Lord and Miller's original Solo would have been "gritty" not "just service fans" - Sensationalist Headlines

http://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/solo-a-star-wars-story-phil-lord-chris-miller-original-film-1201967484/ There may be no “Lord and Miller cut” of “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” but a new Variety cover story sheds further light on what such a feature would have looked like. When the prequel’s original directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, unexpectedly left the Han Solo-centric feature last summer with just weeks left on its shooting schedule, it seemed like the kind of production upheaval that would be hard for any film to overcome, let alone a multi-million dollar tentpole with a release date less than a year off. And yet Lucasfilm pulled it off, hiring on Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard to replace the pair, with the director delivering a $250M feature in time for its Memorial Day release date. The Variety story sheds further light on the film Lord and Miller were imagining, building on initial reports that “suggested Lord and Miller had gone overboard with improvisation, moving farther and farther away from what was on the page.” While one anonymous crew member told the outlet that “Lord and Miller drew [producer and Lucasfilm head Kathleen] Kennedy’s ire for stretching days out with experimentation,” their vision went beyond just comedic improvisation. Star Emilia Clarke told Variety that she got the sense the pair “were figuring it out” even during production. “We were all still very much in a collaborative place of ‘Where does this want to go?,'” she said. Another anonymous source told the outlet that “in their minds, Phil and Chris were hired to make a movie that was unexpected and would take a risk, not something that would just service the fans. They wanted it to be fresh, new, emotional, surprising and unique.” The source added, “These guys looked at Han as a maverick, so they wanted to make a movie about a maverick. But at every turn, when they went to take a risk, it was met with a no.” Lord and Miller’s original film also had an entirely different actor on board to play the film’s central villain, Dryden Voss. Michael K. Williams was initially set to play the baddie, but he “could not return for a full overhaul of his villainous character due to another commitment.” Howard opted to cast his frequent collaborator, Paul Bettany. On a technical level, “Lord and Miller had conjured a gritty, grimy palette reflective of the seedy underbelly of conniving crooks, battle-weary war deserters and ruthless criminal syndicates on display,” one that should have been reflected in the work of their lauded cinematographer Bradford Young. But, as the anonymous crew member noted, “Howard was inseparable from Young. You can totally see the love affair because Howard seemed super invested in how the film looked. Lord and Miller didn’t seem too fussed with that aspect, really.”

Sounds like they were just unorganized and incompetent

In a way I feel bad for creative people who have to staple their names all over someone's intellectual property. I know they get payed out the ass for it, but if i got into the movie business, i'd want to make my own shit, not just dig up and rebrand old shit.

I wish they had gotten the chance to execute their vision.

i want the special features on the blu ray to go in depth on what lord and miller did but knowing disney any evidence of that will be scraped away and we'll just get JJ abrams talking about how inspiring han solo is as a character

https://twitter.com/FutureBoy/status/999133003124162561 Maybe you shouldn't trust everything you read.

It's fairly clickbaity, I try to keep article names as close as possible bearing the thread character limit and removing unneeded capitalization. Good clickbait is partially true, and the article says gritty once. "Lord and Miller had conjured a gritty, grimy palette"

Maybe I'm just living in an echo chamber but I'm glad that everyone I know, even big star wars geeks, aren't interested in this film at all.

Solo's had everything stacked against it from the very beginning. A lot of people expressed disinterest in the premise to start with. Then the production issues that caused Lord and Miller getting removed as directors happened, which lead to A. the film essentially having to be completely reshot, greatly increasing the film's costs, B. usable footage for trailers not being available until four months before release and C. a lot of negative publicity when said productions issues got reported on. Throw in a release schedule that sees it sandwiched between several other popular blockbusters and you've got one giant katamari of misfortune. Honestly at this point I'm rooting for Solo to do well simply because they've been through enough shit as it is.

The premise just wasn't a very good one from the start, everyone thinks of Harrison Ford when you mention Han Solo, you can't just recast him as someone else. It would of been better to make a heist story revolving around something else.

this guy playing a young harrison ford was passed around a lot when we first saw the SOLO pick (and heard about how bad his acting was at the time) audio is buggy but I guess the actual quality ones got DMCA'd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwLv993khfI

Casting Anthony Ingruber would've actually helped the film maintain my interest.

He's got the face but definitely not the chops. Would need a lot of coaching.

at the same time, getting carte blanche to write and direct a giant fanfic would be a lot of people's dream.

I thought a lot of the early news about the guy who did get cast was that he needed excessive coaching at every turn

Frankly you'd think that the spinoffs would be where they would be given a lot of freedom

well its not quite carte blanche if they boot you and cart in a stooge to do your giant fanfic over.

you mean like the guy they cast lmao

It's not like Disney is against hiring acting coaches. But I do agree with you, Anthony Ingruber would have been a misstep.

Alden eiehiehiehiehieheirieireireieichchchc is an ok actor, guess the coaching paid off. He doesn't exude ANYTHING remotely resembling Han Solo. He sticks out in every scene.

I think he isn't Harrison Ford, but his Han Solo wasn't bad, and definitely not the train wreck people thought it was gonna be.

fair point with disney I suppose, its all up to the project, especially if the script was written before the director was chosen