Ron Howard Will Take Over As Director Of The Han Solo Movie
Variety- Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard will take over as director of the “Star Wars” Han Solo spinoff, Lucasfilm announced.
His hire comes after the movie’s original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired Tuesday, while in the middle of production after clashing with producer and Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy and co-writer/executive producer Lawrence Kasdan. The duo, who had previously overseen “The LEGO Movie” and “21 Jump Street,” wanted to inject more humor into the storyline and encouraged improvisation, something Kasdan did not appreciate.
Howard will begin work immediately. The picture still has several weeks left on its shooting schedule, and five additional weeks of pre-scheduled reshoots that were planned for later this year. The exact amount of time and money that it will take to actually complete the production (which was about three-quarters finished when the directors were fired), will vary depending on how much rewriting and reshooting Howard deems is necessary after reviewing the script and shot footage.
Yesterday when I blogged that Phil Lord and Chris Miller were leaving the Han Solo movie, I mentioned that Ron Howard was rumored to be the replacement. And less than 24 hours later Ronnie Filmviews has taken over the director’s chair. That is some serious efficiency (and likely straight cash homie) from Disney and LucasFilms.
Much like Yoda, Rear Admiral is Barstool’s OG Jedi and he tweeted to me that he wasn’t in love with having Opie take over the film this late in the project. I get where he’s coming from, but at this point I’m happy that Disney was able to get someone with more pelts on his wall than Boba Fett this late in the game. If the reason the previous directors were let go is because there wasn’t enough humor, I actually support the decision to can them. One of the reasons the prequels sucked was because that human element and humor was replaced by an awkward teenage love story and talk of taxation without representation. Rogue One felt like a Star Wars movie partially because K-2SO was a wiseass and there were multiple jokes that perfectly fit Star Wars humor. And the original trilogy became a phenomenon thanks to absolutely ridiculous cutting edge special effects as well as that humor and improvisation, with Han Solo being the ring leader and the pulse of the franchise. If you are going to do an entire movie about a young Han Solo, that movie better have that same comedic feel with Han, as well as the improvisation that made scenes like this legendary.
Damn that shit was gangstaaaa. So yeah, I think/hope that a guy with a Best Director Oscar and one of the brains behind Arrested Development can keep things funny and fresh through the rest of shooting and reshoots this late in filming. It’s weird the guys that did The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street weren’t a creative or comedic fit, but whatever. May the Force be with Opie.