'Star Wars: Episode VII' has less CGI, says Rian Johnson

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Star Wars: Episode VII and future installments will feature less CGI and more practical effects.

Rian Johnson, who is slated to direct Star Wars: Episode VIII, detailed the change in an interview with Grantland's Girls in Hoodies podcast.

"They're doing so much practical building for [Episode VII]. It's awesome," Johnson related. "I think people are coming back around to [practical effects]. It feels like there is sort of that gravity pulling back toward it. I think that more and more people are hitting a kind of critical mass in terms of the CG-driven action scene lending itself to a very specific type of action scene, where physics go out the window and it becomes so big so quick."

"I probably sound like a grumpy old man talking about it," he continued. "I do wonder because I think kids are growing up watching those and that's the thing that they love now, so I don't know whether it is a generational thing, and it could be."

Star Wars: Episode VII's practical effects include live-action alien costumes and full-scale props, under the direction of writer and director J.J. Abrams. The film is scheduled for release December 18, 2015, with Johnson's Episode VIII to follow in 2016.