JJ Abrams' Star Wars: Episode VII will feature scenes shot on Imax cameras, Disney has confirmed

The news was announced on Twitter by Abrams' production company, @bad_robot, where a photograph of an Imax camera was posted against a desert background. The shot is likely to have been taken in Abu Dhabi, where Abrams has been shooting footage expected to be used for scenes set on the planet of Tatooine. Disney later confirmed to the Guardian that the image was intended to reveal the use of Imax cameras.

Imax cameras are larger than conventional cameras and have the ability to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems. Their use will dramatically improve the way Episode VII is screened in Imax's cinemas. Christopher Nolan's 2008 superhero fantasy The Dark Knight popularised the use of the cameras, with six sequences shot in Imax, and they were also used for its follow-up, 2012's The Dark Knight Rises, and the most recent Mission: Impossible film, Ghost Protocol. Abrams also used the cameras for several scenes in Star Trek Into Darkness.

Disney, which bought all rights to Star Wars in October 2012, announced earlier this week that Episode VII would go on a two-week hiatus while Harrison Ford recovers from a broken leg sustained on set at Pinewood Studios in London last month. Ford is due to return alongside Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher in the classic roles of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia from the original Star Wars trilogy that hit cinemas between 1977 and 1983.

A swathe of newcomers – from Attack the Block's John Boyega to Ingmar Bergman regular Max von Sydow – were also confirmed in May for JJ Abrams' film. Earlier this week producers revealed that two newcomers discovered at open auditions, Britain's Pip Andersen and the US's Crystal Clarke, would also join the cast. The film remains on course for a December 2015 release date.