Star Wars: Some rumours 'are true'

JJ Abrams has said some of the rumours surrounding his new Star Wars film are true.

The director was hosting the Irish Oscar Wilde awards in Los Angeles where actress Carrie Fisher was being honoured.

Fisher reprises her role of Princess Leia in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is scheduled for release in December 2015.

The film reunites her with original co-stars Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.

"I can't wait for you to see it. It's been a blast working on this and luckily we have an incredible post-production team," Abrams told the BBC News website on Thursday.

"There are always challenges as you go but it's been a complete kick to put this together."

In recent days a rumour about one of the characters in the film has been circulating on some websites.

Asked about the secrecy surrounding the script, Abrams added: "We did the best we can to preserve the story for the audience, but it doesn't always work.

"There are a ton of rumours - some true, some false. But I'm grateful for everyone who would want to read a spoiler because it means that they care and want to see the movie.

"I know what it feels like, as an enormous Star Wars fan myself."

Carrie Fisher was presented with an award honouring her lifetime career

The annual Oscar Wilde awards, which honour the Irish in film, are one of a number of events in the run-up to the Oscars in Hollywood on Sunday.

As in previous years, it was held at Abrams' Bad Robot production company in Santa Monica.

Stephen Fry, who hosted the Baftas two weeks ago, presented Fisher with her honour.

"Everybody who knows her well would say she's witty and brilliantly clever," he said.

"She's had a huge career as a script doctor that most people wouldn't know about. She's written on and tweaked the screenplays of huge movies over the past 25 years."

Fisher's film career includes When Harry Met Sally, Hannah and Her Sisters and The Blues Brothers.

Her novel, Postcards from the Edge, was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep.

Her memoirs include Wishful Drinking which she also performed in a one-woman stage version.

Fry said: "She's charted her own adventures and misadventures with mental health and drugs in a way that was really pioneering, and very influential for a lot of people, myself included."

Also honoured were American satirist Stephen Colbert and Irish painter Colin Davidson.

Stephen Fry hosted the awards, where painter Colin Davison (second left) and Stephen Colbert were also honoured