"I'm the genius auteur who was better than this franchise and I came in and saved it" is the vibe I'm getting.
A **** that saved Rogue One and helped make it successful.Arguably, he's also a ****.
A **** that saved Rogue One and helped make it successful.
I'm not sure I believe any of that regarding Lord and Miller. I've heard conflicting things.Well, sure, that's not to say Gilroy did nothing to the earlier parts of the movie, he obviously did. But the big broader mechanics of the story we got in the final version seem to come from Edwards. Sure there was some re-organizing going on in the edit room with Gilroy, and even some new bits written here and there, of course.
I guess what I'm getting at is, it's a punched-up and improved version of Edward's movie, but it's still basically Edward's movie. He seems happy with it, and agreed to accept some help to make it better than it was. We have him on-record as agreeing that Gilroy was right about "needing to get Vader on that ship" in the third act, stuff like that. Gilroy was brought in for a reason, and he did legitimately improve the movie.
The tone and feel though, is pretty much all as originally pitched.
That...seems different to what we know of Solo. Not just Lord & Miller being all defiant about the notion they needed help on crafting the thing, but in that they were constantly deviating from the written script in favor of just throwing the actors into a broad situation and having them improvise.
Gareth isn't all that much of a writer, but it's pretty clear the "feel" of the finished movie is still like 80% of what he pitched initially. Whereas Kasdan and Lord/Miller just seemed polar opposites, and Ron once aboard leaned very much in the direction of Kasdan's approach as the right way to go.
From everything I've read about them on Solo, they were shooting scenes multiple times with much it being improvised to the point that it was pissing off both Kasdans for being tonally all over the place and deviating from their script too much and the crew for making them work extra hours to shoot a bunch of pointless stuff everyone knew wasn't likely to make the final cut.I'm not sure I believe any of that regarding Lord and Miller. I've heard conflicting things.
From everything I've read about them on Solo, they were shooting scenes multiple times with much it being improvised to the point that it was pissing off both Kasdans for being tonally all over the place and deviating from their script too much and the crew for making them work extra hours to shoot a bunch of pointless stuff everyone knew wasn't likely to make the final cut.
Kasdan's also the guy that wrote Dreamcatcher and Darling Companion. Just sayin'.
Dude. L&M wrote the Lego movie, and I'm pretty sure their other stuff. Improvising with your own work is one thing, but taking it to that same make-it-up-as-you-go-along extent with someone else's script that Lucasfilm was happy with, on a $150 million (at the time) movie is something else entirely.
Especially Larry friggin' Kasdan's script, on a Star Wars film.
Seriously: you get a Star Wars directing job, dream gig, and they're willing to let you add some of your own flavor to it. It's written by the guy that wrote The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and Return Of The Jedi. It's blockbuster money, you have no personal experience doing something of that size in live-action.
Do you really not reign yourself in a little, be a team player?
Of course you do. Kathleen & Larry would have been fine with them improvising a little, probably more than a little. But you've gotta be efficient with the shoot too, not burn through huge amounts of cash and put the crew into overtime constantly. And at least stick to the spirit of what's on the page.
This was more than dialogue being different alone. We know the actors were confused too, we've heard it from at least a few of them.
I don't mean to take anything away from what he accomplished in the past, but his heyday was literally decades ago. I'm not sure what he brought to TFA from a script perspective, but I think pretty much anyone could've cowritten it with Abrams and it still would've been a success.
I think it's also telling that on Solo his son got the billed first in the writing credit.
Don't get me wrong, he's written some of the best films ever, but he's still the co-writer. He's not the president of the studio. He's not Bob Iger. He's not George Lucas. If you are Lord and Miller, it's not really their job to do everything Lawrence Kasdan says just because he's Lawrence Kasdan.
I don't mean to take anything away from what he accomplished in the past, but his heyday was literally decades ago. I'm not sure what he brought to TFA from a script perspective, but I think pretty much anyone could've cowritten it with Abrams and it still would've been a success.
I think it's also telling that on Solo his son got the billed first in the writing credit.