The situation with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is getting rather serious, no matter how you choose to look at it. Disney has insisted that everything is fine and that the reported reshoots, taking place over a few weeks this summer, were pre-planned and designed to improve the film. Some of that appears to be true, but not all of it, because since then we've learned that nearly half of the movie is being reshot, and that Tony Gilroy (The Bourne franchise) was brought in to assist director Gareth Edwards. Well now comes even more news that can be interpreted either as a good thing or another reason to worry.
First the good news: THR says Simon Crane, the kickass stunt coordinator and second unit assistant behind Edge of Tomorrow, World War Z, and Jason Bourne, has been brought on to assist in the reshoots. Obviously he's being brought in to punch up the action sequences, which disputes a prior report that only "intimate moments" were being redone.
And now for the not-so-good stuff. The site also confirms that Gilroy is helping to direct the reshoots in order to make it as "broadly appealing" as possible. Unfortunately that does mean lightening up the tone and making it less of a war movie. But this opens up questions about Edwards and what exactly his place in the production is right now? How much of what he intended will remain, if anything? Maybe he should have held on to that Godzilla 2 gig, after all? It looks as if he's the odd man out in this scenario, which is sad given his obvious talent.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens December 16th, or at least it's currently slotted that way. With all that is going on would anyone be shocked if it got bumped? At this point Disney has a serious problem on their hands. Even if the reshoots really aren't a big deal, a negative stigma is already settling in and once that happens it's nearly impossible to be rid of. On the plus side, Crane dealt with just such a stigma surrounding World War Z and helped turn it around, so maybe he can work the same kind of magic here.
