Believe it or not, Solo: A Star Wars Story is less than two months away from hitting a presumably packed theater near you. On paper, the latest standalone Star Wars entry sounded like the kind of movie that would ride a long wave of enthusiastic press until its premiere: The cast, including Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover, is stacked. Han Solo is a universally revered character in the Star Wars universe. The duo behind the highly rewatchable Lego Movieiswas directing. What could go wrong?
Then news broke in June 2017 that those aforementioned Lego masters—Phil Lord and Christopher Miller—had left Solo mid-production, with creative differences as the alleged reason. Ron Howard, who years ago declined an offer to helm The Phantom Menace, quickly stepped in to complete the previously scheduled principal photography and newly added reshoots. Finally, in October, Howard announced that principal photography had wrapped:
Until now, we didn't know very much about what, exactly, Howard had changed about Lord and Miller's work since coming aboard. In a new interview with Vulture Monday, an anonymous non-marquee actor who spent four months working on the film provided a detailed breakdown of the experience, including the differing styles of the original Lord x Miller shoot and the 2.0 edition under Howard's guidance.
"Phil and Chris are good directors, but they weren't prepared for Star Wars," the source said. "After the 25th take, the actors are looking at each other like, 'This is getting weird.' [Lord and Miller] seemed a bit out of control."
The source said the directors definitely "felt the pressure" of such a big-scale production, though a rep for the duo subsequently said the info provided by the source was "completely inaccurate."
Once Howard took over, the source said, the respect was immediate. "He's really confident," the source said. "A really easy guy to work with." According to Vulture, Howard, at the time of this writing, is still working on post-production in Burbank. Lord and Miller will have executive producer credits on the final product and will not be listed as directors.
The extensive Vulture report also confirms previous reports about Ehrenreich having an acting coach assigned to him. Vulture's source said producers wanted "something very specific: copying someone else," adding that Ehrenreich isn't a bad actor but his performance became "more relaxed" as the shoot continued. For the full piece, including intel on leaks and what Howard's influence may or may not do for the final product, click here.
Solo is out May 25.
