Gareth Edwards Looks Back at the Making of ‘Rogue One’, Hardly Addresses On-Set Drama
It’s been almost seven years since Rogue One came out in theaters, the first live-action entry in the Star Wars series that told a story outside that of the Skywalker family. Despite grossing over $1 billion at the global box office, and gathering rather positive feedback from critics and fans alike, the film was steeped in behind-the-scenes drama that over the years shaped into rumors of Tony Gilroy taking over the whole ship from director Gareth Edwards in mid-2016 and reshooting large parts of the story. (Gilroy himself, who stayed in the Lucasfilm family through Andor, has refuted those claims.)
Edwards has stayed away from the controversy for the most part, but now, as he gets ready to promote his first film since December 2016, The Creator, it’s all coming back to him. In a profile interview with Variety (hat tip to CBR), the filmmaker looked back at the making of his Star Wars movie, which marked his first collaboration with cinematographer Greig Fraser.
According to him, Fraser was on board with his ideas, and the two did things a bit differently during shooting — from putting away a certain amount of money at the beginning of the film (dubbed the “Bank of Gareth”) to be spent whenever the director was told “No” on something he felt very passionate about, to clearing out department heads from the set at the end of each day to resemble the feel of an independent movie (called the “indie hour”). Edwards explained:
“We were just trying to figure out, how can you do this better? The way you make a film is as important as its screenplay. I would [rather] take full control over the process and [have] a mediocre screenplay over a really good screenplay and zero control over the process.”
Naturally, it’s hard to discuss Rogue One without bringing up all the reshoots that Tony Gilroy was hired to supervise. When the interviewer mentioned the topic, Edwards responded with professionalism:
“Look, the only thing I can say is I was incredibly lucky. I got to make a Star Wars film. I won the lottery, in that sense. The idea of someone as privileged as me in any way implying that it was anything other than the amazing experience that it was to some extent – like, I don’t have any empathy for that person, and I don’t want to be that person either.”
When talking about Star Wars movies, Rogue One has always provided an interesting case study. On one hand, the film was generally well-received upon release, and it remains a favorite for many fans. On the other hand, it’s well-documented that the movie went through some major overhauls during its lengthy reshoots. We still don’t know for sure precisely which parts of the finished film were shot by Edwards and which were handled by Tony Gilroy. Plus, some viewers can’t help but wonder if it may be possible to use existing footage to assemble an even better cut than the one we got.
Still, Rogue One may be a classic example of the old Shakespeare adage, “All’s well that ends well.” The film was a critical and commercial success, and it spawned an even more acclaimed prequel in the form of Andor. As for Gareth Edwards, he’s probably celebrating the positive early reactions that his new film The Creator has gotten from press screenings.
You can head to Variety for the full interview with Gareth Edwards.
Eric has been a fan of Star Wars ever since the age of five (or so) when his parents sat him down in front of a TV with pizza and a Sprite and showed him the original trilogy. He keeps trying to convince more fans to read the amazing 1980s Star Wars newspaper comics by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson. When he's not reading, watching or playing Star Wars media, he's often enjoying other great fantasy and science fiction sagas or playing roleplaying games with his friends.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
