Ron Howard Reshot 70% of SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY; Before That It Had More a GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Tone

Some new details have surfaced regarding some of the behind-the-scenes production issues for Solo: A Star Wars Story. We all know that directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired from the project when they were almost done with production and that Kathleen Kennedy hired Ron Howard to replace them and fix what Lucasfilm wasn't happy with.

Lord and Miller were looking for a way to find a contemporary tone that found a good balance between adventure and comedy. Obviously, whatever they were doing didn't work for writer Lawrence Kasdan, and Lucasfilm. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, Lord and Miller started clashing with Kasdan over the script from the very beginning and it just got worse as the production moved forward. It was revealed that the directors would shoot dozens of different versions of the same scenes and that they would stray further and further away from the script that was written in the process. As you might imagine, that became very frustrating and exhausting for the crew members, who were used to Star Wars movies moving along at a much quicker and easier pace. 

Sounds like they were making things more difficult than they needed to be. Apparently, it was while the two directors were trying to make changes to the film based on Kennedy's notes and feedback that she fired them, which was apparently a surprise to the directors.

According to the report, when Ron Howard came on board, he would reshoot scenes in a matter of hours that Lord and Miller spent an entire day working on. They go on to say that Howard reshot 70% of the movie! That just goes to show you that directors with years and years of experience know how to get shit done and get it done right. 

It's said that with everything that Howard shot, he wanted to go "back to the spirit of the original trilogy." Lord and Miller, on the other hand, were trying to change things up and give fans something new and different. According to an inside source, they were "looking forward to something new, more like Guardians of the Galaxy."

While that might have been interesting, Star Wars fans don't really like change or trying new things. That seemed to become clear after what Rian Johnson did The Last Jedi. It's probably a good thing that Howard wanted to make sure the movie had the same spirit as the original trilogy. 

Lord and Miller ended up watching Howard's first cut of the film last winter and after they saw it, they decided that they did not want to have a directors credit on the film. That's how much of the film Howard ended up reshooting.

That must've been an awkward and uncomfortable screening to attend!