Rogue One: A Star Wars Story certainly looks exciting and refreshing in its trailers, but last month rumors began to spread that the film was secretly “in crisis.” Word was Rogue One needed major reshoots and Disney felt the movie’s tone deviated too far from the classic Star Wars movies. Then again, reshoots are a normal part of blockbuster movie making, so maybe everybody was getting worked up over nothing. Where does the truth lie?
Well, Entertainment Weekly, which has been focusing on Rogue One all week, delved into the reshoot rumors. According to their sources, the reshoots aren’t as extensive as we’ve been led to believe (some reports have claimed up to 40 percent of the movie is being redone). The reshoots will last around five weeks, and screenwriter Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, the Bourne series) will be on set to write additional dialogue, but not radically alter the story. The rumors about Rogue One‘s tone were apparently off, with the reshoots instead focusing on punching up the movie’s action scenes and emotional moments.
For his part, director Gareth Edwards claims reshoots were always planned, and are largely a result of cast scheduling conflicts. Producer Kathleen Kennedy also insists Rogue One will retain its unique tone.
“With these Star Wars stories [we’re] embracing the uniqueness of different genres, and we’re very deliberately leaning into the various styles of our directors. Gareth has shown a stylistic preference that’s much more handheld, visceral, inside-the-action kind of feel. That’s not something you’ve necessarily seen in a Star Wars movie before. And we brought in Greig Fraser, to shoot it, who had done Zero Dark Thirty. So a combination of Greig and Gareth has been, I think, fantastic, and it just gives it a really unique style.”
Rogue One‘s uniqueness may go beyond tone. According to Kennedy, the movie may cast aside some long-held Star Wars tropes, including the traditional opening text crawl…
“We talk about that all the time. The opening crawl and some of those elements live so specifically within the ‘Saga’ films. We are having a lot of discussion about what will define the Star Wars Stories separate and apart from the Saga films. So we’re right in the middle of talking about that.”
Are the Rogue One reshoots more extensive than Edwards and Kennedy are letting on? Perhaps, but the promises that the movie isn’t being homogenized is what matters. The Star Wars Anthology films were supposed to take the universe in different directions, so it’s good to know Disney isn’t getting gun shy.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story sneaks into theaters Dec. 16.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
