Last week, the stand-alone Han Solo prequel film imploded and exploded quite publicly. Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller had been working on the film for more than a year, and they had been shooting the film for months (since February). And then Kathleen Kennedy – super-producer in general, and producer of the latest Star Wars films – fired Lord and Miller abruptly last week. That rarely happens, where a director is fired in the middle of filming, and it almost never happens in the middle of some huge production. Ron Howard was brought in as the new director within 24 hours, and I guess production will resume soon, if it hasn’t already. So, what really went wrong? The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop, and it’s not pretty. You can read the THR piece here. Some highlights:
Kennedy tried to support Lord and Miller by adding extra helpers. Anxious to avoid an outright rupture, Kennedy is said to have made attempts first to support and eventually to supplant Lord and Miller to some degree, as happened with Gareth Edwards on the troubled Rogue One. In that case, screenwriter Tony Gilroy took on significant duties with the cooperation of Edwards; in this case, sources say, Kennedy attempted to cast Lawrence Kasdan in that role. Unsurprisingly, Lord and Miller were less accommodating than Edwards, still a novice, had been.
Lord & Miller were always a “mismatch” for the Star Wars universe. Some insiders say that while the talent of Lord and Miller is undeniable, nothing in their background prepared them for a movie of this size and scope. These sources say they relied too heavily on the improvisational style that served them so well in live-action comedy and animation but does not work on a set with hundreds of crewmembers waiting for direction. “You have to make decisions much earlier than what they’re used to,” one of these sources say. “I don’t know if it’s because there were two of them but they were not decisive.” Production department heads began to complain. While the pair appeared to listen when told of festering problems, this person says their approach did not change.
Alden’s Han Solo isn’t good enough. Matters were coming to a head in May as the production moved from London to the Canary Islands. Lucasfilm replaced editor Chris Dickens (Macbeth) with Oscar-winner Pietro Scalia, a veteran of Ridley Scott films including Alien: Covenant and The Martian. And, not entirely satisfied with the performance that the directors were eliciting from Rules Don’t Apply star Alden Ehrenreich, Lucasfilm decided to bring in an acting coach. (Hiring a coach is not unusual; hiring one that late in production is.) Lord and Miller suggested writer-director Maggie Kiley, who worked with them on 21 Jump Street.Ron Howard is trying to be a nice guy about it. Stepping in to replace directors who have been fired is not something that many filmmakers would want to do. Ron Howard is probably one of the few who could and would — at least, in this particular set of circumstances. Insiders say he was concerned about how Lord and Miller would react and has been emailing with them; another source says the two have been “very supportive, very elegant.” Howard arrives in London on June 26 and shooting, which began in February and was supposed to be completed in July, will continue into the first week of September as Howard captures new material. Still, an insider says much of what Lord and Miller shot will be “very usable.”
I think the most significant part of this – and perhaps the most concerning – is that the studio isn’t confident in Alden Ehrenreich. He’s the LEAD. He’s Han Solo. If Alden isn’t holding his own as Han, then the movie falls flat, acting coach or no acting coach. If Alden was amazing in the daily rushes, I have to wonder if the hammer would have come down so hard on Lord & Miller. As for the choice to hire them and fire them… like, why does Disney keep doing this with the Star Wars films? Rogue One was a notoriously messy production because they hired a relative novice to direct it (Gareth Edwards). And then they hired Lord & Miller – best known for mainstream comedies – for this. Part of this is on Disney’s bad management and decision-making skills too.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Lord and Miller were fired because they wouldnt take notes even after the studio realised they were cooking a mess. The usual practice is to bring in an overseer who might be the screen writer or a past director in the franchise. The initial director retains his job and screen credit and the studio gets what its looking for with minimal negative press. They must have tried to diva their way out of oversight which is fine for an artsy film but really stupid for a blockbuster franchise installment.
This is bad. This is all so bad. Yes Rogue One hit some filming bumps but it was smooth sailing compared to what’s happened here!! Acting coaches are not necessarily unusual but two big problems: First neither Force Awakens or Rogue One had one so it’s not Lucasfilm’s regular practice; and second, bringing in a coach in commonly done at the beginning of production not during production and certainly not right at the end!…oh that’s bad. That’s really bad.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
Feel like no one can replace Harrison Ford
This. And there’s no need for it. The back stories live in the minds and hearts of Star Wars fans. The prequels were awful but Rogue One was decent. The universe is making a clear statement here: Let’s skip the origin story films and create some new storylines.
+1
@Lillian
+1 I came down here to make the same joke!
I look at Alden what’s his face and he does not have the “wow” factor. Sorry but this guy looks as charismatic as lead. I don’t know why he was cast and I’m afraid this movie will be a stinker (sorry Ron Howard).
What about the dude who played the young Harrison Ford in “The Age of Adaline” — Anthony Ingruber? I thought he was awesome.
I think this young man is talented, but maybe he is just not right for the part. What a time to find out. This project is turning into a big mess, and the trade papers are, as is their job, covering every bit of the melt down.
Don’t mess with Han Solo. This won’t end well. Should have gone with Taron Egerton or Garrett Hedlund for Han.
Taron 100%. He actually has charisma and plays a good pain the arse like Harrison.
Taron the Lego head? No way.
Yikes. Although, I’m starting to wonder if all of this isn’t intentional. Make people think the movie is going to be a disaster and when it comes out and we find it isn’t half bad, it gets over-praised because people were expecting garbage.
And I agree this is all on Disney. Talk about poor hiring decisions.
I doubt this is manufactured bad press. People were fired over this.
Too bad they never got an acting coach for Hayden Christiansen…
I was thinking the same thing!
Two things I will say about this:
1). Lord and Miller have always had a distinct style. Their films are well received because they are different from the status quo. So I have no idea why Kathleen Kennedy hired them only to try and put their creative style into a box. That makes zero sense. You hire directors like Lord and Miller because you want your film to be different creatively. Unfortunately now we are going to get a very boring Han Solo film (with Howard directing) instead of the different out of this world Han Solo film we would have gotten with Lord and Miller.
2). How bad was Alden’s acting that they needed to get him an acting coach? These types of films do not require great acting performances (although we do get them at times). If his acting was THAT bad, what makes them think that firing the directors is going to change all of that? I understand that certain directors can get certain performances out of actors/actresses but again these films do not even require great performances sooooo how bad was Alden?
Personally any interest I had in this film was because Lord and Miller were directing it. Now that they are out, I have zero interest in this film. Also Alden was ALWAYS a poor choice for Han Solo so I’m not surprised this is blowing up in their faces on that end. What they should do is pay the actors and crew, delete all the footage and then act like this film never happened.
You make a good point about Lord and Miller. They have a certain style, and I assumed were hired based on their directing style. So why not let them make their film? Is this an issue of them making a bad film, or not making the film Kathleen Kennedy wanted them to make?
Their style isnt that distinct. They are hardly arthouse directors. Their forte is irreverent comedy mostly grown out of improv. But according to reports thats a problem because this is supposed to set up an offshoot franchise while still live on existing Star Wars canon. You cant improv dialogue, you could be losing important plot points for later films or tie-ins to previous ones. The other problem is that since they are rigidly comedy directors, they dont understand the value of multiple shots. An action adventure film needs this. This isnt a single car chase scene in 21 Jump Street, its an action adventure film.
As for why they were hired, I imagine that Kathleen wanted the Hans Solo films to be lighter in tone and it looks like they took it all the way 21Jumpstreet light. Ron Howard is a chameleon director. He doesnt have a specific style or a huge ego, he will deliver what is required to make it work.
Finally, Kathleen Kenedy is most likely the most successful producer by box office in history. The only reason I hesitated a bit is because Feige at Marvel Films may have surpassed her. But she has been producing since the mid 70s. She is a founding member of Dreamworks and she is behind practically every Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas film. If you are going to listen to someone it should be this woman, they dont come much more experienced.
“What they should do is pay the actors and crew, delete all the footage and then act like this film never happened.”
This is the only sensible course of action. Anything else is just a great example of the sunk cost fallacy.
“What they should do is pay the actors and crew, delete all the footage and then act like this film never happened.”
THIS ^
Agreed! And if they *insist* on making this unnecessary movie, they need to recast Han with Anthony Ingruber from Age of Adelaine, as someone mentioned upthread. He has a much better chance of approximating the charisma of a young Harrison Ford than the current guy, who looks like day-old meatloaf to me.
This film didn’t need to be made at all. The guy looks nothing like Harrison Ford and can barely seem like he is alive in candid photos. He is not a very good actor at all. Did they not screen test him before they hired him? Actually, both he and Donald are miscast as Lando and Han. Nothing about Donald says smoothe and charming, not like Billy Dee was. Donald is a dork on a good day and a hipster on his worst day. I love Donald and love him on Atlanta, though.
i’ll be honest and say that I thought a lot of this sort of hoopla would have been around Emilia since a lot of people don’t believe she can act. For me, she is fine but she has a face and personality that leads itself to be OTT. She laughs and smiles with her whole body and you can read every emotion on her face before she even says anything. She also has little to no range. But I am still rooting for her and Donald, though.
Donald is an asshole. I am rooting for Emilia though.
She’s so mediocre though. Soooooo mediocre. Seems nice enough but the more she works the more it’s clear she lucked into Game of Thrones and that’s likely her magnum opus.
Oh and if she’s the love interest? The die hard fans are going to hate her. HATE her. Han and Leia are sacred to a good percentage of Star Wars fans and they are not going to want to see his past romances. If that’s the story then she has got some serious fan hate on the way.
“Would that it t’were so simple…”
Ha! That went through my head when I was reading this too. I dunno, though; I thought Alden was pretty good in Hail, Caesar! Maybe he’s just having trouble emulating Harrison Ford for this movie?
Maybe that’s the problem. He should act instead of being a Harrison Ford impersonator. But Harrison Ford is unreplaceable. Take note for Indy films. That franchise should follow Ford to the grave=no reboots or remakes.
Zan – Perfect comment! Ha, ha!
Insomniac – I think that may be the rub. The directors may not have been crafting the kind of performance from him that the studio wanted. I mean, he is really charismatic in Hail, Caesar! and if we believe the press, the studio, including Kathleen Kennedy took a lot of guys through screen tests – so I’ve got to believe he brought something to the table they liked above other bigger named actors.
He is filling the shoes of an iconic character, so you really would need the performance to follow the rhythm Harrison Ford set. Maybe he needed an acting coach because these directors are not “actor” directors who help craft and draw out the right performance from their actors. That is my bet.
But I tend to agree with @holly hobby – I’m not sure any actor can really live up to Ford’s Solo.
hahahaha, love it.
I’m trying to cut this movie some slack, since Rogue One had a troubled production and filming, and I ended up loving it! I want to believe, but at least Felicity Jones didn’t need an acting coach on set…
Good Lord, established have worked with coaches for AGES. What’s wrong with that? Pacino was coached by Charlie Laughton and Jan Tarrant. No one thinks Pacino is a problem. Lifelong acting coaching and study is very common.
True. The acting coach may be just one symptom of problems with the film. You are quite right about the long history of coaches. One of my all time favorites, Montgomery Clift, had coaches on set.
Monty was a serious alcoholic and pill popper especially after the accident. He needed techniques on set to help him remember lines and simple direction. Also, a lot of the time the coach wasnt just there for acting, they were there to distract you from your addictions and other distractions and focused on the job. For example, it was often joked that you couldnt get into the usually very “friendly” Marilyn Monroes knickers when Paula Strassberg was on set. Which she was all the time towards the end.
So thats making me wonder if this actor has some “personal issues” that concerned the studio enough to bring in an “acting coach” and refocus him.
Ramona, have you read the biography of Monty by Patricia Bosworth? It’s old, but it might still be the best one. Of course, Monty was a mess, and I sure hope that’s not the case with this young man.
I havent but I have heard that she is the authority on Monty. Most of what I know of him comes from his mentions in other peoples autobiographies like Burton, Brando and I think John Huston. And also of course from TV documentaries on him. I might “kindle” her on your recommendation.
Of course lifelong coaching is not an issue but that is not what this is. This wasn’t ongoing training, they brought on the coach near the end of production after they looked at the footage. That smacks of attempted damage control, not maintenance!
If a production or actor wants to use an acting coach they are there from the beginning of production (the trade stories noted this), they’re not brought on at the end. That’s weird! And that’s why people are freaking.
Mia, do you know the budget for this thing?
I think the coach was brought in to help hit the dramatic plot points. Even a light movie has to have heart or else why would we care about the protagonist. I’m extrapolating from press reports but I really think thats it. Also, I really wish they had brought in a coach for Hayden “I hate sand” Christensen. Sure the writing wasnt great but Ewan Mcgregor and even Natalie Portman managed to salvage something from it.
I don’t know the budget @third ginger although I’d say probably initially it was much less than Force Awakens (which cost the most) and less than Rogue One (almost certainly had far more elaborate action than Solo will). However with the amount of redo and hiring Ron Howard (who isn’t cheap) to essentially replace the directors you’ve already paid and adding probably three months plus of additional shooting? The budget is going up! We will likely never know the truth.
The thing is they can spend it because they are almost guaranteed to make it back. You don’t hear about whatever the Force Awakens (yes there were lots of reshoots) and Rogue One reshoots cost because they were both hella profitable (Force Awakens most especially). Han Solo will make money by virtue of being a Star Wars movie but the question is how much of a drop is too much and will make Lucasfilm reexamine how they run things. It would have to be A LOT!! If it makes $200 million less than Rogue One? That’s still over $800 million. Still a massive hit. Now if it only makes $500 million? Heads may roll.
mia, thanks as always for the great info.
@Mia – what’s even more surprising is that according to the trades, it’s Alden Ehrenrich who gave a heads-up to the studio that things didn’t seem to be shaping up right. I’ve heard he’s good in Hail, Caesar! – it may well be that Lord and Miller didn’t get the right kind of performance out of him.
And yeah, this film is going to cost a lot now. So did Rogue One and TFA, but they also blew past Disney’s most optimistic expectations (I really don’t think they expected Rogue One to make a billion, or for TFA to make 2 billion). Time will tell if this does the same, though I’d much rather it didn’t exist at all.
I read an article (can’t remember where!) that said Alden Ehrenreich was concerned about the direction he was being given, and was struggling to hit the right tone. Han Solo is sarcastic and “cool”, not slapstick-ish. The article said that Alden Ehrenreich was one of the ones expressing concern to the execs about the directors. So I feel bad if he is being thrown under the bus in this situation. He got such great reviews in his other stuff, why is he suddenly bad in this? Who knows, maybe he is awful in this, but that doesn’t track with his other work (albeit limited).
I’m a bit suspicious of that, too. He was great in Hail, Caesar and fine in Rules Don’t Apply. I’ll wait and see how Ron Howard steers the character.
I like him, also. Thought he was a real discovery. Wish him well.
It’ll be a shame if this whole debacle puts him on the Taylor Kitsch scrapheap where even mention of his name makes people think “flop”. I also thought he was good in what I’ve seen him in before.
I agree! Films are really a directors’ medium, especially with a huge blockbuster such as this, so I think it’s extremely unfair that this disastrous production thus far has been blamed on him. The directors being fired says a lot more than rumors of an acting coach being brought on
Lord & Miller co-created and produce one of the weirdest shows on network TV >> Last Man on Earth. Anyone who watches that knows their vibe. The studio made their bed.
I feel for Alden, I really do. It can’t be easy to step into a role like Han Solo and fill Harrison Ford’s shoes because that’s what he has to do. He can’t make it his own, he can’t really play with or ‘find’ the character. Everyone has certain expectations of who Solo is and, at least to me, Solo is Harrison Ford’s performance. So he had an uphill battle already. Alden just doesn’t seem to have that easy cool that Ford has and it looks like it’s showing on film.
I agree re Alden- he was pretty amazing in Hail Caesar, and if memory serves he managed to do OK with the debacle that was Heavenly Creatures. Not the best PR, but the folks attempting to right the ship has tons of experience. If the movie gets pushed WAY back, that’ll tell the tale.
@Tig
I think you mean “Beautiful Creatures?”
Ha ha- you’re right! Not enough caffeine!
The acting in that movie. Oh NO NO NO. That is all I have to go off of this kid and that was awful.
It should’ve been Anthony Ingruber as the lead. He even played college age Harrison ford in Age of Adeline. This whole movie is going to be a mess. Nothing positive has come out about it
Holy carp I just looked him up! He would’ve been perfect!
He has a YouTube video of him doing Harrison ford impressions and it’s uncanny
To be fair to Rogue One, Gareth Edwards’ first cut was actually described as good (just not amazing up to expectations) in the initial
reshoot reports. And no one breathed a word against the performances of his cast – Felicity, Diego, Donnie, Riz, Alan Tudyk, Ben Mendelsohn, et al.
I worked on film sets in LA and knew and worked with a lot of actors. It is completely normal for actors to have acting coaches – in fact it’s very rare for them not to. This isn’t in any way an indication that there is a problem. I worry about actors who don’t have them. It is a sign of professionalism. Even Tom Cruise and the largest actors you can think of regularly work with coaches. This is a total non-story.
I think two directors being fired is kind of a big deal. Also, they weren’t making a big deal about the lead needing an acting coach, but the fact that he should’ve had one since the beginning and it weird that he’s getting one now.
I don’t know, because Riann Johnson, who did Brick and Looper, two awesome and not big budget movies, did a supposedly great job, then maybe two directors focused on comedy who weren’t communicating with a huge crew *were* a bad choice.
Remember when River Phoenix played a young Indiana Jones in the third IJ movie? He really didn’t resemble Harrison but it still worked. You really have to have a one-of-a-kind type of person to play a young Harrison Ford. Loved them both as Indy.
Harrison said he helped choose River because River resembled him the most at that age. And having worked with him before he knew that River was more than capable of being young Indy acting wise. Harrison didn’t and most likely didn’t want a say in the casting of Han Solo sadly. He doesn’t have the possessiveness with Solo as he does with Indiana Jones.
I happened to read something about this earlier today that indicated that the studio hired the acting coach because what they had been seeing was a performance that was slapstick (“Jim Carey-esque” was I think the description) and more akin to the types of performances that Lord and Miller directed in the Lego Movie (parodies of characters, rather than serious interpretations of established characters). That article also hinted that Ehrenreich was the one to tip off the producers about how bad the filming was going because he was upset about the performance that was being asked of him.