A/V SOLO: A Star Wars Story (untagged spoilers allowed)

Thanks, this clearly articulates what I was saying earlier that the new EU is mostly retreads.

 

I feel a tiny bit guilty... I used my university's interlibrary loan system to request The Art of Solo.

 

Then you must walk home naked dragging behind you the Stone of Shame.

 

I thought jSarek's list of "why Solo failed" was pretty comprehensive:

It was an awkwardly-marketed film that opened far too soon after TLJ and had to directly compete with two blockbusters. That much seems pretty clear in retrospect. Lucasfilm and Disney just need to respect the lesson learned going forward: even a Star Wars movie isn't going to thrive under the worst possible circumstances.

Hopefully Solo will do good on bluray as the fans who skipped it when it was in theaters discover that it turned out to be a pretty darn good movie.

 

I wonder if it'll end up on Netflix. Disney's own streaming service is still in the works, and Netflix has a huge install base. Rogue One is still there so maybe they'll rotate Rogue One out and replace it with Solo.

Hm, at the rate discs are coming out these days I'd say Blu-ray (and 4K) by... September, probably? I'm looking forward to that. Even though it'll probably still be overshadowed by Avengers, unless they delay it until closer to the holidays to give it more breathing room.

 

The Last Jedi is scheduled to come to Netflix (US) in four days; by that schedule we might see Solo there sometime in November (which lines up with the expected September home video & novelization release)

 

It irritates me to no end that TLJ is coming to Netflix without TFA.

 

The overexposure is certainly a huge issue. Should SW try to be another MCU? The lack of time between Episode VIII and Solo, coupled with... THAT cameo and its potential implications, suggest to some that that's the direction LFL wants to go. There's something to be said for SW films being a special event, though, and a recent Forbes article hits the nail on the head regarding that, I think:

I was musing on this subject a few months ago and how it impacts the EU --- Labyrinth of Evil was memorable for years because it directly tied into a SW film that felt special because it was the last of only six, whilst Catalyst doesn't have that kind of staying power when it leads into a forgettable SW film that seems like it will end up being just one of too many cooks in the kitchen. If they had stayed committed to making the Anthology films tonally different from your usual SW, they might be standing out more. I watched 22 Jump Street a couple weeks ago and was just like "Whyyyyyy couldn't this have been Solo"

 

So browsing through the start of the Art of Solo book, it claims that Solo (production codename: 'Harry and the Boy") was originally intended to be the first Anthology film for 2016, until Kasdan Sr's work on TFA resulted in having to push it back to 2018. This is the only place I've seen that; everywhere else - including recent interviews with both Kasdans - claim Solo was originally intended to be the 2020 movie before the Trank cancellation caused Solo to be moved forward. (On that subject, the book does actually acknowledge the Kinberg-penned movie, if only briefly.)

Initially, the prologue segment was going to be when Han was 12 years old, and Corellia was going to be essentially a Dickensian Victorian London pastiche with Han as Oliver Twist.

The text isn't completely clear on the point, but it appears in the earliest version of the script, Chewie was one of the Wookiees enslaved by the Empire on Kessel, and Han frees him leading directly into the Kessel Run. In another early concept, Han and Chewie would fly around in a "Corellian motorhome" prior to obtaining the Falcon.

Another early idea: "At some point, Han would become a pilot in a fleet resisting the Empire [like Battle of Nar Shaddaa?]. There was to be a scene inspired by Top Gun where he crashes his damaged fighter into a hangar. Han is brought before a tribunal to be court-martialed, which would've perhaps led him to Mimban." Not quite sure exactly how that would have worked. Another version of this early idea was that both Han and Chewie would be drafted into a hodgepodge army fighting against the Empire, with Chewie saving Han's life from Imperial walkers as the origin of the life debt.

A later idea that was in the script until June 2016, when it was switched out for the White Worms/Mimban settings, was that Han worked in an Imperial factory on Corellia (concept art shows him assembling an RA-7 droid). He would get in trouble due to his rebellious nature and be imprisoned, meeting Chewbacca as his cellmate.

The early concept art of Qi'ra depicts her as an alien that very closely resembles an Asari from Mass Effect. The early Chewbacca concept art has him having a really long braid coming from the top of his head. Another early concept art depicts Han shooting a Rodian, which I'm glad was not in the movie.

One thing I liked: the progress from Corellia -> Vandor -> Kessel -> Savareen is supposed to mirror traveling from a city on the East Coast, over the Rockies and West, to the Pacific Ocean.

 

A few other tidbits that may or may not be interesting.

We know that when Michael K. Williams played Dryden Vos, that he described him as being "half mountain-lion, half human." The guide appears to confirm that Williams' version of Vos was specifically a Lasat. There are a lot of concept art of a Lasat Vos (after earlier versions where he was a bird, and then a reptile, which they shied away from because they thought it went over the line to believe that Emilia Clarke would have a relationship with a Lizard Person... guess Falleen would have been out of the question). Of course, Williams and the Vos recasting is completely ignored, but that seems to be the vibe.

Actually, also funny, none of the directors - Lord, Miller, or Howard - are mentioned in the book. At all.

Enfys Nest's design was partially inspired by Maggie Cheung's character from the movie Hero (it's not named but I believe that's the film the artist is referring to) and a desire to stay away from being similar to the Gal Gadot version of Wonder Woman.

There's also a lot of influence from Soviet aesthetics. Han's cape on Mimban is an actual World War II Red Army cape, Beckett was intended to show up dressed looking full-on Soviet officer but Woody Harrelson apparently refuses to wear fur or leather, and there were Corellian murals (maybe still are in the final movie?) very clearly based on Soviet socialist realism, showing heroic Corellian workers with YT ships flying overhead. Angela Davis was also the inspiration for Val.

 

Laughing over here that the idea of Emilia "Mother of Dragons" Clarke having an intimate relationship with a lizard would be inconceivable.

I'm so sad Michael K. WIlliams wasn't in this movie.

 

Not to mention, this was her first ever on-screen acting role. She's not in the trailer, but she plays a Native American, too.

Speaking of Game of Thrones, they also say that one idea they really liked was for Qi'ra to have a completely shaved head except for huge bangs, but they couldn't do that to her due to Game of Thrones (although her hair in that was a wig except for the most recent season, I think).

 

Not to double post, but reading some more, there's actual a minor EU reference mentioned in it that I haven't seen brought up elsewhere. In the same page on Dryden Vos's art collection that mentions Exar Kun and the Dancing Goddess, it mentions that the Jewel of Yavin is also supposed to be in his collection. Can anyone confirm if this is actually in the finished movie, and/or mentioned in the Official Guide? All of the concept art for Vos's office is done by one artist, Lee Sandales, who makes all these EU references, so it seems like he was one of the responsible parties along with Jon Kasdan.

Incidentally, in the chapter on the Pykes, I had no idea that Doug Wheatley was one of the artists who developed the look of the Pykes years before they appeared on TCW, or that they were also going to appear in the 1313 game.

 

TBH, while it would have been a pretty cool TV-film integration, I'm actually glad that Dryden Vos didn't wind up being a Lasat. A more obviously physically menacing appearance would have sort of undercut the "superficially civil thug" thing he had going on, which I rather liked.

 

So how do you think they will deal with Maul now that the movie isn't doing too good at the BO?

Antagonist in another movie ?
Book?
Animation?
Live Action TV?
or Comics?

 

They don't really need to deal with him. His story is resolved in Rebels.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

 

Dark Horse will release a miniseries called Grandson of Dathomir. Then Maul will go on to appear in the Resistance TV show anyway. It's like poetry, it rhymes

 

Yeah, where I wouldn't be inclined to gamble £15 on a one-time experience, I probably will be inclined to give the BR a chance, plus the various extras given the chatter here.

Uh, how has that clusterfrell happened? I'd guess a licensing balls-up / punch-up between the mega-corps but it still sounds incredibly dumb.

For all that I'm not a fan of TLJ, in terms of accessibility, of course the two should be together on a service.

 

One of the most reliable things about Netflix's streaming offerings is that they can't be relied on, in my experience - I'd assume they did have TFA and just got rid of it at some point before now.

 

Honestly I'd have loved to go catch it in the theater a couple more times, but we're a family of three and once you factor in the already high ticket price, popcorn and drinks, and perhaps dinner before and after, you're looking at a pretty pricey evening. It's not like the old days - counting the 3D re-release we saw TPM in the theater ten times! Once Solo hits the second-runs (which admittedly will probably happen pretty soon) I might try to take my wife on a "cheap date" or two to add a couple viewings to the roster.

The bluray extras will be interesting but I wouldn't expect too much depth out of them, and certainly very little, if anything, about the behind-the-scenes drama.

 

You have only to look at the cancellation of the Making of SWTFA book to realize the current TPTB at LFL isn't interested in sharing BTS drama with the fandom. And TFA had a relatively smooth production compared to Solo or RO.

 

Beckett's attire was modeled on the German WWII outfit of James Coburn from the film Iron Cross. Enfys Nest they said was inspired from Maisie Williams Arya character. One piece of art depicted Woody without the silly wig on his head, which they should've left off his head.

Vos's designs were really stupid and grotesque. The only half decent alien variant of Vos basically ended up as the Hylobon apemen(whom be using recycled unused 'Jedi Killer' helmet & outfits from TFA concepts of what would be come Kylo Ren), cept he was larger a little more cat-like than a complete ape man. The Lasat versions were awful too.