Han Solo: A Star Wars Story ($385,250,465)

Disney and Lucasfilm are inching closer to finding their young Han Solo for the upcoming untitled “Star Wars” spinoff.

Sources tell Variety that after seeing thousands of actors, execs have cut the list down to about a dozen actors with Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Dave Franco, Jack Reynor, Scott Eastwood, Logan Lerman, “Brooklyn” star Emory Cohen and “Everybody Wants Some” actor Blake Jenner among the names making the cut.

NDAs and test deals are still being worked out, but producer Kathleen Kennedy and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller will begin testing the new group with a decision expected in the next couple of weeks.

The film does not shoot until next January, but sources close to the situation say the reason for such an early decision has more to do with another “Star Wars” film currently shooting, rather than the untitled “Han Solo” pic. While insiders were unable to confirm, the new Solo could have a small cameo in “Rogue One: A Star Wars” before appearing in his own standalone pic.

“Rogue One” still has a month of shooting to go and is supposed to be set between “Episode III” and “Episode IV,” making this new Han Solo age appropriate for an appearance in the film. Disney and Marvel used the same strategy for their new Spider-Man by casting Tom Holland early in order for him to cameo in “Captain America: Civil War” before appearing in his own film.

With the exception of Eastwood, who’s 29, Disney and Lucasfilm seem to be zeroing in on actors between the ages of 20 to 25. The studios tested actors as young as 17 to as old as 34.

ForeverBlu wrote:Sigh.......

Rusty Cunt wrote:That dude was in the 'Wendigo' episode of Supernatural.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Am I the only one not excited about a Han Solo movie? lol!

UltimateMarvel wrote:Am I the only one not excited about a Han Solo movie? lol!

UltimateMarvel wrote:Am I the only one not excited about a Han Solo movie? lol!

UltimateMarvel wrote:I KNOW! I don't get the love for Bobba Fett too. I don't think we watched the same movie they did?

It was made official at the Star Wars Celebration that Alden Ehrenreich (“Hail, Caesar!”) would play the young Han Solo in Disney’s upcoming spinoff film. According to a new report by the NY Daily News, the 2018 movie won’t be the last time we see Ehrenreich portray the clever Smuggler.

NY Daily News reports that Disney has quietly signed Ehrenreich, 26, to a three picture deal, which would certainly make sense considering the fact that most actors receive this deal if they’re a part of a big franchise. The report also says that if the first Han Solo film is a success at the box office, two more could be in the works. This information comes from an insider who says Disney has “a real sense of excitement” for the Han Solo spinoff, and that the studio feels as though the character Han Solo could “become a central figure in several movies”

So far, not much is known about the upcoming anthology film, however, we do know that it will be directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ("The Lego Movie"), and that the screenplay was penned by Jon Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan ("Star Wars: The Force Awakens"). If this report turns out to be true, would you be excited to see a trilogy of Han Solo films?

UltimateMarvel wrote:I don't think even Woody will get me to watch this one.

WyldeMan wrote:

UltimateMarvel wrote:I don't think even Woody will get me to watch this one.

Not a big fan of Hanjob Solo either?

Tyger wrote:Abe just wants to see dudes in robes fighting

UltimateMarvel wrote:Not any more. I think he served his purpose and nothing in the past is gonna outshine his adventures in the original trilogy. Plus, I'm sure there won't be any Jedis in this one.

Rusty Cunt wrote:

Tyger wrote:Abe just wants to see dudes in robes fighting

... with glow-sticks.

Abe, see if the local Blue Oyster ever has a Star Wars theme night. You may get your wish.

It’s official: Woody Harrelson is joining “Star Wars.”

The actor confirmed Variety‘s story from earlier this month that reported he’ll be in the upcoming Han Solo spinoff during an interview at the Variety Studio presented by Orville Redenbacher at the Sundance Film Festival.

Asked by Variety if he would be playing Han Solo’s mentor in the spinoff, Harrelson responded, “Yeah, I am.”

Like fellow “Star Wars” spinoff “Rogue One,” which just crossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office, the currently untitled Han Solo spinoff will be set prior to “Star Wars: A New Hope.” Donald Glover and Emilia Clarke also star, and Phil Lord and Chris Miller are set to direct.

Harrelson already had close ties to one of the film’s producers, Allison Shearmur. The two worked together on “The Hunger Games” films, in which Harrelson also played a mentor to another young hero: Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen.

The highly anticipated Untitled Han Solo Star Wars movie officially began principal photography yesterday at London’s Pinewood Studios with Alden Ehrenreich as the lead in a story that will tell the genesis of everyone’s favorite character made famous by Harrison Ford. The movie, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, also includes Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, Thandie Newton, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, with Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca. The movie will release on May 25, 2018.

The film will cover events in Han Solo’s life that took place prior to his appearance in 1977’s Star Wars. Lucasfilm already has the Star Wars Expanded Universe line of books and comics featured several novels about the scoundrel’s younger days. It has since been rebranded as Star Wars Legends. The film is the second in the Star Wars stand-alone franchise that begin with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which has grossed over $1 billion worldwide. This one has long been expected to be titled Han Solo: A Star Wars Story (and that is already branded and known by fans) but Disney and Lucasfilm are still saying the film is untitled.

Written by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, it is being produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur, Simon Emanuel and co-produced by Kiri Hart, Susan Towner and Will Allegra. Lawrence Kasdan and Jason McGatlin will executive produce.

Some of the industry’s top talent, including director of photography Bradford Young (Academy Award nominee for his work on Arrival), editor Chris Dickens, SFX supervisor Dominic Tuohy, VFX supervisor Rob Bredow and acction designer Brad Allan are joining returning Star Wars veteran crew members Neal Scanlan (creature and droid FX creative supervisor), production designer Neil Lamont, co-costume designers Dave Crossman and Glyn Dillon, prop master Jamie Wilkinson, Lisa Tomblin (hair), Amanda Knight (make-up) and Nina Gold (UK casting director).

Surprising news just now from Lucasfilm, which just posted at starwars.com that the company has parted ways with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller on the Star Wars stand-alone movie centered on Han Solo due to “creative differences.” Despite the change, Lucasfilm is sticking to the Memorial Day 2018 release date for the film via Disney. Here’s the post:

The Untitled Han Solo film will move forward with a directorial change.

“Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are talented filmmakers who have assembled an incredible cast and crew, but it’s become clear that we had different creative visions on this film, and we’ve decided to part ways. A new director will be announced soon,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm.

“Unfortunately, our vision and process weren’t aligned with our partners on this project. We normally aren’t fans of the phrase ‘creative differences’ but for once this cliché is true. We are really proud of the amazing and world-class work of our cast and crew,” stated Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

The untitled Han Solo film remains scheduled for a May 2018 release.

The stand-alone movie officially began principal photography in February at London’s Pinewood Studios, with Alden Ehrenreich starring in the origin story about the Star Wars character made famous by Harrison Ford. Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca also star.

Written by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, the film was set to cover events in Han Solo’s life that took place prior to his appearance in 1977’s Star Wars. Lucasfilm already has the Star Wars Expanded Universe line of books and comics featured several novels about the scoundrel’s younger days. It since has been rebranded as Star Wars Legends. The film is the second in the Star Wars stand-alone franchise that began with last year’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which has grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.

This movie long has been expected to be titled Han Solo: A Star Wars Story (and that is already branded and known by fans), but Disney and Lucasfilm still are saying the film is untitled.

Kennedy, Allison Shearmur and Simon Emanuel are producing, with Kiri Hart, Susan Towner and Will Allegra co-producers and Lawrence Kasdan and Jason McGatlin executive producers.

Tyger wrote:Are they turning into DC?

Tyger wrote:Top choice means jack.

Tyger wrote:if the producer wants it to look and feel a certain way and has an idea how she wants the cast to be directed why doesn't she do it herself? Nobody is watching these forvthe director. Michael Bay could "direct" and people would still come.

Tyger wrote:Top choice means jack.

ForeverBlu wrote:So George called up his old buddy Ron Howard.

Makes sense, they go way back.

As fans continue to try to assess exactly what the firing of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller from the untitled Han Solo movie means, more reported details continue to emerge about exactly what went down. But before we get too deep, it’s important to keep in mind all of these reports surfacing over the last week are likely only giving pieces of the puzzle, and very one-sided ones at that. The teams behind Lord and Miller, Lucasfilm, and Disney are trying to mitigate the damage from such bad publicity, and thus many “sources” explaining what happened are no doubt trying to put the best possible spin on things so as to paint their client in the best possible way. So keep in mind that while these details are certainly interesting, they may only be small, skewed pieces of a much larger, more complex picture.

With that being said, a fresh report out of THR now adds more layers to the mix, including firings that preceded Lord and Miller. The report notes that in May, when production moved from London to the Canary Islands, editor Chris Dickens (Macbeth) was replaced with Oscar-winning editor Pietro Scalia, who works frequently with Ridley Scott on films like The Martian and Alien: Covenant. Moreover, Lucasfilm was reportedly “not entirely satisfied” with the performance that was being delivered by Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo and hired an acting coach to come in and work with him. THR notes that hiring an acting coach in and of itself is not unusual, but doing so this far into production is.

As soon as filming began it was clear that Lord and Miller would not be jettisoning their improvisational style that had been put to good use on films like 21 Jump Street, and in one instance the two reportedly used far fewer setups than Lucasfilm would have liked, resulting in less options in the editing room in terms of coverage. This process and vision proved to be at odds with what Kennedy and Lucasfilm wanted, all the while Lord and Miller reportedly felt they had “zero creative freedom” and felt they were being asked to perform under “extreme scheduling constraints.”

After the measures of replacing the editor and hiring an acting coach did not help matters, at least in Lucasfilm’s eyes, Kathleen Kennedy called writer/producer Lawrence Kasdan to come to London. Kasdan reportedly wasn’t crazy about Lord and Miller’s process, which involved shouting out alternate lines from behind the monitor as opposed to shooting everything exactly as scripted. Although the report notes that Lord and Miller acquiesced to Lucasfilm’s request to stick to the script—they’d shoot a few takes as written, then shoot more takes with alternate lines.

With Kasdan in London he had now, reportedly, become something of a “shadow director” and this understandably rubbed Lord and Miller the wrong way. It’s at this point that an impasse was reached and Kennedy pulled the trigger on replacing the filmmakers with Ron Howard. Howard is said to have been concerned with how Lord and Miller would react and had been emailing with them, with a source saying Lord and Miller have been “very supportive, very elegant.”

Production on Han Solo now resumes in July and will go through September, instead of wrapping in July as previously planned. This is key because Emilia Clarke and Donald Glover both have prior TV commitments they have to return to this fall, so there’s a pretty hard deadline for when production on Han Solo has to be completed in order to meet its May 2018 release date. THR’s report says that much of what Lord and Miller shot will be “very usable,” but it remains to be seen exactly how the Directors Guild of America will approach the film in terms of credit. Lord and Miller are absolutely warranted a “Directed by” credit, but if Howard shoots and directs an extensive amount of footage, he will as well.

On Rogue One, filmmaker Tony Gilroy essentially took over directing duties during reshoots but declined to seek a credit. Gareth Edwards played ball, stuck around for the reshoots and post-production, and remained onboard the film throughout. But seeing the writing on the wall, Lord and Miller were none too pleased about having this same situation happen to them, and so they stood their ground.

It’ll be interesting to see how Lucasfilm proceeds with hiring directors going forward. People like Edwards and Lord and Miller are fantastic hires, but they’re singular voices who are going to deliver a unique film. I think the studio is still trying to figure out exactly how Star Wars-y they want these spinoffs to be, and while they like bold ideas, it sounds like in actuality they want the movies to hew more traditional.

As a massive fan of Lord and Miller’s I’m still incredibly bummed about all of this, but the filmmakers will no doubt land on their feet. They basically have a standing offer to helm The Flash for Warner Bros. (they were attached before they were offered Han Solo), so it’s not like they’re hurting for material. This particular combination, however, just seemed like a match made in heaven.