Ron Howard is Officially Set to Direct Lucasfilm's HAN SOLO Movie
After we learned that Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired from Han Solo, the first name to pop up as the frontrunner to replace them was Ron Howard. Well, it's now official! Ron Howard is set to direct Lucasfilm Han Solo movie and I couldn't be happier.
I'm a longtime fan of Howard and the films that he has made of the course of his career and I have no doubt that he's going to do an incredible job with the film. According to THR, the new director will meet with the actors "to soothe a rattled set and will pore over a rough edit to see what the project has and still needs." The report points out:
"Howard is considered to be a safe choice to complete the task, someone who will more than ably finish the movie while being a calming presence on set."
Those actors that he'll be meeting with include Alden Ehrenreich, who is playing the iconic smuggler, Donald Glover, who is playing Lando Calrissian, along with Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke and Thandie Newton.
It doesn't sound like there are plans to reshoot the entire film, but I can only imagine there's going to be a lot of reshoots to get the film in line with what screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan envisioned for the film. The whole thing is a messy situation. The reason why Lord and Miller were let go in the first place was because their comedic vision of Han Solo was different from what Kasdan wanted, and in the end, Lucasfilm wanted Kasdan's vision brought to the big screen. You can read up on the details of why things didn't work out here.
The movie only had about three-and-a-half more weeks of shooting, and there were five weeks of reshoots that were already built into the schedule, which is apparently standard practice for big budget movies like this.
It sounds like Howard has his work cut out for him and in the end, I hope that this Han Solo movie turns out better because of the decisions that Lucasfilm had to make. This wouldn't be the first time that Howard worked with Lucasfilm, he also directed George Lucas' Willow back in 1988.
Are you happy to hear that Howard has been brought on to complete the production of Han Solo?