Joe Brody
Well-known member
Good Wall Street Journal article substantiating in part some of the sentiments expressed in this thread:
Mr. Lucas hired Ms. Kennedy shortly before Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012. Since then, there have been three director changes over five ?Star Wars? films, raising eyebrows in Hollywood and among fans.
Gareth Edwards, director of 2016?s ?Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,? was replaced after principal photography by Tony Gilroy, who shot new scenes and re-edited the movie. In a recent interview on the podcast ?The Moment With Brian Koppelman, ? Mr. Gilroy said ?they were in so much terrible, terrible trouble that all you could do was to improve their position.?
Colin Trevorrow, the director of ?Jurassic World? initially tapped to helm the next ?Star Wars? movie, 2019?s Episode IX, was dismissed after Ms. Kennedy grew unhappy with his work on the script, said a person with knowledge of his work on the movie.
A firm and decisive hand is needed in running a major Hollywood franchise, and Ms. Kennedy?s supporters say she has worked well with J.J. Abrams, director of 2015?s ?The Force Awakens,? and Rian Johnson on last year?s ?The Last Jedi.? Others say she has too frequently second-guessed her own choices and hasn?t effectively resolved disagreements with directors.
Mr. Johnson said he felt Ms. Kennedy gave him a ?creative bubble? that empowered him ?to tell the story I cared about in the way I wanted to tell it.?
Mr. Abrams said he had differences of opinion ?all the time? with Ms. Kennedy, but that she ?really takes in what people say and finds a creative way to aggregate and distill the conversation.?
People who have worked with her on past movies, including ?E.T.,? ?Jurassic Park? and ?The Sixth Sense,? described her as more of a skilled manager than creative mastermind. At Disney, she has worked closely on creative matters with film studio chairman Alan Horn and Mr. Kasdan, the strongest remaining link to the original ?Star Wars? trilogy since Mr. Lucas retired.
Mr. Kasdan, who hadn?t made a studio movie in more than a decade before returning to Lucasfilm, co-wrote ?The Force Awakens? and ?Solo? and consulted on the writing and editing of ?The Last Jedi.?
Lucasfilm under Ms. Kennedy has produced three blockbusters. ?The Force Awakens,? ?Rogue One? and ?The Last Jedi? were the highest-grossing movies the years they were released, and each scored 85% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes. Pre-release polling indicates ?Solo? will set a Memorial Day weekend record with an opening of more than $140 million and possibly as high as $200 million.
Still, momentum for the series is on the wane since ?The Last Jedi.? Controversial among fans, its ticket sales fell faster than for earlier ?Star Wars? movies, a sign of weaker word-of-mouth.