A few days ago when Ron Howard issued his first comments on the whole Han Solo spinoff situation, I said I hoped this was the end of the discussion. That all parties would move on that would be the last we heard until the film at least had a damn title. Even then I knew it wouldn't happen, and now we have a few more details on why Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired, and they sound pretty bad.
The juiciest bit comes from Star Wars News Net, which claimed that star Alden Ehrenreich grew concerned over the movie's "screwball" direction, leading him to give a performance described as similar to Jim Carrey's in Ace Ventura. Oof, ouch. I hope that's an exaggeration. His concerns made their way to Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy, who then looked at the footage and took matters into her own hands. But the site adds that Lucasfilm really do like Ehrenreich's performance overall, which contradicts some of the reporting emerging from THR.
The basic gist of their report is that there was friction between all parties practically from the beginning. Lord and Miller used limited camera setups, reducing the number of scene options in the editing room. That bugged Kathleen Kennedy, who was also apparently not pleased with the performance by Ehrenreich (There's the contradiction.) so she hired an acting coach to come in late into the production. That Lord and Miller were still encouraging improvisation of Kasdan's screenplay was also a major sticking point, although the directors would shoot a couple of scenes "word for word" to try and diffuse the situation, only to go back to their improvisational style again later. Oscar-winning editor Chris Dickens (Slumdog Millionaire) was fired and replaced by Pietro Scalia (JFK), another Oscar winner.
The general feeling by Kennedy was that the film was coming off the tracks and something needed to be done. When Lord and Miller refused to have Kasdan basically directing over their shoulder, Kennedy saw no other option but to replace them.
Reportedly, the crew "broke into applause" when Howard was named as the new director. To me that sounds like Lucasfilm spin, but who knows? Maybe it's true. At least they're excited about him. I think it will take Star Wars fans longer to get over it. Probably until May 25th 2018 when the film hits theaters.
