UPDATE! Rumor: Academy Award Winner Christopher McQuarrie brought in for rewrites on Rogue One?

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We are approaching the time, as the buzz around The Force Awakens dissipates, where all eyes begin to turn towards Star Wars: Rogue One.  We know that the movie’s plot will be centered around a heist to steal the Death Star Plans.  We know that the main cast will be the band of rebels featured in the picture above and that they will be joined by additional characters played by the likes of Mads Mikkelson, Ben Mendelsohn, and Alan Tudyk .  But what we haven’t heard much of yet is any specifics on the production.  We’ve seen shots from the locations, but not much in the way of anything giving us any insight into what is being filmed.  Well, today we have a new rumor about some of the behind the scenes goings on regarding the next Star Wars film.

 

Devin Faraci over at Birth.Movies.Death is reporting today that he has heard from sources that a script doctor needed to be called in to fix issues with the Rogue One script after the start of filming. That script doctor was none other than Academy Award winning write of The Usual Suspects Christopher McQuarrie.

 

McQuarrie is coming off directing that other “rogue” movie, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, but has had an extensive history of coming in to help rewrite struggling movies. The most notable among these being the much talked about rewrites of the Brad Pitt Zombie movie, World War Z, which had McQuarrie and others come in to completely revamp the film’s third act. If BMD’s sources are correct, it sounds like McQuarrie was brought in pretty late in the game, after filming had begun, to tighten up the story and fix some elements.

 

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The fact that he wasn’t brought in until the last minute could mean that the problems weren’t that significant and that he could just be reworking a character or sequence that wasn’t landing the way it was supposed to. You’ll recall that Rogue One was already on its second write after Chris Weitz had been brought in to take a second pass on Gary Whitta’s script. Or, on the flip side, it could indicate that there have been struggles throughout the writing process that finally necessitated bringing in someone of McQuarrie’s standing to fix. The BMD piece refers to one insider saying that McQuarrie “saved” the film.

 

As of now, this is purely a rumor and should be taken as such. But if there were problems with the script, whether they were major or minor, having someone of McQuarrie’s talent and experience can only be a good thing for the final product. Script doctors are called into tweak big movies like this all the time and we just never hear about it. In the end, the film will likely be the better for it.

 

 

UPDATE!

 

Back in October 2015, Latino Review first reported the same rumor (HERE). So it would seem that he was brought in towards the end of pre-production and not after filming had started.  A small but significant difference in assessing the severity of the problems and the urgency with which they needed to be fixed.

 

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62 thoughts on “UPDATE! Rumor: Academy Award Winner Christopher McQuarrie brought in for rewrites on Rogue One?

  • January 18, 2016 at 10:24 pm
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    Sounds good to me. MI:5 had a wonderful script.

    • January 18, 2016 at 11:17 pm
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      “Wonderful” is a bit of an overstatement. It was a competent actioner, which flowed pretty well, maintained a tight pace, had action beats at all the right moments, but didn’t do much on an emotional level at all. It was competent though, and the only fear I would have is just how much Disney felt needed to be fixed, and if the film will end up feeling like a Frankenscript or not.

      • January 19, 2016 at 12:28 am
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        MI:RN was the best mission impossible film made. MI:4 relied too much on that single abu dhabi stunt scene, MI-3 was good, but was similar to M:I, M:I-2 Sincerely didn’t make it to my movie shelf collection, on the other hand, M:I 5 could give scenes full of tension without having Tom Cruise necessarily do stunts (although they did make him do quite a few). So I guess he meant “wonderful” because of that.

        • January 19, 2016 at 12:35 am
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          Exactly. Plus, it was extremely suspenseful.

          • January 19, 2016 at 2:01 am
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            Yeah. I mean, the scene were benji had bomb on him.

          • January 19, 2016 at 4:08 am
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            And the water scene. And the motorcycle chase. And the assassination.

          • January 19, 2016 at 5:35 am
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            I know, right? I kept thinking “please, for the love of god, somebody blow Simon Peggs’ fucking head clean off his body and shut him up already. Oh, and if you could kill off his character too, that’d be just swell.”

          • January 19, 2016 at 11:47 am
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            bah. Haters gonna hate.

          • January 19, 2016 at 5:01 pm
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            You must be enjoying the attention, good for you :}

          • January 19, 2016 at 5:33 am
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            Yeah, I can see how suspenseful it was – If you are a particularly slow-witted toddler. Who’s never seen a movie before. And who is frightened but sudden movement and loud noises,

          • January 19, 2016 at 6:26 am
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            Wow, it was really nice of you to be a pretentious asshole for no reason. Thanks! Anyway, I thought the underwater scene was quite suspenseful.I wasn’t sure if he would make it out in time.

        • January 19, 2016 at 5:31 am
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          “Best” MI movie – is that like being the ‘smartest’ of the Three Stooges? Come on – they’re all utterly bland, completely disposable popcorn movies. Who watches an MI movie twice?

          • January 19, 2016 at 11:46 am
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            I watch an MI movie twice. 😛

          • January 19, 2016 at 2:29 pm
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            Yes, a bland, disposable movie with a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.

            That is all.

          • January 19, 2016 at 3:07 pm
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            I would argue that the first is pretty enjoyable on that level. I know I have watched it multiple times anyways.

  • January 18, 2016 at 10:34 pm
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    Concern monkeys incoming in 3… 2… 1…

  • January 18, 2016 at 10:46 pm
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    It’s good news, actually and shouldn’t concern anyone.

  • January 18, 2016 at 10:58 pm
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    I was going to say, we heard this at the start of last autumn.

  • January 18, 2016 at 11:17 pm
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    Faraci, Faraci…wait, wasn’t he the whiny douche nozzle who claimed that the floating lightsaber was absolutely, positively, 100% a lock how TFA opened?

    • January 18, 2016 at 11:44 pm
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      originally, that was the plan, I read something on deleted scenes that said they changed it after that rumour got out.

    • January 19, 2016 at 12:14 am
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      Well they shot it and it was in the film until they cut it along with other scenes that it connected to in the Force-Vision.

    • January 19, 2016 at 1:47 am
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      And that Han and Chewie would be flying a Star Destroyer. And that Poe was the new Lando. And that JJ was so mad at Disney he was getting ready to walk away. Among other things. But none of that compares to the time he claimed John Carpenter was on his deathbed, something he still refuses to admit was a flat-out lie.

      • January 19, 2016 at 5:32 am
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        Yeah, he’s a fucking gem.

    • January 19, 2016 at 2:11 am
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      Faraci is a giant self-entitled douche. He’s nothing but a wannabe filmmaker (an armchair filmmaker if you will) who feels his opinion on movies is so important to but he’s really just a pretentious f—boy.

  • January 18, 2016 at 11:27 pm
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    He’s got good a pretty solid track record. Adding to the fact this has a quality cast, No Abrams meddling involved, and taking place in a time where they can’t fuck up the continuity I think this one has the most potential of any of the SW films on the radar and would be pretty hard to fuck up. Even the lesser X-Wing books/comics were all really enjoyable, I think it could be a sleeper hit if people aren’t turned off by the fact it’s another prequel and a spin-off,

    • January 18, 2016 at 11:34 pm
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      Originality too! Long as they don’t conduct another trench run.

      • January 19, 2016 at 12:33 am
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        We’ll probably see Sullust in Rogue.

        • January 19, 2016 at 1:40 am
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          I’d rather not see another volcanic planet but if they shoot during the day like in Battlefront then it would look a bit different from Mustafar if they absolutely have to use it.

          A mountain planet would be cool though. We’ve only seen seconds of one in Alderaan. There are plenty of places to shoot that too long as they aren’t snow capped ones.

          • January 19, 2016 at 3:24 am
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            Post-Battle of Mandalore apocalyptic urban landscape of Mandalore.

            That’s where my fan-fic would go 🙂

          • January 20, 2016 at 3:37 am
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            Yeah, I’ll be pretty pissed if we don’t get any mention of Mandos in any of the new films or spinoffs. Seems like a no brainer.

      • January 19, 2016 at 2:21 am
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        what if some troops are running in a trench? does that count? 😉

        • January 19, 2016 at 2:36 am
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          Then it will be an Empire ripoff.

  • January 19, 2016 at 12:22 am
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    Script doctors, rewrites. Pretty much business as usual down on planet Hollywood.

    • January 19, 2016 at 2:23 am
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      Rewrites are necessary. Last-minute hiring of script doctors means your screenplay is shit and the producers are panicking. (Which raises the question, why did they proceed before they had a good script?)

      • January 19, 2016 at 2:35 am
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        These doctors are normally hired to polish off important key scenes. It doesn’t necessary mean the producer’s are panicking. Sounds to me that it’s a necessary part of quality control.

        I can only see this as a good thing.

        • January 19, 2016 at 3:23 am
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          I feel SW is a universe where fresh eyes are required – its so much a balance between myth, science fiction, and fantasy – hard to get that balance right (or risk a re-hash).

          • January 19, 2016 at 3:55 am
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            Exactly bro. It’s all good.

  • January 19, 2016 at 12:23 am
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    it’s ironic that christopher mcquarrie could work only on rogue projects

    • January 19, 2016 at 1:28 am
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      i hope he got tom cruise to cameo as the galaxy’s shortest stormtrooper. 😉

  • January 19, 2016 at 12:35 am
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    So he WASN’T brought that late in the game. That makes me feel even better.

  • January 19, 2016 at 1:13 am
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    I believe filming started in August so it seems like he was brought in midway through filming.

  • January 19, 2016 at 1:16 am
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    sooooo, when are we getting a teaser?

    • January 19, 2016 at 1:44 am
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      My money’s on around March.

    • January 19, 2016 at 1:53 am
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      Probably around the time that Civil War comes out.

      • January 19, 2016 at 2:07 am
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        i sure hope not, but it sounds like something disney would do. if they were really smart they’d release it during the super bowl.

        • January 19, 2016 at 3:21 am
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          Could go either way. They might want to let all news about TFA to go away so they could start anew informing general audiences about Rogue One’s different era. Super Bowl might be too soon.

          • January 19, 2016 at 3:39 am
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            fair point. but, i think all people who were going to see the TFA have already done it. february would be a good time start with the “here’s the next one” marketing, especially since most casual fans are only thinking about VIII… which by the way is only 15 months out and will need its own marketing push sooner rather then later.

  • January 19, 2016 at 2:16 am
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    That is not a good thing. It seems that this movie will be huge crap.

    • January 19, 2016 at 2:17 am
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      seriously. its being reported as a good thing…. Disney will be 2 for 2 with undercooked star wars scripts.

    • January 19, 2016 at 2:22 am
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      this kind of stuff happens all the time, we just don’t usually hear about it.

    • January 19, 2016 at 3:47 am
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      Yeah, right just like the PT.

      • January 19, 2016 at 5:15 am
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        PT was awsome.

        This will be crap.
        Changing script while filming is already started long time ago, is never a good thing.

        • January 19, 2016 at 6:00 am
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          Not saying this film will be good, but GL should have changed scripts and being director during the filming of the PT which ended up being total crap. 🙂

          • January 19, 2016 at 4:54 pm
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            PT movies are awsome and better than TFA.
            They are original. TFA was a rip-off and rehash of ANH.

            This movie will be crap too.

          • January 19, 2016 at 10:49 pm
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            And your comment are all rehashed of each other. Not everyone who disagrees with you is a troll. get over it, man.

        • January 19, 2016 at 6:24 am
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          The PT was shit. #JustSaying

          McQuarrie was brought in BEFORE filming. Read the update.

          • January 19, 2016 at 4:53 pm
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            You are a troll.
            PT are awsome movies. I like them.

  • January 19, 2016 at 2:41 am
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    Re-writes can go either way.

    Either the re-writes work and the movie is awesome, or the movie is beyond fixing.

    Re-writes don’t mean it’s gonna be bad, it just means they didn’t get it right the first or second time — SW A New Hope anyone? — this says nothing about what McQuarrie [Jr.] is going to put OUT. It only tells us what he STARTS with.

    So anyone who’s worried, chill. This is normal— especially for films with a complex plot such as is McQuarrie’s specialty.

  • January 19, 2016 at 4:14 am
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    This is normal, ask Carrie

  • January 19, 2016 at 4:33 am
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    Christopher is a great writer, director. He is more proven than Garth. Why Lucasfilm didn’t bring him in first place ?

  • January 19, 2016 at 6:13 am
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    Is it just me, or does Christopher McQuarrie look like Stephen King?!

  • January 19, 2016 at 3:41 pm
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    It could go either way. People seem to forget that classics like Casablanca were rewritten on-set and some of the best dialogue was written just before shooting.

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