It only seems like yesterday like the Star Wars franchise had fully been rejuvenated by The Force Awakens ‘ resounding success. But over the last few days, it has emerged that Disney and Lucasfilm have some major problems with the latest addition to the franchise, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which they believe isn’t up to par with the previous instalment.
But rather than writing Rogue One off as a $300 million failure, Lucasfilm and Disney are already hard at work on fixing the issues that they believe have blighted the production.
According to The Hollywood Reporter , Rogue One’s reshoots could take as long as six weeks, and that they’re due to begin this month. It’s hoped that they’ll be over before July 15, which is when the Star Wars Celebration fan event will be held.
Star Wars: Rogue One – more on those reshoots, including Tony Gilroy as 2nd unit director https://t.co/Btw29XTdMu pic.twitter.com/wYLSZEU1zh
— Den Of Geek (@denofgeek) June 4, 2016
Simon Crane, a second unit director who is also a veteran stunt coordinator, has now been brought on board to provide some assistance to the Rogue One reshoots. Crane’s inclusion in these reshoots suggests that Rogue One’s action sequences haven’t quite matched the standard that Disney were aiming for.
Crane has previously orchestrated and oversaw the action scenes in the likes of Brad Pitt’s World War Z and Tom Cruise’s Edge Of Tomorrow, as well as Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Batman , and Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade . But while fans might be concerned that Rogue One is being chopped and changed just over six months before it’s due to be released, the fact that he has helped to create some of the best action films of the last few years, means that he’s a fantastic addition to the Rogue One team.
In the same report, it was also confirmed that Tony Gilroy has been working on new script pages on the Rogue One script. Gilroy is one of the most respected screenwriters in Hollywood, as he helped to write the likes of The Devil’s Advocate, Armageddon, Proof Of Life, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Michael Clayton, State Of Play, and The Bourne Legacy.
As well as Simon Crane, Tony Gilroy has been brought on to help helm the reshoots, which are going to take place at London’s Pinewood Studios
Both Gilroy and Crane have been brought on to assist Rogue One because of their close relationship with producer Frank Marshall, who has previously worked closely with the filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Paul Greengrass, and Peter Bogdanovich, and is also the husband of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.
Discussing the intention of the impending reshoots, an insider explained to Entertainment Weekly the reason for the changes.
“The changes have everything to do with clarity and character development and all take place [as inserts] within scenes we’ve already shot.” The source continued by insisting that the film needs to include more intimate moments between character, and while they won’t be reshooting a huge amount of action sequences, the insider described the fresh footage of “a lot of talking in cockpits.”
Let’s just have a dose of some established #RogueOne material to remind us how epic it will be!! https://t.co/1D8wvP5Ilw
— Starbird of Endor (@AndrewinBelfast) June 4, 2016
There’s also a chance that the huge revelation regarding the reshoots has been blown out of proportion. That’s because reshoots were scheduled for Rogue One before shooting had even begun, which is now the norm for huge blockbusters because it allows directors to make necessary adjustments after everyone has watched the first cut.
However, the fact that many outlets have been reporting on the drastic amount of reshoots for Rogue One suggests that these might be a bit more excessive. We’ll get to see if Rogue One has been salvaged when it’s released on December 16, 2016.
[Image via Lucasfilm]