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Gary Whitta completed first draft of Star Wars spinoff, moves on
- Thread starter inm8num2
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Vigilant Walrus
Member
screenwriters have it really tough. if they buy 1/10 of your screenplays, you're doing good. Many screenwriters don't ever get to have a film made, and fewer still get one made, that ends up with a competent director who understands what the screenwriter was going for.
Not to mention, other writers coming in, butchering the thing and so on. It must be a grueling feeling to have your name attached to a project that is longer your own, but have been butchered. to sit there and watch a new film at a premier.. and as the credit rolls, it has your name on it, but the film is absolute horse shit. yet you still get all the credit, even though its not your fault.
In the case of SW there is no way Disney is not gonna run a tight ship. focus groups, control studies. I imagine Disney more like a religious institution that seeks to control its creators more than enable them. I might be wrong though. I've always been scared of Disney.
All I see is Jonas Brothers Virginity Rings. Disney is like Level AAA Cultists!
Not to mention, other writers coming in, butchering the thing and so on. It must be a grueling feeling to have your name attached to a project that is longer your own, but have been butchered. to sit there and watch a new film at a premier.. and as the credit rolls, it has your name on it, but the film is absolute horse shit. yet you still get all the credit, even though its not your fault.
In the case of SW there is no way Disney is not gonna run a tight ship. focus groups, control studies. I imagine Disney more like a religious institution that seeks to control its creators more than enable them. I might be wrong though. I've always been scared of Disney.
All I see is Jonas Brothers Virginity Rings. Disney is like Level AAA Cultists!
Disney has a history of being very hands-off with this kind of stuff for their subsidaries. They leave Pixar do what they want, Lucasfilm to do what they want (Dave Filoni the show runner of the Rebels, the first thing done under Disney said Disney pretty much is completely uninvolved in the production of the show for example), and they let Marvel do what they want. Their own internal films from Walt Disney pictures is a different story.
Bob Iger has a very hands off policy for their subsidiaries. A different CEO in the future could be different but Iger's stye is let the companies he purchased do their own thing that made them worthy of being purchased in the first place.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
This seems pretty normal for these larger Hollywood blockbusters. Screenwriters are brought in to do drafts all the time. The same thing happened with Michael Arndt and Force Awakens, and that guy has an Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine.
Yup.
Yup.
Why is it so weird?
Gary was suddenly too cool for NeoGAF and on top of that started deleting his old posts.
What is GAF supposed to do? Bow and scrape?
Neuromancer
Member
I don't care what anyone else says about you Gary, you're ok in my book.
Doublesith
Member
How has GAF "turned on Whitta"? The stuff being written about him here is tame compared to what you can find on other filmmakers and screenwriters in a average film thread. Whitta wasn't shy on sharing his opinion in a pretty abrasive way either, as evidenced by his going back to delete his SW posts. Why does Whitta have to be a sacred cow?
Thing is, Whitta deleted his old Star Wars posts and someone noticed that when he got the writing gig. That was thread worthy. The fact the news spread is not GAF turning on him. The discovery of him editing his old Star Wars posts to remove any negative comments was news worthy.
While many do trash him and say way over the top things, calling him out for that was not turning on him I think. Anyone would have gotten called out for that. Whitta or otherwise.
While many do trash him and say way over the top things, calling him out for that was not turning on him I think. Anyone would have gotten called out for that. Whitta or otherwise.
I know you're joking and all, but the initial title just copied the opening line from THR's article that Whitta was "no longer working" on the script, which is true. There was no intended implication that he quit or was fired, but later I realized that was how it would be interpreted. I do genuinely feel awful about it, though, as it didn't occur to me that people would take the opportunity to hate on G. Whitta.
Some jealous mothrtfuckers in here. I would go back and edit my posts about the shitty prequels too if I got a job writing the screenplay for a star wars movie. Lol at that even being an issue. Btw... Fuck the prequels, they were shit and I bet whitta's story is 100x more interesting than any of those.
Ps. I will come back and change "prequels" in this post to the "hobbit series" if I get a job at Disney working on star wars, and idgaf if you find an issue with it
Ps. I will come back and change "prequels" in this post to the "hobbit series" if I get a job at Disney working on star wars, and idgaf if you find an issue with it
Mediocre writer and generally a jerk? Not surprising.
Escape Goat
Member
Until you actually create something, nobody here cares.
beato_angelico
Member
on top on that, being a mediocre at best writer doesn't help.
And the instant I do, there will be more people on gaf hating on me than people happy for me. Shit is sad. Look at this thread, people actually saying Gary was a jerk poster? What? Dude seemed like a regular guy, was involved in sports threads with us and didn't seem any different than anyone else. I liked him. People also saying he left gaf after getting his writing job... Wtf? Who cares? Most people who get jobs keeping them super busy aren't posting on gaf like they were when they were unemployed.
Okay, what are the guidelines? Are we talking writing a script? I've done that. Webcomic? Done. Short film? Done. Oh, do you mean published? In that case, three issues of a comic-book. Does that make me valid to critique the work of the guy who helped turn After Earth from a horror film set in the present day rooted in survival into a fucking awful sci-fi film?
Doublesith
Member
Orci and Kurtzman should get GAF accounts so they can get any hint of criticism towards them labeled as jealousy.
Maybe they could get sycophantic "Go Alex! Go Bob! We believe in you!" posts as well!
Maybe they could get sycophantic "Go Alex! Go Bob! We believe in you!" posts as well!
There's a difference between criticism and the posts I've seen in here. Saying after earth was fucking awful is fine with me. That's your opinion. Saying Gary deserves to have his posts sent to lucasarts (hopefully so they fire him over it, otherwise why would they be sent?) is petty and speaks of jealousy to me
Randomizer
Member
Good he is a terrible writer, even worse than prequel era Lucas.
The guy writes one bad film (After Earth) and his reputation is forever tarnished here. Blood of Eli was pretty damn good. Not amazing by any stretch but a worthy post-apocalyptic film/screenplay. I'm sure he'd do a decent-to-good job on the spin-off. What's the spin-off about anyway?
The Faceless Master
Member
i don't get why some people are surprised that others don't like shady post editing tactics, even if they themselves think that's totes ok.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Depends on the reasoning to me.
Covering your ass when you land one of the biggest jobs in your career is an acceptable reason to edit posts.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
People just want to feel important in whatever minute ways they can. This is a method that doesn't take much effort. Here's a guy whose done something, and there's enough in his history here to take a swing at his kneecaps - so you swing.
There's honest criticism (which has happened) there's even-handed negative opinions of the guy's work (fair amount of that) and then there are people who get a thrill out of knowing someone who knows someone really famous and important is going to see what they say, and it feels empowering (in a sour sort of way) to poke a finger in that guy's eye.
It's not really about their opinion, and it's not really about the conversation. It's why so many of these sorts of posts are exhibiting more than enough evidence that the poster in question hasn't actually read anything - because this is mostly about making sure you heard them being "powerful" with their empty bullshit, and nothing more than that.
It's frustrating, sure.
On the other hand, though - there is some spin going on regarding the man's leaving the project. This sort of thing DOES happen a lot in Hollywood. It doesn't mean the writers it happens to are necessarily happy about it. Writers are traditionally low man on the totem pole. Writers are often thrown at a project like spitballs. But again - this isn't necessarily a situation writers enjoy. And it's definitely not one they sign up for beforehand unless it's script doctoring, in which case they know they're just coming on for a couple weeks, taking their check, and then getting the hell out.
Whitta & Edwards were introduced as a duo, pictures, press releases, the whole nine. They were presented to the public as the creative team behind the first spinoff Star Wars movie. That's not something that's done if you're planning on getting rid of the writer before production starts and hiring a new writer (as the Hollywood Reporter article states) to either redo or refine what was originally written.
I'm sure the split was amicable/amiable, because Gary Whitta would like to work with Lucasfilm again, and it's never a good idea to unnecessarily piss off important people in the industry. Make the right noises so people don't have a reason not to hire you.
But I'm also pretty sure this split was not part of the plan, just like - to use the previously cited examples of Prometheus and The Force Awakens - it wasn't really part of the plan to have Jon Spaihts or Michael Arndt removed from the project before it started shooting.
He'll likely still keep his credit (and if the movie doesn't work well, he'll get all the blame that unfairly or not goes along with that credit) and he'll definitely keep his check, but - and maybe he'll come back here and prove me utterly wrong, which would be more than cool - I don't think this was the outcome he was hoping for, to have to leave the project and have another writer take it over.
To use Arndt as an example again - the same noises were made when Arndt was removed from The Force Awakens. But Arndt definitely did not want to have been taken off the project. And he didn't sign on thinking that was going to be part of the deal, either. It's probable this is the same case with Whitta.
Interfectum
Member
ITT: Salty people who know nothing about the screen writing business.
Let's be perfectly clear, no one would give two shits about this hack if he wasn't a member of this forum.
Obviously, it's the only reason he gets any attention here. No other screenwriter, bad or good, gets this sort of spotlight on him on this forum.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
They probably would simply because he was hired to write a Star Wars movie. There's enough genre fans on this board that someone would have paid attention to him - and that's without noting the fact a lot of people first heard of him as a gaming critic. It'd be like if, say, Patrick Klepek got a job writing screenplays next year, and a couple years after that, got hired to do a Star Wars movie. Whether he'd ever posted one word here or not - people likely would have given a shit about Gary Whitta in some form or fashion.
Also, common misconception: A hack isn't a bad writer. A hack is a mercenary writer who cares nothing about the product he's turning out so long as the check clears.
Whitta pretty obviously gives a shit about the things he writes, whether you enjoy them or think they're of a considerable quality. The thing that delineates a writer from being a hack or not is their level of passion. A hack has none.
DarkLordMalik
Member
I admit that The Book of Eli was an enjoyable experience for me.
I am not really that much of a Star Wars fan so don't know what to say, but I hope Whitta is able to make another good movie like Book of Eli. I have managed to avoid seeing After Earth so far.
I am not really that much of a Star Wars fan so don't know what to say, but I hope Whitta is able to make another good movie like Book of Eli. I have managed to avoid seeing After Earth so far.
MarkMclovin
Member
You don't need to be an expert to see shit from miles away.
I find it hard to believe LA would give a flying fuck what Gary said about the prequels on a message board. Deleting that stuff was an absurd overreaction.
JonathanEx
Member
Would it be deleting posts to not upset bosses, or to prevent shitty tabloid-esque stories of "STAR WARS WRITER HATES STAR WARS"?
Even the nerdiest film sites don't seem to care that much about the writers of these films. Guys like Sorkin, Moffat and Mamet? Sure. Guy who writes a draft of a Star Wars film? Eh.
Almost definitely the latter. He knew the moment the news broke every nerd blog would google "gary whitta star wars". Given that he's not really famous and he used his full name here, I bet the GAF posts came up on page 2 or 3 - after all the Tested podcast rants. All it takes is one slow news day and they've got a story.
He should have just PM'd or emailed Evilore. I highly doubt he would have had a problem deleting the posts and replies given the genuine reason.
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