Thandie Newton Comments On The 'Solo' Directors Change

By: Dominic Jones

The narrative surrounding the production of Solo: A Star Wars Story has been dominated by the directors switch that took place in late June, when Phil Lord and Chris Miller were let go from the project (after shooting for close to six months already) and Ron Howard was brought in to replace them.  The change was almost unheard of in Hollywood, and not something that most of the cast and crew had experienced before.

Westworld star Thandie Newton, who plays an unknown character in the film, spoke with Entertainment Weekly recently about the change.  Newton described the whole thing as a "surprise" and revealed that "ninety percent" of her material in the film was shot with Lord and Miller (though she did return to set briefly to shoot some new scenes with Ron Howard and pose for a Twitter picture).

Newton says that fans shouldn't worry about the quality of the film being diminished by the bizarre situation with the directors.  She told EW,

"I love Phil and Chris — everybody loves Phil and Chris — they’re so brilliant. Ron and the guys were talking to each other. As far as I’m concerned what’s on screen, in the end, is going to be an amazing collaboration. It’s a massive piece. We see so often now there are two directors working on pictures. We already had two with Phil and Chris. Now there’s three. With a project like that where it’s a vision that’s been created over so many years, that’s so expansive, I think it’s less about things going wrong than getting more help to bring it into the best position it can be in. I really like Ron though, he’s very sweet. And [the film is] dope; it’s so cool! And it’s such a great cast with Phoebe [Waller-Bridge], [Alden] Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Woody [Harrelson] and, of course, you know the wonderful Game of Thrones angel, Emilia [Clarke]."

Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on May 25th, 2018 and stars Alden Ehrenreich (Hail Caesar!) as Han Solo, Donald Glover (Atlanta) as Lando Calrissian, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Kura, Woody Harrelson (True Detective) as Beckett, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), Thandie Newton (Westworld), and Paul Bettany (The Avengers).  The film is directed by Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind), with a script by Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) and his son Jon Kasdan (The First Time).

Source: Entertainment Weekly

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