Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a work.
Bad Robot Productions ( more commonly known as Bad Robot ) is an American film and television production company owned by J. J. Abrams and Bryan Burk . Creative consultant is a credit that has - particularly in the past - been given to screenwriters who have consulted on a movie screenplay . Star Wars : The Force Awakens ( also known as Star Wars : Episode VII -- The Force Awakens ) is a 2015 American epic space opera film directed , co-produced , and co-written by J. J. Abrams . Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan , co-writer of the original trilogy films The Empire Strikes Back ( 1980 ) and Return of the Jedi ( 1983 ) , rewrote an initial script by Michael Arndt . In the American motion picture industry , wide release refers to a motion picture that is playing nationally ( as opposed to a few cinemas in cities such as New York and Los Angeles ) .