Lucasfilm is starting to get just as well-known for not making “Star Wars” live-action projects as much as completing them. One of the more interesting projects that got snuffed out early on was a film that screenwriter/producer Simon Kinberg (“Dark Phoenix”) and director Josh Trank (“Chronicle”) were said to be developing before Trank’s working relationship with Kinberg dissolved on their remake of “The Fantastic Four.” The fallout from those events seemed to have led Lucasfilm to pass on the film opting to instead move forward with things like “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” it was always said their film was the original film incarnation of a solo “Boba Fett” film.
During a recent interview with Polygon to promote the Apple TV+ series “Invasion,” Kinberg revealed that the project he had been writing for Lucasfilm was indeed a feature film focused on Boba Fett, a longtime rumor that seemingly has now been confirmed by the man himself. Also, detailing how exactly he got involved with the film side of things as he would eventually co-create “Star Wars: Rebels.”
“Very early on, like, at the inception of Kathy Kennedy coming aboard to join George Lucas in what would be the new Lucasfilm and the new Star Wars movies, they hired me, Lawrence Kasdan [screenwriter of Empire Strikes Back], and Michael Arndt [Toy Story 3, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire] as kind of mini writers room. We went up to Skywalker Ranch and spent a couple of weeks up there talking about what the potential new movies could be. And so initially, I think the ask was: Just come up and break ideas and stories and brainstorm with two other people. Then Michael, Larry, and I each talked about writing a different Star Wars movie. Michael wrote J.J.’s first Star Wars movie, then Larry Kasdan rewrote it. Larry wrote the Han Solo movie, and I was gonna write a different one,” Kinberg told Polygon of how he got involved with the franchise and confirmed that “Boba Fett” was that “different one.”
Kinberg also mentioned briefly that he was hoping to get a tone similar to the Wolverine solo pic, “Logan,” which he produced during his time as a major steward of the “X-Men” franchise.”
I mean, it’s all pretty sci-fi, but I think “hard” is the right word. Tonally like ‘Logan.’ On the edge of R-rated, though I don’t think you’d have a ‘Star Wars’ movie that could be R-rated.”
“But at any rate, I think over time, my role morphed as a friend of the court. And so it ranged from being a consultant on the movies, give thoughts, notes, sometimes actual pages for scripts, and obviously co-creating ‘Star Wars: Rebels’ and really staying with that show that I loved. Part of what was so exciting about Rebels was that we were getting to do something that those movies I just mentioned didn’t entirely do, which is create a brand-new set of characters.”
Of course, Boba Fett wouldn’t get his solo film but instead, we started out with a cameo from actor Temuera Morrison stepping into the armor for the second season of “The Mandalorian” only for the character to land his own solo series on Disney+ called “The Book of Boba Fett” that saw the bounty hunter return to Tattooine to became a criminal syndicate leader.
Lastly, Kinberg was asked to give an update on his “Logan’s Run” remake and if that is still hoping to get made, a project that has been in development for ages now at Warner Bros. since his attachment back in 2018. There were a good amount of directors previously involved such as Bryan Singer, Nicholas Winding Refn (“Drive”), and Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick) to name a few. Some heavyweight screenwriters such as Alex Garland and Christopher McQuarrie were once tapped to give the script a once over as well.
“I hope so! I think there’s enough specificity to ‘Logan’s Run’ concept in terms of the age clock that makes it pretty different,” Kinberg said.
Based on the 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson the 1976 film starred British actors Michael York and Jenny Agutter as young members of a dystopian future in 2274 that looks to cull anyone from the population that turns 30 via a ritual event referred to as “Carrousel,” where members of the population who have turned 30 essentially kill themselves for the enjoyment of the others. The people assigned to capture/kill anyone who runs from this gruesome fate are called The Sandmen. When one of the Sandmen becomes a runner himself alongside Jessica 6 (Agutter) they both discover throughout a dangerous adventure the true nature of their society and that, in fact, people can become old.
SOURCE: POLYGON
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