Earlier this week we learned that a script for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker nearly ended up on eBay, and had to be purchased by Disney to avoid the script getting out into the world before the movie hit theaters. Considering how closely those scripts are held and how valuable they are, it was a surprising thing to hear, but what's even more surprising is whose script it was. It turns out, the script in question belonged to John Boyega.
This morning on GMA John Boyega confessed that the script that ended up for sale online had belonged to him. As he explained it, he kept the script hidden under his bed, and in the process of moving, the script just got left behind. It then apparently spent some time sitting under the bed until the old apartment was being cleaned, at which point, a cleaning person discovered the script and tried to off load it on eBay.
We've heard of extreme measures being taken with scripts on movies like Star Wars to prevent leaks. In some cases, actors aren't even allowed to have their own copies in order to reduce the risk of the script making it out into the open. In this case, one wonders if John Boyega will ever be trusted like this again. I can imagine Disney and Lucasfilm were not happy.
On the plus side, it wouldn't have been that hard to actually just buy the script online if it had come to that. John Boyega says that the person selling the script for The Rise of Skywalker was only asking for 65 pounds, about 80 bucks, for the highly prized item, so at least the studio wouldn't have break the bank to get it back.
It never came to that of course. The sale was halted when Disney stepped in and stopped it from happening. A polite request in the form of a cease and desist order likely was involved.
One assumes then that there are at least a couple people who know what happens in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and how this whole saga will finally end. I have to assume the temptation to read it was too great. You don't just try to sell the thing without reading it yourself, right? Assuming the person who found the script knew who had previously occupied the apartment, and thus that the script was legit, but you still want to give it a closer look to be sure.
I don't really want to know what happens in the movie until I sit down and watch it in a few weeks, but if there was a script sitting on my desk, I doubt I'd be able to avoid reading it.
Luckily, with every passing day we get that much closer to the release of The Rise of Skywalker and seeing how it all ends for ourselves.
