Gary Whitta Leaves the First Star Wars Spin-Off After Writing the Script’s First Draft.
The lead writer behind director Gareth Edwards’s Star Wars spin-off has apparently left the project after finishing the first draft of the script. Read more to see why this happened, and why Gary Whitta’s leave of absence might not be as much of an issue for the movie as Michael Arndt’s departure from The Force Awakens was.
From The Hollywood Reporter:
Gary Whitta is no longer writing a Star Wars standalone movie. Whitta was working with Gareth Edwards, the filmmaker behind last year’s Godzilla movie, on the project and completed a first draft. But he has now left the project, which will likely hire a new writer.
Lucasfilm did not announce who would be taking over revising the script after Whitta’s leave. The good news is that this did not seem to occur due to creative differences – as was the case with Arndt and Episode VII – but because Whitta was finished with his work on the project and that he was ready to move on his next, which he announced on his Twitter page:
My year of work in a galaxy far, far away is done! I’m onto my next project, adapting @mrmarkmillar’s STARLIGHT for 20th Century Fox!
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) January 10, 2015
Another noted difference between the split between Whitta’s leave and Arndt’s is that Whitta made a public statement after he quit, which also seems supportive of Disney and the film.
“The year I spent working with Lucasfilm on this Star Wars film has been by far the most rewarding period of my entire career. As a lifelong Star Wars fan I’m deeply grateful to have had the rare opportunity to contribute to a new chapter in its ongoing cinematic legacy. The film is going to be amazing.”
This is by far the most I’ve ever enjoyed writing a title page. See you in 2016! #MTFBWY pic.twitter.com/Wr3Ij1XUKj
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) January 10, 2015
Edwards has also been supportive of Whitta’s decision, and commented that his presence was appreciated.
“Gary has been a wonderful, inspired contributor and I enjoyed working with him tremendously. I’m so grateful for all of his contributions.”
Whitta’s other writing credits include the film The Book Of Eli and several episodes of Telltale’s The Walking Dead video game. The film is rumored to start production in the next few months, and is still expected to meet its original release date in 2016.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
This is the first I’ve heard of Arndt’s creative differences. That has me a bit worried! I sincerely hope this doesn’t prove to be a dark cloud over the beautiful meadow of VII that Disney has created in so many heads!
Wasn’t the rumor that JJ wanted it to include too much of the original cast compared to what Ardnt wanted?
My understanding is that Arndt’s script focused primarily on the new characters, and Abrams preferred to give the original characters a larger role in the movie.
However, I wouldn’t be surprised to eventually learn that Arndt’s style just wasn’t quite what Abrams wanted for the script overall. (Though I have heard no rumors yet indicating that this was the case.)
What really happened was that Disney read the original script to the spin-off and said:
“Nope. Too much originality. Too many new characters. Too many risks. Get somone else to write this and put in more boba fett, more han solo, more references to the OT. THERE, now it’s a completely homoganized product.”
Precisely.
Arndt wrote toy story 3, and started writing ep 7, soon after JJ came on board and I’m not surprised he didn’t like the script, so Arndt got the boot. I’ve seen some Arndt interviews and believe me my feeling tell me he is better off gone. His SW would have been more kid based and maybe a U or PG – no balls film.
JJ must be invested and believe in ep 7, otherwise it will not work, He was never going to just accept a piece of writing and not pose any Qs.
If Arndt seriously had the best of intentions for this movie he should have taken JJs views into account!!!! What a egotisgal git – from this alone I sense he would have not taken fan views much into account either.
I like where jj has taken it based on the artwork,trailer and theories
Star Wars should always be PG or U – it’s an all-ages space fantasy. If you so desperately want some grimdark SF try one of the thousand existing options or go start your own franchise.
^no need to be rude, smart ass.
Woah woah woah.. Arndt did not leave due to creative differences, JJ likes to refine screenplays once the writers have done most of their work. Nothing out of the ordinary!
How can you possibly know this?
I heard that Arndt’s script had the LEGACY characters in the background. JJ wanted them front & centre if he was going to direct it. Han is ALL over this movie, so I hear. Will he get his death scene? Probably. I think this film will be emotional on different levels for fans. With cast members such as Tony Daniels, Peter Mayhew saying that it is the best Star Wars sequel, I am confidant that JJ has gotten it right.
I’m pretty sure that have to say this. Can’t go round saying they think it’s gonna a pile if crap can they now.
“With cast members such as Tony Daniels, Peter Mayhew saying that it is the best Star Wars sequel, I am confidant that JJ has gotten it right.”
Right.
And I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. Since you don’t seem to know that everyone and their grandmother will ALWAYS claim that their latest product is the best thing ever, well, you can be sure that this is the best damn bridge ever built!
Except.. they didn’t say that for any of the prequels they were in..
Yeah well, but the PT was not met with as much hate and derision towards its preceding trilogy as the ST has had to deal with.
That said, I do remember many people claiming that Ep. II was MUCH better than Ep. I, after all the negative criticism that TPM received. Nothing new here. It’s just a little something called “marketing”.
I’ll make up my own mind about TFA when I’ve watched it. Till then, I’m taking anyone else’s opinion of the film with lots and lots of salt, thank you very much.
Lawrence Kasdan will revise the script. He will revise every script of the upcoming Star Wars movies.
Lol
Sounds good for me ;p
Omg! YES! I thought he was only doing TFA. Kasdan should keep things in line. Kennedy is smart. Getting JJ for TFA was genius and having a different director for VIII is another good move.
Let’s hope so!
Until I see TFA, I hesitate to feel anything about Kasdan doing anything for SW. It’s been a lot of years since he’s written a SW movie and a lot of change has happened. I remember before the PT I and everyone else thought Lucas could do no wrong either. Life changes people. That goes for the viewers as well obviously. But everyone changes in some way over time.
I still think the world of Lucas as a creative mastermind. Not my fault (or his) that many people expected the PT to go exactly as they had imagined since the end of RotJ. Nor is he to blame for all those folk not mature or open-minded enough to realize that a back story (which is exactly what the PT is to the OT) is not always as good or exciting as the story that follows it.
Kasdan ought to be just fine. It’s Abrams you should worry about. Being a SW fan does not automatically turn anyone into a great director. And that’s something that the guy’s never been.
I don’t see how JJ Abrams is a bad director. He’s a master of taking completely obscure, weird and dramatic story lines, and not only make them feel real, but give everything a very dramatic feel, while not being over the top or too scared to give people what they want. Everything he touches turns into gold because he can appease nearly every market of people. Get over the fucking lens flares. Honestly I think they look cool and shouldn’t detract from the enjoyment of a movie. Seems so trivial. Just like Lucas’s “screen wipes”. It’s the age old idea that, you almost would have never noticed anything if some ass bad didn’t point it out in the first place. So so so trivial.
“I don’t see how JJ Abrams is a bad director.”
I never called Abrams a bad director. I merely said that he’s not a great director. That’s not the same thing.
“Get over the fucking lens flares. Honestly I think they look cool and shouldn’t detract from the enjoyment of a movie. Seems so trivial. Just like Lucas’s “screen wipes”. It’s the age old idea that, you almost would have never noticed anything if some ass bad didn’t point it out in the first place. So so so trivial.””
Stop putting words in my mouth, Darth Rybo.
First you take my words about Abrams’ talent to mean that he’s a “bad” director. And now, you bring up this “lens flare” folly into play, when I didn’t even mention anything remotely resembling the words LENS and/or FLARE in my comment above?
Well, since you seem to have a little problem with reading comprehension, let me spell it out for you: I couldn’t give a shit about lens flares lol. That’s got absolutely nothing to do with my opinion about Abrams as a director.
The world isn’t black and white. There’s different levels to almost everything, including filmmaking. And in that sense, to me, J.J. Abrams is a master at nothing. He’s just a fair director, creator of some rather entertaining, albeit not great, films, period.
The guy’s films have proven to be nothing special so far. You can twist my words (and even make up lies about what I said) all you want, but that is a fact. And it will continue to be a fact, at least till the guy’s able to deliver a true cinematic masterpiece.
I just wish Blomkamp would have said yes. They did come to him immediately though, so I give Disney RESPECT for that.
There’s a lot to the PT that almost went right. It has tons of potential that just wasn’t pulled off quite right.
Yeah, from what I read or can ascertain, Lucas was off to a great start the menace’s first draft. I just don’t understand what possessed him to chunk it and all his original notes. As I said, people change over time, some for the better, some for the worse.
…ok,getting back to the spin-off – shooting will have to start in the summer for a 2016 release – so I find it strange there`s been little or no casting rumours – everything about this movie seems to be low key.
Because the focus is inevitably going to be on Episode VII. I imagine that they won’t talk a whole lot about it in 2015 in order to keep the focus on the “big event” film. I do think we’ll get a cast announcement and possibly a premise this year once filming starts.
For a 2016 release, shooting will have to start this summer!
The release dates have been reported so far…
Episode VII….2015
Spin off 1…..2016
Episode VIII…2017
Spin off 2…..2018
Episode IX…..2019
Spin off 3…..2020
This means as soon as one movie finishes shooting, the pre-production for the next has to start. We should be in about the same position for the first spin off now as Episode VII was a year ago.
So the writer of “After Earth” and “Book of Eli” is no longer working on a Star Wars movie. And there was much rejoicing.
Did you not see the part about his involvement with The Walking Dead game? The one that’s been met with acclaim for its writing?
I read that part, I’m just not familiar with that game, so I can’t have an opinion about it.
I’ve played it. It’s more like an interactive story than a game. Great fun though.
Sorry, but he co-wrote only one Episode. And it was the worst one…
He wrote 3 episodes, and the 400 Days DLC.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1729428/
Actually The Book of Eli was pretty brilliant writing. Good movie, great book!
Wow, the bar set for brilliance must be at an all time low.
Good by and good riddance to this guy. Now he can go write some schlock like taken 4.
To each their own, as they say.
No one was particularly pleased about Gary writing for a Star Wars film so I guess this is a good thing. Looking forward to some sort of announcement as to what the film will be about… Bounty Hunters?
I think it’s good that he was working on the film as a contributor. I did not like Book of Eli, however I think the writing-style goes hand-in-hand with star wars.
The story and dialogue was shaky, but the pacing and rhythm applied to a Star Wars film would actually be spot-on.
So his work on a film I did not like makes him perfectly qualified for a franchise I do like. If that makes any sense.
The book of Eli I think falls into a rather rare strain of Script-writing, the same rare Strain that a New Hope happens to be written in.
Very Interesting, so far, all of this is good news, he came in, wrote the bare bones, and left the finishing touches to Kasdan and [insert name here]. Perfect.
Did you see After Earth? That could be up for the worst movie of decade. It made Battlefield Earth seem as good as The Godfather.
There was a huge backlash to Whitta getting the job for this film because of some things he said on a forum regarding Lucas and his special editions some years back.
I hope Whitta did a tremendous job on his draft, and I hope they’re bringing someone else in to polish up the framework he established. I expect Kinberg & Kasdan will get a crack at it next. We’ll see how it all plays out.
I just hope all the new SW films are headed in the right direction creatively, and I look forward to the future. It’s a great time to be a SW fan, let’s just hope with as much quantity as we’re getting in the near future, that everything is QUALITY as well.
We’re gonna be getting more Star Wars in the next 10-15 years than we’ve ever gotten, I think.
I am thrilled we are getting more SW in theatres. Lucas could have done so much more to make SW films, but he was too preoccupied with building his Corporate Empire.
Now SW is in the right hands! I hope we end up getting 2 or 3 films a year eventually, like what Marvel is doing, only better.
Lucas had a story to tell which he did. He wasn’t interested in churning out Star Wars movies for the sake of it. And when he did ala the Ewok movies, they were a financial flop.
The PT haters who frequent this website are going to disagree with your comment in 3, 2, 1…
He definitely did. I read he wanted to give each film to another director and oversee it.
He figured the profits would allow Ilm And Lucasfilm to be sustainable, so he could start new ventures. But his wife got that half and put all his dreams on hold. That’s even why Sprocket works got sold to become Pixar. Then Jobs showed how to sell to Disney for Billions that had to have burned him.
We could well be into Episode 20 and have watched the Star Wars franchise burn.
It may all be better for what we got.
After Earth so maybe a rewrite was needed anyway.
Well, if they are still shooting for a release date next year then it appears there will not be too many effects shots for this movie and rely more on the yakety yak to pull it through. Not necessarily a bad thing if done right, but something to be concerned about none-the-less.
Godzilla was loaded with the yakkedy-yak which you speak of. I personally thought it was annoying.
Godzilla was really bad. I hope Gareth Edwards learned from that movie and will do better with SW.
Pomojema, I too am confused about the departure of Arndt, I don’t recall hearing it was due to creative differences. Is there a source for that information please?
That would be regretful if that is the case… he is a clever writer who utilizes lots of surprises… perfect for Star Wars. All of you bashing him over Toy Story 3… I mean… how good can a Toy Story movie be? Could any of us have done better?
Go see “little miss sunshine” to see an example of good movie writing. I recently re-watched that film and forgot how good it was… it literally made me laugh at times. Very funny, very emotional, full of surprises… that’s Star Wars material right there.
JJ as a writer scares me… I’m a big into darkenss fan but I was disappointed by many of the “twists” in the film. I think He’s a great dialogue writer… & the direction of that dialogue is superb. But the Story…. mehhhhh.
I too worry about Kasdan… he’s written a lot of bad movies. He was an excellent counterweight to Lucas though, I kind of view him as the Lennon to the 80’s Lucas/ McCartney. Hopefully he’ll be an excellent counterweight to JJ and Arndt.
Lucas 80’s ST outline + Ardnt story revisions + JJ dialogue + Kasdan revising = interesting results… I’m hoping that’s the way of it. It’s the best that we could all hope for I think.
It’s weird, but I like Abrams even though he is just a glorified hack. I mean STID might have been the most unoriginal Trek movie to date. Still, I liked it a lot. Go figure.
Oh yeah for sure, I liked star trek a lot too, but his writing isn’t the kind that delivers that “Luke, I am your father” moment sort of thing. Something tells me he has a tendency to rush scripts but really work on ensuring a smooth filming process that’s well crafted.
I’m a big fan of JJ as well… I think he was the perfect choice for VII because he can nail that Star Wars feeling down. I just hope the story was as well thought out as could have been. I hope the best of all the input from George, Micheal, Lawrence & JJ was taken into account.
Star Wars feeling, you say?
Well, can’t get much more of that Star Wars feeling than when a SW film’s directed by the creator of that very SW feeling. Furthermore, at least Lucas had already been nominated as Best Director and had a film nominated as Best Film when he made a new SW trilogy.
The closest Abrams has ever come to an Oscar is when he stood next to Anthony Daniels in 3PO costume whilst filming TFA. So good luck getting an above-avg. filmmaker like Abrams to deliver something that George Lucas himself wasn’t able to deliver in the eyes of many.
Lucas couldn’t do it because it takes a group effort. Even his wife assisted with editing the script for the first film. His vision had changed as well, his outlook on life and from where he drew inspiration… He wasn’t the same person who did A new hope. The divorce I think is what did it, along with changing roles from writer/director to businessman. He’s even said it himself, that he became the very thing he was trying to avoid.
& yeah… Star Trek felt like Star Wars to me, I know I’m not the only one who thinks so. (Very honest trailers referred to it as his “demo reel for star wars”). Even if you don’t think so, JJ is takes imitation to a whole new level. In that 8mm film he really nailed the Spielberg 80’s campy feeling. From what we saw in the teaser… that felt a lot like the original films to me. But even those were all very different from one another, each having it’s own director. So there is some wiggle room.
Lucas couldn’t do it . . . for you and others, perhaps, not me. IDK how much he changed through time. What I do know inside-out is the creative writing process, though. I know that a story-teller’s got to stay true to his vision through thick and thin. You’ll never please everyone with your work, of course. All you can do is write for yourself and hope for the best, regardless on how much life and time may change you.
But Lucas’ changes don’t seem to be the problem here, IMO. Seems like many an OT fan wants the GFFA to remain stagnant, as opposed to changing and evolving, the way everything in the universe is supposed to do.
This is why many claim that Lucas changed (and not for the best, based on your observations on the man’s turn from idealistic story-teller to heartless businessman) and also why they love to see Abrams so bent on emulating the OT style.
That’s good and all . . . as long as the film is good. And based on what I’ve seen from Abrams so far, I can only hope that all those who wish to see a “return to REAL SW” don’t end up as deeply disappointed this time around, as many of you were with the PT.
You could have just said it, that Lucas did not create STAR WARS and could not top which ended up being a fluke in the end, something out of control that got fixed last minute. He wasn’t allowed to direct as the story goes so he called in his mentor for the sequal.
Lucas was 20% of the final product, I thank him for getting the ball rolling and creating Ilm but that’s about it.
StarWarsNews @StarWarsBlues
Oscar Issac has just confirmed there is ZERO CGI in the new #StarWars movie. Even the lightsabers are real.
Well, let’s hope the new writer isn’t known for movies like After Earth…
Let’s also hope the director won’t be known for horrible remakes like Godzilla, which cheated us from exciting monster action……. oh wait…
This and Episode VII are going to both be two-hour long OT family reunions, I fear.
Rey, who was once rumored to be the lead for VII, will probably be reduced to a rebel-kissing damsel in distress by Episode VIII and a sex object running around in a bikini by Episode IX…. if the OT is any indication.
I doubt it, she is like Luke, and Finn and Poe are like Han, except one or both have Jedi abilities.
bounty hunters and wookies spin-offs thats what i want
Muftak spin off please!!!!
We want quality not quantity.
I agree more SW movies are great, but not 3 per year like avengers world…One per year is good I recon – every xmas – awesome!
Thats my christmas presents sorted – I will buy everyone a cinema ticket to see them… no more walking round shops looking at crap!
But yes, this new era of SW is amazing, we will always have things to discuss and stuff to really look forward to.
We need a Jar Jar origin film! Meesa would love that!!!!
Whitta wrote the first draft. End of story for him. Now they will hire professionals to correct his writing.
No I didn’t. I have seen Cotton Club, a sub-par film with a plot that’s all over the place directed (probably written) by Francis F. Coppola, you know, the same guy who directed and co-wrote Godfather.
PS I think just about anyone would do a mediocre job if Will Smith was looking over their shoulder, also Star Wars isn’t exactly about Oscar-winning script-writing, it’s about having a good story told in the right style, that style being something I think is within Whitta’s ability.
Kasdan can inject little things like quality if needed. The key thing (at least at this stage of the process) is attitude.
Why not just have the director and writers of the first Pirates of The Caribbean movie do a Star Wars movie?
I would like to see Gore Verbinski do a standalone movie.