Star Wars: How The Han Solo Movie Directors Reportedly Clashed With Lucasfilm

Last week, Lucasfilm announced that the Han Solo Star Wars movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller had exited the project, ultimately being replaced by Oscar-winner Ron Howard. Now, a new report dives deep into the reported issues that Lucasfilm had with Lord and Miller regarding the way they wanted to make the movie and how it clashed with their own vision.

Citing anonymous sources from the set, The Hollywood Reporter's feature begins by say tensions had reached a "boiling point" by mid-June. This was reportedly when Lord and Miller didn't start shooting a Millennium Falcon scene until 1 PM, and they used just three camera setups instead of the 12 to 15 that Lucasfilm exec Kathleen Kennedy wanted. The directors were reportedly moving slow on the project and the relatively low number of camera setups meant that Lucasfilm would not have as much to work with in the editing bay.

The report goes on to say that Kennedy and writer Lawrence Kasdan reviewed the movie's "dailies" remotely and they were both unhappy with how things were progressing. Not only did the directors clash with Lucasfilm, but they also didn't have the best relationship with each other, apparently.

"There were 'deep fundamental philosophical differences' in filmmaking styles, this person says, and the directors felt they were being given 'zero creative freedom.' They also felt they were being asked to operate under 'extreme scheduling constraints' and 'were never given enough days for each scene from the very beginning,'" the report said.

Lord and Miller are accomplished, successful directors, responsible for The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street, among others. But the report goes on to claim they were in over their heads with a movie on the scale of a Star Wars.

"Some insiders say that while the talent of Lord and Miller is undeniable, nothing in their background prepared them for a movie of this size and scope," THR reported. "These sources say they relied too heavily on the improvisational style that served them so well in live-action comedy and animation but does not work on a set with hundreds of crewmembers waiting for direction."

The full report is stacked with loads more interesting insight and details. Read it here.

The next Star Wars movie is this December's Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The untitled Han Solo film, which stars Alden Ehrenreich in the lead role, comes out in 2018.