It's official: the Han Solo movie is finished and has a name
After an extended, troubled production with a very public change of directors, the untitled Han Solo movie has wrapped -- and it's no longer untitled.
Director Ron Howard, who took over in June from Phil Lord and Chris Miller, announced the title on Twitter: It's Solo: A Star Wars Story.
(I'm not going to say I called it, but I called it.)
Here's Howard making the announcement via Twitter:
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Solo, which was shot at Pinewood Studios near London, had a low key and somewhat premature wrap party October 7, Mashable learned. Afterwards, more than one crew member said they still had a week of work left ahead of them.
When it started shooting in February, Solo was known internally at Lucasfilm by the codename "Red Cup" -- which is where George Lucas first got the inspiration for his Corellian smuggler's name. To the world, it was known simply as the Untitled Han Solo Project.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, best known as the directors of The Lego Movie, had a contentious relationship with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy throughout their time on the production.
Having refused to shoot the required number of camera set-ups for each shot -- which would allow Lucasfilm to substantially re-edit their work -- they departed the project unceremoniously in June.
Rumors percolated from the set that they'd been filming scenes in comedic and spontaneous fashion, improv style, which was said to irk screenwriter (and Star Wars veteran) Lawrence Kasdan.
Since Howard (also a Lucasfilm veteran) took over the project, he's been sharing largely spoiler-free pictures from the set on social media. But the sheer number of scenes he's shared, plus the amount of time it has taken, suggests Howard has substantially re-shot the entire movie and that little of what Lord and Miller shot remains.
We'll find out when Solo blasts into theaters -- and it's still scheduled to arrive on the 41st birthday of Star Wars, May 25, 2018.
Topics Star Wars
Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,' and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast 'Pull to Open.' Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.
