'Rogue One' Director Admits Attending Secret 'Star Wars' Meeting During 'Godzilla' Filming
In 2016 Star Wars premiered its first standalone movie in the form of Rogue One. Directed by British movie maker Gareth Edwards, Rogue One took the Star Wars universe in a new direction while butting in closely to A New Hope. It was a bold and dark move to create a movie with new characters facing peril through out, culminating with them all dying for the cause by the end.
Over the years there has never been any doubt that Lucasfilm and now Lucasfilm\Disney have had a very strict policy on secrecy about forthcoming projects and movies. Many of the actors have shared stories about how important it is to keep a lid on things and prevent information and spoilers getting out, with Lucasfilm\Disney keeping a close eye on things. We now have an interesting story from Gareth Edwards on how he went to great lengths to ensure this secrecy.
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Back in 2014 Gareth Edwards was working for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros., rebooting the popular kanji franchise with Godzilla. In an interview for StarWars.com, Edwards revealed that he had to sneak off of the set where he was filming Godzilla so that he could go and meet with Kiri Hart to discuss an upcoming Star Wars project. Edwards commented:
"I remember when I first met with [Lucasfilm's] Kiri Hart at the very beginning of it all, just snuck in for a very secretive meeting, I think they were meeting with loads and loads of filmmakers, like it was [when] The Force Awakens was beginning. I don't think anyone had announced the title or anything. We knew there was a Star Wars film happening and probably more to come. At the time I was finishing Godzilla, and they were at Disney, and you can walk from Warner Bros. to Disney in about 10 minutes. I was nervous about telling anyone that I was going for a meeting at Lucasfilm, because if things went well I'd be doing the Godzilla sequel, and so I pretended I had to get some food or something. I just went down and met with Kiri Hart down the road."
Being a fan of the Star Wars franchise Edwards was definitely interested in working on a Star Wars project, but didn’t really rate his chances and was worried about how the story would be handled and what impact it would have to the fanbase.
“I had this great meeting, but part of me was sitting there thinking — when they started talking about some of the things they wanted to do — I just remember thinking, “A) They’ll never offer this to me, and B) I don’t think I’d want to do it because you’ve got to be so careful with this stuff.” It’s so important to so many people, including myself.”
According to Edwards there was some back forth with some script ideas. One of these he liked the idea of, but didn’t really think it was for him to make. The other idea was the spark that ended up as Rogue One, which really peaked his interest. Even then he thought it was a crazy approach to Star Wars story telling and believed this was a route that was potentially dangerous territory. Edwards exclaimed:
“They can’t do this film! They shouldn’t do this film, this is like hallowed ground, you can’t! You’re not allowed to!”
Edwards believe he was just one many directors that were being assessed for the project. He didn’t think he was in with much of a chance, but according to Lucasfilm, Edwards was the only director that they were looking at. The rest is history and Edwards was hired and made Rogue One which, to this writer, is one of the best Star Wars films ever made.
This has to be my favorite story to date of the lengths someone will go to keep their involvement, or in this case potential involvement, in a Star Wars project quiet. I can only imagine what was going through the mind of Gareth Edwards as he stealthily made his way from the set of Godzilla to meet with Lucasfilm.
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Source(s): Screen Rant