'Star Wars Episode VII' Will First Shoot In Morocco

We're getting to the point where there will have to be some hard and fast news on Star Wars Episode VII. The movie is scheduled to begin shooting in just over a month, after which details will certainly leak. Right now we know many participants on the technical side, and we've got a plot of rumors about potential cast members. Now there's a report that specifies the first day of new Star Wars shoot, and says it will take place in Morocco.

Badass Digest reports that May 14 is the first shooting date for Episode VII, and that the location will be Morocco, with a possible trip to Tunisia. In his piece, Devin Faraci speculates that this means the new film will return to Tatooine, which isn't a bad bit of speculation to draw out of the shooting info.

There's an even better guess in the report, actually: that the reason for the return to Morocco could be to use standing sets that were left over from previous Star Wars shoots. (As seen in the work of photographer Rä di Martino, who has taken great photos of decayed Tatooine sets.) It would indeed be pretty great if JJ Abrams uses those sets more or less as they are to show the passage of thirty years in the Star Wars timeline.

May 4 is "Star Wars day," and with the first day of shooting only ten days out from that, there's a good bet running that May 4 will be the day that all the big new Star Wars details are announced. That, as with so many other things about this movie, is unconfirmed for now, but it's one of the better guesses.