What is now known as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is being directed by J.J. Abrams, who also directed 2015’s The Force Awakens. The thing is, the ninth Star Wars film — which is the third of the new trilogy and the final entry in the Skywalker saga — was supposed to be directed by Colin Trevorrow. But that didn’t happen and Abrams was brought on late into pre-production, which made for a tight shooting schedule. As a result, he and editor Maryann Brandon had to cut footage while they were still shooting it.
As pointed out by Collider, Brandon discussed the “very short schedule” she had to work with on Rise of Skywalker with the Daily Express. “When we did The Force Awakens we started in May and we finished shooting in October, and we were out [the following] Christmas,” she explained. “For this film, we didn’t start until August, so we weren’t done until February shooting — so we have four months less time, and it’s a very big film.”
If the loss of time weren’t enough, simultaneously filming and editing the movie wasn’t something that Abrams was too keen on. Brandon had to convince him to do it, but once she started cutting shots for the film mid-production, Abrams seemed to let go of his reservations. “I was on the set the entire time, and he got so used to it that he was like, ‘you need to be less than ten feet away from me at all times’ — so if the camera would move 10 feet, I would move 10 feet,” she recalled.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker blasts into theaters on December 20th, 2019.
(Via Daily Express and Collider)