Rumor: More Details on Gary Whitta’s Star Wars Spin-Off Movie Departure.

Gary-Whitta

After the announcement that writer Gary Whitta leaves the first Star Wars spin-off movie, we quickly contacted one of our sources who told us that this was completely expected and that it was part of the deal. Now the guys from Cinelinx back up that story with some more details from their sources.

 

 

From Cinelinx:

We’ve heard from our sources that the change up is for a couple of reasons (both of which are amicable as we’ve been hearing), the first and foremost being that he was actually hired on to do ONLY the basic draft of the script.

 

The basic story for the standalone was already in place, being hammered out by a few people and run through the new Lucasfilm story-group (so that everything fits together nice and tight), and Whitta was brought on to create the script based on those ideas and generally flesh it out. That was his job, and he’s been hard at work on it for the last year, which likely means this isn’t the first draft he’s done. From there, he was set to move on (which apparently he’s been off for a few weeks now) and then have someone else come into finalize the script, polish it up, and generally make sure it’s the best it can be.

 

As for Simon Kinberg taking over (our source confirms Slashfilm’s report…which you should have believed anyway), our source has heard Whitta’s script was also too “big” budget-wise to film. His script would have been too expensive to film, so Kinberg will be tweaking things to make it more manageable. That being said, Whitta’s script/story will remain largely intact, with the rough spots ironed out.

 

 

Another indication that the departure was part of the plan is the fact that Whitta is already working on his next project – Mark Millar’s Starlight.

 

 

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Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.Born on April 24, 1980.

56 thoughts on “Rumor: More Details on Gary Whitta’s Star Wars Spin-Off Movie Departure.

  • January 13, 2015 at 11:19 pm
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    holy crap! his draft was too expensive to make as a movie?? expect big things from this film

    • January 14, 2015 at 5:38 am
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      Usualy Disney revises scripts to make them even MORE outlandish and “big budget”-ish.

      I have an idea: they should not use actors and film this with popsicle sticks in a shoebox. That way they won’t spend a lot on budget and can save their money for other movies like Avengers, which was expensive and full of annoying expensive effects.

    • January 14, 2015 at 5:15 pm
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      A New Hope’s first draft was also super-expensive, and generally much larger scale (and a different story) from the final film.
      Basically sounds like George wanted to make an over-the-top Revenge of the Sith – ish film from day 1

  • January 13, 2015 at 11:21 pm
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    Would have been too expensive, seriously?

  • January 13, 2015 at 11:29 pm
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    Too expensive to film? Is that even possible for a Star Wars movie? Iger and company aren’t exactly going to be sitting there chewing their fingernails clear back to the knuckles on opening weekend, praying that they break even, are they?

  • January 13, 2015 at 11:50 pm
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    Too expensive, ay?
    Hmmm…his screenplay must have included the accidental total destruction of 2 or 3 Death Star prototypes. Building and SECURING dem dare space stations is hard. Even for your average Stormtrooper.

    • January 14, 2015 at 10:30 am
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      “Ay” is spelled “eh”, eh…

  • January 14, 2015 at 12:09 am
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    To expensive..?

    What was it? A fight on top of a maglev train traveling through a city being bombarded at point blank range of a star destroyer… only to have the rail run out as a ship swoops in saving the two combatants as they renew the fight on top of it lightsabers whirling. A turret on the ship keeps trying to blast one of the combatants off only to see it’s massive laser bolt ricochet back at the causing it to lose power and crash. Page 1?

    Page 2 features a planetary escape before it completely erupts… with 6 or 7 major capital ships all colliding.

      • January 14, 2015 at 1:46 am
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        Tee hee…homophones.

        • January 14, 2015 at 10:33 am
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          Your(sic) a homophone

  • January 14, 2015 at 12:27 am
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    They could have just done it like Final Fantasy or Akira or Captain Harlock.
    Just an all out cgi anime Star Wars like those movies.

    Clone Wars.Rebels but better cgi.

  • January 14, 2015 at 12:27 am
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    Some news one the plot would be nice. Good job “sources at Cinelinx” (yawning)

  • January 14, 2015 at 12:33 am
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    Too expensive – perhaps it is gonna be some kind of low budget indie movie a la Disney. 🙂

  • January 14, 2015 at 12:40 am
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    Too expensive: the draft might have contained some underwater light sabre sequences.

  • January 14, 2015 at 1:25 am
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    Maybe cast of thousands?

  • January 14, 2015 at 2:03 am
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    The budget for the first spinoff is only 40 million dollars…so yeah too expensive!

  • January 14, 2015 at 2:18 am
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    Wow if this is true then this will be a large scale movie, probably with battles…now I’m thinking that maybe the rumors about a doth/ Jedi origin story instead of a character movie because the first cenario is more likely to include big battles…but maybe I’m wrong and we’ll be seeing boba unleash destruction on the Galaxy on a Michael Bay scale hahahahaha

    • January 14, 2015 at 3:51 am
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      It’ll be the Daredevil of the Star Wars franchise, it will be terrible.

  • January 14, 2015 at 2:34 am
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    $40 million dollars is not that much for a Star Wars spin off is it really,if $200 million dollars for TFA is going to (which we presume) make an epic movie then I’d be looking at least $100 Million for a spin off, if done well would show healthey return at the box office in sure.

  • January 14, 2015 at 2:35 am
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    I don’t like kinberg. Or cowboy hat man.

    • January 14, 2015 at 3:49 am
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      Me neither, they’re a pair of hacks looking for their next payment.

      • January 14, 2015 at 7:45 am
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        Kinberg is a key cog in the Disney Star Wars machine as a producer. One heck of a ‘hack’ they hired there.

      • January 15, 2015 at 5:37 pm
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        Yea I can’t believe they got that guy from godzilla. That movie was crap.

  • January 14, 2015 at 3:41 am
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    Spin off or main movie – all the same.
    A Star wars movie should and has to be expensive!!!

  • January 14, 2015 at 3:44 am
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    I always assumed the spinoffs would be made on smaller budgets – they’re the Agents of SHIELD relative to The Avengers films. Possibly, the spinoffs are testbeds for new characters and scenarios that if popular enough will see sequels – in film or TV live-action format – put into development during or after Episodes 7-9.

  • January 14, 2015 at 3:49 am
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    What they mean is Disney obviously doesn’t have high hopes for it’s box office takings. They’re holding back on the budget because it might stink.. And that’s astounding after watching how much money the prequels brought in.

    The directors/writers are just too inexperienced, expect these spinoffs to be just as bad as the prequels.. At best.

    Long gone are the days of good writing, I expect The Force Awakens to be the best Star Wars ever made.. Purely because it has to be for Disney’s sake.

    You know how your opinion of Marvel dropped when they made Daredevil? That bad. They need to kill these spinoffs immediately, it is and always has been a bad idea. Nobody gives a damn about Boba Fett aside from people in their 30s and over – coincidentally that’s the same demographic of people who rip films apart on the internet.

    This spinoff will be the new Prometheus.

    • January 14, 2015 at 5:21 pm
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      WOW, You sound just like C3PO, like, in the Overreaching Negativity and Paranoia Department

      • January 15, 2015 at 2:18 am
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        And you sound just like Hitler – Let people say what they want without being judgmental, scumbag.

        • January 15, 2015 at 3:58 am
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          We actually have no idea what SO #1 is about, we don’t know who’s in it, we don’t know where it takes place, we don’t even know what genre it’s in, as well age-group and tone and so on…

          I’m not the one being judgemental here, he provides very little basis to back up his guarantee that the movie will kill the franchise.
          Also my moustache too wide, I’m more like a Blue Meanie out of Yellow Submarine.
          I would call you some sort of evil person from history but “you’re Hitler” is so unoriginal I actually don’t know what an appropriate comeback is, so I’ll leave it at that.

  • January 14, 2015 at 3:52 am
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    As long as it’s on the level of ANH in terms of number of effects shots and type of effects we see (ships, blasters, explosions, etc) then I’ll be happy. If it’s like the Ewok movies, I’ll stay home.

  • January 14, 2015 at 7:06 am
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    Maybe a gungan movie to please all the PT lovers.

  • January 14, 2015 at 9:11 am
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    that guy up there, obi1, lives in his own world, he thinks that theres a war between the OT fans and PT fans, he thinks everyone who like the prequels are kids and fanboys who hates the OT and dont know nothing about star wars, he thinks that making jokes about the Prequels will make him awesome!
    PLEASE! STOP THAT! PT BASHING IT’S NOT FUN ANYMORE, STOP MAKING JOKES ABOUT MIDI-CLORIANS OR JAR JAR OR GUNGANS OR FUCKING HAYDENS CRHSTENSEN, ITS ANOYING SEE THESE KIND OF COMENTS IN EVERY ARTICLE!

  • January 14, 2015 at 9:14 am
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    I hope they cut costs by having fewer FX shots rather than shooting all the outdoor shots on a sound stage. It’s smart that they’re making the script itself less elaborate instead of shooting a half-assed version of something more elaborate.

    • January 14, 2015 at 12:20 pm
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      You mean 1138? Come on now

  • January 14, 2015 at 10:20 am
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    Spinoffs are a bad idea in general. Definitely when they are released in between 7, 8 and 9. Think about how out of order that will feel if they keep going back in the Star Wars timeline in between the main movies. Not to mention the over saturation. Ugh. I’m very optimistic for the sequel trilogy but very pessimistic about these damn spinoffs.

    • January 14, 2015 at 10:38 am
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      Agreed. They are “Marvelizing” Star Wars and Marvel sucks my ass.

    • January 14, 2015 at 12:27 pm
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      All anyone and everyone wanted before the Disney / Lucas deal was for star wars to be let loose… New writers and directors…stories outside of skywalker family. It’s happening and the amount of negativity coming from most of you…it’s ridiculous. Will the real star wars fans please stand up?

  • January 14, 2015 at 12:12 pm
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    …yep,completely agree as well – I`ll be pleasantly surprised if the spin-off is any good;Star Wars is all about being epic – how can it be epic if it`s just centred round 1 character?

  • January 14, 2015 at 12:32 pm
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    If a movie like Thor cost Disney 150 million and Thor: The Dark World cost 170 million, then I do not understand why they would keep the Star Wars spinoffs at such a low profile. Even a typical spinoff like Wolverine (2009) cost Fox 170 million USD.
    I think the Star Wars spinoffs should have a 150 million budget at least.
    After all it is not Quentin Tarantino directing…

    • January 14, 2015 at 12:36 pm
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      Sorry, I was wrong, Wolverine (2009) cost only 150 million, but that does not change my opinion at all.

  • January 14, 2015 at 1:28 pm
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    Not really sure why some people are concerned or irate that Disney are keeping the budget to the first spinoff to maneagble levels. To me this is fully expected. These standalone movies are bound to be smaller scale in regard to plot and scope. They will probably have a tighter story, fewer characters and locales and maybe a slightly shorter running time. Throwing huge amounts of money at them is probably wrong or you could end up with just another action epic with no soul. The key element for the spinoffs should be story over spectacle.

  • January 14, 2015 at 4:58 pm
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    What ever happened to the live action Star Wars TV series?

    Instead of spinoffs, work a deal with Netflix and pump cash into a live action series where each season focuses on different characters/ story arcs.

  • January 14, 2015 at 5:34 pm
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    I think Disney is wanting SO1 (spin-off #1) to be less theatrical and grand-scale.

    This HOPEFULLY means that they’ll focus more on nailing the story and character arcs.

    I wouldn’t mind having a film that stays on one planet about a group of highly trained soldiers hunting down some galactic war-criminal, something along the lines of a drawn-out live-action Clone Wars episode / drama with intrigue,

    ‘Would not be surprised at all if they’re planning something along those lines.

    So far no bad news… yet…

    M2C

  • January 14, 2015 at 7:30 pm
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    The original Star Wars would cost forty million to make today. Perfectly reasonable to expect a movie of that level.

  • January 14, 2015 at 8:18 pm
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    I’m actually kind of excited that this won’t be a huge budget movie. It gives me a fool’s hope that it might be a touch edgier and more geared toward mantaining the legitimacy/currency of the brand in the long run.

  • January 14, 2015 at 8:49 pm
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    am i the only one who thinks the stand alone movies are not only a joke..but overkill? i would rather they made made three 6 hour movies and split them each in half to make 6 movies. kind of like what Donner did with Superman 1 and 2. They are going to make stand alone movies about characters nobody even gives a shit about. a stand alone boba fett or a stand alone han solo movie sounds horrible to me. If they are going to do Stand alone movies i think they should do it with characters and a story the real fans would actualy want to see…..Like a standalone trilogy of Vader wiping out the last of the jedi, as he hunts them down around the galaxy.

    • January 15, 2015 at 4:14 am
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      Mmm, yes and no. It is a little overreaching and overkill, but then again it’s Disney, the same company that made Alladin 3, so in one way this could seriously backfire.

      On the other hand, provided they have some creative people running the show, the possibilities are endless, they could branch off into all kinds of Non-fate-of-the-world plot directions, focusing on really awesome situations that would be too Off-Topic if done in a Saga Film.
      Also George Lucas originally wanted to do a trilogy of SW Spin-offs, more or less the same number Disney’s promising now, so it’s actually on course with everything we already thought we were gonna get 30 years ago.

      But then again, too many movies that all have the same kind of plotline could get old fast [see Marvel] as well as limiting/problematic.

      It really could go both ways, and I would be disappointed in Disney/KK’s creativity if all they could think of to make 2 movies about was a play on ‘Dirty Dozen’ feat. Boba Fett. That would be a real lack of creativity if they went for that, and

      I’m expecting they’ll go for something at least slightly more original.

      Fingers crossed….

  • January 14, 2015 at 9:42 pm
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    501 legion spinoff

  • January 15, 2015 at 1:28 am
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    I expect real quality here. Hopefully something as grand as After Earth.

  • January 18, 2015 at 10:09 am
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    That’s really thinikng out of the box. Thanks!

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