Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Getting Expensive Reshoots as Disney is Not Happy
To say that last year’s Star Wars rebirth with Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a runaway success would be an understatement. Disney breathed new life into a franchise in crisis after the abysmal trilogy of episodes 1 thru 3. Disney knew they couldn’t afford to screw it up and J.J. Abrams came through in spades. Not wanting to lose momentum, Disney has ordered some very expensive reshoots on Rogue One as they are less than happy with what director Gareth Edwards has put on the table.
Prepped for a Dec. 16th release, the word is that Disney felt that the work of Edwards just wasn’t of the same capacity as Abrams so four weeks worth of pricey reshoots are on the way.
Starring the likes of Felicity Jones, Forest Whitaker, Mad Mikkelsen, Ben Mendelsohn and Diegeo Luna, Rogue One takes us deep inside the rebellion to a point in time somewhere between Episodes III and IV. Resistance fighters are on a mission to steal plans for the Death Star before it can be used to enforce the will of the Emperor. Based on that knowledge there has been speculation that we’ll see the return of the one and only Darth Vader as the Emperor’s enforcer.
Apparently, Edwards is well-known as a risk-taking director, but has also been known to not let the studio heavyweights push him in a direction he doesn’t want to go. A source at Disney noted that, “Disney won’t take a back seat, and is demanding changes, as the movie isn’t testing well.”
Adding to that, the source also stated, “The filmmaking team and the studio always anticipated additional shooting and second unit work to make the film the absolute best it can be, and the actors were aware there would be additional shooting. Coming off ‘The Force Awakens,’ there’s an incredibly high bar for this movie and we have a responsibility to the franchise and to the fans to deliver the best possible movie we can.”