The fury of speculation and trades working their sources continues to fly in the wake of Phil Lord and Chris Miller being fired from the untitled, Han Solo “Star Wars” spinoff film. Since the news first broke, “creative differences” were said to be the culprint, but rarely does the vision between filmmakers and a studio diverge so wildly, that directors are canned during filming. Clearly, the rift couldn’t be mended, and EW dives into exactly what was going on behind-the-scenes.
According to the magazine, a small but simple misunderstand, that only metastasized over time, was the start of the trouble: Lord and Miller thought they were hired to make a comedy, while Lucasfilm hired the pair to make a space fantasy with comedic touches. Essentially, the directors leaned too far in the former direction, and brought improvisation into the mix, rather than sticking to the script written by Lawerence and Jon Kasdan. Worse, when they were advised to change course, they stuck to their creative guns. Displeased, things came to a head and they were axed. Here’s an excerpt from EW which gets to the heart of the conflict:
….others on the project say they pushed too far. It wasn’t just a question of tone. The variations added up to significantly change the story. They may have been brought aboard to give young Han Solo a wiseacre vibe and an irreverent style, but Lucasfilm still felt the directors had a responsibility to tell the story as written.
When dailies began rolling in featuring improvisation from the actors and new ideas from the directors that significantly parted ways with the script, the relationship with the home office at Lucasfilm became fraught. As principal photography for the movie approached its end, it became clear that the filmmakers and producers did not share the same vision for some critical scenes.
Reshoots were always possible (they are factored into almost every major film these days, and each new Star Wars project has undergone them), but as Lord and Miller dug in, refusing to compromise on what they saw as best for the film, the partnership went from strained to fractured. If they wouldn’t do the scenes as Lucasfilm and Kennedy wanted them now, why would they do them that way during reshoots?
Lord and Miller put their creative foot down, but the cost was their jobs. It might seem foolhardy to an outsider who would wonder why two filmmakers who are familiar navigating the studio system, would bump heads with their bosses to the extent they’d be fired (to be fair, some reports suggest Lord and Miller were taken by the surprise). Perhaps Lord and Miller, who have always walked to the beat of their own irreverent drum, knew they’d be miserable spending a good chunk of their time trying to realize a vision they didn’t believe it. That’s not to say the Kasdans’ script is bad or that Lord and Miller’s approach was better, but somewhere along the way, they believed their take on the story was the right one for the film. Lucasfilm disagreed, and their official statement welcoming Ron Howard to the director’s chair, certainly suggests that “carrying forward the spirit” of the “Star Wars” films is the first priority:
“At Lucasfilm, we believe the highest goal of each film is to delight, carrying forward the spirit of the saga that George Lucas began forty years ago. With that in mind, we’re thrilled to announce that Ron Howard will step in to direct the untitled Han Solo film. We have a wonderful script, an incredible cast and crew, and the absolute commitment to make a great movie. Filming will resume the 10th of July.”
There’s nothing yet from the camp of Lord and Miller, but I wouldn’t expect them to come out swinging. They’re professionals, this was a very well managed break-up, and it certainly won’t help their reputation around town if they’re see as directors threw slings and arrows at their bosses. Still, there’s probably much more to this story, and it’ll be interesting to see what surfaces in weeks and months ahead.
Sounds like a pretty boring, safe move on Lucas Films part.
Lucasfilm.