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Quelques détails supplémentaires intéressants sur les coulisses du renvoi dans un article du Wall Street Journal :
When “Solo: A Star Wars Story” opens Memorial Day weekend, fans will get the answers to decades-old questions about the origins of Han Solo, Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca. But behind one of this summer’s most anticipated movies lies another, more uncomfortable question: Who, exactly, is responsible for the final product?
The candidates include:
• Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the 42-year-old comedy directors behind the “Jump Street” series and “The Lego Movie,” who shot “Solo” for six months.
• Director Ron Howard, 64, who replaced Messrs. Lord and Miller when they were fired last June, finishing production and reshooting many of their scenes.
• “Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, 69, who wrote “Solo” with his son Jonathan. His presence on set grew alongside his dissatisfaction with the liberties Messrs. Lord and Miller took with the script, according to people close to the movie.
• Kathleen Kennedy, 64, the veteran producer and president of Lucasfilm who is charged by Disney with guiding its iconic, money-printing “Star Wars” franchise.
It isn’t unusual for high drama to surround big-budget movies in Hollywood. Many cinematic series, including Marvel, DC, the X-Men, Fast and Furious, and James Bond, have replaced writers and directors or had significant reshoots. But firing directors in the midst of production, as Ms. Kennedy did to Messrs. Lord and Miller, is rare.
The move sparked a big change for “Solo.” While the original directors attempted a contemporary tone that blended adventure and comedy, Mr. Howard tried to recapture George Lucas’s sensibility from 40 years ago, people close to the movie said.
Mr. Lucas hired Ms. Kennedy shortly before Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012. Since then, there have been three director changes over five “Star Wars” films, raising eyebrows in Hollywood and among fans.
Gareth Edwards, director of 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” was replaced after principal photography by Tony Gilroy, who shot new scenes and re-edited the movie. In a recent interview on the podcast “The Moment With Brian Koppelman, ” Mr. Gilroy said “they were in so much terrible, terrible trouble that all you could do was to improve their position.”
Colin Trevorrow, the director of “Jurassic World” initially tapped to helm the next “Star Wars” movie, 2019’s Episode IX, was dismissed after Ms. Kennedy grew unhappy with his work on the script, said a person with knowledge of his work on the movie.
A firm and decisive hand is needed in running a major Hollywood franchise, and Ms. Kennedy’s supporters say she has worked well with J.J. Abrams, director of 2015’s “The Force Awakens,” and Rian Johnson on last year’s “The Last Jedi.”Others say she has too frequently second-guessed her own choices and hasn’t effectively resolved disagreements with directors.
Mr. Johnson said he felt Ms. Kennedy gave him a “creative bubble” that empowered him “to tell the story I cared about in the way I wanted to tell it.”
Mr. Abrams said he had differences of opinion “all the time” with Ms. Kennedy, but that she “really takes in what people say and finds a creative way to aggregate and distill the conversation.”
People who have worked with her on past movies, including “E.T.,” “Jurassic Park” and “The Sixth Sense,” described her as more of a skilled manager than creative mastermind. At Disney, she has worked closely on creative matters with film studio chairman Alan Horn and Mr. Kasdan, the strongest remaining link to the original “Star Wars” trilogy since Mr. Lucas retired.
Mr. Kasdan, who hadn’t made a studio movie in more than a decade before returning to Lucasfilm, co-wrote “The Force Awakens” and “Solo” and consulted on the writing and editing of “The Last Jedi.”
Lucasfilm under Ms. Kennedy has produced three blockbusters. “The Force Awakens,” “Rogue One” and “The Last Jedi” were the highest-grossing movies the years they were released, and each scored 85% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes. Pre-release polling indicates “Solo” will set a Memorial Day weekend record with an opening of more than $140 million and possibly as high as $200 million.
Still, momentum for the series is on the wane since “The Last Jedi.” Controversial among fans, its ticket sales fell faster than for earlier “Star Wars” movies, a sign of weaker word-of-mouth.
Ms. Kennedy and her Lucasfilm colleagues met many of Hollywood’s hottest directors before selecting Messrs. Lord and Miller to helm “Solo” in 2015. The duo called it “a dream come true for us.”
But as the film moved toward production in January 2017, they clashed with Mr. Kasdan over the script, according to some of the people close to the movie. Tensions rose once shooting started, as the “Solo” directors sometimes shot dozens of different versions of scenes, straying from what was in the script. While such retakes are common in the modern comedies that launched Messrs. Miller and Lord’s careers, they exhausted and frustrated some on the “Solo” set, including experienced crew members who pressured the directors to move faster, according to actors in the film.
Last spring, Mr. Kasdan came to the London set and location shooting in the Canary Islands. At times he told cast and crew members when he disagreed with Messrs. Lord and Miller’s choices, people close to the directors said. The filmmakers felt undermined, these people said, but wanted to complete production.
In June, Ms. Kennedy concluded her differences with the directors had grown too vast and fired them. Messrs. Lord and Miller knew Ms. Kennedy was unhappy but were making adjustments and were surprised when they were axed, one of the people close to the production said.
Within days, Ms. Kennedy hired Mr. Howard, who like her and Mr. Kasdan rose to filmmaking fame in the 1980s and ’90s when Messrs. Miller and Lord were children. Mr. Howard worked faster than his predecessors, sometimes reshooting scenes in a few hours that Messrs. Lord and Miller spent a whole day on, one of the “Solo” actors said. About 70% of the finished movie came from scenes Mr. Howard shot, another person close to the production said.
“Ron wanted to go back to the spirit of the original trilogy, while Phil and Chris were looking forward to something new, more like ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ ” this person said.
This past winter, Messrs. Lord and Miller saw a cut of the movie prepared by Mr. Howard and decided not to challenge their successor for credit through the Directors Guild of America, the people close to them said.
“In light of the creative differences, we elected to take an executive producer credit,” Mr. Miller said recently at a public event.
The next “Star Wars” movie, Episode IX, is expected to start shooting in July, but its director drama is already in full swing.
Ms. Kennedy was a fan of Mr. Trevorrow’s work from his independent film “Safety Not Guaranteed” and recommended him to her husband Frank Marshall, who produced “Jurassic World.” Soon after the dinosaur blockbuster was released in 2015, Mr. Trevorrow was hired to write and direct Episode IX and successfully pitched Ms. Kennedy, Mr. Horn and Disney chief executive Robert Iger on his vision for the sequel, said the person with knowledge of his work.
But Ms. Kennedy was unhappy with drafts Mr. Trevorrow co-wrote and one written by “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” playwright Jack Thorne for him to direct. Mr. Trevorrow wasn’t satisfied with Mr. Thorne’s script either and asked to try again, the person close to Episode IX said, but Ms. Kennedy instead fired Mr. Trevorrow last August.
Lucasfilm considered rehiring Mr. Johnson, a person with knowledge of the matter said, though the director said there were no serious discussions. Instead, Mr. Abrams took the job after Ms. Kennedy called him following Mr. Trevorrow’s exit.
“I had a bunch of ideas from the beginning, back on VII, of where the story would go,” said Mr. Abrams. “I just never in my wildest dreams thought I would have a chance to execute them.”
Pour le coup, j'adore Lord & Miller mais si c'est pour voir les Gardiens de la Galaxie...bah y a les Gardiens de la Galaxie. Avec de nouveaux persos, pourquoi pas, mais avec des persos existants, c'était peut-être pas fait pour coller...sinon, ça confirme ce que je pensais, les problèmes étaient détectables AVANT le tournage et n'ont pas été réglés et ça a fini par exploser donc c'est pas Lord & Miller qui disent "oui oui on va faire ça classique" et qui respectent pas leur parole sur le plateau...et confirmation que Kennedy ne gère pas son biz à la perfection (c'est pas un hasard si ça a clashé sur tous les films sauf un).
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