More details are emerging regarding the dismissal of the Han Solo standalone movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller and some of the problems leading up to their firing. That includes the earlier firing of an editor on the film and a late-in-the-game hiring of an acting coach for Alden Ehrenreich, who stars as the legendary rogue, scoundrel and smuggler.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, "matters had already reached a boiling point" on a day in mid-June when Lord and Miller, on the cockpit set of the Millennium Falcon, didn’t start shooting until 1 p.m. And once they did, they only achieved three different camera setups, whereas Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy had expected 12-15 setups according to sources. Essentially, Lucasfilm felt that the directors were moving slowly and not offering a ton of coverage for editing.
Executive-producer Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote the Han Solo movie with his son Jon, was also displeased with the situation as well as the improvisational approach of the directors. He wanted the written word of the script to be what was shot, and so Lord/Miller would do that while also improvising with their actors in other takes. Eventually, however, Kennedy sent Kasdan to work with the pair on set, just as Tony Gilroy had done with Gareth Edwards during the extensive Rogue One reshoots. "Unsurprisingly, Lord and Miller were less accommodating than Edwards, still a novice, had been," says THR.
The directors felt that they were given "zero creative freedom" and that they were asked to operate under "extreme scheduling constraints" and "were never given enough days for each scene from the very beginning." Sources say that the fundamental approach to filmmaking of Lord/Miller clashed with Kennedy and Lucasfilm from the very beginning, and ultimately was not something that could be resolved.
In May, Lucasfilm replaced editor Chris Dickens (Macbeth) with Oscar-winner Pietro Scalia (The Martian). Additionally, in an unusual movie, an acting coach was brought onboard for Ehrenreich as Lucasfilm was "not entirely satisfied with the performance that the directors were eliciting" from the actor. As THR notes, hiring an acting coach is a thing, but doing so that late is production is odd.
Still displeased with the situation even after these movies, Kennedy sent Kasdan to the set but Lord/Miller "were not prepared to have Kasdan become a shadow director." That's when Kennedy fired them. "The next day, when the crew was told that Ron Howard would take over as director, sources say they broke into applause," reports THR.
It's clear that Lord and Miller's style didn't mesh well with Kennedy and Lucasfilm's, but in the wake of the Rogue One reshoots and the firing of Josh Trank on a since-scuttled project, this incident has obviously also raised many questions about the approach the studio is taking to Star Wars and the standalone films in particular. For more on this situation, check out our own Jim Vejvoda's take on what Ron Howard's hiring as director says about Lucasfilm's Star Wars spinoffs.
Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire