When it comes right down to it, who can honestly say that they wouldn't be interested in making a movie about Han Solo? In addition to being one badass son of a bitch who will shoot you before you have a chance to shoot him (screw you, Greedo!), he also happens to fly the coolest ship in the galaxy - The Millennium Falcon - and has the coolest, furriest best friend in the world in Chewbacca. Who wouldn't want to tell a story about a character like that? Robert Rodriguez certainly would.
MTV had the chance speak with the Sin City filmmaker during the Sundance Film Festival last week, and when the subject turned to Star Wars Rodriguez began to talk about what he would love to see come out of the new deal between Lucasfilm and Disney - most notably some spin-off movies separate from the upcoming Episodes VII, VIII and IX. Asked for his thoughts about the upcoming movies, Rodriguez expressed enthusiasm regarding the possibility of off-shoot movies that would center on smaller sectors of the Star Wars universe and some of its more interesting characters. "There's so much you can do," he told the site. "George [Lucas] has built such an enormous world that just to be waiting now again, who's going to live up that? It's almost like they should just branch it out, and let people play with those characters. There's such rich stuff."
But while Rodriguez said he would definitely accept an offer to make a Han Solo movie, he wouldn't necessarily be interested in telling a different story set in the Star Wars universe. Responding to a question regarding his own interests in the series, the writer/director instead pointed to the origins of the franchise to explain why he would rather stick to his own original films. Said the filmmaker,
"It depends on what it was. George really inspired me to do what I'm doing now, which is the same thing he did. He originally wanted and couldn't get the rights to Flash Gordon. He tried, couldn't get it, so he went and wrote Star Wars, which was his complete take on Flash Gordon, even to the opening titles crawl that went that way.... I think if I asked [Lucas] for advice, he would say 'Go make your own "Star Wars" universe, kid.' "
The reason it's funny that Rodriguez would be interested in making a Han Solo movie is because Wes Anderson actually pitched the idea earlier this month, saying that he could probably manage an origin story short about the famed smuggler. Now I just want to see both of them try it and compare the results.
