How much do we know about “Star Wars: Rogue One”? Well, not that much, and none of the rumors have been confirmed. We know it’s a “Star Wars” spin-off film, we know “Godzilla” director Gareth Edwards is helming, Felicity Jones (“Theory Of Everything”) stars and Chris Weitz ("Twilight: New Moon") and Gary Whitta have the main writing credits. Everything else — rumors of a bounty hunter movie centered around stealing plans to build the Death Star — are pretty much just conjecture at this point.
But Deadline brings an interesting casting bit to light tonight. Ben Mendelsohn might be joining the cast. That’s all they got, but it’s intriguing because Ben Mendelsohn makes everything better. That should be a Hollywood axiom and while it’s not quite yet, in the circles of some of our greatest working filmmakers and actors it is. Mendelsohn’s been tapped by Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight Rises”), Derek Cianfrance (“The Place Beyond The Pines”), Ridley Scott (“Exodus: Gods And Kings”), Andrew Dominik (“Killing Them Softly”), Michael Fassbender and his production company (“Slow West”), Ryan Gosling (“Lost River”) and more (also see great turns in "Starred Up" and Mississippi Grind" for a few more recent examples).
Everyone wants to be in the Ben Mendelsohn business and it’s easy to see why: he might never become a traditional star, but it just doesn’t matter, he’s terrific actor. There’s no word on what character he’ll play and or if it’s hero or villain or what, but the idea of Mendelsohn in “Rogue One” only raises its anticipation that much higher.