Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Deadline says that Ben Mendelsohn is “circling a lead role” for Rogue One. The Australian character actor has had a number of roles in Hollywood, including The Dark Knight Rises and The Place Beyond the Pines.
The only confirmed cast member for Rogue One is Felicity Jones. Other actors who have been linked to the project in the trades are Aaron Paul and Edgar Ramirez. The Gareth Edwards-directed film will begin filming at Pinewood this summer for a December 2016 release.
The new Mission Impossible movie is titled Rogue Nation. Paramount cleared their title with the MPAA in January, so they could have gone after Lucasfilm/Disney, but instead the companies agreed not to market Rogue One until after this summer, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Rogue Nation hits July 31; It moved up from December 25 this year to avoid… You guessed it… Episode VII. Rogue One isn’t due until December 2016.
I doubt they were going to do much marketing for the movie in any case – and an exception was made for Celebration, which is pretty much the only place I’d expect anything anyway. I wonder if this means we won’t get a filming or further cast announcement from StarWars.com, but I’m not sure what they consider ‘marketing’ in that case. (I fully expect they’ll drop it all at Anaheim…)
Composer Alexandre Desplat (who just won an Oscar for The Grand Budapest Hotel) revealed during an interview that he will be scoring Rogue One, according to Film Music Reporter. He’ll be only the second composer to work on Star Wars live-action, after John Williams.
Desplat also scored Rogue One director Gareth Edward’s Godzilla.
Scoring isn’t something I tend to have strong opinions on, but I do think it’s a smart move for them to go off the beaten path for the spin-off films.
We finally got name – and a hint at the content of – our first standalone Star Wars film this week: Rogue One. We still don’t know all that much about it, but there are a few hints out there, both official and speculative.
/Film has a description of the concept art that was shown to Disney shareholders for Rogue One that is supposedly reminiscent of video games, particularly Halo. No X-wings, but why would they go for a name that recalls Rogue Squadron, then? I don’t know, but I hope as we learn more things will become clear.
Mike Stackpole is, as you might expect, all for Rogues in a movie. At Barnes & Noble, Andrew Liptak looks at the Rogue Squadron books and comics – which, it should be noted, contained a fair amount of on-the-ground missions.
StarWars.com confirms that the first standlone film will be called Rogue One.
Starring Felicity Jones, directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Chris Weitz, the story is based on an idea from John Knoll, who’s one of the executive producers. The film will shoot in London this summer and is due out December 16, 2016.
They’ve also (finally!) confirmed that Rian Johnson is writing and directing Episode VIII, which is set for May 26, 2017. A RETURN TO MAY!
Much of the personnel here we’ve already heard about, but the title Rogue One is our first detail that really points to what kind of film this will be. A female X-wing pilot? Bring it on.
/Film talked to Chris Weitz, the new screenwriter for Spin-off #1. We don’t learn much (will this mystery box ever open?) but he does more or less confirm that Garry Whitta’s draft is still in play. When asked to compare it to Cinderella:
I think in this case I’m not working from a whole cloth, right? So there’s a very strong structure from Gary’s work and that’s a huge advantage to me. But just like with Cinderella, it’s a director’s medium so it’s really about my making what Gareth needs to do his film.
They also talked to Whitta a few weeks ago, something that got lost in the shuffle over here.
The weekend’s big Star Wars rumor is that Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) is in the running to play a young Han Solo. It comes from UK tabloid The Sun, via The Daily Mail (which drops a rumor/spoiler about The Force Awakens at the link, so maybe stop reading when you see Egerton’s face.)
The only fairly solid thing we know about casting the first spin-off is that Felicity Jones is the female lead (she can’t talk about it) – and the Hollywood trade reports that broke that said that Aaron Paul and Edgar Ramirez were up for the male lead. People seem to like Egerton for it, but I can’t say I see all three of these guys being up for Han Solo.
Kingman writer Mark Millar did tweet “Taron shot first,” but take that as you will. Whatever the case, it’s a British tabloid rumor, so I can’t put much faith in it just yet.
The Theory of Everything’s Felicity Jones is in talks for the first spin-off, The Hollywood Reporter (and Variety) says today. There have been some reports that Tatiana Maslany had won the role – and THR named her as a finalist in the original report – but she also has a potential conflict in an indie film that begins shooting in March.
THR’s sources also says that Aaron Paul and Edgar Ramirez are being eyed for the male lead.
Maslany has been the internet’s clear favorite for the spin-off, but Jones has a lot of buzz in Hollywood right now – and a Best Actress nomination.
Total Geeks claims that Tatiana Maslany got the role we heard that she (and several other actresses) were testing for last week in the Gareth Edwards’ standalone Star Wars film. They also say that she’s the lead, and noticed that Maslany has recently withdrawn from an off-Broadway play “due to film scheduling conflicts.” (The only upcoming film on her IMDB at the moment has already completed shooting.)
UPDATE: The Mary Sue is backing up the original report with a source of their own – but I don’t expect official word will be quick. UPDATE #2: She’s also been cast in an indie film that begins shooting mid-March, per The Wrap. It’s not necessarily a deal-breaker if the spin-off begins filming in May ala The Force Awakens, as it’s likely the ‘February’ we’re hearing is for crew.
We still know very little about this film, aside from the ongoing scripting choices – and a lot of rumors. Hopefully that changes when filming begins soon, maybe as early as February, but likely not until spring.
Rumor: Who could play Boba Fett? Some random site thinks Michael Fassbender is the “frontrunner to be Boba Fett,” because Boba Fett is the Dread Pirate Roberts now. Yeah… Sure. Okay.