Gareth Edwards has his sci-fi film “The Creator” now out in cinemas, his first feature since “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” which has become infamous for its behind-the-scenes story.
A big part of that infamy is that no-one is quite sure what happened as stories of reshoots, creative overhauls and confusion over who was responsible for what with that film.
What is known is that Edwards directed the movie and delivered his ‘director’s cut’. Then, Tony Gilroy was hired for re-writes and helped out in the reshoots of the film, which are said to have gone up to five weeks.
Beyond that is where the conjecture starts with some saying Gilroy “took over” the film and redid as much as 40% of it, others suggest his role has been seriously overplayed, and Edwards contributions have been minimised.
Not helping is that the key players have kept relatively quiet about it all beyond comments from Gilroy back in 2018 on The Moment podcast where he says the film was in “terrible, terrible trouble” and spoke about how his re-writes effectively solved the issues.
Edwards, meanwhile, has avoided discussing the topic much whilst out promoting “The Creator,” though what few bits we have garnered confirm some elements fans thought were a part of the reshoots were in fact right there from the start.
In an interview with Kim Masters for KCRW‘s The Business (via THR), Edwards has finally opened up a little about “Rogue One,” mostly by pushing back against the narrative suggesting the project was troubled:
“The stuff that is out there on the internet about what happened on that film – there is so much inaccuracy about the whole thing. Tony came in, and he did a lot of great work, for sure. No doubt about it. But we all worked together until the last minute of that movie. It’s always a team effort making a movie, especially a big giant movie like that.”
He also says he was there all along throughout the reshoots:
“The very last thing that we filmed in the pickup shoot was the Darth Vader corridor scene. I did all of that stuff.”
Edwards also explains why he will not speak ill of the experience:
“Someone who gets that opportunity to make a Star Wars film and then starts complaining about it, I don’t think many people have that much empathy for that kind of person. I so don’t want to be them. It was a dream come true. I’m proud of the movie we all made. What goes into Fight Club stays in Fight Club kind of thing. It’s like that. I just want to sound grateful for what happened and not talk negatively about anything.”
“The Creator” is scoring raves for its visuals, less so for its storytelling, and has pulled in a B+ CinemaScore with audiences. The $80 million budgeted is expected to earn around $14 million domestically this weekend.
