Han Solo Anthology Film - "Solo: A Star Wars Story"*

Solo solo film (so low)

 

I would just like to remind everyone that Phil Kessel is a Stanley Cup Champion.

#KesselRun

 

We all know he was smuggling Death Sticks and delivering them to the Cantina Bartender, who is an underworld dealer of Death Sticks.

 

One could look at it that way OR...
Just think if Lucas made more Star Wars movies in that time period? More Ewoks? No thanks. Who knows what stupid ideas Lucas would've done - it was bad enough he did the prequels (or at least some of them).

It's true that time was wasted but the flip is that the movies got to stay where they were - nothing was added to sully their legacy of that era (except for the Holiday Special).

So - in retrospect maybe it was a good idea Lucas didn't do anymore with those movies.

 

The best way to avoid a dumpster fire, is to avoid the dumpster altogether.

‘Star Wars’ Han Solo Film Loses Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

 

They shot first.

 

This movie has been shooting since February.... haven't they already filmed almost all of it? I guess the reshoots will dwarf those of Rogue One.

Navigating through all the opinions and pressures that would be thrown at you making a Star Wars movie must be almost impossible.

I'm guessing no matter how good or bad the story and script and direction are, the core problem they are struggling with is that they're trying to make a Han Solo movie without Harrison Ford.

 

I noticed Thandie Newton's name snuck into that last article.

 

It's stunning to have two directors walk off a film months after it was shot! I think this is one of the most shocking Hollywood stories in a long time. It does show that the Disney/Marvel bosses maintain tight control over what they want: the director is definitely not in charge over there. The producers are in charge.

It's not impossible for the studio to hire a new director(s), do a little rewriting, a little reshooting, and a whole lot of editing to get the film in shape for final release. But I would bet it'll be delayed a bit.

The Han Solo film is still in production with several weeks of re-shoots planned for the summer. Disney said Tuesday that the Han Solo standalone remains slated for a May 25, 2018, release date.

I would also bet there was a huge amount of screaming and yelling going on behind closed doors. I knew things were tough over there when Joss Whedon left.

 

Alan Smithee comes out of retirement?

 

And now Variety is reporting that the directors were fired after clashing with Lucasfilm czar Kathy Kennedy:

‘Star Wars’ Han Solo Spinoff: Lord & Miller Fired After Clashing With Kathleen Kennedy (EXCLUSIVE)

I have never dealt with Ms. Kennedy, but I know people who have and she is a very tough person who you do not screw around with. Also very competent and extremely experienced.

 

And a new article on exactly why the directors were fired...

'Star Wars': Why the Han Solo Directors Were Fired

Short reason: the writer (Lawrence Kasdan), the producer (Kathy Kennedy), and the directors couldn't quite agree on what the 18-year-old Han Solo should be in terms of character. I think the problem they're having boils down to the elusive tone, which is sort of "how should we feel when we watch this movie?"

 

I have a bad feeling about this.

 

With Disney's D23 expo taking place next month the expectation was that there would be a big push for this with possibly the first trailer being shown.

It's going to be interesting to hear what's said now.

 

You know... it seems like the SW Anthology movies are kind of doomed. ROGUE ONE original director Josh Trank was dismissed/fired before the movie even started filming. Disney interloped on Gareth Edwards. So much so, that if you view many of the clips from the pre release footage (trailers, etc) there are whole scenes and moments that are nowhere to be found. I know this is total conjecture, but it's as though he was forced to completely reshape parts of the movie to meet the mouses demands.

Quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if both Abrams and Johnson found themselves in much the same situation though maybe to a lesser extent.

I was one of those that did not think very much of ROGUE ONE, it felt extraordinarily pedestrian to me and the ending cemented my opinion that it was filmmaking by committee.

While I was very happy that Kasdan was involved with TFA, I have to wonder to what end he really had a say in the direction of the story and character development. Same with SOLO. Not to mention the fact that I was already leery about someone other than Harrison Ford playing Han; I'm now more firm in that opinion. The whole thing just feels wrong to me.

If Disney must make these Anthology films, I wish they would at least give the filmmakers the creative freedom to make the movie they want, within the parameters of the 'the world'. And, also equally important, don't continue to make movies about the same dozen people we've known for 40 years. If this is really a vast universe – show us. For example, I thought the best part of ROGUE ONE was Mendelsohn's Krennic. Every time he was on screen, my eyes went right to him. Unfortunately, he was only given so much to do and ultimately is written as a caricature by the third act.

Sorry for being a Debbie Downer. Maybe I'll be wrong and SOLO will be amazing. Hoping for really good things with TLJ, too.

 

Josh Trank was never the director of Rogue One, it was Gareth Edwards film from the beginning.
Trank was thought to be making a Bobba Fett movie.

 

Noted. I stand corrected on that point.

 

And she seems like she's maintaining a *product*, not films as an art. If they ever need to put one picture in a book to define "films made by committee", they can just use her picture. She may be among the best in the business, but hiring a directing team and letting it go *this long* before figuring out whatever they were doing was wrong for the "brand" ends with Kennedy coming out looking pretty bad and incompetent as well.

Maybe Disney looks at this like Kennedy "saving" the thing, but an argument should also be bandied about at Disney that everything up to this point was an f-up on the part of Kennedy as much as anybody.

 

The question is, how did it go *this long* before they figured this out? I mean sheesh, give the two directors one HD camera and a couple of weeks and have them shoot high quality, essentially "dress rehearsal" scenes or something to try to figure out if they're properly translating the writing to the screen.

Normally, it would seem like in this scenario the directors would fire the writers and find writers to match their desired tone. If Disney and Lucasfilm is going to go to *this* length to minimize the role of their directors, then they should just give Kathleen Kennedy or some on-site line producer or second unit director the technical official title of "Director" and then just make the movie they want. Better yet, Lucasfilm should just drop the pretense and apply to the DGA to credit future directors of Star Wars films as simply "Directed by Lucasfilm."

If all along Lucasfilm deferred so much to Kasdan over any directors, then they probably should have just hired Kasdan as director and/or found a director in the mold of those guys that work for Michael Bay "directing" the Ninja Turtles movies. Essentially a person that simply corrals people on set and yells "Action."

Is there a point at which the DGA starts to look at whether a studio is undermining the role of their directors to the point of relegating the role to some sort of label or ceremonial figurehead?

 

Here's a question I have: Are the two directors going to have to go to the DGA to make sure the credits on this film (and whatever resulting fees/royalties/salaries) are done correctly? It sounds like these directors had well over 50% of the film shot. Does Lucasfilm have to make sure less than a certain percentage (e.g. 50%) of the released film has footage shot by the first directors?

Often directors get films taken away, sometimes late in the process, and have to lobby to their union/guild to get their name *taken off* a film. But I'm wondering if there are cases, perhaps like these guys on this Han Solo film, where they would want their name on the film still if it uses *so much* footage that they shot.

Or maybe Lucasfilm just cuts the two guys two nice, big, fat severance checks to go away. Perhaps such an arrangement was already in their contract.

 

Good luck to Lucasfilm/Disney finding an actual good director who takes the craft seriously to direct the third stand-alone Star Wars film. Any director who has any personal vision and takes the craft seriously will likely not want to get anywhere near a Star Wars film.

I have to wonder how much Lucasfilm is still mulling over the Colin Trevorrow issue for Episode 9. It's unrelated to this Han Solo kerfuffle, but in another way kind of not totally unrelated. I don't think Trevorrow making one stinker film ("Book of Henry") should automatically exclude him for doing a Star Wars film. But I'm curious if Lucasfilm is at least pondering that decision at the moment.

I dunno, maybe Trevorrow tends to be the type of guy Lucasfilm wants for these films. Trevorrow navigated a huge franchise with "Jurassic World" and churned out something that hit all the right points on the checklist to be popular with the masses.

 

Not interested in this at all. It's obvious that this is one of those efforts used to make back the money they spent on buying the property.

 

Just read that the rumor is Disney is going after Ron Howard to finish up the movie.

 

Another Star Wars? Han this time?

 

If you say so. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt considering she's one of the most seasoned and successful producers of all time.