Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12/16/16) *SPOILERS*

[YoNoSe]

This has to be a trick. I’ve been told that Disney controls everyone with fear and money.

 

[Khev]

I hope all the members who refused to believe that Gilroy stepped in and basically took over the project will be quiet now. I won't name names, you know who you are. Gilroy took over from Edwards and redirected a load of material and then re-edited the movie alone with Kennedy and the Lucasfilm gang. Edwards was told to play along by his agent and management. Good thing too, RO is the best SW movie since the Disney take over.

“And they were in such a swamp … they were in so much terrible, terrible trouble that all you could do was improve their position.”

So it was pretty much the same as when SW and ESB were saved in the editing room to the chagrin of Lucas (in his prime!) himself:

When George arrived in England in June 1979 he looked at a rough cut of Empire and experienced the exact same vertigo he felt at the first screening of Star Wars: "I was extremely upset, because I felt it wasn't working at all. Here I was, way over budget, running out of money, and I had a movie I thought was not good," he remembers. Lucas took the first 80 minutes and cut out half the footage. He knew that Kershner was trying to make a good movie--"It was just a lot better than I wanted to make it," Lucas says, "And I was paying for it."

Lucas's revised version was heavily criticized by Kershner, Hirsch, and Kurtz. "A lot of it didn't work and some of it was cut too fast," Kershner says. Lucas finally lost his temper. Duwayne Dunham, who accompanied George, sat in amazement as his boss exploded: "You guys are ruining my picture! You are here messing around and we're trying to save this thing!" Kersh calmly pointed out what he thought Lucas had done wrong, but George became even more upset. "It's my money, it's my film, and I'm going to do it the way I want to do it," he declared.

At that point, Paul Hirsch spoke up. "George," he said, "it's not 'you guys' against 'us guys.' We're all working on this thing together. You help us and we help you and we're all a team." The real issue was whether the picture was good or not. Lucas had pulled a classic Hollywood power play, but it was done in desperation.

He panicked at the thought that Supereditor (as he calls himself) couldn't save this movie. "I had struggled to get this thing in shape," Lucas acknowledges. "But they were right. It didn't really work very well. That was what made me angry--I couldn't make it work." Kershner suggested some new changes and the next day Lucas was back and recut the film, following the director's advice. "It came together beautifully," he says.

--"Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas," 1983, pp. 218-219

In other words it sounds like Edwards and Gilroy made a Star Wars movie.

 

[YoNoSe]

I never read that bit. It’s nice to know George had that fire even misdirected. He comes off a bit Threepio at times.

I knew he stepped in on ROTJ when that got over RM’s head.

 

[Khev]

Yeah, unfortunately the whole reason he even picked Marquand (aside from him being outside the Director's Guild due to his dispute regarding him placing credit at the end rather than beginning) was because he didn't want another guy that would butt heads with him the way Kershner did. Too bad because those heated exchanges obviously produced some real magic onscreen.

 

[noisetrigger]

Yeah, unfortunately the whole reason he even picked Marquand (aside from him being outside the Director's Guild due to his dispute regarding him placing credit at the end rather than beginning) was because he didn't want another guy that would butt heads with him the way Kershner did. Too bad because those heated exchanges obviously produced some real magic onscreen.

He also couldn't get his first choice of Spielberg.

Wow, if Spielberg had directed it would have been a very different movie that we gotten.

 

[YoNoSe]

Yeah, unfortunately the whole reason he even picked Marquand (aside from him being outside the Director's Guild due to his dispute regarding him placing credit at the end rather than beginning) was because he didn't want another guy that would butt heads with him the way Kershner did. Too bad because those heated exchanges obviously produced some real magic onscreen.

Can you imagine if David Lynch had accepted?

He might have been the first SW director to get Tranked.

 

[Khev]

It would have been awesome watching Luke jam his lightsaber under Fett's jaw like Sting in Dune.

 

[YoNoSe]

I have actually never seen Dune.

I never read it and only recently started to appreciate Lynch.

 

[Khev]

I have actually never seen Dune.

I definitely would recommend it. It has a really cool vibe throughout that is both fascinating and unsettling.

 

[YoNoSe]

I definitely would recommend it. It has a really cool vibe throughout that is both fascinating and unsettling.

 

[Khev]

There you go, lol.

And I love that the first thing Steve did on that list was watch Star Wars.

 

[loki2371]

So it was pretty much the same as when SW and ESB were saved in the editing room to the chagrin of Lucas (in his prime!) himself:

In other words it sounds like Edwards and Gilroy made a Star Wars movie.

Now if only Kennedy was Smart enough to bring someone in to fix Johnson's cut of TLJ.....

 

[Chakor]

Reshoots wouldn't have saved that POS.

 

[xipotec]

I have actually never seen Dune.

I never read it and only recently started to appreciate Lynch.

I have tried over and over to read and watch Dune.....it’s terribly boring to me


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[CallMeTheDoctor]

I say they scrap Johnson from his trilogy and just get Edwards to do it. Which I'm surprised as I actually enjoy a lot of Johnson's films.

 

[Smash]

I say they scrap Johnson from his trilogy and just get Edwards to do it. Which I'm surprised as I actually enjoy a lot of Johnson's films.

You want them to give a trilogy to the guy that couldn't even finish one movie himself? Tony Gilroy is the only reason Rogue One even made it to the screen. Edwards basically created a huge mess of tons of footage, and couldn't make a solid film out of it. Tony Gilroy came in and turned it into a watchable movie. Edwards had the same problems with Godzilla. If you want to praise anyone for R1, praise Tony lol. Edwards is not a good director by any means.

 

[TaliBane]

Can you imagine if David Lynch had accepted?

He might have been the first SW director to get Tranked.

Would have been a whole different trajectory with Luke and Leia - despite being siblings, they confront Han with a Lynchian truth...

You could have even had an appearance by a young Holdo alongside Mothma...

The set-up for a baby "Ben Skywalker" trajectory would have been so much more interesting under Lynch...

The force-Skyping between Rey and a grown Ben Skywalker would have had so much more edge...

The outcomes for a Lynch-directed ROTJ are kind of limitless.

 

[Popnfresh98]

You want them to give a trilogy to the guy that couldn't even finish one movie himself? Tony Gilroy is the only reason Rogue One even made it to the screen. Edwards basically created a huge mess of tons of footage, and couldn't make a solid film out of it. Tony Gilroy came in and turned it into a watchable movie. Edwards had the same problems with Godzilla. If you want to praise anyone for R1, praise Tony lol. Edwards is not a good director by any means.

Gilroy only redid the script to some extent, all the directorial stuff was still Edwards. He also ‘completely rewrote’ the script for The Great Wall’ and that movie is a mess even after release. But you don’t see him taking too much credit for that. I’d be wary of anyone who talks themselves up so much while putting down what others created. Even if it was a mess, there’s a more professional way to talk about it.

 

[spindrift]

Gilroy only redid the script to some extent, all the directorial stuff was still Edwards. He also ‘completely rewrote’ the script for The Great Wall’ and that movie is a mess even after release. But you don’t see him taking too much credit for that. I’d be wary of anyone who talks themselves up so much while putting down what others created. Even if it was a mess, there’s a more professional way to talk about it.

 

[xipotec]

The Great Wall is not Great.....it’s a mess....makes Pacific Rim look like the Godfather


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