A secret Star Wars project may have hit a snag already now that rumors have emerged claiming screenwriters Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson have apparently walked away. It would seem that the universe just can’t stop itself from getting into trouble, and with no robot to carry a hologram message to a wise old man living on Tatooine, who knows if they can be rescued?
The report comes via Above the Line, which offered that both Lindelof and Britt-Gibson handed in a script in the middle of last month and then walked away from the project only a few days later. According to the outlet, another writer has been found but no name has yet been given.
This seems to be a trend given that both a Kevin Feige-led Star Wars movie and the Patty Jenkins-directed Rogue Squadron have been shelved within the last six months, only adding to the growing pile of discarded projects over at Disney. Though in this case, the film is continuing ahead with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy still set to direct.
All of this led Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, to state that Star Wars, along with Marvel, would be getting a close look, and that the handling of such projects going forward would need a tremendous amount of care, adding “We’re going to make sure when we make one, it’s the right one. So we’re going to be very careful there.”
It would seem then that this has been taken quite seriously when you read into what Lindelof said recently which has since cast a lot of doubts over the project he was (and potentially still is) a part of. The screenwriter spoke to SlashFilm at SXSW about what being on the project has been like, saying,
“I will just say, that for reasons that I can’t get into on this Sunday morning, on this day, the degree of difficulty is extremely, extremely, extremely high. If it can’t be great, it shouldn’t exist. That’s all I’ll say, because I have the same association with it as you do, which is, it’s the first movie I saw sitting in my dad’s lap, four years old, May of ’77. I think it’s possible that sometimes when you hold something in such high reverence and esteem, you start to get in the kitchen and you just go, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be cooking. Maybe I should just be eating.’ We’ll just leave it at that.”
It would seem that the pressure or demand for making the “right” film has led to films getting turned down or in this instance, perhaps the script. Though many will appreciate the care and consideration that is going into ensuring that the next Star Wars film is spectacular, it would seem it is coming at a cost.