Star Wars actors keep mum in Venice

Gwendoline Christie has a role in the new Star Wars movie

Gwendoline Christie kept quiet about the new Star Wars movie during her visit to the Venice Film Festival.

The British actress - known for TV hit Game Of Thrones and two Hunger Games films - has a part in JJ Abrams' eagerly anticipated Episode VII , but like other cast members in the Italian city for the festival she was tight-lipped about the project.

Gwendoline joked at a Vanity Fair-sponsored party that Star Wars producers had gone to extraordinary lengths to maintain secrecy, teasing: " There's snipers trained on us right now."

Adam Driver, in Venice with festival entry Hungry Hearts, was similarly quiet when asked what it was like to walk onto the Star Wars set for the first time.

"I will say this - it's surreal," he said.

No details of the plot for the new instalment have been released, but it is set 30 years on from the events of the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI - The Return Of The Jedi.

Original Star Wars actors Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker are back for the new film and will be joined by new cast including Gwendoline, Adam, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Lupita Nyong'o and Max von Sydow.

Star Wars: Episode VII is due to be released in cinemas on December 18, 2015.