‘EPISODE VII’ SCRIPT CHANGES have casting call looking for “40-SOMETHING MILITARY MAN.’

Gruff and tumble! Or some shit. Nothing says “Jesus Christ the Episode VII script is fly by night!” much like the fact that we’re seeing the casting calls evolve as said script does.

Over the past few weeks, it’s become pretty obvious casting Star Wars Episode VII is a priority at Disney and Lucasfilm. Besides all the major actors who’ve read for roles, open casting calls literally all over the world are still ongoing, hoping to find two teenagers who are believed to anchor the film.

A new report in the Hollywood Reporter suggests that search is still ongoing and adds a new wrinkle. The piece says, because of the recent rewrite by J.J. Abrams andLawrence Kasdan, they’re also casting “a 40-something military man a la Matt Damon in Elysium.”

Here’s the excerpt from The Hollywood Reporter piece:

Director J.J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy are casting the net far and wide, meeting actors in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. The duo is looking in particular for a tough-cookie girl in the 17- to 18-year-old range and a charismatic, funny guy from 19 to 23. “We don’t want to leave any stone unturned,” U.K. casting agent Kate Bone told the BBC. With the movie now being rewritten by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, sources say producers also are looking to fill a new role: a 40-something military man a la Matt Damon in Elysium.

There’s a lot we can read into this, if we so choose. First up, the open auditions for the teenagers has yet to produce any frontrunners, at least publicly. More importantly, it’s the first real acknowledgement the Abrams/Kasdan script is different from the Michael Arndt one. That’s certainly the implication from that last sentence, as if the new film added in a character that wasn’t there before.

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Are you a forty-something? Looking like you’re in the military? Then this new character is probably you. That’s right. You’re going to be cast.