Writer Tony Gilroy has been making the press rounds for his new movieBeirut, which he wrote and produced, where he has opened up about his experience onRogue One. The filmmaker made headlines by revealing on a podcast that the film was in “terrible, terrible trouble” when he was brought on, and now he has opened up about the toughest part of writing aStar Warsmovie in this day and age. Here’s what the filmmaker had to say below.
“33 million live viewers staring over [your] shoulders, constantly in a town square, screaming about everything that’s going on while it’s happening. No one’s ever had to do that before. No one’s ever had to make movies like this before. It’s a beautiful thing, it’s a passionate thing, it’s been an amazing thing, but it makes filmmaking really, really difficult.”
Tony Gilroymade his “terrible, terrible trouble” remarks during an appearance on screenwriter Brian Kopplemann’s podcast The Moment, adding that those comments amounted to, “two minutes out of an hour conversation,” but it was those two minutes that, “totally blew up.” The fact that his comments “blew up” shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given how passionate theStar Warsfans are, but the filmmaker added that the “entire story” of theRogue Onereshoots will be told, some day.
“I think I probably said more than I said even there. TheStar Warscommunity, the interest in it and the people in it, are so passionate. It’s so gigantic, it’s so dizzy. And perhaps someday, long from now, someone will get the entire story of what happened, and I’m not sure what the actual value of that will be, but I don’t think there’s really much here for me to talk about.”
Tony Gilroy received a screenplay credit for his work on the reshoots, which he shared with Chris Weitz, while John Knoll and Gary Whitta received story credit. The filmmaker did not receive director’s credit though, with Gareth Edwards receiving sole directorial credit, despite reports that Tony Gilroy reshot upwards of 40% of the movie during reshoots. While Kathleen Kennedy insisted that the reshoots took place over a four-week span, Gilroy contended on the podcast that he spent nine months working onRogue One. Here’s what Gilroy had to say about working on a project like this amid such high-profile media coverage.
“Imagine somebody who’s online, who is with absolute authority, turning everything that you’re writing upside down and they say that’s what you’re doing. And that gets magnified by 28 million people who go, ‘Oh my god! That guy must really know what he’s talking about, or she must really know what she’s saying because look at the authority with which she said it,’ which is nothing! The idea oftrying to run a marathonwhile someone’s cutting you up to try and figure out what’s going on inside your body is just impossible. Imagine if they had to do this onGone With the Wind. It would’ve been really hard.”
Regardless of theon-set difficulties, everything turned out for the best, withRogue One: A Star Wars Storybecoming the highest-grossing movie of 2016 at the domestic box office, pulling in $532.1 million domestic and $1.05 billion worldwide. The nextStar Warsspin-off,Solo: A Star Wars Story, had its own set of on-set difficulties to overcome, with LucasFilm making the surprising move to fire directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, while the filmmakers were four months into production. The directors were replaced by Ron Howard, who reportedly re-shot the entire movie, which hits theaters on May 25. Tony Gilroy made these latest comments aboutRogue Onein an interview withMovieFone.
