Is Disney Reshooting As Much As 50% Of ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY?
Despite an EW report attempting to do some damage control over the weekend, it really does sound as if Rogue One is in serious trouble. In fact, those reshoots may even have a new director!...
Entertainment Weekly has a very close relationship with Disney, so a report from them over the weekend claiming to clear up what's happening with those Rogue One: A Star Wars reshoots inevitably felt like damage control on the part of the studio who had fed them the information to clear up fan concerns. Since then, more details have surfaced from equally reliable sources, and The Playlist has actually revealed that, "[Tony] Gilroy is actually supervising, if not helming, the reshoots himself." The Bourne Legacy director was reportedly brought on to work on the story and help reshape the film, so if he's now taken over from Gareth Edwards, that's not a good sign. In fact, this instantly brings back memories of Fantastic Four, a movie which was also heavily reshot for reasons still not entirely clear.
The general consensus seems to be that Edwards delivered a dark and gritty war movie to Disney that they're afraid isn't going to play as well as the $2 billion mega hit Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Lightening the tone is either going to help the movie or turn it into a horrible mess, but based on comments from Latino-Review, it sounds like those reshoots will be extremely extensive regardless of why they're taking place. In fact, sources tells them they're, "reshooting almost half of the movie."
That's not normal and most definitely isn't a good sign, especially six months away from release. There's obviously a very good chance that all of this is being blown out of proportion and that there's nothing to worry about, but there are more reports pointing to Rogue One being in trouble than ones claiming these reshoots are a perfectly normal occurrence. Godzilla was praised for amazing visuals and action, but boring and forgettable characters; could Edwards have made the same mistake here?
There's no way of knowing, and unfortunately, we may have to wait until December to find out whether Rogue One is going to end up like World War Z (which was plagued by similar rumours to this, but ended up being good) or Fantastic Four (hot garbage). Fingers crossed for the former, eh?