With the release of Rogue One on Blu Ray this week, the Star Wars spinoff is back in the headlines — sometimes due to silly fan complaints. Over at CBR, Industrial Light & Magic’s VFX supervisor John Knoll is helping to continue the conversation by revealing the interesting origins behind Rogue One.
The initial spark for the story can be traced back to the production of the prequels and the first murmurs of a possible Star Wars live-action television series:
It’s longer than you might think — it was nine years. The first inklings of trying to tell that story happened in Summer 2003 when we were shooting on “Episode III” in Sydney. I had heard that Lucasfilm was developing stories for a potential live action TV series, and they were active in story development at the time. That was kind of intriguing, and I started thinking about, “What would be a fun thing to do as a one-hour episode as a live action ‘Star Wars’ TV show?”
One thought was, “What about a ‘Mission Impossible’-style break-in into the most secure facility in the Empire to steal the Death Star plans? There could be a lot of tension of potentially being discovered and overcoming security measures. That could be a lot of fun!” I started tinkering with this idea internally. Then a day or two later, I asked Rick [McCallum], I heard you were developing this TV show. He started telling me about the era that it takes place in, and the themes of the show. As soon as he started going into that, I realized, actually, that idea has no place in that show, so I just dropped it completely.
It seems to have been the first failure to get a possible Star Wars TV property off the ground, something that has reportedly taken a backseat to all of the Star Wars films slated for release over the next few years. As the CBR interview reveals, the idea for Rogue One was brought back once Kathy Kennedy announced the idea for stand-alone Star Wars films to coincide with the newest entries into the series. Knoll did his pitch, the idea picked up steam, and you can now enjoy the finished product at home.
The entire interview is worth your time and gives some great insight into the effects side of making a Star Wars film.
(Via CBR)