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Yoda was wrong: after Rogue One, the future for the Star Wars movies is clear

Garry Maddox

You can see how it will play out over the next few years. In 15 months, a movie about how Han Solo became the roguish, wise-cracking smuggler that we all loved in the original Star Wars will reach cinemas.

Instead of Harrison Ford, it will star Alden Ehrenreich (best known for Blue Jasmine and Hail, Caesar!) as one of cinema history's most beloved heroes in his early 20s. With two big talents directing – Chris Miller and Phil Lord, who have had hits with 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie – it should span that difficult terrain between being faithful to the original while feeling fresh.

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Flume takes out top spot in this year's Triple J Hottest 100, Nicole Kidman's Lion and Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge nab six Oscar nominations each and police arrest actor Shia LaBeouf at an anti-Trump art exhibition.

That as-yet-untitled Star Wars stand-alone movie started shooting in England this week, just after Disney announced the next episode of the sci-fi saga, which opens in December, will be called Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.

Sometime in the coming months, Disney will doubtless announce another stand-alone Star Wars movie. Dozens of ideas will have been bounced around and scripting for at least one will be under way already.

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It might be about the younger Princess Leia. That could work. Or bounty hunter Boba Fett. Or maybe it will centre on R2-D2 and C-3PO.

And by the time that stand-alone movie comes out in two years, another one will be rolling.

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Yoda once said: "Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future."

But one thing that is not difficult to see in the future is a long line of Star Wars movies.

After The Force Awakens did so well just over a year ago – warmly received while taking $US2 billion at the worldwide box office, which placed it behind only Avatar and Titanic in cinema history – the main Star Wars saga will continue for many more years.

With judicious drip-feeding of teasers, trailers and images, there will be huge interest in The Last Jedi by December. Written and directed by Rian Johnson (Looper), it will pick up where the The Force Awakens finished with Rey (Daisy Ridley) handing Luke (Mark Hamill) the lightsabre he lost in a duel with his father, Darth Vader.

The ninth episode, directed by Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World), is due to follow in 2019.

With the success of Rogue One, the first stand-alone spin-off, Star Wars instalments are the biggest certainty in the movie business.

Released just before Christmas, it has zoomed past $US1 billion ($1.3 billion). Only 20 movies have taken more money.

Reputedly costing $US200 million – though it's always best to remain sceptical of published budgets especially on movies requiring extensive reshoots – it's certainly a financial success.

Creatively, I was disappointed, feeling like the first hour was too slow and only sketched characters who could have been much richer. But the clever revival of the late Peter Cushing and young Princess Leia were surprises and the ending – if strung out – was clever. In general, it was largely well received.

Having established the spin-off or anthology movies as a financial windfall, Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm for $US4 billion in 2012 looks like a handy investment.

But where will the stand-alone movies go from here? Carrie Fisher's death might mean it's best to leave the Princess Leia story for a while.

I'd love to see a stand-alone Yoda movie. Work, that could.

But there is one other certainty in the movie business: there won't be one on that most unpopular of characters, Jar Jar Binks.

Lion charges on in cinemas

Dev Patel is nominated for best supporting actor for Lion

A hit: Dev Patel in Lion.

Lion has continued its strong opening in Australian cinemas – reaching $11.4 million in its first 11 days including previews.

After landing six Academy Award nominations including best picture last week, Garth's Davis' drama took the same in its second weekend as its first – $4.1 million – with a strong average of $16,300. That placed it well ahead of the James McAvoy horror film Split ($3.4 million, averaging $12,000) on its opening weekend.

In North America, Lion's box office jumped 33 per cent after the Oscar nominations, reaching $US19.7 million in 575 cinemas. After the six Oscar nominations for the other Australian film up for best picture, Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge, it re-opened in another 377 cinemas and reached $US65.9 million.

Colourful dramedy selected for Cinequest in California

Luke Ford and Brooke Satchwell in What If It Works?

World premiere: Luke Ford and Brooke Satchwell in What If It Works?

Producer Tristram Miall, best-known for Strictly Ballroom, Looking For Alibrandi and The Black Balloon, has been working quietly with first-time writer-director Romi Trower on what's described as "a colourful dramedy about finding the courage to love and be loved against all odds".

Called What If It Works?, it centres on a chirpy tech nerd who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Luke Ford) who meets a street artist who suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (Anna Samson) at the office of the psychiatrist they share in Melbourne. Complicating their blossoming relationship is his meddling ex (Brooke Satchwell).

While the film has been under the radar so far, it has been selected to have its world premiere at Cinequest Film and VR Festival in California next month.

Trower says she drew on personal experience to write the script, with an older brother who has OCD and an aunt who is a psychiatrist specialising in DIO, which is also known as Multiple Personality Disorder.

Three Australian films in South by Southwest

Emma Booth and Stephen Curry in Hounds of Love.

Emma Booth and Stephen Curry in Hounds of Love. Photo: Jean-Paul Horr

After having its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Australian serial killer film Hounds of Love has been selected for its North American debut at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Texas next month.

Described as a harrowing tale about two serial killers (played by Emma Booth and Stephen Curry) kidnapping teenagers in suburban Perth, it is director Ben Young's debut feature film.

Also selected for the festival are two documentaries: Rose Tucker's Barbecue, about "uncovering the mysteries of the universe through the age old process of cooking meat over fire" in 12 different countries, and Emma Franz's Bill Frisell: Portrait, about a master guitarist.

The nine-day festival opens with Terrence Malick's Song To Song, a love story set in the Austin music scene that stars Rooney Mara, Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett.

Twitter @gmaddox

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