Star Wars Speculation: Why 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Is Gonna Be Ok

Welcome to my fourth installment of Star Wars Speculation! This installment will straying further away from my last three entries, and diving into the territory of dissecting rumors/reports rather than Star Wars itself. For those wondering, this isn't me assuaging my upmost confidence that there's no possible way Solo: A Star Wars Story could suck. The movie could come out and be terrible, but I don't really see that happening considering the latest news about Solo: A Star Wars Story reshoots that I'll breakdown in a second. The entire reason I'm publishing a post is that I feel there's been a toxic mindset about any reported reshoots these past few years. The panicked hive-mind mentality that a film is in trouble just because there were reshoots is a little absurd if you ask me, and I'll explain just why right now!

Why 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Is Gonna Be Ok

The Scoop

For those who haven't heard, it was recently reported on Star Wars News Net‘s The Resistance Broadcast that Ron Howard (the replacement director for Solo: A Star Wars Story) reshot an estimated 80% or more of the film after taking over this summer and that the reshoots nearly doubled the film's budget. The Resistance Broadcast is a podcast put on by Star Wars fans, but they've had reliable scoops in the past so this news shouldn't be entirely discredited. In fact, it makes a lot of sense given the film just recently wrapped production after about four months of shooting. 

So, what even are reshoots?

I figure not all my readers may be up-to-speed on the process of a film's production, so I'm going to briefly explain the process and the concept of reshoots.

Film Production Process

The film production process can be broken up into about five stages depending on who you ask. The stages are development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution. Development essentially revolves around selecting a story, putting together a story treatment, the early stages of screenwriting, pitching the project, and getting it financed. Next, the pre-production goes into fleshing out the story with storyboards, concept art, etc. and hiring a cast and crew for the project. Then, the actual production is the process of creating props, sets, and shooting the film itself. Then, the post-production process typically involves editing the film, development of sound design/mixing, composition of the film's score, and adding any digital effects. Lastly, the film is distributed to theaters. The amount of time spent in each phase varies from project-to-project based on scale and the people involved.

Reshoots

Reshoots are exactly what the name implies, reshooting a movie. This typically happens during post-production when the director and studio decide that they need to rework part of the film, and so they coordinate reshooting certain scenes. As I said, reshoots normally fall into post-production, but Solo: A Star Wars Story's a very special case... 

Solo: A Star Wars Story Behind-The-Scenes Drama

So what makes Solo: A Star Wars Story so unique? If you didn't already know, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller departed the project on account of creative differences on June 26, 2017. They were supposedly nearly 70% complete with filming before departing. This is where I have to cite rumors and reports as evidence rather than actual concrete facts, so don't rely on the all information I'm about to present as 100% factual. 

What We Do Know

This is the only information that we truly know is as follows:

-Lord & Miller left due to creative differences

-They were quickly replaced by Ron Howard with the announcement filming would resume on July 10th 

-Ron Howard wrapped filming and a title was announced on October 17th. 

The Uncertain Territory or Rumors/Reports 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lord & Miller were operating in a more relaxed manner and encouraged improvisation contrary to the wishes of screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan that they adhere to the script. Essentially, it seems that the filmmaking styles of the various parties were at odds. This report actually seems fairly believable considering Lord & Miller had previously only dealt with smaller-scaled comedy-oriented projects such as 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, and The LEGO Movie. It seems like the problem was that Kennedy didn't properly vet the duo before hiring them on for the project, and even proceeding into production. There was clearly a huge misunderstanding, and I think Lucasfilm has learned their lesson about hiring hot talent after Colin Trevorrow recently left Episode IX. If you'd like to read more information about the report, just click on the "Hollywood Reporter" hyperlink to the article.

The Stigma Around Reshoots

As I attested to earlier, there's been a recent misconception that reshoots are a bad thing. Reports emerge from various sources, and almost every article presents the reshoots as a troublesome thing. Therefore, people read a report that a movie's under-going reshoots and anxiety almost instantly intensifies regarding the film's quality. However, it's worth noting that reshoots are totally normal for big-budget blockbuster movies. What's not normal, but is becoming increasingly more frequent, are extensive reshoots that rework large sections of the film. This isn't always a bad thing though... Just look at World War Z or Rogue One. The third acts of each of these films were apparently almost entirely reworked and I think it's fair to say both the finished project turned out well. It can even be argued that the third act of both films are the best part of each respective movie. In Solo: A Star Wars Story's case, it seems that almost the entire film has been reshot once Howard took over, and contrary to the popular belief, I don't believe this to be a bad thing...

Why These Reshoots Are For The Best

If Lord & Miller's creative process didn't align with Lucasfilm's, wouldn't it stand to reason that Lucasfilm would want something else entirely from someone else? I think Lucasfilm didn't approach this project with the intention of going through all of this, but it happened because they weren't careful when hiring a director for the job. It's certainly possible, and very likely, that some footage shot by Lord & Miller will wind up being part of the finished project because I highly doubt the two were incapable of shooting entirely un-useable footage in their five months working on the project... However, it does make sense that large portions of the film would need to be reshot for numerous reasons. 

During this period, a lot had to be changed on account of scheduling. For example, the removal of Michael K. William's character due to his unavailability. It stands to reason that they would then have to reshoot any scenes his character was involved in because he's no longer part of the story, and they had to rework another character (played by Paul Bettany) in his place to serve a similar story purpose in the grand narrative. Also, it should be remembered that much of the cast involved with Solo: A Star Wars Story are big-name actors. Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, and Thandie Newton are each apart of big television or film franchises, so therefore they probably had a tight schedule and it would have been difficult to bring together all the actors needed for unplanned, extensive reshoots. As for doubling the cost, it makes sense to me that if Howard shot about equally as long as Lord & Miller, then the reshoots would be about equal cost. Therefore, the film's budget probably doubled...

The reason I think this is for the best in the end is that it demonstrates Lucasfilm and Disney genuinely care about getting the best possible film out into the market. They're well-aware Star Wars is a very commercially-viable property, and they don't want to taint their IP with a mediocre movie. The fact they're willing to double the budget of a massive blockbuster shows me that they care about making this movie as great as they possibly can, and correcting any mistakes already made along the way. I suspect the long-standing impact of this debacle will be that Lucasfilm is going to be very cautious from this point on in regards to hiring writers and directors. They won't just hire a seemingly sure-fire director to make a quick buck. I think this is actually the reason that Lucasfilm still hasn't announced any projects beyond Episode IX, because they want to ensure they get the right director for the job.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I'm cautiously optimistic for Solo: A Star Wars Story's release on May 25, 2018. I'm prepared for the possibility that the film is not great, but am still holding out hope it will be! I think a guarded enthusiasm is a good approach for this film, although a great trailer could easily unbalance that mindset!

So that's about all I have to say on the matter. Otherwise, I hope you're enjoying the varied nature of this Star Wars Speculation series. I thank you for reading my thoughts on this topic, and I would love to receive any feedback via comments/messaging on any of my initial social media postings! 

-May the force be with you, always!