"Script Issues" Reportedly Led To Colin Trevorrow's 'Episode IX' Exit
09/05/2017 06:58 pm EDT
For the third time in four movies, script issues has reportedly caused a rift between Lucasfilm and the filmmakers working on their Star Wars movies -- this time leading Colin Trevorrow leaving Star Wars Episode IX.
Just weeks after Jurassic World director Trevorrow was asked to weigh in on the dismissal of Han Solo directors Chris Lord and Phil Miller, Trevorrow himself is now the subject of numerous speculation and inside baseball stories after he too parted ways with the Star Wars franchise today.
"Movies are very personal, and art is very personal, and for people to try to turn that into something that is salacious or something that will get clicks is frustrating and sad for me because I know that [movies] mean a lot to everyone involved," Trevorrow said of the reports back in July.
Eventually Lord and Miller would agree with Lucasfilm that they had left the film due to a difference of opinion on the direction the movie should go in, with the directors apparently wanting something more irreverent and Lucasfilm aiming for something more traditional.
In keeping with that, they hired Ron Howard, an Oscar winner best known for making proficient but rarely-groundbreaking movies.
That report struck a chord with fans who had previously heard similar reports surrounding the rewrites and reshoots on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Today, The Hollywood Reporter says it's the same story on Episode IX.
Their report indicates "that the working relationship between Trevorrow and Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy became unmanageable," and that rewrites ordered in August from the screenwriter of Wonder happened in part to try and right the ship without another embarrassing and stressful director firing.
Much earlier in the process, Josh Trank stepped down from working on a Star Wast stand-alone movie reported to have been about Boba Fett. Due to reports of volatile behavior on the set of Fantastic 4 and what looked even then to be a looming box office disaster, fans and critics generally placed the blame for that split squarely on Trank.
Before coming to Star Wars, Trevorrow was a favorite for the job: his indie time-travel romance Safety Not Guaranteed earned him not just critical love but the attention of some of Hollywood's biggest names. At the time, George Lucas reportedly talked to Trevorrow about doing a Star Wars movie, but with no big blockbusters under his belt it seemed like a dangerous gamble.
Of course, Steven Spielberg and Universal did not see it that way: they got Trevorrow for Jurassic World and he delivered a massive hit that made it easy to recruit him for Star Wars...at least for a while, apparently.
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