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Star Wars' Han Solo Spinoff Directors Quit In the Middle of Shooting (theverge.com)
hondo77 writes: Due to "different creative visions," Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are no longer directing the Han Solo movie, despite filming having started in January. The film is still scheduled to be released in May 2018. "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," Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, said in a statement. The Han Solo spinoff is set to star Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo, with Woody Harrelson as his mentor, Donald Glover as a young Lando Calrissian, and unspecified roles for Emilia Clarke and Thandia Newton.
Star Wars' Han Solo spinoff directors quit in the middle of shooting
They should have shot first, and then quit.
I'm not a big fan of The Force Awakens as a movie, and I definitely think the directing/acting in episodes 1 thru 3 was terrible (save for Anakin's mother). However, my kids love episode 1 with young Anakin and Jar-Jar, and my daughter loves episode 7 with a new female hero. She's watched the entire clone wars animated series, and what I particularly like about the whole Star Wars franchise is that it has this very childish quality to get kids interested, but there's a lot of hooks into real life history and politics. It's a good starting point for many discussions.
For instance, there's this whole Clone Wars arc about Mandalore being a (mostly) pacifist society who stayed neutral in the war. At other points they're dealing with refugees from the war. When I was a kid I found out that storm troopers were a real thing in Nazi Germany, and that prompted me to go and learn more about it. Of course there's the whole idea that Palpatine created a climate of fear in the Republic so he could convince the senate to grant him emergency powers, which he then uses to turn the government into a dictatorship. Padme's line, "So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause" is chilling. The fact that these important ideas are discussed in a kids' movie is a really great tool for me, as a parent, to start interesting discussions with my kids.
I also like how it introduces this (mostly Eastern) idea that you need to be mindful of your feelings and not let them control you. I find modern thinking, and I hate to say this, but particularly from women, is that you should embrace your feelings and let them control you. This idea that somehow whatever your feelings make you do is good because emotion = good is just opposite of my experience in general. I want my kids to be self-aware. Notice when you're angry. Accept it but don't let it control you, or you'll regret it later.
As a father, I really get the idea that Lucas created Star Wars for his kids, and I can excuse most of the flaws because as much as those of us who grew up with episodes 4 thru 6 hate on the prequels, kids really do like them.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Sorry, but that shit is actually owned by them. And yes, it sucks to invest your time into learning the lore of something only to see it thrown away by the next bozo coming in and saying "don't like that, let's do something completely different!" and does "all wrong".
The lesson to learn here is simple: Don't invest into something that isn't yours. Hard to do, I admit, but in the end, every moment spent learning about a universe you cannot make your own if you are fed up with the official one is a wasted one.
And yes, I'm fully aware that these hardcore fans that spent time and money to learn about the world, to amass amounts of merchandise, to recreate their favorite characters, create faithful costumes and so on, those are the ones that kept the franchise alive while their owners were pretty much abandoning them, milking them for all they're worth all the while and living off those fans that keep it alive and vibrant, drawing in new potential fans. I'm fully aware of that.
But studios will never learn if they don't learn the hard way. So yes, let them keep it, let them use it as they see fit and stop investing your time, money and energy into it. Wait until a studio learns that those things are not given freely but have to be earned.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The story is that the directors had problems with Kathleen Kennedy, who runs LucasFilms and is their boss, from day one. Basically they couldn't get along with the CEO and she fired them. Kennedy has a pretty good track record in the industry and picking a fight with her was not a great plan. Plus, remember news leaked out that Rogue One had re-shoots and lots of people concluded that the only possible outcome was a disastrous movie that would fail spectacularly. Rogue One made half a billion at the box office. I thought it was pretty good. These guys' claim to fame is they made 3 comedy movies that turned a profit. Losing them with most of the shooting done is not a tragedy and the final result may still be pretty good and probably more in line with what the bosses expect than what they were planning on doing themselves.
Anakin's turn the dark side has to be one of the worst bits of character development in cinematic history. He goes from good guy to murdering kids in the space of a few minutes... In order to save his own wife and child. Even if they had a competent actor, the way it was written was impossible to pull off.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I'd definitely watch GNU Wars. The evil Darth Vim getting his ass kicked by the furry little Emacs, Richard Starman and his GNU mind tricks...
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC