Gary Whitta No Longer Writing Gareth Edwards' 'Star Wars' Spinoff

Of all the nasty stuff that came out during the endless Sony hacking scandal, my favorite was the leaked email between Columbia Pictures' Michael De Luca and Sony's Amy Pascal where they rip into screenwriter Gary Whitta. It was hilarious and totally random, but not completely undeserved given he wrote After Earth.  Whitta is still a very in-demand writer and has been working on Gareth Edwards' Star Wars spinoff for the past year, but now he's exiting that project in what appears to be an amicable split.

THR first reported the news only to have Whitta confirm it on Twitter...

My year of work in a galaxy far, far away is done! I’m onto my next project, adapting @mrmarkmillar’s STARLIGHT for 20th Century Fox!
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) January 10, 2015

Starlight is something we learned about last fall when Whitta came aboard the adaptation of Miller's comic which centers on a former superhero called out of retirement to save the universe. Whitta wrote the first draft of the standalone Star Wars movie's screenplay and now a new writer will likely be hired to give it another go in time for a December 2016 release. As for plot details they remain scarce at this time but rumors suggest it could center on bounty hunters and be more of a heist movie.

This also doesn't appear to be a "creative differences" issue like we saw when Michael Arndt was replaced by JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Edwards had nothing but good things to say about Whitta and vice-versa...

Edwards: “Gary has been a wonderful, inspired contributor and I enjoyed working with him tremendously. I’m so grateful for all of his contributions. ”