In discussion in On Film… with Kevin McCarthy Director Shawn Levy recently revealed some snippets on his upcoming project Star Wars: Starfighter. He revealed that Thomas Newman will be scoring the film and also dropped some details from production, including that the third act of the movie needed to be reworked with a completely new idea.
The quote comes from a discussion on adaptability and coping with change and filming constraints on his various productions, including Deadpool and Wolverine. In the discussion he shares that his original idea for the third act of the movie didn’t work due to arising circumstances, requiring drastic change but also shares his gratitude for that opportunity, which he feels brought about a better conclusion to the movie.
“There was something unexpected on Starfighter. It was, we had a whole different idea for something in the third act and then things didn’t align and I was forced to come up with a new idea. And I’m literally right now shooting that section of the movie. And everyday I’m grateful that the way I was supposed to do it didn’t work out, because the new idea that it forced me to explore is so much better than the original idea would have been.”
While he has been sharing his positive experiences making Star Wars, Levy also talked about feeling pressure to get it right early in production and the weight of creating something which is authentic to the franchise without being “derivative or copycat-y”:
“The first few weeks of shooting, it felt like this oppressive sort of cloud over me, because everyday they would come to me. It’s a hundred questions a day. And especially Starfighter, it’s not a sequel, it’s not a prequel, it’s not legacy characters. And it’s not in a period of time in the galaxy that’s ever been explored….What this means is that we are inventing everything in the movie. And the desire to make design choices, character choices, planet choices, costume choices, droid choices, alien choices, all of it needs to feel Star Wars-y.”
The movie looks to have an uplifting and joyful feel to it as the director compares it to his favourite Star Wars film, which he (correctly in this writer’s opinion) names as Return of the Jedi.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Which Star Wars movie is Starfighter most inspired by?’ If I’m being honest, I know the cool answer would be Empire. Sure. And sort of the inarguable answer would be New Hope. But it’s kind of [Return of the] Jedi. It’s Jedi, because the combination of theme, levity, adventure, heart, spectacle. Somehow that movie just got it right for me.”
Star Wars: Starfighter is currently in production and stars Ryan Gosling, Amy Adams, and Flynn Gray.
A teacher from Wales in the UK, Aled has loved Star Wars ever since that Star Destroyer flew over his head and blew his mind.