Abrams on 'Star Wars' Secrecy: 'There's a Purity in Not Knowing'

Just how far-reaching is the secrecy surrounding the new Star Wars movie? Secret enough that, during a recent phone interview, director and co-writer of Star Wars: Episode VII, J.J. Abrams, doesn't get to see sunlight as he works on the screenplay.

An interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper included an unexpected interlude, where Abrams went silent only to explain to his interviewer, "My office … I'm working on the Star Wars script today and the people in my office have covered up all my windows with black paper. I guess they wanted to make sure no one could see what I was doing." He added, "It seems rather extreme."

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Such lengths may be new, but privacy is a common trait when it comes to Abrams' projects -- a trait that he thinks may be at odds with Star Wars as a culture. Saying that the fandom surrounding the movie series has "always been a more open, fan-engaged universe than I've been used to," he admitted that "there'll be some sort of compromise" between Abrams' traditional mystery and Star Wars' tendency to share.

He did add, however, that "there's a purity in not knowing every little thing" about a story ahead of time. "We're living in a moment of instant information and a sense of entitlement to that information," he explained. "I think it's nice to remember that there's nothing wrong with a sense of anticipation."