Star Wars Spin-Off Films to be Character Origin Stories
source: (Variety)



The description was made by Jay Rasulo, CFO at Disney at in investor conference.

Rasulo also mentioned the stand-alone movies would alternate with installments of the new trilogy.

Bleeding Cool Young Han Solo Casting


Bleeding Cool is saying that casting for a young Han Solo has been underway for a few months...If they also put out casting calls for lanky dudes over 7', we'll know something's up on that front...

I've been re-reading those Brian Daley Han Solo novels lately for the first time since I was in grade school, and I would love to see a movie/series of movies similar to those books.

If handled correctly, these could be an intriguing set of films. The main problem I see is the concept of origin stories is so closely associated with superhero characters, which have inherent qualities our beloved Star Wars characters do not.

How Superman became Superman is a classic fish-out-of-water story about a boy who is the lone survivor of his planet who has to reconcile his powers with living a normal life on earth. Spiderman, the Avengers, the X-men all have supernatural elements to their stories. What exactly would a Han Solo origin be?? Um, he popped out of his mom's va-jay-jay around 30 years before ANH, became good with a gun and a starship, and met Chewie. That's it. That's the story. I don't know how compelling that would be.

A Yoda origin would be the most fascinating to me, because you have the mystical element of the force, along with a period of time unexplored by any other medium. However, it has long been Lucas' strong wish that Yoda's origin remain a mystery, so the question becomes, will Disney just crap all over that and do one anyway. I'd say that is more likely than honoring the wishes of the man who created the whole thing in the first place.

I have long said a Boba Fett origin story, set against the backdrop of galactic turmoil, with the transition from the Old Republic to the Emperor's New Order, would be a strong one. I think that could really have worked as a live-action series, sort of like a Smallville in the SW universe. Anti-heroes have become popular again in long-form storytelling (think Breaking Bad), and Boba Fett fits into this perfectly. He can be shown as an edgy character who has some redeeming qualities. I think that would work.

If I were controlling this whole thing, I would skip the origin story concept and do a 2-hour film about Obi-Wan's exile on Tatooine. Cast Ewan McGregor in it right now...it's been 10 years since he did filming on Revenge of the Sith, and with minimal makeup, can be made to look much older and wearier. Nothing Disney could do would get me more excited than to see THAT movie getting made.

Yoda would be ripe for a Mandalorian Excision film.

So twenty'ish years of Ben Kenobi sitting around in his hut drinking Tatooine beer and dreaming of the glory days is your idea of fine cinema?

I can see that. We'd watch him meditating, perfecting his Krayt dragon call and financing that sand hut. But they'd have to do it right or it could easily become boring.

No.

Jawa Juice, of course.

Maybe they will make an origin film about one of the new characters that we don't know yet. Has anyone mentioned that? Forgive me if they have, I thought I was being completely original. No smart ass in that, just thinking out loud.

that actually does not sound awful to me

AL has a bunch of interesting shit to say in this string of tweets:

AL says spin-off film moved to 2017, SW8 in 2018 + Abrams/Kennedy Speculation

AL said:


That stuff is more interesting than the spin-off being moved, which isn't surprising in light of SW7 being delayed.

Who the fuck is "AL?"

Ali Arikan

"AL" is a veteran of the "spoiler wars" drama era during the Prequels...here's some ancient history about him--I think his main connections are other film writers, and not just dipshit bloggers.

I havent read that in about 10 yrs..Is Tbone still around these days?

There's a name I haven't heard in a long....long time.

Apparently, this was shown at a Hasbro retail training course:



starwars-union.de

Apparently Hasbro is contacting Star Wars (@JediNews2010) sites asking them to take down the info, so maaaaaaybe true?

My guess is Red Five is a code at this point.

Han Solo, Boba Fett and Yoda seem like no-brainers for origin stories. Yoda seems very separate from the others...Fett and Solo's stories could intersect, a la Marvel Universe stories.

I'm hoping it's a fighter jock movie...

I believe Yoda's origin had always been declared off-limits by George himself (I wonder if that's still valid, at least I hope so), and Boba Fett's origin has already been addressed.

Here's a wild guess: What if Red 5 is the rumored Pixar movie? Maybe it will star an animated Mark Hamill and show how Luke met his dream girl?

May 22, 2014

Gareth Edwards and Gary Whitta Onboard for Star Wars Stand-Alone Film


In addition to the episodes of a new Star Wars trilogy, Lucasfilm and Disney have begun development on multiple stand-alone movies that will offer new stories beyond the core Saga. Gareth Edwards will direct the first stand-alone film, with a screenplay by Gary Whitta. The film is due out December 16, 2016.

Gareth Edwards blazed into the filmmaking forefront with his acclaimed work on Monsters, a film he wrote, directed and served on as cinematographer and visual effects artist. The skill and vision readily apparent in Monsters earned him the high-profile spot directing this year's smash hit Godzilla.

"Ever since I saw Star Wars I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life - join the Rebel Alliance! I could not be more excited & honored to go on this mission with Lucasfilm, said Edwards.

Gary Whittas screenwriting credits include 2010s The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington. He is also well known as a journalist and editor in the video game industry, as well as part of the BAFTA award-winning team on Telltale Games adaptation of The Walking Dead.

Whitta states, "From the moment I first saw the original movie as a wide-eyed kid, Star Wars has been the single most profound inspiration to my imagination and to my career as a writer. It is deeply special to me,so to be given the opportunity to contribute to its ongoing legacy, especially in collaboration with a film-maker as talented as Gareth,is literally a dream come true. I'm still pinching myself."

That's quite the developing resume for Gareth Edwards.

This Edwards is not up to par.

Gary Whitta Deleting Old Forum Posts to Hide Star Wars/Lucas Smack-Talk

Wow. He sounds like some of the wackos on IMDB.

For his sake, he better write the citizen Kane of Star Wars.

He sounds like some of the wackos on MF.com

I don't know about that. The humans here seem more human than most of the trolling crazies at IMDB.

I remember Whitta as editor of PCGamer in the 90s. Much of his work is in that industry and he has both really good writing credits and really poor ones as well. He can be obnoxious.

That being said, the fans didn't hire him. His opinions didn't seem to affect him landing the holy grail of writing jobs. I am curious to hear how he and Edwards came to be involved.

Josh Trank directing another standalone movie. Thought 'Chronicle' was solid.

The 'turn to the dark side' in Chronicle was well done. I do highly recommend seeing it to anyone who hasn't.

Trank also made a Star Wars parody short called Stabbing at Leia's 22nd Birthday.

No, just no

Pretty much anyone who wants to, so far as I am aware...

IMDB has turned into a fucking joke.
Why I keep posting there is beyond me...

Jonathan Rinzler @ Reddit



Boba lives?

I'll probably go to my grave not knowing why Boba Fett is such a big fucking deal.

Anyway, I'd like to know when those referenced meetings with the GFFA Giver and Taker of Life took place.

The more time passes, the more I think the spin-offs could be a terrible idea.

This isn't like Marvel, where each character has its own mini-verse with its own rich history and fanbase. Star Wars is a very linear "saga" along the likes of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. New films could seriously dilute the brand and cheapen the experience, especially if the subject matter follows what's been rumoured. The best I can hope is for these stories to be set in a timeline and corner of the galaxy that doesn't impact the main story.

A new Star Wars every year I fear could be too much of a good thing.

I think the fanbase is proof you can never have too much SW. This isn't going to be like the made-for-tv Ewok movies (though they weren't half-bad), this is going to have a huge apparatus behind it for every feature, tying these movies to the rest of the SW universe, even if they don't involve the Skywalker Saga. I'd rather have 30 SW movies than 30 SW novels.

You were hitting the exact thing I was going to go for.

Look at how badly the novels cheapened the characters, and there's still a raving fan base for those. People want to know more about these characters. The fact that the Saga movies are so linear has gotten people to beg for more information about little known supporting characters that we really don't know much about. Hell, we really don't know that much about the main characters now, do we?

Is it risky? Sure. They could turn Boba Fett into a ballerina. But, no risk, no reward.

Besides, we may get another awesome character or two out of these side movies. I can go with another Vos and Secura, or something more bad ass, like a 4-LOM movie.

Yeah, everything in these stories is going to be interesting to see, since being in the franchise it is, there has to be some kind of conflict going on, otherwise it wouldn't be Star Wars. Whether that will be the main conflict in the galaxy, or something local, though...

I'm almost hoping for something from the Old Republic...

Same here. I would love a sort of Star Wars Silmarillion.

Why, do you need help sleeping?

Not that it needs to be as long as The Silmarillion, but maybe a series of shorter stories that tell tales of early Star Wars history.
Or maybe I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about...

To be honest, I would love to see Disney make "star wars shorts", similar to their current animated shorts.

It would be nice to get a 5-10 minute short story, detailing one or two pieces of history/origin, before a major star wars movie. Even if it's animated.

That, or maybe another weekly 25 minute series that covers Old Republic era stuff.

I wouldn't be averse to that. I would just ask that the rendering be better than the rendering on Rebels. Everything there looks like it's made of plastic

So, Whitta bows out early and is possibly replaced by Kinberg. Is this Arndt-like redirection a bad sign?

From the link: "This isn't the first time we've seen a change in writers for the production of a Disney-owned Star Wars film."

It's also not the first time we've seen someone work on a film, any film, for about a year and then move on as the script goes through multiple drafts and into production. The Arndt scenario wasn't odd either. He did his job and moved on. He was probably only contracted for a year. Who knows, but it's not unusual.