It's all about CGI and special effects these days, but Director JJ Abrams and cinematographer Dan Mindel are happy to stick with film and not go digital when they shoot the next Star Wars.  

Star Wars Episode 7 is rumoured to be releasing December 2015 and Mindel recently said he would be using Kodak 35mm film - for real film nerds, it's the Kodak color negative 5129 variety.

LucasFilm's Kathleen Kennedy suggested at the Star Wars Celebration convention in Germany last month that the original movies were providing some inspiration for the look and feel of the next instalment.

"The conversation we're having all the time now about Episode VII is how much CGI," she said.  "We're looking at what the early Star Wars films did.  They used real locations with special effects. So we're going to find some very cool locations, we're going to end up using every single tool in the toolbox."

For Abrams, shooting on film is about quality.

"I have not yet shot a movie digitally. Film is the thing I am most comfortable with," he said at the Produced By conference. "If film were to go away - and digital is challenging it - then the standard for the highest, best quality would go away."

Going with film marks a change from the two most recent Star Wars prequels, which were shot digitally - Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - and take much closer to the original trilogy.

Filming for Episode 7 will start in the UK next year.