A report from BirthMoviesDeath.com claims that The Usual Suspects and Oscar-winning writer Christopher McQuarrie has polished the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story script for Lucasfilm and Disney.
Rogue One follows a band of rebels and mercenaries hired to steal the Death Star plans in the original trilogy. Gareth Edwards claims that the film will not feature any Jedi and will finally put the ‘war’ in Star Wars.
What a lot of people don’t realise is that sometimes a few screenwriters polish and redo scripts for big studio movies. Often these aren’t extensive changes or fully-fledged rewrites but a few minor changes to make the film flow better.
McQuarrie supposedly took two weeks to ‘fix’ a script previously worked on by Garry Whitta and Chris Weitz.
Whitta boarded the project alongside director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) and produced the first draft for the film. Whitta is a well-known video game writer and contributing polisher, much like the role McQuarrie takes here, but he does have writing credits on The Book of Eli and After Earth – two very contrasting movies with two very contrasting responses. It is, therefore, good news that Chris Weitz came on to add his three-pence to the screenplay.
Oscar-nominated screenwriter Chris Weitz took over from Whitta and turned in a script for Edwards to film with. Weitz has written such films as About A Boy, Golden Compass and Cinderella. I have a feeling that Whitta’s original screenplay was very dark and gritty and Dinsey brought Weitz on to add some lighter elements and polish the story.
And now, if the rumour is to be believed, the fantastic and impressive Christopher McQuarrie has thrown his hat into the ring. McQuarrie has written underrated films like Valkyrie, The Way of the Gun and Jack Reacher and elevated to the next level with his direction of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, in which he also added to the screenplay.
However, McQuarrie’s standout film, aside from the obvious The Usual Suspects, is Edge of Tomorrow. McQuarrie has the ability to drive the narrative forward without ever engrossing comedy, heart, drama and tension. He is a fantastic screenwriter and adding him to Rogue One only bodes well for the story.
It’s also funny that McQuarrie went from Rogue Nation to Rogue One for a job. The universe is full of coincidences and unimaginative Hollywood executives.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will hit theatres on 16th December 2016.
