There’s basically two narratives to the “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” reshoots. There’s the cleaner, Disney friendly version which asserts that everything is just fine, and they’re just making the movie the best it can be. And then there’s the version that’s seemingly closer to the truth, and that’s becoming much clearer the more news spills out about what’s actually going on behind the scenes, and it can be summarized thusly: the studio is course correcting. This isn’t just a couple weeks of pickups; Disney is reshaping ‘Rogue One’ in a major way.
READ MORE: Tony Gilroy, Not Christopher McQuarrie, Is Working On The ‘Rogue One’ Reshoots
To recap, word emerged this week that Disney execs were unhappy with an early cut of ‘Rogue One,’ one that has been described as having a tone similar to that of a “war movie.” The chatter intensified when reports emerged that as much as 40% of the movie was going to be reshot. And as the week ended, it was revealed that Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton,” “The Bourne Legacy“) has not only stepped in to help with rewrites, but was supervising the reshoots. Well, not only has his role intensified, another filmmaker is stepping in as well.
THR reports that veteran stunt coordinator and second unit director Simon Crane (“Edge Of Tomorrow,” “World War Z,” “Titanic“) will be assisting with the ‘Rogue One’ reshoots, and confirms, as we suggested yesterday, Gilroy will be behind the camera during additional filming as well. The math isn’t difficult: that’s two filmmakers assisting on reshoots for ‘Rogue One,’ and that should be a pretty significant indication of just how much work they are doing on the movie, in what will be six weeks of shooting. And it certainly opens up a question mark about Gareth Edwards, and how his role might have changed as the production on the movie shifts gears and aims to be completed for release later this year.
So why is Disney essentially turning the ship around? The trade suggests what many have been saying all along over the past few days — the studio wants a four-quadrant, billion dollar plus hit, not a niche, genre driven “Star Wars” movie. It’s a bummer, but maybe not a surprise when a franchise is responsible for carrying revenue streams beyond the box office into toy sales, theme park attractions and more.
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” opens on December 16th.
So what was probably going to be a pretty decent little movie has now been taken away from the director & is being destroyed.
Way to go Disney. Sure, times have been SO tough for you ,how could you be expected to take any chances with an Interesting movie? You have just destroyed the good will you have built with your audience who were hoping for a string of related & INTERESTING movies. Not a String of the SAME thing – over & over.
I now have Zero interest in going to a theater for this one. I’m sure when it is all said & done, Mr. Edwards will have a very sad ,But interesting tale to tell.
Handing a Star Wars movie over to an overly serious British director was the problem. Star Wars movies are supposed to be fun and adventurous, something most British directors don’t understand. You want fun you hire an American director
I don’t think it’s matter of serious British vs fun American directors. The British Matthew Vaughn is far more fun than the American Zack Snyder.
Return of the Jedi was directed by a Brit.
Ok then.
Imagine a Star WARs movie that plays like a WAR movie. Unthinkable.
Gareth’s biggest weaknesses as a director are character development and action; this was evident in Godzilla; which had 1 dimensional charcaters and bad action. So disney brought in a writer known for creating compelling characters in Gilroy, and a second unit action director known for some pretty awesome action sequences. This isn’t a negative. And since Gareth is still involved, there isn’t an issue. Second unit directors are the most common thing when doing action movies. And bringing in new writers to fix holes is again something that has always happened with big films. The sky is falling propaganda is designed as click bait. Everyone needs to just keep calm and wait for the final film before passing judgment. The problem is that the article wil already have affected opinions; with many determined not to like the final film, and wishing they just saw Gareth’s original cut, regardless of if it was any good
I think the problem, if it can be called that, is the $2B gorilla in the room. A Force Awakens raised the bar so high expectation-wise that following up with a grim, morally ambiguous film with no recognizable Star Wars characters is going to be a letdown in all respects. This is only the second film in I imagine a whole series of planned Star Wars films so hitting a road block in the second film is something Disney desperately wants to avoid. Yes, I know it’s not part of the official Star Wars series but it’s still supposed to take place in the Star Wars universe and people are going to have expectations of that. Imagine if the second film in the Marvel series had been clunker. It might have put a damper on the entire series. Disney basically cannot afford a clunker or even a mediocre result — they need unblemished success.
The second film in the Marvel series was “The Incredible Hulk” ;).
Gareth has been for all intents and purposes- shit canned off this film. Tony has been brought in to write and direct all the reshoots. Tony brought in Simon who he worked with on Bourne. The math here isn’t too difficult to follow.
I see both sides of the coin here, and want ROGUE ONE to be fantastic as much as anyone, but it’s just not a good sign when a studio steps in and starts messing with a film, especially one that’s been described as a dark, war movie. Tonally it might not fit right in, but it still sounds like Edwards has made the film he wanted to make. The fact that it wasn’t the film Disney wanted is their problem. Watch what happens when Rian Johnson delivers something closer to “The Brothers Bloom” than “Looper.”
No. I bet the studio doesn’t really care about the billion dollar hit. I bet they’re just scared shitless of what happens to the overall franchise if Rogue One is bad. They read the script and knew what they were getting. Gareth must have just messed up the execution somehow or made a movie that didn’t work. I can’t imagine this is all because Disney is facing a financially-motivated change of heart.
Mark my words, folks, this movie will not be as good as the landmark movie ‘Caravan of Courage’. It won’t even be ‘Battle for Endor’. 🙂
They had this little Drew Barrymore look-a-like in those movies.