Discussion Gary Whitta is no longer writer for spinoff movie.

The worst news of the Disney era so far was that double Academy award winning writer Michael Arndt got booted off Episode VII.

The best news of the Disney era so far is that After Earth and Book of Eli "writer" Gary Whitta has been booted off the spinoff.

That's how you bring balance to the Force. Now, I trust that this is the point where Disney gets their act together and starts hiring and retaining quality writers (getting Rian Johnson to write and direct Episode VIII is an absolutely perfect start). And if the names Orci or Kurtzmann are mentioned within 100 lightyears of anything Star Wars related, then we are lost beyond all hope.

 

No. They never were going to film a FIRST DRAFT. There was always going to be additional writing. Now whether Edwards does it himself or they hire someone else is the question.

 

Are you guys serious? He clearly finished his draft and we're getting his movie. This happens in Hollywood all the time. They hire someone to write a first draft and then a script doctor or editor to polish it.

 

They never, ever, film a first draft. He'll probably have credit, much like Del Toro has credit on the Hobbit movies, due to his first draft work, but what he wrote is not what they're going to be filming. There will be at least two more drafts (done by someone who isn't Whitta) before they actually have what they're filming.

 

So, right. What I said. Regardless of how many drafts they write it probably won't be a total rewrite and (hopefully) an improvement.

 

So would you guys guess that they'll revise the script from January through April and then start filming in May?

 

I hope they redraft it so thoroughly that he doesn't get a story credit. Unlikely, I know, but it rankles with me that someone who posted anti-Lucas bile could be credited for writing a Star Wars film.

I know many of the people working on the new films - and many of us, including myself - will have hated on the Prequels. But anyone who has openly said "**** Lucas" shouldn't get to live in the house that Lucas built.

 

yes

 

ManaByte is correct. In Hollywoodland if the producers or director are happy with your initial draft you usually stick around for the second or third drafts... Then they might bring in a wringer to punch up dialog or give the script a good polish.

Generally screenwriters don't spend nearly a full year on a first draft and are replaced unless the director has issues with the script or the producers do. Taking nearly a year to write the one draft tells me there were multiple sit downs to talk about the current state of the script, and the decision was made to bring in a fresh set of eyes.

Look at it this way... Whitta was clearly geeked out to be working on Star Wars and had already invested months on the project. Why in the world would he walk away to take another project if the script needed more revisions?

Yancy

 

Fair enough. I simply don't believe the rumor. They don't spend a year working on the First Draft...

 

MRW the film credits roll and they say:

Screenplay by
Gary Whitta
Gareth Edwards

Story by
Gary Whitta

Based on 'Star Wars'
Created by George Lucas

 

It'll say Screenplay by Gary Whitta and Gareth Edwards (or whoever they replace him with)

When they write it separately, like in this case the WGA uses "and". When they write it together they use "&".

 

I hope this doesn't mean that the script is a mess though since filming is supposed to start in the next few months. I really don't understand why Disney didn't go with a more established writer from the start.

 

Here is the interview I think you're talking about, where I can see how easily one might think he's saying the screenplay is holding them up, but at 1:02 he confirms that it's finished.

Here is an article from January 19th about JJ stating the script is complete: http://www.thewrap.com/j-j-abrams-s...vii-script-done-confirms-jesse-plemons-talks/

 

The rumor is the Arndt was off around late July or August of 2013. By October/November stuff had switched over the the Abrams/Kasdan draft.

 

If he's out after the first draft that means someone decided it wasn't working (maybe it was Whitta). He's a WGA member and this is a major film. Treatment, first draft, final draft and revisions are formalized steps in the process and you generally don't skip out at this point any more than you'd stop playing your QB at halftime. First draft is a ways from polish.

It could be that they're okay enough with the story but think the dialogue's weak, or it could be that they're not happy with any of it. Or maybe the studio wanted to dictate certain things to the point where Whitta thought it was too limited for him. Either way it's far better than plowing ahead with a script someone isn't happy with.

 

Couldn't agree more. Whitta is a joke of a "writer" and needs to be as far away from Star Wars as possible.

 

My guess is because he was cheap and could be pushed around.

 

Totally this, he finished his work on the script moved to the next project, probably some other writer will revise and polish the script buy pre-production (models, storyboards or pre-viz, scouting for locations) will start soon if not already. I doubt very much that he only wrote the first draft and very much doubt he was fired because of those comments, which I don't think Lucasfilm's folks give a **** about.

 

It's being reported that he was only to the first draft, unless that's inaccurate then there's a ways to go on his script yet.

Eventually the final writing credits will answer some of this. The WGA has rules for whether a writer can be credited or not depending on the degree that their contribution is used in the final product. A (non-director) writing the first draft and leaving for whatever reason needs the 1/3 of the screenplay used for their name to stick. Later writers and doctors need to contribute at least 50% for a writing credit.

 

This makes no sense though - he has had a year and only up to the first draft. If he was genuinely taking that long surely Disney would have moved him on before this.

 

Why would they give a toss about something so insignificant that he did years ago?

 

For all we know he and Lucas are friends now and txt each other "F George Lucas" as an inside joke

There's just no way of knowing how things went down... if they went down at all.

 

Interesting news! The script title tweet makes me think he's done with it, not fired. Although I guess he could have still made that and they decide to have someone else work on it later. I really don't know much about how this stuff works in Hollywood.

 

Devin Faraci says he's heard that there are going to be more behind the scenes changes for Star Wars coming up. Looks like Whitta isn't the only one that's going to get dropped.