The Han Solo Movie Losing Both Of Its Directors Because Of Creative Differences Seems Problematic
THR- Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are no longer directing the Han Solo Star Wars spinoff. “Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are talented filmmakers who have assembled an incredible cast and crew, but it’s become clear that we had different creative visions on this film, and we’ve decided to part ways. A new director will be announced soon,” Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, said Tuesday in a statement.
“Unfortunately, our vision and process weren’t aligned with our partners on this project,” a statement from Lord and Miller read. “We normally aren’t fans of the phrase ‘creative differences’ but for once this cliché is true. We are really proud of the amazing and world-class work of our cast and crew.” Lord and Miller, helmers of The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street and its sequel 22 Jump Street, signed on to direct the Star Wars stand-alone in July 2015. The film features Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, while Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson and Donald Glover also star.
The pic has been shooting in London since February. Sources say there are several weeks left on the shoot (who will be helming those is currently under wraps), with reshoots scheduled for later this summer. The release date of May 25, 2018, remains unchanged.
This isn’t the first Star Wars film to face a director issue. On Rogue One, which was helmed by Gareth Edwards, Tony Gilroy was brought in to rewrite and help oversee extensive reshoots.
I’ll admit that I’m not some crazy film buff that knows all the workings of a movie set. I wasn’t sure exactly what producers and directors did until my early 20s. But now that I do know what everybody actually does, it seems like losing the two directors in charge of a highly anticipated movie when you still had weeks left of shooting could be #bad. I watched enough episodes of Entourage in my life to know that people skidaddling because of notes or whatever from the higher ups isn’t the best thing in the world for a movie. And I also watched The Lego Movie enough times to know that it was fucking awesome and the guys that directed it are probably pretty fucking awesome as well.
If this was Disney’s first Star Wars movie, myself and millions of other nerds would be running around like our hair was on fire. Robbie Fox would probably lock himself in his room and refuse to eat dinner for like a week straight. The prequels put all of us in a bad place mentally. But the fact that Disney has successfully done two of movies in this franchise correctly causes me not to have a bad feeling about this. Especially when you add in that Rogue One was such a hit despite some of the whispers about reshoots and different creative issues.
Sure this all stinks of meddling from up top like when David Griffin left the Cavs. The difference there however is that Dan Gilbert is a Comic Sans writing dickhead while Kathleen Kennedy and the people at LucasFilms actually know what they are doing and have the best interests of the franchise in their heart. Sure our trust was violated 2-3 times in the past (depending on how you feel about Sith), but I think we should, to borrow a term, trust the process and see who Disney tabs as a replacement.
WAIT A MINUTE…
BAH GAWD THAT’S RON HOWARD’S MUSIC!!!
Deadline hears that Ron Howard has emerged as front-runner to replace Phil Lord & Christopher Miller on the untitled Han Solo Star Wars spinoff film. Disney dropped a shocker this afternoon with the announcement that the duo exited a picture that has been in production since February at London’s Pinewood Studios. This after an inability to recover from creative rifts with Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. The latter has been mentioned as possible to step in, but I’m putting my money on Howard.
Whoaaaaa mama, we have the narrator of Arrested Development (plus a few other small projects here and there) potentially taking over the Han Solo movie? That would be like Winston Wolf showing up to put a bow on everything. I feel cool as a cucumber now. A movie about a young Han Solo that also has Chewie, Woody Harrelson, Khaleesi, and of course Donald Glover playing Lando Calrissian with shirts like this may have been able to overcome any creative issues from the higher-ups.
But throwing Ronnie Filmviews in the mix would quell all the fears of Star Wars fans near and far. So lets sit back, pray that Ron takes the job/blank check, and get excited about the next Star Wars movie that is coming out in 2017.