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The Force Awakens Lucasfilm: The Kennedy Era

Wait. The producer in charge of the Star Wars franchise and the producer in charge of the Jurassic Park franchise are married? Their kids are gonna have a good-ass holiday this year.
 
Turner Nabs 10 ‘Star Wars’ Movies In Mega Deal With Walt Disney Studios
Nellie Andreeva said:
In what is believed to be the biggest movie package sold to ad-supported TV networks, Turner has closed a domestic licensing deal with The Walt Disney Studios for the linear basic cable and companion ad-supported on-demand rights to 10 Star Wars movies — last year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this year’s standalone Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the next three yet-to-be-released movies in the franchise as well as five of the six previous Star Wars films. Additionally, Turner has secured the only Star Wars movie whose rights are not controlled by Lucasfilm/Disney, the original Star Wars: A New Hope, via a separate arrangement with 20th Century Fox, becoming the only basic cable company holding rights to all 11 titles in the collection.

Turner and Walt Disney Studios are not commenting but sources estimate that the 10-title package is in the neighborhood of $200 million. Its sale comes after a highly atypical, year-long on-and-off process. Disney first sent out feelers that it was going to shop The Force Awakens (and other Star Wars movies) a year ago, ahead of the movie’s December premiere. That ultimately didn’t happen, and the movie was officially taken out at NATPE in January. But even after that, the Star Wars package was on the market, then off, then on again, with the selling paused a number of times. Still, the buyers came out in full force. There virtually was no basic cable network that did not bid for the movies but Turner was the most aggressive from the get-go, blowing the others out of the outer.

Using Star Wars as leverage, I hear the Disney package also includes other — mostly underperforming movies, something that is common practice when highly sought after titles are in play. I hear that includes recent releases Alice Through the Looking Glass and Pete’s Dragon. Another aspect of the deal is that it only includes ad-supported on-demand rights, not commercial-free SVOD rights which are part of Disney’s deals with Starz (for The Force Awakens) and Starz’s successor Netfix for the next Star Wars films. It remains to be seen if viewers, who are used to streaming movies with no ads, will embrace watching Star Wars with commercials on demand.

Turner will kick off the Star Wars run with a six-night marathon on TNT featuring the first six movies which starts September 20. The films will also air in December, in conjunction with Disney’s theatrical release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Star Wars: The Force Awakens will make its TNT debut in early 2018, followed in 2019 by this year’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

“The Star Wars movies and characters are beloved across generations, captivating audiences and breaking box office records around the globe for nearly four decades,” said Deborah K. Bradley, EVP of networks optimization, content strategy and commercialization for Turner. “Through this deal, TNT and TBS will be the exclusive basic cable home of one of the most iconic, enduring and valuable movie franchises of all time, giving viewers the chance to watch this amazing collection from the very beginning.”

This is the second big package of Disney-released movies for TNT, which in 2014 closed a deal with Disney-owned Marvel Entertainment for five movies, including Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron and Marvel’s Captain America 3.

Here is the schedule for the six-night Star Wars launch event on TNT:

Tuesday, Sept. 20
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
11 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

Wednesday, Sept. 21
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
11:05 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

Thursday, Sept. 22
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
11:05 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

Friday, Sept. 23
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: A New Hope
10:45 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: A New Hope

Saturday, Sept. 24
10:45 a.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
1:45 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
4:55 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
10:45 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Sunday, Sept. 25
5:15 a.m. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
8:15 a.m. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
11:20 a.m. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
2:25 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: A New Hope
5:10 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
11 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
2 a.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

________________________________________
 
I'm surprised Turner was the one that nabbed the mega Star Wars deal. Would've thought FX or USA would be the ones to get it.
 
Disney Already Plotting ‘Star Wars’ For “2021 and Beyond
Peter Sciretta said:
As for the future of the Star Wars franchise, Iger revealed that he met with Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy yesterday and “mapped out” the ‘Star Wars’ plans that we have ’til 2020.”
“We have movies in development for ‘Star Wars’ ’til then, and we started talking about what we’re going to do in 2021 and beyond. So, she’s not just making a ‘Star Wars’ movie, she’s making a ‘Star Wars’ universe, of sorts.”
 
'Star Wars': Why the Han Solo Film Directors Were Fired
Ron Howard and Joe Johnston are possible contenders to replace Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.



THR MAY 01, 2015:
Inside a 'Star Wars' Firing: 'Fantastic Four' Problems Led to Director Josh Trank's Ouster



'Star Wars: Rogue One' Enlists Renowned Stunt Coordinator for Reshoots (Exclusive)
Simon Crane joins screenwriter Tony Gilroy in helping work on the first standalone 'Star Wars' movie.

'Rogue One' Drama: Writer Tony Gilroy Taking on More Duties
Gilroy, an uncredited writer on Disney's upcoming 'Star Wars' film, is "supervising" the edit with input from director Gareth Edwards and was heavily involved in five weeks of reshoots that tackled several issues, including the ending.
 
THR OCTOBER 24, 2013:
Writer Michael Arndt Exits 'Star Wars: Episode VII'

Should There Be Such a Rush to Make 'Star Wars' Films?
With the director shuffle on Lucasfilm's Han Solo movie, perhaps it's time to slow things down.

Ron Howard Says Han Solo Film Was "a Little Opportunity That Came My Way"
Rhonda Richford said:
A day after being named the new director of Disney and Lucasfilm's untitled Han Solo movie, Ron Howard took to the stage at Cannes Lions on Friday and briefly discussed the opportunity to contribute to the Star Wars universe.

Interviewed on stage by Martin Sorrell, the founder and CEO of British ad company WPP, he called the film "a little opportunity that came my way."

The Oscar winner replaced Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Christoper Miller, who parted ways with the studio Tuesday citing "creative differences."

Howard later also said about Star Wars that "I've been a fan forever," adding: "It's gratifying to lend my voice to the Star Wars universe now."

The director also told the audience: "I've been around the Star Wars universe from the beginning," and explained George Lucas was conceiving the story while they were working on American Graffiti. When Lucas first told him the idea, he said he thought it sounded "crazy."

Howard recalled that when he first saw Star Wars, he waited in line with his wife for two hours. "We left almost speechless, and I said, 'Do you want to see it again?'" he said.?"And we got in line and waited another 90 minutes to see it twice the same day."

Howard on Friday also discussed the Trump presidency and how it will one day portrayed on the screen, joking: "I'm looking forward to the day that ... this presidency is dramatized years from now that it's a hysterical musical comedy on Broadway called Trumped."

Asked what's left to do for him, he said he'd love to do a Broadway musical and mentioned his team was working on an adaption of Nightshift and talking about possibly adapting Parenthood as well.

Discussing the project that he is most proud of, Howard mentioned Apollo 13.

Regarding the competition between Netflix, Amazon and others, Howard said: "I don't think there's going to be a winner. There may be a dominant platform, and I don't think it's going to be big screen movies."

He also said about streaming video services: "It's an exciting time you can tell more stories to niche audiences creatively, it's liberating."

Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson and Donald Glover will star in the Han Solo spin-off. Shooting is set to resume July 10.
 
The Upwards Failing of Colin Trevorrow (and Why It Matters)

WHAT THE LORD AND MILLER FIRING MEANS TO THE OVERALL WORLD OF LUCASFILM
Neil Turitz said:
When the news broke the other day that Lucasfilm had fired the directing team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller off its Han Solo spinoff flick, a few things came to mind. First and foremost, there was the shock of a major project like this making such an enormous move, especially, ahem, five months into shooting.

After that, I took a moment to see what people were saying, and it came out that Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy wasn’t happy with the style and tone of the film that Lord and Miller were making, which led me to the second reaction, which was, “Well, jeez, who did she think she was hiring?” I mean, these are the guys behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street and its sequel, 22 Jump Street, and The LEGO Movie.

In other words, while the pair is immensely talented, these guys are not exactly Merchant and Ivory.

But after pondering that for a short spell, something else popped into my head, as I considered the history of Lucasfilm projects and one or two external incidents that directly relate to this particular cinematic universe. It was a dark thought, a sinister one, that I turned around a bit before I finally allowed myself to verbalize it, at which point I realized that, in even asking the question, I already had my answer.

Does Lucasfilm have itself a Director Problem?

After having given Warner Bros. so much guff for its issues with directors on the DC Comics movies, it would be unfair not to come to a similar conclusion here, simply because this is what the evidence suggests.

Most of the people reading this will be aware of the stürm und drang that surrounded last year’s Lucasfilm production of Rogue One, which essentially replaced director Gareth Edwards with Old Pro Tony Gilroy, as the experienced Gilroy came in with massive rewrites and directed large reshoots which, apparently (depending on who is talking) reshaped a good portion of the movie. That, in and of itself, should have been something of a red flag, but now this happens, and the central issue is inescapable.

And we haven’t even gotten into the catastrophe that is The Book of Henry, which is basically one of the worst reviewed films of the year, is going to be a major flop, and is a pretty large setback to its director, Colin Trevorrow. This is only important, mind you, because he is the man charged with writing and directing Episode IX of the Star Wars saga, due in theaters Memorial Day Weekend, 2019.

Apparently, the big difference between Lord and Miller and Edwards is that, when confronted with the idea of bringing in outside help to reshape things and oversee reshoots, Edwards said, “Sure, okay,” while Lord and Miller were not as eager to play along. This did not sit well with Kennedy, who has a very tight hold on all things Star Wars-related, and so she pulled the trigger on them, to the great and utter shock of Lord and Miller, who figured, naturally, that things would work themselves out.

There are a bunch of interesting factors here, not least of which is Kennedy’s desire to bring in hot, young, up-and-coming filmmakers, then refusing to allow them to do the things that drew her attention in the first place. For instance, with Lord and Miller, their style is much more loose and improvisational than what Kennedy is used to, as well as writer — and long time stalwart of the Lucasfilm Universe — Lawrence Kasdan, whose attitude is “You shoot the words that are on the page and don’t make them up as you go.” It seems he was at odds with Lord and Miller right from the start, so when they rejected out of hand the notion of dealing with someone else to come in and “help” them, it was time to let them go.

No matter, by the way, that some folks in the know were admirers of what the pair was doing, even while those same folks admitted it wasn’t a conventional Star Wars film, which was Kennedy’s whole point. Of course, others have said they were overmatched, out of their depth, and should never have been hired in the first place, so I think the only thing on which we can agree here is that no one is agreeing on anything.

Either way, the two just weren’t a good fit, whereas Rian Johnson, currently in post-production on December’s The Last Jedi, understands the Universe perfectly and, word has it, has Kennedy and her team very happy with his cut of the film. Which means that, if you liked The Force Awakens and Rogue One, you’re going to love Jedi.

Trevorrow is another issue, in that, while the Book of Henry fiasco might make him more pliable for Kennedy, the legitimate question has to be asked about whether or not he is up to the task. While I quite like his first film, Safety Not Guaranteed, I can’t say the same about his second, Jurassic World, which might have made a ton of money (and got a lot of good reviews I never quite understood), but just isn’t a good movie. Don’t get me wrong, I’m rooting for him, but this has to be of some concern to those in charge.

There’s also an important fact here that can’t be ignored: none of this is new. Lucasfilm has always had a director problem. George Lucas directed four of the first six, and while the first one is great, it’s also, in hindsight, badly flawed, and the three prequels are awful. When he brought in his film school professor, and old pro helmer, Irvin Kershner to direct The Empire Strikes Back, he let Kershner run the show without any real supervision, then was furious when the film didn’t really turn out the way he envisioned, even though it is by far the best film of the series.

It’s for that reason, in fact, that journeyman Richard Marquand was hired to helm Return of the Jedi, so that Lucas could control every aspect of the production and thus not have to deal with his personal vision being corrupted, as it had been with Kershner. There are tons of stories out there of how ineffectual Marquand was on set, as if he was nothing more than a proxy for the boss. Which, essentially, he was.

Which is sort of where we are now. It has become exceedingly clear that anyone signing up for one of these gigs in the future will have to be well aware what they’re in for, and then make the decision about whether or not being a sort of puppet for his or her Lucasfilm Overlords is how they want to spend a couple years of their career. Yes, it’s an insane opportunity to make a Star Wars film, but there are going to be a fair number of auteurs who will pass on the offer, simply because, while they might want to play with someone else’s toys, they won’t want to be instructed by said toy owner exactly how they’re allowed to play with them.

Yesterday, Ron Howard stepped into the director’s chair, a seasoned pro whose best films are in the rearview mirror, but who will almost certainly come in and do a professional job of fulfilling Kennedy’s vision, in a way that first Edwards, and then Lord and Miller, weren’t.

Because let’s face it — at this point, what has become obvious is that the vision to be fulfilled, from here on out, is Kennedy’s, and woe be to any director who thinks differently.
 
Sort of a dumb headline accusing Colin Trevorrow of failing upward.
 

Vulture September 8, 2017:
Colin Trevorrow’s Firing From Star Wars Is Another Reminder That No Director Will Ever Be Bigger Than the Franchise
Chris Lee said:
Earlier this week, a disturbance in the Force triggered paroxysms of anguish and confusion across the galaxy. That is to say, since the Tuesday announcement of Colin Trevorrow’s firing as director of Star Wars: Episode IX (with Lucasfilm reaching the conclusion that his and the company’s “visions for the project differ”), Hollywood’s chattering class has been trying to figure out: How did this bona fide blockbuster filmmaker come to be laid so low?

Conspiracy Theory A maintains that The Book of Henry — Trevorrow’s critically mauled, commercially stillborn art-house passion project — which arrived as the June follow-up to his $1.6-billion-grossing sophomore co-writing/directorial effort Jurassic World — may have given Lucasfilm cold feet. Star Wars remains, after 40 years, eight films, and a combined $7.5 billion at the box office, arguably moviedom’s most valuable intellectual property. And Henry’s craptacular reception exposed glaring liabilities in the director’s ability to make the jump to lightspeed, as the thinking goes.

But to hear speculation from a ranking Hollywood movie insider with direct knowledge of the productions on both The Book of Henry and Jurassic World (and who requested anonymity out of concern for sensitive ongoing business relationships), Trevorrow’s firing may have come more directly as a consequence of being “difficult.”

“During the making of Jurassic World, he focused a great deal of his creative energies on asserting his opinion,” the executive explains. “But because he had been personally hired by Spielberg, nobody could say, ‘You’re fired.’ Once that film went through the roof and he chose to do Henry, [Trevorrow] was unbearable. He had an egotistical point of view— and he was always asserting that.”

Then, during preproduction on Episode IX, Trevorrow’s relationship with Lucasfilm top brass became reportedly “unmanageable” over the course of “repeated stabs at multiple drafts” of the script.

“When the reviews for Book of Henry came out, there was immediately conjecture that Kathy was going to dump him because they weren’t thrilled with working with him anyway,” the executive continues. “He’s a difficult guy. He’s really, really, really confident. Let’s call it that.”

Kathy, of course, is eight-time Academy Award–nominated Lucasfilm president/Star Wars brand manager Kathleen Kennedy, who found herself beneath the red-hot scrutiny of Movie Twitter in June after firing co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller from the Han Solo spinoff prequel. And in terms of that surfeit of self-belief, Trevorrow admitted to as much in an interview with Esquire in 2015. “Directors require a level of confidence that can border on the delusional,” Trevorrow said. “You have to push it right up to the edge of arrogance, but never cross the line.”

Which really would be nothing new in an industry where gigantic egos are as common as Tesla Xs, and directors convinced of their own Kubrickian greatness come a dime a dozen. But by the point of his supernova success with Jurassic World, it’s worth noting Trevorrow had become inextricably linked to the scourge of white male privilege in Hollywood. In an era when men are almost 12 times more likely to direct movies than women, and minorities continue to lose ground as directors (according to the 2017 Hollywood Diversity Report), he landed the coveted Jurassic job on the strength of a single film, the quirky 2012 Sundance sci-fi dramedy Safety Not Guaranteed.

This evolved into such an inescapable talking point, Trevorrow even admitted to the Los Angeles Times, “[It] hurts my feelings when I’m used as an example of white male privilege.”

Still, the decision to bounce him from the project ultimately fell to Kennedy, who, five years into her Lucasfilm tenure, is showing less and less compunction about firing or replacing directors she feels are temperamentally or creatively unsuited to the job, having also overseen the resignation of Fantastic Four director Josh Trank from another stand-alone Star Wars film in 2015.

“There’s one gatekeeper when it comes to Star Wars and it’s Kathleen Kennedy,” says a veteran movie producer, who has worked with the studio chief. “If you rub Kathleen Kennedy the wrong way — in any way — you’re out. You’re done. A lot of these young, new directors want to come in and say, ‘I want to do this. I want to do that.’ A lot of these guys — Lord and Miller, Colin Trevorrow — got very rich, very fast and believed a lot of their own hype. And they don’t want to play by the rules. They want to do **** differently. And Kathleen Kennedy isn’t going to **** around with that.
 
STAR WARS NOVEMBER 9, 2017:
RIAN JOHNSON, WRITER-DIRECTOR OF STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, TO CREATE ALL-NEW STAR WARS TRILOGY

THR NOVEMBER 09, 2017:
Is Rian Johnson's New Trilogy Exactly What 'Star Wars' Needs?
Graeme McMillan said:
The news that director Rian Johnson is staying in a galaxy far, far away after Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a surprise on a number of levels, and one that suggests that Lucasfilm is learning from mistakes made over the past couple of years.

After all, there's a lot that's different in the announcement of Johnson's new trilogy from what has been Lucasfilm's process since the company was purchased by Disney some years ago. Lucasfilm took pains to point out this will not be part of the "Skywalker Saga," so this isn't Episodes X, XI and XII here. And while both Lucasfilm and Disney have made attempts to expand Star Wars outside of the "Skywalker Saga" movies with Rogue One and the upcoming young Han Solo movie Solo, neither of those have had the scope or ambition of this new move, as they have been tied to existing characters and concepts… and yet, this new trilogy news is still likely to cause less anxiety amongst studio executives.

The difference, at least as far as that last point goes, is that Johnson is a known quantity to Lucasfilm in terms of being a creative partner. Indeed, although the movie has yet to be released, even trailers teasing his work on Last Jedi have prompted a level of excitement amongst fans and executives alike that rival that for J.J. Abrams' The Force Awakens back in 2015. It's not just that Johnson loves Star Wars, and has a particular affinity for the original movies — the same could be said for everyone the studio has partnered with since the franchise relaunch — but that the helmer has demonstrated quite how well he plays within the studio's sandbox and works with the various other entities involved in the maintenance and creation of the larger franchise.

Compare this to Gareth Edwards, whose Rogue One: A Star Wars Story underwent extensive reshoots under the direction of Tony Gilroy, or to Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, removed from Solo: A Star Wars Story before initial production had even been completed. Or, for that matter, Colin Trevorrow, the original director of 2019's Star Wars: Episode IX, replaced before production had even started by returning helmer J.J. Abrams. Although the details of what happened in each case remain somewhat murky — and, likely, always will — it's clear that, for some reason or another, they didn't necessarily fit the creative vision of Lucasfilm as a whole, even when creating small offshoots of the larger story, filling in backstory and gaps in ways that seemed not exactly risky.

This new trilogy, by comparison, feels like the fulfillment of something that Lucasfilm has been searching for for some time. Not only in terms of length — a new trilogy, which feels like something on par with the "Skywalker Saga," which is also told in three chapter chunks — but in subject matter, as well. By focusing on, in Lucasfilm's words, "new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored," Johnson is actually managing to expand the galaxy beyond the central storyline that everything to date has dealt with, in the process setting the franchise up for a longevity that it arguably lacked previously. After all, there's only so far that you can go with the Skywalkers and their friends, especially with stand-alone movies strip-mining that series for parts as it goes along.

The news does make me wonder what the long-term future of the Star Wars Story movies is; to date, the two that audiences know of have had difficult births, which might make Lucasfilm reconsider the original plan of releasing one every two years — especially if this new trilogy might want to take that slot in the release schedule instead. (Or perhaps we're headed towards an era of multiple Star Wars movies a year, a la Disney's other big nerd engine, the Marvel movies.) Also, if Johnson is charting new space with his trilogy, does this mean future Star Wars Story movies could move further afield from mining the era between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, if the series continues? We can but hope.

In many ways, the Johnson trilogy feels like a culmination of Lucasfilm's Disney era to date, something that could only have come after the growing pains of hiring and firing directors to fully comprehend how elastic the franchise can be in terms of narrative voice and subject matter, as well as finding a creator who is as engaged with the material and the process of making Star Wars as Johnson turned out to be. It's taken a few years, but this might be just where Disney wanted Star Wars to be all along.
 
The Wall Street Journal May 10, 2018:
Intrigue and Drama on the Han Solo Set

COLLIDER MAY 11, 2018:
Here’s Why Colin Trevorrow Was Fired from ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’

WIRED 09.05.17:
BEING A STAR WARS DIRECTOR IS THE WORST JOB IN THE GALAXY

Variety:
Inside ‘Solo’: A ‘Star Wars’ Story’s Bumpy Ride to the Big Screen
Kristopher Tapley said:
The hackneyed industry catchphrase “creative differences” has been enlisted countless times over the decades to describe Hollywood productions gone amok, prompting a change in the director’s chair. The modern “Star Wars” series has not been immune: More than half of Lucasfilm’s recent efforts have suffered through episodes of filmmaker upheaval.

But the latest installment, “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” due out May 25, upstaged them all when the production veered off the rails so spectacularly that it forced filming to grind to a halt after four months. With mere weeks left on the shooting schedule, producer Kathleen Kennedy fired directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and hired veteran Ron Howard to right the ship.

Suddenly, the Oscar-winning director of 2001’s “A Beautiful Mind,” who along with his Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer has overseen dozens of features, was tasked with the daunting job of overhauling the embattled franchise spinoff. Howard shot about 70% of “Solo,” thus earning him sole director credit on the movie, with Lord and Miller receiving executive producer acknowledgments. With the reshoots, the movie wound up costing more than $250 million.

“I didn’t witness any of the difficulties or where that disconnect was,” says Howard, who is 64. “But the one thing that I could bring to it was objectivity. I saw it as an opportunity.”

“Solo” is the fourth film in Disney’s revamped franchise machine to creatively malfunction: Director Josh Trank exited a still-unmade Boba Fett spinoff in 2015; Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tony Gilroy was brought in to save 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” when director Gareth Edwards’ efforts missed the mark; and “Jurassic World” helmer Colin Trevorrow — who was originally hired to direct the next “Star Wars” movie, “Episode IX,” in 2019 — was shown the door following clashes over the script.

That’s a lot of behind-the-scenes pandemonium for a brand meant to transport viewers to a galaxy far, far away.

For many in the cast, it was a shocking twist to find themselves not only set for a four-month extension but under new leadership to boot. However, they say the episode provided an invaluable learning experience.

“I’ve tried to use this as an opportunity to navigate pressure and what other people think,” says the film’s 28-year-old star, Alden Ehrenreich, who plays a young Han Solo. “That pressure is always there on every movie. This is just a very intensified version of that. For me it’s about ‘What do I have control over?’ And it’s very little.”

Donald Glover, who assumes Billy Dee Williams’ cape as a young Lando Calrissian, agrees. “I was just like, ‘I know this is not ideal, but now there’s a control in this experiment,’” he says. “It was weirdly beneficial, not to belittle the seriousness of the situation, and [Lord and Miller] were really good. But I think there was honestly a miscommunication in the artistic vision.”

So what wasn’t working? For screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, the elder creative statesman of the enterprise whose work on the “Star Wars” series goes back to “The Empire Strikes Back” in 1980, it was an issue of tone on the screen and exactitude on the set.

“Tone is everything to me. That’s what movies are made of,” Kasdan says. “But this was a very complicated situation. When you go to work in the morning on a ‘Star Wars’ movie, there are thousands of people waiting for you, and you have to be very decisive and very quick about it. When you are making those split-second decisions — and there are a million a day — then you are committing to a certain tone. If the [producers] think that isn’t the tone of the movie, you’re going to have trouble. It may not always end this way, but no one was happy about it. It was agony.”

Reports suggested Lord and Miller had gone overboard with improvisation, moving farther and farther away from what was on the page. But Kasdan’s son and co-writer Jonathan has a different take.

“The issues we were having were much more in the bones and practical,” he says. “Chris and Phil did everything they could to make it work, as did we. The questions only became about how to make the movie most efficiently in the time we had to do it.”

Production was originally slated from February to July 2017. By June, with the film behind schedule, crew members were told they would not be wrapping until August. When Howard came aboard, it was mandated that 85% of Lord and Miller’s “Solo” be reshot, including second unit material. Howard’s work ultimately comprises 70% of the finished film. The shoot would extend four more months, finally wrapping on Oct. 17.

A crew member who worked on the film under both Lord-Miller and Howard, but declined to be identified because he was not authorized to disclose the information, says Lord and Miller drew Kennedy’s ire for stretching days out with experimentation.

“I got a lot of overtime [under Lord and Miller], which ultimately was their downfall,” the crew member says. “The first assistant director brokers that with production. He ultimately went to the well one too many times, and Kathleen Kennedy blew up.”

The crew member also says Howard had a firmer grip on what he wanted and how he wanted to shoot it. Under Howard, one second unit sequence took up half the stage space at Pinewood Studios that it did under Lord and Miller and a fraction of the time, the crew member says.

“Howard was inseparable from [director of photography] Bradford Young,” says the crew member. “You can totally see the love affair because Howard seemed super invested in how the film looked. Lord and Miller didn’t seem too fussed with that aspect, really.”

Lord and Miller would not agree to an interview, but a source close to the production says that their ideas were constantly overruled.

“In their minds, Phil and Chris were hired to make a movie that was unexpected and would take a risk, not something that would just service the fans,” says the source. “They wanted it to be fresh, new, emotional, surprising and unique. These guys looked at Han as a maverick, so they wanted to make a movie about a maverick. But at every turn, when they went to take a risk, it was met with a no.”

Neither Kennedy, who as president of Lucasfilm produces all the “Star Wars” movies, nor Disney Studios chief Alan Horn was made available for comment.

The cast was largely unaware of the tensions. Glover jokes that he felt like the youngest child in a divorce when the switch came about, blindsided by the turn of events. Woody Harrelson, who plays criminal Tobias Beckett (a sort of mentor to Solo), says he was devastated.

“I love their style of working, but they wanted to do it different than the way the powers that be were used to ‘Star Wars’ being done,” Harrelson says.

Emilia Clarke, the 31-year-old Emmy-nominated star of television’s “Game of Thrones” who in the film plays Qi’ra, a childhood friend of Solo’s who becomes tangled in the criminal underworld, says Lord and Miller were in an exploratory place with the material when they were removed.

“I think they were figuring it out,” she says. “We were all still very much in a collaborative place of ‘Where does this want to go?’ This is a movie that has an enormous amount of pressure on its shoulders, therefore everybody making it feels some of that pressure. So when Ron came on, for me it felt amazing to be able to have a second set of eyes come in at this point in making the movie. How often do you get that chance to go back and try different things?”

In the summer of 2017, Howard had a breakfast meeting with Kennedy on the books that had been scheduled for at least a month. He had planned to catch up with her while in London on Imagine business, and to grab dinner with one of the other “Solo” producers, the late Allison Shearmur, with whom he was developing another project. He wasn’t aware of the film’s troubles and had even visited Lord and Miller’s set early in the production, where he met many of the people he would soon be leading. Kennedy brought the Kasdans to the breakfast, and nothing was said of the situation until Howard asked the question that hung in the air.

“How’s it going?”

Kennedy and the Kasdans confided that there were ongoing difficulties and that, unfortunately, they were going to be making a change. She was in the process of putting together a list of candidates and asked Howard if he would consider taking the job.

“I said, ‘It’s flattering, but those guys are great, and I just can’t imagine coming in and doing that,’” Howard recalls. “I wasn’t trying to be talked into it. I just really felt that way.”

They plied him with a look at the script, which he read on the train from London to Paris. He found it captivating and took counsel with Grazer, his agent, Risa Gertner, and his wife, Cheryl, who convinced him to take a crack at the film if for no other reason than she knew he would regret it if he didn’t.

That meant sliding into a massive studio production with just eight days to prepare, working with the biggest budget he had ever lorded over as a filmmaker, taking on department heads and actors he had not chosen and embarking on a journey of discovering the movie for himself. By all accounts, he hit the ground sprinting.

“He just kind of spoke ‘Star Wars’ and that tone,” Ehrenreich says.

“I texted Jon Kasdan about six times going, ‘What? Really? You’re joking. We’re not that lucky, surely, to get Ron Howard to come and take the movie on,’” Clarke says. “Any fears were wiped away pretty quickly.”

Part of Howard’s thinking coming in was that he couldn’t allow others to have to deal with a steep learning curve. “I didn’t want anybody else playing catch-up,” he says. “Instead I wanted people who really understood this story.”

Howard wasn’t sure what the job would entail at the outset. He was stepping in for a popular pair that had turned many dubious fans into believers in the project, so he wondered if Kennedy was simply looking for him to serve as the facilitator of a plan they already had in place. “I immediately realized that’s not the way Lucasfilm works,” he says. “Kathy is really a director’s producer and filmmaker-friendly in that way, and they were looking to me to make choices and creative decisions.”

He inherited one of the darker aesthetics of any “Star Wars” film to date; it was one he embraced all the same. Lord and Miller had conjured a gritty, grimy palette reflective of the seedy underbelly of conniving crooks, battle-weary war deserters and ruthless criminal syndicates on display.

Actor Michael K. Williams could not return for a full overhaul of his villainous character due to another commitment. So the role was recast with Paul Bettany, who had collaborated with Howard on “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Da Vinci Code.” But the rest of the cast held firm.

For Glover the choice to stay was easy. “I wanted to play Lando. That was it,” the actor says. “Everything else was secondary in that moment.”

Howard, meanwhile, worked with the Kasdans to further refine the script. He wanted the action scenes to be “cool, fast, fun, surprising,” the director says, but he also wanted to connect them to the idea of young Han Solo being tested, challenged and shaped by a gauntlet that would put him on the road to becoming the iconic cinematic figure audiences know and love.

Kasdan says there was never a moment when he and Jonathan weren’t open to changing things. “But what we were very defensive of and wanted to have succeed was this tone, because this is not like any other ‘Star Wars’ movie. Its connection to ‘Star Wars’ is only in its spirit. It’s Han’s tone. It has very little to do with ‘A New Hope.’ That’s a different thing we’ve seen play out in six or seven movies. This tone is reckless and unpredictable and feckless, as Han is. There is no Force. There’s no real Empire. This is about people scrabbling along. They’re not trying to save the galaxy.”

Ehrenreich had long before met with the role’s originator, Harrison Ford, to try to gauge the character. His approach was to absorb as much as he could early on so he could then just forget the specifics and draw on instinct, rather than lean on impersonation.

“Just like in a biopic, the main thing is that pretty soon into the movie you’re really just involved with this story and these characters, and that’s the most important thing,” Ehrenreich says. “Your job is the same as in any other movie: to make the scene work and make it feel like a real person.”

He could also draw on the familiarity a ubiquitous property like “Star Wars” instills in someone of his generation. “When I screen-tested for the movie and I was on the Millennium Falcon, it was kind of like, ‘Oh, I know this,’” he says. “You know the feeling of it. You know the hallway. You know the holochess table. So that made it nice and put me at ease.”

Howard and Ehrenreich note that Ford, who has seen the new film twice, adores it. He called Howard, glowing, after he saw it the first time.

“I had never heard Harrison effusive about anything, and he was raving about it,” Howard says. “He said, ‘Alden nailed it. He made it his own.’”

The hand of George Lucas, too, happens to be present in the film, in a romantically charged scene between Ehrenreich and Clarke staged in Lando’s cape closet. There was a beat when Han takes Qi’ra’s cloak, hangs it up and moves on to his next bit of business. But Lucas had a note, if he could be so bold.

“He said, ‘You know, Han wouldn’t bother to hang it up,’” Howard says. “And then he sort of did it. George became Han Solo for a second. The body language was there and the attitude. Not only was it a nice accent on the scene, but it was also a reminder that George created this character and really understood him. He was so reluctant [to offer his opinion], and yet the choice was so right that it was fun to use it.” (Neither Lucas nor Ford was made available for comment.)

For Clarke, Qi’ra is a vital part of the wave of representation inherent in the new “Star Wars” films. From Daisy Ridley’s Rey in “The Force Awakens” to Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso in “Rogue One” to Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico in “The Last Jedi,” young girls are able to see themselves in these films now more than ever.

Clarke was excited by the complexity of Qi’ra’s character. “The mystery with regards to ‘Where does she stand? Is she good or not good?’ — that classically doesn’t always go to the female role,” Clarke says. “The Kasdans were looking back to the film noir world and kind of bringing that to the forefront, and it’s just kind of funny to see that these strong women have been around for a really long time. The fact that they’re getting a huge amount of airplay now is really wonderful, but the hope is that we don’t describe women on-screen as being ‘strong women’ anymore. They’re just women. That’s something I was really happy to inhabit.”

Howard, of course, has a long history with the visionary who gave birth to this enduring legacy. He worked under Lucas, the director, in the 1973 canonical classic “American Graffiti” before there even was a galaxy far, far away. He later directed the 1988 fantasy picture “Willow” for Lucas in the wake of the original “Star Wars” trilogy’s success.

In conceiving his “Solo,” Howard thought back to his own films, like “Grand Theft Auto” and its muscle-car cool, and “Rush” and its story of racing driver James Hunt’s connection to the car that would make him a champion. Ultimately, he says, he made “Solo” on pure instinct, shooting from the hip with the lessons of his legacy to guide him.

“It was more inviting for me, in a way, because it’s not a sequel,” Howard says. “It uses a familiar character and is true to the spirit of ‘Star Wars’ movies and the galaxy, but it’s a single adventure story about this guy and the relationships that are going to shape his destiny, and the challenges that are going to test him along the way.”

For Ehrenreich and the rest of the cast, it was a trying but unique opportunity, and to a person, they each claim to have come out of it a little wiser.

“You can’t have a bad experience if you work with a great director, no matter what happens with the movie,” Ehrenreich says. “Because you learn and it’s creative and you’re stimulated in the scenes and you enjoy the time doing it. We certainly got that opportunity here.”

Or, as Glover puts it: “We got three directors for the price of one.”
 
THR MAY 28, 2018:
Will Soft 'Solo' Box Office Cause Disney to Rethink 'Star Wars' Strategy?
Pamela McClintock said:
Lucasfilm and Disney are facing a moment of reckoning.

Over Memorial Day weekend, they were jolted when Solo: A Star Wars Story battled hard to hit $100 million domestically and bombed overseas with $65 million. The film badly trailed the launch of fellow stand-alone pic Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which debuted to $155 million domestically in 2016 on its way to topping $1.056 billion globally. At its current rate, Solo may not gross much more than $400 million all in.

Solo's initial performance marks a rare loss for Disney. Moreover, it is forcing the studio to re-examine its strategy for the iconic Star Wars franchise, which Disney took over when it bought Lucasfilm for more than $4 billion in 2012. Most box-office analysts say the main problem is the fact that Solo debuted just five months after Star: Wars: The Last Jedi hit the big screen, resulting in a clear-cut case of audience fatigue with the Star Wars extended universe.

While the studio isn't abandoning its plan to release one Star Wars feature per year, insiders concede Disney and Lucasfilm aren't likely to release two Star Wars movie so close together again, regardless of whether they are anthology films, like Solo, which tells of Han Solo's beginnings, or part of the official episodes, like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and its follow-up, The Last Jedi.

On top of that, Disney would surely prefer a year-end launching pad going forward, rather than a summer bow. Force Awakens, Rogue One and The Last Jedi all opened in mid-December and had no direct competition. Each did blockbuster business and were the biggest films of their respective years (2015, 2016 and 2017).

In contrast, Solo opened only one week after Fox's Deadpool 2 bowed to $125.5 million domestically. It also unfurled in the wake of fellow Disney/Marvel monster blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War, which has amassed $621.7 million domestically and $1.9 billion worldwide.

"There's a question of frequency, and how many times people will go to the movies. Is this too much and too soon for a third time in a five-week period?" said Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis, suggesting Solo's underwhelming start may have been affected by those two preceding movies.

Hollis adds he's hopeful Solo will enjoy a strong run over the next two weekends in North America. Hollywood's next big live-action tentpole, Universal's Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom, doesn't debut until June 22, although more immediately, Disney's and Pixar's animated event film The Incredibles 2 opens June 15 opposite the female-fronted Ocean's 8.

"Let's measure how we feel about this until more time passes," Hollis said.

Not even Hollis tried to sugarcoat Solo's international performance so far, which includes a paltry $10.1 million launch in China. Foreign box-office grosses often make up 65 to 70 percent of a Hollywood tentpole's bottom line. The share for the last three Star Wars films was closer to 50 percent; Solo is looking at a much smaller split.

"We have a lot of work to do in trying to understand this," says Hollis. "We are all over it and will spend a lot of time digging into why things happened the way they did in various markets. We have a year and a half before Episode IX comes out."

That's the silver lining Disney and Lucasfilm are counting on. The J.J. Abrams-directed Episode IX doesn't open in theaters until December 2019, which gives Lucasfilm time to recalibrate before announcing its next moves with the franchise. No other Star Wars film is set to open before then. And although numerous films are in the works, no Star Wars pics are dated after Episode IX, though December 2020 is an obvious date for the continuation of the series.

Marvel may be able to release several blockbusters in quick order — look no further than last November's Thor: Ragnarok, February's Black Panther and, most recently, Infinity War — but The Force appears to need more breathing room to retain a sense of urgency.

"Until the Star Wars universe is firing on all cylinders like the Marvel universe, I think it would behoove them to ease their foot off the pedal in terms of spinoffs," says box-office analyst Jeff Bock, who is with Exhibitor Relations. "Marvel [likewise owned by Disney] has proven time and time again you can release movies year-in-and-year-out, but they are dealing with a cast of all-new characters for the most part, while sprinkling in old favorites here and there. That’s a model that would also benefit Star Wars going forward."

Bock also questions whether Solo suffered from a bad release date — or an underlying "content" problem. "If you have an above-quality product, the release date is a secondary concern," says Bock. "I think that's true for any film — it matters more if you're trying to pull a fast one on audiences."

Ron Howard famously took over directing duties midway through production when Christopher Miller and Phil Lord departed Solo over creative differences with Lucasfilm president Katheleen Kennedy and screenwriter Lawrence Kasden

Solo stars Alden Ehrenreich in the titular role — a part made famous by Harrison Ford — opposite Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo and Paul Bettany. The story follows Han Solo as he teams up with a band of misfits and mercenaries — including Lando Calrissian as well as a young Chewbacca — to stop the villainous Dryden Vos.

"A Star Wars film is always an event, with an enormous spotlight placed upon the opening-weekend performance. Solo, though expected to open to bigger returns, comes a mere five months after the release of The Last Jedi and is part of the 'anthology' films, a different feather than the 'saga' series," says Paul Dergarabedian of comScore. "With Episode XI, the franchise will have plenty of time to build up steam and crowd theaters like its December release brethren that have been among the most successful films of the past five years."
 
Having seen the first four Star Wars movies of the Kennedy/Disney era, I would describe it as hit or miss.

In my opinion we've had one film I would describe as "great" (Rogue One) and one film I would describe as "terrible" (The Last Jedi). I would describe both The Force Awakens and Solo as "so-so", with TFA being the lesser of the two.

I don't think Kennedy is an extremely capable head of Lucasfilm, but I'm not sure she's worse than Lucas was during the prequel era. In some ways I think the individual directors have had more of an impact on whether or not I've enjoyed the movies than the Lucasfilm heads have.
 
John Campea and Kristian Harloff are both saying Kennedy should step down.

Two star wars movies in less than six months was a terrible idea. Even in hindsight. Star Wars isn't Marvel.
 
Kristian Harloff was pushing for the notion of Kevin Feige taking over Lucasfilm not too long ago. He bends in every direction the wind blows.
 
You can tell Kevin Feige loves Marvel. By his decisions, the product, everything. Kathleen Kennedy... I don't get that vibe. Yes, the EU was basically never canon, but a lot of people grew up with that stuff for YEARS. No, I didnt want direct adaptations of EU novels, but they could have left core elements in that fans would love. Marvel does that with their films. Try to take the best elements of their characters over the years and incorporate it into one.

Hearing they never had a solid plan for the new saga trilogy was worrisome. After the backlash of TLJ... and how Solo is doing (which I loved Solo.) I don't know if Kathleen Kennedy should be in the position she's in. I think Dave Filoni would be great to have in charge of the creative decisions. I think he understands Star Wars the best out of anyone working at Lucasfilm. A legit fan who has already made some amazing Star Wars stories. The literal padawan to George Lucas.
 
Oh, I see now. "She scrapped the EU, so she doesn't like Star Wars."
 
Oh, I see now. "She scrapped the EU, so she doesn't like Star Wars."

No no no, that just alienated a lot of fans to begin with.

She hired Lord & Miller. Waited until 80% of the movie was done before she fired them... then reshot the whole film. Why wasn't she watching more closely to what was going on? Yes, the end product was great to me, but that was a waste of a lot of money.

The Last Jedi. Whether you like it or not, it"s divided the fanbase. SW has lost a certain amount of hype to it after the film. This film could have easily beaten The Force Awakens record of the film was good. But they alienated the fanbase with their choices, the people who will see a film multiple times and take new friends. Yeah, people liked it, but the majority? Ehhh... I don't think so. You can't go into any Star Wars article without a bunch of people saying how much they dislike TLJ.

The fact they had no plan for the new saga trilogy... is just terrible. There should have been a solid foundation to follow. Now watching TFA then onto TLJ... it just doesn't feel like it connects. Weird character choices. Earthly humor... bad plot points.

KK has also said some terrible things regarding the fanbase. She seems more focused on if a director is female or the main actor is rather than if they suit the job. "The Force is Female" yeahhh... okay.

There's many reasons people have rebelled against her in charge. She's made terrible decisions with the franchise in the span of a couple of years. Even with Rogue One they had problems with directors... I think even some with JJ, but it was more low key.
 
No no no, that just alienated a lot of fans to begin with.

She hired Lord & Miller. Waited until 80% of the movie was done before she fired them... then reshot the whole film. Why wasn't she watching more closely to what was going on? Yes, the end product was great to me, but that was a waste of a lot of money.

The Last Jedi. Whether you like it or not, it"s divided the fanbase. SW has lost a certain amount of hype to it after the film. This film could have easily beaten The Force Awakens record of the film was good. But they alienated the fanbase with their choices, the people who will see a film multiple times and take new friends. Yeah, people liked it, but the majority? Ehhh... I don't think so. You can't go into any Star Wars article without a bunch of people saying how much they dislike TLJ.

The fact they had no plan for the new saga trilogy... is just terrible. There should have been a solid foundation to follow. Now watching TFA then onto TLJ... it just doesn't feel like it connects. Weird character choices. Earthly humor... bad plot points.

KK has also said some terrible things regarding the fanbase. She seems more focused on if a director is female or the main actor is rather than if they suit the job. "The Force is Female" yeahhh... okay.

There's many reasons people have rebelled against her in charge. She's made terrible decisions with the franchise in the span of a couple of years. Even with Rogue One they had problems with directors... I think even some with JJ, but it was more low key.

Damn, she has really poor focus then considering not a single one has been. :funny:
 
Damn, she has really poor focus then considering not a single one has been. :funny:

True, it does seems she lacks focus. I've just seen too many interviews with her that are rubbing people the wrong way. Doesn't bode well for business.
 
I do agree that while I think Kathleen Kennedy is a great movie producer, I don't get the sense she loves the universe and characters of Star Wars as much as Kevin Feige does with Marvel.

I'd also agree they should've had a long-term plan in place for the new trilogy.

But a lot of that is Disney's fault because they demanded a new movie come out before the end of 2015. But they should've had some rough idea where things were going to go and at least have some general outline of what needed to happen.

You see, I don't mind what we found out about Rey's parents in Last Jedi, but I understand the way it was executed people were disappointed. It's like the movie is doing everything possible to pull a Vince Russo swerve on every expectation you have for where it's supposed to go.

And at the end, rather than being at the edge of your seat for what happens next, you are just sort of left deflated and confused about where things are supposed to go. You aren't quite as excited as the promise left at the end of Force Awakens.
 
I do agree that while I think Kathleen Kennedy is a great movie producer, I don't get the sense she loves the universe and characters of Star Wars as much as Kevin Feige does with Marvel.

I'd also agree they should've had a long-term plan in place for the new trilogy.

But a lot of that is Disney's fault because they demanded a new movie come out before the end of 2015. But they should've had some rough idea where things were going to go and at least have some general outline of what needed to happen.

You see, I don't mind what we found out about Rey's parents in Last Jedi, but I understand the way it was executed people were disappointed. It's like the movie is doing everything possible to pull a Vince Russo swerve on every expectation you have for where it's supposed to go.

And at the end, rather than being at the edge of your seat for what happens next, you are just sort of left deflated and confused about where things are supposed to go. You aren't quite as excited as the promise left at the end of Force Awakens.

Agreed. After TFA I was excited for the future of the saga. After TLJ. I think quite a few felt just as you described. Yeah, not sure why Disney wanted to rush a film out so soon? That doesn't make sense to me. I understand they want $$$ but in the long scheme of things... they should have had a plan for the new trilogy.
 

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