Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Rogue One was great but the only problem I had with it was just how DARK it was. And maybe I'm not giving enough credit to how Dark ANH and ROTJ were, but man - I just can't see a 9 year old watching that movie and not being bummed as hell throughout.
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The film was quite different originally, with most of the team, including Cassian, K2 and Jyn, all surviving at the end of the film. It was far more "upbeat" and happy, with a different tone overall but once it was screened for Bob Iger, it was apparent that the film "Didn't work".
This was after the original script, written by Gary Whitta and based on a story by ILM's John Knoll, was re-written by Chris Weitz. Gareth had input on the re-writes as well but everyone, including Gareth and KK, came to the conclusion that it was just too "unrealistic", especially considering none of the characters were ever mentioned in the OT, TFA, Rebels, etc.
Iger told them to "make it dark and make it right", so KK hired Tony Gilroy, an Oscar nominated writer and director, to rewrite the 2nd and 3rd act. Gilroy had zero affliation with Lucasfilm and unlike Gareth, wasn't a Star Wars fan, so he had no problem with killing them all, which is exactly what the film needed to succeed.
I thought it was brilliant from top to bottom, from casting to directing to story to cinematography (Jedha was extremely interesting to me, that there would be a city and planet "dedicated" to the Jedi. I thought that was an extremely interesting concept that the Jedi would have "worshipers"). But what really blew me away was the realism: We'd only heard about the bad deeds of the Empire but to actually see them, behind the scenes, was incredible to me. And the ends that the rebellion would go to in order to defeat the Empire was something that heretofore, I'd never considered.
It added much needed "weight" to the Star Wars universe that IMO, was lacking from the prequels and TFA.
Unfortunately, most of Ben Mendelsohn's performace was left on the cutting room floor. I spoke with him at a Chanakuh Party in 2017 and he was really bummed out about it and was really hoping it would have been his "big break" into American cinema (he's Australian, FWIW). Fortunately for him, he's had quite a bit of success and work since with Ready Player One and Captain Marvel.
All of these changes also explain why all of the trailers were so very different from the final film, as they were shooting as late as October of 2016 and editing up until just a few weeks before the release (Where have we heard that one before?).