Last week, we heard there would be a few weeks of reshoots on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and a later rumor claimed the reshoots would lighten the tone of this war-torn New Hope prequel and perhaps add an iconic cameo. An additional, unconvincing rumor claimed they would replace an astounding 40% of the movie, and Christopher McQuarrie (writer of The Usual Suspects and writer/director of Edge of Tomorrow) would be brought in to help director Gareth Edwards.
McQuarrie later unequivocally shot down that rumor:
https://twitter.com/chrismcquarrie/status/738536269928669184
Now Entertainment Weekly has spoken to “deeply placed sources on the movie and at Lucasfilm” to figure out what’s really going on behind the scenes, including who was really brought on to work with Edwards. We already knew Disney had planned to do at least three weeks of reshoots on Rogue One since the beginning (Star Wars: The Force Awakens also had three weeks of reshoots), and the film is still on pace to hit its release date of December 16, 2016. Entertainment Weekly confirmed there will now be four to five weeks of reshoots taking place before Star Wars Celebration this July 15.
A source told EW, “The changes have everything to do with clarity and character development and all take place [as inserts] within scenes we’ve already shot. […] It’s a lot of talking in cockpits.” In other words, they aren’t reshooting entire battles or huge swaths of the film. To the rumors of reshooting 40% of the movie, the insiders EW spoke to collectively rolled their eyes, with one source pointing out they’d never be able to keep their original release date if that were the case. Sources also claimed the film wasn’t screened for executives, nor did those execs call for a lightening of the tone as was rumored.
EW was able to discover the identity of one person brought in to help with the reshoots: Tony Gilroy, the director of The Bourne Legacy who’s also done uncredited script punch-up for Rogue One director Gareth Edwards on his Godzilla movie. Gilroy is going to be writing new dialogue and acting as the second unit director.
EW was also able to confirm that something from Rogue One will be screened for fans at Star Wars Celebration in London this summer, so it’s a good thing the internet and bootleg cell phone videos exist, because we’re not going all the way to England to see a lot of talking in cockpits.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
