Han Solo Movie Was In Development With George Lucas And Lawrence Kasdan Before Disney Bought Lucasfilm
Did we almost have a Han Solo moviebeforeDisney bought Lucasfilm? It certainly seems that way. In a revealing new interview about the inspirations behindSolo: A Star Wars Story, co-writerLawrence Kasdanreveals he was hired to write a Han Solo film before the big Disney purchase of Lucasfilm.
Solo: A Star Wars Storyis the latestStar Warsspin-offfilm, set in the ever-expandingStar Warsuniverse now owned and controlled by Disney. But it wasn’t always that way. Before Disney,Star Warswas controlled by Lucasfilm, and while creating more and moreStar Warsfilms is a top priority for Disney now, Lucasfilm almost dabbled in the idea of an expandedStar Warsfilm universe as well. In a new interview withEntertainment Weekly, writer Lawrence Kasdan – who co-wroteSoloas well asThe Force Awakens,The Empire Strikes BackandReturn of the Jedi– confirms that before Disney came in, he was already working on a Han Solo screenplay.
Kasdan says he was brought on to write a Solo-centric film before the 2012 Disney purchase, but after the Disney deal, his attention was turned toThe Force Awakens. Afterward, he found he was a bit burned-out onStar Wars, and suggested bringing his sonJon Kasdanin to help write theSoloscript:
“When I was done, I was sort of burned out. And I said, ‘I don’t know, do we still want to do this Han thing?’…And they said, ‘Yeah! We really want you to go ahead with Han.’ And I said, ‘Well, my son, Jon, is very enthusiastic and full of ideas about the saga.’ And he had directed two movies and had done other things. ‘What if he came on and worked with me? Because, that would give me a shot in the arm.’ And so, that’s exactly what happened. They made a deal with Jon, and he and I have been writing since for three years.”
The confirmation that Kasdan was working on aStar Warsfilm pre-Disney deal harkens back to aprevious /Film interviewwith Lucasfilm PresidentKathleen Kennedy. In the interview, Kennedy stated that she had previously discussed doingStar Warsfilms outside of the Skywalker saga withGeorge Lucas:
“I sat with George in April of 2012, and the company was sold in September of 2012, so it was a relatively short amount of time before. But one of the first conversations I had creatively with George was about doing other movies than the saga films. And he had a few ideas he was kicking around but he was very open to where this might go in the Star Wars universe…he was planning to retire. He was talking to me about making these films.”
Solo Inspirations
In the sameEWinterview, Lawrence and Jon Kasdan both discuss their inspirations for theSoloscript. The wide-ranging titles includeTreasure Island(previously mentioned as a key inspiration forWoody Harrelson’s character), Michael Mann’s crime-thrillerHeat, Clint Eastwood’s somber WesternUnforgiven, the Coen Brothers comedyThe Big Lebowski, and the British crime dramaGangster No. 1.
Of theTreasure Islandinspirations, Jon Kasdan says:
“One we immediately reread was Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island because we wanted it to be a boy’s adventure story, but one in which he encounters characters of dubious intent, and that everyone he would encounter would sort of inform his maturation as an adult.”
In regards to theHeatinspirations, Lawrence Kasdan adds:
“We talked about the relationship between Val Kilmer and Robert De Niro in Heat, where there’s a sort of older, wiser criminal, and then someone who’s learning the ropes from them. We wanted this movie to have that flavor and that swagger.”
“There’s a feeling inUnforgivenbetween the kid and Clint that hits the kind of [apprentice/gunslinger] relationship we were interested in,” Jon Kasdan says of theUnforgiveninspirations.
ForThe Big Lebowskiinspirations, Jon Kasdan comments:
“[Solo] has that flavor of a crime world that has weirdness and surprise and people stumbling into things — and other people very intentionally getting into [trouble] The Big Lebowski is a great example because Solo has a more off-kilter tone than you’ve ever seen in [Star Wars].”
And as forGangster No. 1, which featuresSoloco-starPaul Bettany, Jon Kasdan says what inspiredSolowas the film’s “combination of class and swagger and real danger.”
