How Did Lord & Miller Get Hired?

I'm going to tell you right now, this think piece is wholeheartedly on the side of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller even though it seems like they tried to hijack the Han Solo Anthology film.  They are, after all, two directors who make going to the movies worthwhile and they made CLONE HIGH!

So here's what we know about the situation.  Kathleen Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan did not agree with the decisions Phil Lord & Christopher Miller were making.  What we can infer is that the convivial nature of the people Kathleen paid to do a job did not match her vision.  Even down to poorly interpreting a fan favourite character like Han Solo.  This leaves only one question.

I understand that people who have lived with a character and have been there for some of his most iconic moments definitely have a good handle on how he should be portrayed.  But, how did they not foresee an issue with handing the reins over to two irreverent filmmakers?  Seriously who did they think they were hiring?  Sure they take things from the past and make them entertaining again.  But, they do so through humour on the verge of satire.  

I'm sure there must have been some discussion about the degree to which Lord & Miller were going to be able to inject levity into this film, but, did Kennedy and Kasdan really think there would be none?  More importantly, how serious were these talks if more than half way through filming you realize that the directors you hired might not be portraying Han Solo the way you wanted?

We know that Kathleen ain't the one since she has had no problem fixing messes.  Remember the decistion to exorcise Josh Trank before he fully self destructed with another fan favourite character, Boba Fett.  Last year, Gareth Edwards was put on the bench so Tony Gilroy could oversee re-writes and re-shoots of Rogue One. 

Both choices worked out well.  But they're still different situations than what has happened with Phil & Chris.  In one case, Kennedy & co. realized that creative differences would occur and got off the train before it crashed.  The other scenario made sure the person they hired to do the job initially got to keep his title while they brought someone in to fix what they didn't like.  How do you go from that foresight to straight up blindsiding your directors with termination.  How far off were they from the vision?  How weren't there signs of this before now?

Like Sway, I don't have the answers.  I just find this move so weird.  Especially since this was the movie I was actually looking forward to out of the slate of new Star Wars movies.  What I like about Han Solo and the sensibility of Phil Lord & Christopher Miller seemed like the perfect mix to get me interested in telling a story that probably doesn't need telling. 

I'm not unreasonable.  I understand that Kathleen has more skin in the game than Lord & Miller.  Star Wars is her responsibility.  So if she sees that things are going off the rails as it pertains to what was supposed to be filmed versus what she was seeing in dailies, then she needs to step in.

But at what point do you have to just trust the people who you've hired for this fairly high profile gig?  Or maybe more scrutiny was required before going forward with this partnership.

It's clear now that Phil and Lord... you know the two guys who have developed a couple of TV shows and have their own film franchise, might have their own ideas and can't fit into a assembly line system of churning out films.  I keep coming back to how did things get this far? I guess what I'm thinking is Phil and Chris never should have been considered for this film.  Ultimately what Lucasfilm wanted was  a hungry upstart who would just execute. 

Ron Howard ain't exactly that.  He does have a history with Lucasfilm, though, so he won't try any funny business and he's still a big name for people to be excited about.

I mean at least the main story films such as The Force Awakens & The Last Jedi don't seem to be having these issues.  So at least that's good.  It's time for me to stop complaining about getting films I know I'm going to see no matter what.  I just wanted to vent about what seems like a big missed opportunity.

At least now they're available to re-visit directing the much maligned Flash movie... even though it seems like DCEU at least lets directors know when they're not up for any deviations ahead of t... NO!  I said I was done!  they can also read my post about them directing a Nova movie!

-YG