Saw it today.

Eh.
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i understand Disney micro managing their Billion$ purchase but surely they know creative people, truly crestive people can't do their best work when focus groups and marketing are deciding the creative direction.
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I can't vouch for the awesomeness (or lack there of) of the original screenplay and edit.

But I can vouch for the fact that everyone, regardless of their title, has a say, relevant or not, just to justify their job title.

It wasn't focus groups or anything of the like.

It was Bob Iger and Alan Horn.
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I watched A New Hope last night in memory of my first love, Princess Leia, for the first time since seeing R1, and I can't believe how much it changed the mood of the whole film, particularly the opening act. Vader's lines carry a lot more weight on Leia's ship in the opening.

That bit about Disney stepping out of the way really gives me hope that this excellence won't be a one time thing. I don't care how many people have a say, as long as the end goal is to produce a great Star Wars film.

Dane, I know we disagree on some things, but I do appreciate the insight you bring to the hollywood discussions.
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:-) :-)
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Good to hear. Disney has had two cracks at Star Wars now and hit a home run twice. Both of these were 10X better than any of the George Lucas controlled sequels of the originals.
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Dane, did Edwards direct most of the movie or was it an even split with Gilroy? Do you know much about the reshoots?

Whatever the case, it most likely helped the movie.
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Ben Mendelsohn on Shooting “Enormously Different” Versions of ‘Rogue One’

http://collider.com/ben-mendelsohn-r...ars-interview/
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This article reinforces what I was told on Christmas Eve.

Of course, it helps since it was directly from the same horse's mouth.

:-)
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From my understanding, Edwards shot 75% of the film that was released. He and Tony Gilroy are close, so there really weren't any issues or arguments. Gilroy also received a writing credit since several key aspects of the film changed.

The main reason why Gilroy was hired, instead of having Edwards do the reshoots, is because of the changes and the more than doubled VFX budget after the initial screening for the Disney brass. There wouldn't have been enough time to hit the December 16th release date otherwise.

Edwards oversaw all of the VFX as well as the ADR while Gilroy was conducting the reshoots. The fast that Edwards trusted Gilroy made for a seamless collaboration, which I think is seen onscreen.

The only "mistake" for lack of a better word, was hiring Abrams pal Giacchino to score the film after Desplat dropped out due the contract. I can think of many better alternatives and the score, IMO, was the weakest part of the film.
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:-)
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Good link. Sort of explains why there are scenes in the trailers that aren't in the movie and different variations of scenes
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Yea I normally like Giacchino, but there we're parts of that score that sounded a lot like 'Lost' the tv series
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I've always been a Giacchino fan. And I thought the score was really strong. But I totally understand why people didn't feel/like it. There's just something about his work that always works on me. Not sure what it is. But whatever.
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