — or the character that she plays, in all this glorious purple-haired wonder — represented me”
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