In Vegas, Abrams gives few hints about Star Wars

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A newly announced Star Wars sequel was on everyone's mind when J.J. Abrams took the stage on Wednesday at a Las Vegas video game conference, but he made only a sideways mention of the film he has been hired to direct.

The reference was a throw-away joke from his last franchise reboot.

The director played a scene from his 2009 Star Trek film to illustrate the importance of embroidering films with subtle details, and freeze-framed on a shot of a familiar Star Wars robot peeking from space junk.

"So they're looking at all the debris that's out there, and curiously, it's R2D2," he said, drawing a roar of laughter.