We learned a few weeks ago that Gary Whitta had concluded his work on Gareth Edwards’ STAR WARS spinoff, and had most likely left to develop his adaptation of Mark Millar’s STARLIGHT. To replace him, Edwards and Lucasfilm have tapped the talents of a writer who has more experience directing his own movies than he does writing big-budget sci-fi tentpoles: Chris Weitz.
Weitz and brother Paul made their bones co-writing ANTZ and directing the first AMERICAN PIE before going their separate ways after ABOUT A BOY in ’02 (they reunited to “direct” a live-read of AMERICAN PIE last January). Since then, Chris has primarily worked as a director, with his last three movies being THE GOLDEN COMPASS, TWILIGHT: NEW MOON, and the tragically overlooked A BETTER LIFE. However, he is credited as a screenwriter on the upcoming live-action CINDERELLA, so this won’t be his first WGA-approved paycheck from The House of Mouse.
The rumors still persist that this standalone flick will revolve around bounty hunters, which I can’t imagine won’t include Boba Fett. Whether Weitz has the chops to deliver a fun, rip-roaring STAR WARS movie has yet to be seen, but he certainly has enough good flicks under his belt that this shouldn’t seem like a red flag to anyone. The flick will be coming together over the next few months (Tatiana Malany and Rooney Mara may have already participated in screentests), so keep your ears perked for more info on this mysterious, non-episodic SW tale…
STAR WARS WITH EXTRA BOBA pilots Slave 1 into theaters on December 16th, 2016.
