Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie is on a nice winning streak. Two years ago his pen brought us the intense, sci-fi blockbuster Edge of Tomorrow, and last summer he blew all of our minds both writing and directing Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. He is currently hard at work putting together the pieces for Mission: Impossible 6 - but if new reports are to be believed, he's actually been spending some time also "saving" the script for Star Wars: Rogue One.
The Gareth Edwards-directed project about the heist of the original Death Star plans has gone through many different hands on the writing level, but Birth.Movies.Death is now reporting that Christopher McQuarrie did some quiet, uncredited rewrite work that has benefited Star Wars: Rogue One immensely. The site has sources that say that McQuarrie was hired by Lucasfilm and Disney when the movie was first going into production and that his contributions helped immensely. Given the amount of secrecy around the project, we can't know now what kind of changes were made, but that surely will be a subject that comes up closer to the movie's release later this year.
When it was first announced that Lucasfilm would be producing new non-saga Star Wars movies (called Star Wars Stories), Gary Whitta was hired to work on the script for what would ultimately be called Rogue One. That relationship ended in January of last year, however, when Whitta publicaly announced that his work on the film was "done." Only a few weeks later, Oscar nominee Chris Weitz was brought on board - though it looks like it was Christopher McQuarrie who helped bring the screenplay to the finish line.
McQuarrie - who broke out back in the early 1990s thanks to his Academy Award-winning script for The Usual Suspects - but he also has a long history of script doctor work, and given his talent level it's hard to see this as anything but a good thing. It is troubling to hear that Star Wars: Rogue One might have been in need of "saving" even after cameras had started rolling, but we have faith in all of those involved in steering the ship.
Star Wars: Rogue One began filming last July and entered post-production right before the end of last year. Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Ben Mendelsohn, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Forest Whitaker, Diego Luna Riz Ahmed and more star in the space-set war film, which will be released on December 16th. Sadly we haven't seen much in terms of footage or images from the blockbuster, but at the latest we'll probably see a trailer before Captain America: Civil War. In the meantime, stay tuned for more updates about the exciting new prequel project and all things Star Wars.
