Source: J. J. Abrams Building 'Star Wars' Postproduction Facility in L.A. (Exclusive)

An insider tells THR that Bad Robot's Santa Monica facility is adding a green room, sound studios and other upgrades specifically for "Episode VII."

When Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced in May that production for Star Wars: Episode VII would take place in the U.K., there was one decidedly less-than-happy camper: director J.J. Abrams.

He voiced his disappointment at the Produced By conference a few weeks later, noting that the move to London, expected at year's end, would be an inconvenience to his wife and kids. "When you're 13 and 14, it's like, f--- that, I don't care what the movie is," he joked in June.

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Now it appears that the director is building a work-around designed to keep at least a portion of the movie's production closer to home. According to one insider, Abrams -- who has shot all of his films in Los Angeles (he even personally covered some of Star Trek Into Darkness' costs in order to keep production local) -- is converting a portion of his Bad Robot headquarters into production spaces built specifically for the Star Wars project.

A green room, sound studios and other new facilities will be developed within the three-story, 18,000-square-foot Santa Monica building, which already includes editing bays, a workshop for making props, a screening room that can double as a set and Abrams' personal suite of offices. Star Wars: Episode VII is set to be released in 2015 by Disney. Bad Robot and Disney declined comment.