I always think of Disney productions as indefatigable and overwhelmingly competent, but I need to check my expectations, as should we all. On the heels of the messiness surrounding the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film, we’re getting lots of stories about the disappointments around Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Back in May, we heard that the first cut of the film was pretty bad, and that Disney ordered four weeks of reshoots to deal with the blandness. The story at the time was that some at Disney were panicking, although Disney’s people went on the record saying they had faith in the film. Now? Now it seems to have gotten worse.
An unexpected Jedi knight has emerged during the production of the next Star Wars movie. Several insiders say Tony Gilroy, an uncredited writer on Disney’s upcoming spinoff Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, has been empowered to take the lead on postproduction for the Dec. 16 release, even as director Gareth Edwards remains involved in the project.
Gilroy, 59, writer of several Bourne movies and director of The Bourne Legacy and Michael Clayton, became the driving force behind Rogue One’s extensive, recently wrapped reshoots, which ran around five weeks. Now he is said to be “supervising” the edit with input from Edwards, who scored the Rogue One job after his 2014 Godzilla reboot impressed Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy. Edwards, 40, remains very much involved and still is the face of the movie, appearing at Star Wars Celebration in mid-July.
One insider painted the Edwards-Gilroy pairing as collaborative, which should be no surprise: Gilroy, who has a relationship with Kennedy’s producer husband, Frank Marshall, from the Bourne series, also helped Edwards out during the making of Godzilla.
“There are not two separate editing rooms; they are all in there with their ideas,” says one source close to the production. “Tony’s a strong force, but they’re all working together.”
The Gilroy-backed reshoots tackled several issues, according to sources, the ending of the film among them. The Death Star heist project, the first “stand-alone” Star Wars movie to deviate from the seven Episodes released between 1977 and 2015, is said to lead straight into the original Star Wars: A New Hope. This isn’t the first time Gilroy has gone from behind the keyboard to behind the camera. As a writer on 2002’s The Bourne Identity, he helped Marshall when the producer took over the film from director Doug Liman. And none of these developments is likely to spell doom for Rogue One, which is expected to be one of the year’s biggest hits.
I’m sorry, but this actually sounds awful. Five weeks of reshoots, a complete re-edit of the film and the studio is giving the somewhat inexperienced director a full-time “handler,” Tony Gilroy. That spells disaster. While I’m sure Rogue One will make a lot of money, the concern is probably more about the legacy of the Star Wars franchise, and Disney not wanting to screw the pooch and alienate fans with a crappy film. Still, it sounds like a disorganized mess and I’m guessing the final edit will reveal all of the patches, reshoots and reedits.
Photos courtesy of Disney.
Is this another case of the trailer is better than the whole movie like Suicide Squad was? Because I was actually hyped when they released the trailer for Rogue One and these stories are disheartening to hear.
The footage they showed at the Star Wars con was pretty awesome as well. I feel like this has so much potential, especially since Darth Vader is in it. These reports are really disappointing. I’m just hoping the studio doesn’t turn this into another Suicide Squad.
I hope they are not trying to “fix” the blandness with more explosions and chase scenes.
If blandness means time given to character and plot development by all means let it be a little bland. And whatever you do don’t drown it in CGI!
I’ve always thought that the people who make trailers must be paid major bank. On the strength of the trailer alone with no prior interest, they’ve convinced me on more than one occasion to go see a really poor film.
Agreed. I am almost at the point where I do not want to read about any production issues prior to release. It’s killing the dream, the magic and the hope. Then again maybe it’s better to walk in with low expectations. That’s the assumption I will still go. Rogue One yes, Suicide Squad, meh -> No.
Studios usually like the major trailer-worthy sequences to be filmed first so they can cut together promising teasers and get people excited before the rest of principal photography is done. This is even more important if/when a script is bad. So worst case scenario here is that you’ve already seen all the best stuff and everything else is a mess. Let’s hope there’s something to save.
Am gutted to hear this – i was SOOOO looking forward to this purely based on the trailer but this is Star Wars, Disney has WAAAY too much money riding on this to let it be another Suicide Squad (i know thats from another studio), so i still have some hope that it will be good.
Kennedy may have a good rep but if this effs up – it will reflect v badly on her as SW is now her baby.
same here – I love the cast, especially Felicity and Diego, and TFA had just brought my inner Star Wars fan back to life when the rumours began.
I hope it really is just exaggeration and that the final product is great/can be salvaged.
I think they’ll pull it off in the end, crazy as that sounds
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope it doesn’t turn out to be another Suicide Squad, I was actually fooled into thinking that one would be good because of all the hype about ‘anti’superheroes and villains being the protagonists and all.
After The Force Awakens, the last thing Disney needs is a crappy Star Wars movie – no one wants to be reminded of the prequels!
All I can think of is: imagine if this was happening to a project led by a woman director. ‘Welp, here’s proof that women shouldn’t direct blockbusters!’
God, grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man.
Love it. Preach.
WW Z had a lot of reshoots and director problems and it ended up being an OK movie. Darth Vader is rumored to make an appearance or at least his voice. Even if it turns out to be a really bad movie, we will at least has a Vader voice or appearance. I will go see it just for that alone.
I went to the Rogue One panel at Star Wars Celebration. If there are / were this many problems they did a great job of deflecting them and distracting the audience with other things. I also got to see the trailer that will not be released for months to the public at large and the film looks amazing.