Han Solo Stand-Alone Prequel on the Way from 'Lego Movie,' '21 Jump Street' Directors
When Christopher Miller was an intern at Lucasfilm, he was asked, and geekily accepted, to step into a Stormtrooper costume for one of George Lucas’ special edition Star Wars movies.
Now, in a paraphrasing of Darth Vader’s immortal words of “When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master,” a circle is about to complete.
Miller and his partner Phil Lord, the duo behind The Lego Movie and the hit 21 Jump Street movies, are tackling one of Star Wars anthology movies as their next directing project, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
The filmmaker team, who write, direct and produce, are stepping up to helm a movie that will focus on a young Han Solo, according to sources.
Lawrence Kasdan and Jon Kasdan are writing the script with the project now set for a May 25, 2018 release.
The new project is not the same as the one that was to have been directed by Josh Trank. Trank parted ways with the project in May amid a cloud of issues stemming from his Fantastic Four shoot. The project, rumored to be an origin story of the intergalactic bounty hunter Boba Fett, is still searching for a director.
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Disney and Lucasfilm had no comment, though the project was confirmed on Starwars.com.
Unclear is how this move will impact Lord and Miller’s schedule. The duo became hot property not only with their witty take on the buddy cop genre with Jump Street but especially with 2014’s Lego Movie, which juggled a spectrum of geek icons from Batman to Star Wars.
They were to develop a Flash feature for Warners as a directing vehicle but now with the untitled Star Wars spin-off, that is likely off the table. As is a third Jump Street movie. However, they could stay on as writers or producers on those projects.
They were also developing an animated Spider-Man project for Sony, writing a treatment and producing, but since they were not intending to direct it, that could be less impacted.
The pair would remain involved in the Lego franchise they helped launch.
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