“Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are talented filmmakers who have assembled an incredible cast and crew, but it’s become clear that we had different creative visions on this film, and we’ve decided to part ways. A new director will be announced soon."
Lord and Miller, best known for the 21 Jump Street movies, The Lego Movie, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, were a huge reason why there was a ton of excitement for the film. They released a statement of their own...
“Unfortunately, our vision and process weren’t aligned with our partners on this project. We normally aren’t fans of the phrase ‘creative differences’ but for once this cliché is true. We are really proud of the amazing and world-class work of our cast and crew."
They were pretty deep into the shoot for something like this to happen, which means these creative differences must have been sudden and VERY significant. It leaves open the question of how much is left for the replacement director to do, and if they will want to come in and put their own vision over top of what was previously completed.
On the plus side, Lucasfilm dealt with major production problems on Rogue One and that turned out okay. That said, it never lost its directors 3/4th of the way into the shoot, so the situations are hardly comparable. For now, the Han Solo movie is scheduled to open on May 25th 2018. We'll see if that sticks. [THR]
