This started about 13 years ago when we were shooting Episode III in Sydney, and Id heard that George [Lucas] and [producer] Rick [McCallum] were developing this live-action TV series and I got to thinking about what sort of fun stories we might be able to tell in that episodic format. I started playing around with this idea drawn from the opening crawl of [A New Hope], this sort of Mission: Impossible-style spy mission to steal the Death Star plans.
And so I started tinkering around with what the plot structure of something like that might be, and then a day or two later I was chatting with Rick and I asked him about the show and he told me about the era and what the general subject matter was and I realized, Well this idea has no place in that concept.
So I dropped it, and it wasnt until when the new slate of films was announced a few years back that beyond the saga films we were also doing these standalone stories. I was thinking, You know that original idea could make a pretty good standalone film, and I was chatting just informally with friends at work and Id give em the informal pitch, and I got such enthusiastic responses when I would describe this that I couldnt help but continue to make it a little more elaborate and think through some of the character arcs of who these people are and how this might end. Finally I made this sort of informal pitch to a friend of mine who said, You need to make an appointment right now with Kathy [Kennedy] and Kiri [Hart] and you need to pitch this, and I realized well actually hes right because if I dont Ill always wonder what wouldve happened if I hadnt.
[Cinematographer] Greg [Frasier] and Gareth were actually amazing to watch because Gareth made this decision based on a style that he uses with the movies he makes where he puts the camera on his shoulder for just about every shot, and that really gave us the sense of what the style of the movie might be, and more importantly its a style that is unlike any other Star Wars movie. And the whole time we were making the movie I would often walk onto the set and be like Wheres Gareth? and then Id see him with this huge camera on his shoulder off in the middle of the shot, doing another angle, finding some incredible way to immerse us inside the movie, and I think thats whats so amazing about his style. This is going to be an incredibly immersive experience when you see Rogue One.
http://collider.com/rogue-one-star-wars-tv-series-george-lucas/
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