With only two weeks left before “Solo: A Star Wars Story” hitting theaters, reports are still coming out about the behind-the-scenes drama that plagued the film’s production. While the major bullet points have already been covered, with Phil Lord and Chris Miller being replaced with Ron Howard and potential issues surrounding Alden Ehrenreich’s performance being the main issues, we are now starting to get down to the nitty-gritty about specifics behind each decision.
In a new report from the Wall Street Journal, the strife and troubles behind the scenes are documented in detail, as the article tries to determine who is the creative force behind the finished film. Apparently, there were troubles with this film well before scenes were even filmed.
The report describes Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy as someone who “too frequently second-guessed her own choices and hasn’t effectively resolved disagreements with directors,” which leads to the variety of directorial issues behind just about every “Star Wars” film since ‘The Force Awakens.’ This means that maybe she missed the writing on the wall as directors Lord and Miller clashed with long-time ‘Star Wars’ writer and producer, Lawrence Kasdan.
WSJ reports that there were issues between the young directors and the elder Kasdan over the script even before production, with tensions rising as Lord and Miller decided to reshoot different versions of many scenes and go off-script. Retakes and on-set improvisation are commonplace while shooting comedies. However, crew members, who have been around “Star Wars” sets previously started to become “frustrated” and “exhausted” by the directors’ shooting style.
The report continues to describe how things started to boil over on set when Kasdan visited, and “undermined” the filmmakers by criticizing them behind their backs to members of the cast and crew. Even with Kasdan’s actions on set, the directors decided to finish production. And of course, we know that once production was coming to a close, Kennedy unceremoniously fired Lord and Miller, and quickly hired Ron Howard to take over.
A source close to the production said, “Ron wanted to go back to the spirit of the original trilogy, while Phil and Chris were looking forward to something new, more like ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’” The source continues by saying that Howard ended up reshooting about 70% of the finished movie.
Of course, the end result is a film that doesn’t resemble anything that Lord and Miller envisioned. And after viewing a cut of the film that was prepared by Howard, the directing duo decided not to challenge for director credit on the production.
The WSJ report also confirms what was heavily rumored after Colin Trevorrow was fired from ‘Episode IX.’ According to the story, Lucasfilm did approach Rian Johnson to helm the final film in the new trilogy, but it never reached the point of “serious discussions.”
Well, with ‘Solo’ about to hit theaters, it appears that Lucasfilm is attempting to begin a new chapter in the company’s history, without the constant behind-the-scenes struggles that have plagued them in the past.
And finally, here’s a couple new clips from the upcoming “Star Wars” film, which were probably shot by Howard: