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Lucasfilm hired acting coach for Han Solo star's performance

vordhosbn

Banned
They say also said he started this mutiny between the directors & studio.

This is what happens when you hire models instead of actors.
 
Rian Johnson
Ava DuVernay
Ryan Coogler
Susanne Bier
Edgar Wright
Joe Johnston
and/or JJ Abrams

I can't see DuVernay and Edgar Wright fitting into this structure you're describing at all. But Johnston is the perfect example. Directors like him remind me of the western directors of old. That's the kind of people Lucasfilm should be pursuing. There's no use hiring the new hot wunderkind if it's going to lead to disaster half the time.
 

otake

Doesn't know that "You" is used in both the singular and plural
There's a very interesting detail regarding cameras and placement. Lucasfilm wanted at least 12 cameras and positions for every take but the Miller and Lord were using only two. That's weird. Having 12 cameras allows for more editing options. The only reason to limit the cameras s to prevent the studio from imposing their vision in the editing process. That's a very aggressive move for a directing duo managing a franchise that's worth over a billion dollars.

In other words, I would have fired them as well for using 2 cameras instead of 12.
 

Boke1879

Member
If this is a trainwreck then I hope they ditch the side-films and just concentrate on proper episodes. Would much rather the story keeps going forward rather than wallow in prequel hell.

Nah they can keep doing this as long as they like. There is no clause that says I have to watch every movie they put out if I don't find it interesting.

This initiative imo has helped expand the brand if anything.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
Why would they NOT applause?

The boss has a meeting with the crew, announces the new director, you think people will just sit there with crickets chirping? In any work environment people will applaud.

This won't change the fact that this movie is a dumb idea, no one can do Han Solo, period. This is a cash grab because they don't want to do something entirely new, like that dumb Obi-Wan movie.
 
I can't see DuVernay and Edgar Wright fitting into this stucture you're describing at all.

DuVernay's already worked somewhat within it (helped on TFA) and is currently doing Wrinkle in Time for Disney. She's already in the fold and knows how to work with the production apparatus.

You could swap out Wright if you don't like for someone like Rachel Talalay. Or Neil Marshall.
 

SpaceWolf

Banned
There's a very interesting detail regarding cameras and placement. Lucasfilm wanted at least 12 cameras and positions for every take but the Miller and Lord were using only two. That's weird. Having 12 cameras allows for more editing options. The only reason to limit the cameras s to prevent the studio from imposing their vision in the editing process. That's a very aggressive move for a directing duo managing a franchise that's worth over a billion dollars.

In other words, I would have fired them as well for using 2 cameras instead of 12.

12 cameras sounds like an absolute nightmare to keep track of on set, honestly. There's giving yourself enough options to play around in the editing room, and having so many you're only distracting yourself from the fundamentals of the scenes in editing.
 

Tobor

Member
Funny how many different angles one could take to present the Hollywood Reporter's story and the OP chose "THEY HIRED AN ACTING COACH FOR EHRENREICH."

Nothing wrong, but of all the tidbits.

Here's what I've been thinking, after reading this thing, and seeing the scuffles/scrapes LFL's gotten in with their current methodology of "This white man is young and semi-successful in the indie realm let's throw $200 mil at em and make a Star War"

Lucasfilm needs to start treating their Cinematic Universe for what it actually is: A big fat TV Miniseries

That's really all Cinematic Universes are, for the most part. You just subtract the TV and add $200 mil budgets. But this is what the studios are about now, this is how blockbusters work. Sequels aren't doing it anymore. You have to build these giant, multi-film narratives that can branch out and spin-off.

And in order to do that, you need to adopt the television production model, because TV's been doing it for years now, and some of the best filmed entertainment IN the past 20 or so years is coming out of television. Everyone knows this, it's not surprising or bold to say.

If film studios are increasingly biting the notion of a Writer's Room or "Story Group" or whatever they want to call the overseeing brain trust of a fictional universe, then they (and Lucasfilm specifically, it seems) need to go the next step and also adopt the notion of a Director's Bench.

Find the 5 or 6 directors you know fit the needs of your production, the specific blend of talent, creativity, ingenuity, leadership, organizational skills, and efficiency, and then lock 'em down. Rotate em through. (which gives them time to go off and make their own things, as well)

This is basically where we're headed already. People have been thinking about our entertainment entities as sports teams as it is for a pretty damn long time. Might as well lean into it, right? Studios getting into the cinematic universe game are probably gonna have to start building those benches. Drafting directors. Signing 'em to contracts.

Imagine a Lucasfilm where, no matter WHAT gets announced, you know that either

Rian Johnson
Ava DuVernay
Ryan Coogler
Susanne Bier
Edgar Wright
Joe Johnston
and/or JJ Abrams

is going to be making it. Boosts your confidence, right? It'll boost production's, too.

I dunno. Just seems to me like this is basically where we're heading anyway. Might as well get out in front of it. Filmmaking was already a collaborative thing that made "auteur theory" fit like David Byrne's suit. This sort of large-scale storytelling? Might as well make it a full on team sport.

We're heading back to the 40s & 50s, I think, in terms of how the sausage gets made.

Exactly. 100% agreed. I've been arguing this for years. What is Kevin Feige? He's a blockbuster show runner on the biggest show in the world.

Yes, it's a reversal of the 70's auteur movement, but it works and works well.
 

jelly

Member
Pretty much everyone thought it was a good idea. In no small part because a Han Solo movie is a bad idea, and Lord&Miller are known for turning bad ideas into great movies.

22 Jump Street is an awful film. First one is quite funny.

I'm undecided on the Lego Movie. Felt like a never ending seizure a lot of the time but the story angle was neat.
 

SpaceWolf

Banned
Why would they NOT applause?

The boss has a meeting with the crew, announces the new director, you think people will just sit there with crickets chirping? In any work environment people will applaud.

This won't change the fact that this movie is a dumb idea, no one can do Han Solo, period. This is a cash grab because they don't want to do something entirely new

Always felt "this is a cash grab" was a weird complaint when it came to studios greenlighting certain blockbusters films.

All blockbusters are supposed to make as much money as possible. They're all cash grabs. That's sort of the nature of a corporate industry.
 

otake

Doesn't know that "You" is used in both the singular and plural
12 cameras sounds like an absolute nightmare to keep track of on set, honestly. There's giving yourself enough options to play around in the editing room, and having so many you're only distracting yourself from the fundamentals of the scenes in editing.

with this amount of money, no one cares about how hard it is to track just hire more people.
 

Massicot

Member
I don't know much about film development, but I'm not sure why this is such a huge red flag. Is bringing an acting coach on board such a huge deviation from what's typical? Is the sky really falling?
 

DonShula

Member
Ewan is practically standing there and they decide to make a Han Solo movie. Now it's all going to hell. Disney deserves this.

It really does irk me that he's still alive and able bodied and Disney is just WASTING day after day of not cramming him into as many movies as possible. He's the best thing about the prequel trilogy that isn't dead or written off during a timeline that'd allow for a side story. I guess they have the cartoons and all that but still.

There better be some sort of master plan with all this that ties into Episode IX or something.
 

OmegaFax

Member
The damage control for this production is incredible. People will clap out of professional respect and to not get shitcanned themselves. The whole thing falls on Kathleen Kennedy. It seems like the problems get dramatically worst with each production (barring Episode 8 ... but since Kathleen Kennedy sat through Celebration this year with an incredible poker face while the Han Solo stuff was going on behind the scenes, who knows?)
 

Busty

Banned
Exactly. 100% agreed. I've been arguing this for years. What is Kevin Feige? He's a blockbuster show runner on the biggest show in the world.

Yes, it's a reversal of the 70's auteur movement, but it works and works well.

At the risk of angering the various fans who are oddly invested in 'how the sausage is made' over at Marvel I agree whole heartedly.

For what it's worth I actually really like the way you've worded that.
 

jelly

Member
I love Harrison Ford as Solo, Indy but what is the difference between Obi and Han when Ewan plays Obi Wan and everyone wants his solo film?

Alec not cool so doesn't matter?
 

otake

Doesn't know that "You" is used in both the singular and plural
To do what?

To solve any inconvenience brought upon by the demands of the studio. Studio is boss, they are putting up a lot of money, if you need help tracking the cameras, hire a second unit director to sit right there next to you. Who cares.

These guys basically told "the money" to take a hike and "the money" said ciao.
 

Szu

Member
Would that it were so simple.

tumblr_o6tpe8IgZp1qg4e0wo3_r1_400.gif
 
There's a very interesting detail regarding cameras and placement. Lucasfilm wanted at least 12 cameras and positions for every take but the Miller and Lord were using only two. That's weird. Having 12 cameras allows for more editing options. The only reason to limit the cameras s to prevent the studio from imposing their vision in the editing process. That's a very aggressive move for a directing duo managing a franchise that's worth over a billion dollars.

In other words, I would have fired them as well for using 2 cameras instead of 12.

It's not that weird. Many of the top directors don't shoot any coverage. It can be the mark of a great director actually. But yeah most directors shoot with tons of more angels especially the ones that don't know what they want. But if you do know what you want, there's no real reason to shoot with many angels.
 
They need to give us the Obi-Wan movie first, then we can talk.

Obi-Wan is my favourite SW character and I would have zero interest in a spin-off. He's gotten to be in multiple films, TV shows and comics he's far more overexposed than Han Solo. Gimme new characters moving the story along, not "this is how Old Ben learned the krayt dragon call: the motion picture".

Sorry if I'm being a grumpy old man but I'm irked as heck
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
Always felt "this is a cash grab" was a weird complaint when it came to studios greenlighting certain blockbusters films.

All blockbusters are supposed to make as much money as possible. They're all cash grabs. That's sort of the nature of a corporate industry.

A cash grab means not putting in actual effort. Not difficult to understand. Would you expect your favorite musician to just pump out albums as much as possible to make as much money while they're popular, over taking their time to put their creative energy to work on something they actually feel more passionate about?

This tendency to look at everything as sales numbers is really getting to people's heads. They should put their money in the stock market then.
 
A cash grab means not putting in actual effort. Not difficult to understand.

It's pretty cynical, though. It also tends to ignore the impetus behind the first chapter of the thing we're talking about being made, as well - since most popular entertainments aren't made out of the love and concern for storytelling as the primary factor.

But a large, large percentage of even the shittiest movies you ever saw were made by people who were trying really hard to make a good one.

Movies don't turn out bad because the people making them don't give a fuck, for the most part. They turn out bad for any number of reasons - mostly that making movies is really fucking hard.

There are bad movies where their quality can be sourced back to a writer/director/producer who shrugs and says "fuck it, cash the check, it doesn't matter." That does happen. It's why the term "hack" came about. That's what a hack is - someone who does the work as perfunctorily as possible to secure the check, and doesn't care about the quality or reception of their work. That's a hack.

But a lot of the denigrating use of "cash grab" sources back to a weird misunderstanding of why your favorite popular big-budget intended-to-be-blockbuster entertainments are made in the first place, and it's not due to the overwhelming passion of the arts. It's due to commerce.

Art can spring out of commerce. And people can work hard to make that art as meaningful as possible even within that commercial framework.

But that doesn't mean the shit wasn't, primarily, a "cash grab."

And it doesn't mean that bad movies in that system are bad because nobody gives a fuck, either.
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
I don't want good looking douches in decent franchises, look at what happened to Prometheus. Let's keep these idiots locked to romantic comedies and young adult films.

Are you talking about Alden? He's one of the more promising young actors in the game right now. He didn't just fall off the Central Casting truck yesterday.

I don't even know what the Prometheus comment means either cause Logan Marshall Green is a spectacular actor too. Not sure who else in the cast you're referring to.
 

otake

Doesn't know that "You" is used in both the singular and plural
It's not that weird. Many of the top directors don't shoot any coverage. It can be the mark of a great director actually. But yeah most directors shoot with tons of more angels especially the ones that don't know what they want. But if you do know what you want, there's no real reason to shoot with many angels.

In this case they should because the studio wanted it that way. The studio wants to be able to choose it's edit. They should have appeased the studio. If they wanted to make their own movie, don't do star wars. The same thing would have happened with Marvel or WB.
 

Jarmel

Banned
A lot of this article feels like Lucasfilm PR damage control just like a lot of the initial articles felt like L&M damage control.

Of course these things tend to devolve into 'he said she said' types of debates so that's not really unusual.
 
I don't want good looking douches in decent franchises, look at what happened to Prometheus. Let's keep these idiots locked to romantic comedies and young adult films.
..what happened to Prometheus? Logan Marshall Green is great, Fassbender almost salvaged the movie, Idris Elba and Charlize Theron were shit but that was because of the script.

Prometheus' problems had nothing to do with the actors and everything to do with a god awful script.
 
Funny how many different angles one could take to present the Hollywood Reporter's story and the OP chose "THEY HIRED AN ACTING COACH FOR EHRENREICH."

Nothing wrong, but of all the tidbits.

Here's what I've been thinking, after reading this thing, and seeing the scuffles/scrapes LFL's gotten in with their current methodology of "This white man is young and semi-successful in the indie realm let's throw $200 mil at em and make a Star War"

Lucasfilm needs to start treating their Cinematic Universe for what it actually is: A big fat TV Miniseries

-Snippity snip-

We're heading back to the 40s & 50s, I think, in terms of how the sausage gets made.
Eeehhhhh.

I suppose this is a good way of having the quality of blockbusters be more consistent(ly shit/mediocre/good) but going back to that system rubs me the wrong way. It works for Marvel but I don't want it spreading everywhere.
I don't want good looking douches in decent franchises, look at what happened to Prometheus. Let's keep these idiots locked to romantic comedies and young adult films.
...Right.

You don't know what you're talking about.
 

SpaceWolf

Banned
A cash grab means not putting in actual effort. Not difficult to understand.

What a silly thing to say.

If they weren't putting any "actual effort" into this film, Lucasfilm wouldn't have fired the original directors because they were concerned about perceived issues with the quality of the film and the direction that it was taking. If they weren't putting any of energy into it, wouldn't it have simply have been easier for them just to let Lord and Miller finish the film after three more weeks, as opposed to stopping production and finding another respected director to take over? In addition, why would they have got the main star an acting coach if they weren't willing to put some effort into improving things?
 

Pandy

Member
I love Harrison Ford as Solo, Indy but what is the difference between Obi and Han when Ewan plays Obi Wan and everyone wants his solo film?

Alec not cool so doesn't matter?
I'd say Obi being a mostly absent side-character in the original trilogy, versus being a much bigger character in the prequels.

Also, Jedi vs. douchbag.
 

-griffy-

Banned
12 cameras sounds like an absolute nightmare to keep track of on set, honestly. There's giving yourself enough options to play around in the editing room, and having so many you're only distracting yourself from the fundamentals of the scenes in editing.
You guys are misinterpreting this. It's not 12 cameras, it's 12 setups. A setup is just that, meaning the camera and lighting is setup for one specific angle. When you change angles, you have to move the camera, move the lights, fly in or out parts of the set, etc., and set it all up again.

The article says they were only shooting 3 setups in a single day, rather than the 12-15 expected.
 
DuVernay's already worked somewhat within it (helped on TFA) and is currently doing Wrinkle in Time for Disney. She's already in the fold and knows how to work with the production apparatus.

You could swap out Wright if you don't like for someone like Rachel Talalay. Or Neil Marshall.

Right, I forgot about DuVernay and Force Awakens. Neil Marshall could be a good fit. As another poster pointed out, it is kinda weird seeing this reversal of the 70s auteur movement though. But I guess it's been a long time coming. And it's probably cyclical.
 

DonShula

Member
I love Harrison Ford as Solo, Indy but what is the difference between Obi and Han when Ewan plays Obi Wan and everyone wants his solo film?

Alec not cool so doesn't matter?

Well, Alec's dead. Ewan as Obi-Wan was a beloved character in a morass of mediocrity for three movies. He's still alive and still able to sword fight and still looks (or could look) reasonably like he did for the prequels. We could have him in a prequel-type side story and give him a better script to work with if Disney wanted it to happen. The character could really shine. And we're burning daylight because my man isn't getting any younger.
 
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