Hollywood Reporter has word that Oscar nominated actress Felicity Jones (Amazing Spider-Man 2, Like Crazy, The Theory of Everything) is now in talks with Lucasfilm for the female lead in Gareth Edwards' untitled Star Wars film. Jones had been linked along with actresses Rooney Mara, Kate Mara and Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany.
Rumors had suggested otherwise as it was said that Tatiana Maslany was the frontrunner, that seems to be untrue from this new trade report. The film she's working on that led to her dropping out of a play is actually a indie starring opposite Dane DeHaan.
They are also reporting that actors Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and Edgar Ramirez (Zero Dark Thirty) in the mix for the male lead. There had been suggestions that male lead could be Han Solo and Paul was rumored for that part. This might mean that Edgar could be taking that Boba Fett, but nothing says that's indeed the role.
After Lucasfilm hiring Oscar Isaac in The Force Awakens, there is hope they'll be hiring more latino actors for lead roles.
Latino Review recently suggested that both Boba Fett and Solo would be featured in the film, could there be two male leads?
We should come to expect not to really trust the word of pop-up sites when it comes to Star Wars news. There have been a couple of interesting ones but likely very untrue rumors circling recently.
They include the very busy Michael Fassbender linked for the Boba Fett role (unlikely due to X-Men and Assassin's Creed productions) and Tatiana Maslany playing Sabine from Rebels.
Just a couple of days ago we speculated on the latter, but nothing actually is pointing to that being factual besides the timeline. It's funny that one site's speculation can be another's rumor.
The other day we learned from The Hollywood Reporter that actresses Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Rooney Mara (Pan, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Social Network) and Felicity Jones (Like Crazy, The Theory of Everything) were in the mix to test for the female lead of Gareth Edwards' untitled Star Wars spin-off film.
Variety has added Kate Mara (Shooter, Iron Man 2) as a new candidate for an unnamed role. Mara will be making the jump to blockbuster lead with Fox's Fantastic Four reboot in August. Like her sister Rooney, Kate's career upswing was thanks to David Fincher, casting her in the Netflix series House of Cards.
Twitter scoop following @Borys_Kit STAR WARS testing story from yesterday, hearing the fourth girl who tested is Rooney's sister, Kate Mara
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) January 21, 2015
I'd be fine if all these ladies end up being in the film.
The film is set to begin production sometime soon to make it's December 2016 release date. It's script is written by Gary Whitta and producer Simon Kinberg handling rewrites. Simon is also the writer and producer of Fantastic Four which stars Kate.
Kinberg is co-writing Josh Trank's (Chronicle, Fantastic Four) Star Wars spin-off as well, there are a bunch of connections between Fantastic Four and these spin-offs.
The Hollywood Reporter is giving us our first casting news concerning Gareth Edwards' (Godzilla, Monsters) untitled Star Wars spin-off. Actresses Tatiana Maslany and Rooney Mara are testing for the unnamed female lead in the film.
The film is said to focus on a crack team of bounty hunters gathering intel and blueprints of the Death Star. This has been our first hint that lead could be a female character.
It's release date has been set for December 15th, 2016 and production is expected to start-up very soon as reflected by this casting news. The script was provided by Gary Whitta (Walking Dead, Book of Eli) and is said to be getting rewrites from Simon Kinberg (Fantastic Four, Rebels, X-Men Days of Future Past).
Tatiana is best known for her well received series Orphan Black where she plays multiple roles in the show which is reason for her direct praise. She also was in the running for the Sarah Connor role in Terminator: Genisys losing out to Games of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke .
Rooney Mara recently broke-out thanks to her Oscar nominated role in David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
They also mention that Oscar nominee Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, Like Crazy) is also on a wish-list but won't be testing as of yet.
Another bit of info that has come out is that Simon Kinberg and Lawrence Kasdan have indeed worked together on the script for Josh Trank's (Fantastic Four, Chronicle) other Star Wars spin-off movie.
Trank's film might actually turnout to be that Boba Fett film we've been hearing Kasdan had been writing. Then again, Gareth's film is said to focus on bounty hunters.
Just a couple of days ago it was confirmed that screenwriter Gary Whitta (Book of Eli, Walking Dead) would be leaving Gareth Edwards' untitled Star Wars spin-off. The writer would be moving-on to focus on adapting Mark Millar's comic Starlight for 20th Century Fox.
Another writer was expected to take his place since the film has a release date of December 16, 2016. As a new rumor coming from Slash Film suggests that Rebels writer-producer Simon Kinberg could be taking over where Whitta left-off.
/Film has learned, but was unable to confirm, that it will be Simon Kinberg. At Lucasfilm, Kinberg is a consultant on The Force Awakens, a writer and producer on Star Wars Rebels, and writer of at least one standalone movie. Whether or not that became this film or is another remains unclear. But Kinberg will be taking over duties for Whitta on this movie.
This shouldn't be too shocking to anyone who has been following the Lucasfilm development deals for future Star Wars projects. It was announced a while back by Lucasfilm that both Simon Kinberg (X-Men Days of Future Past, Fantastic Four) and Lawarence Kasdan (Raiders of The Lost Ark) would be handling the Star Wars spin-offs, taking-on duties of both writers and producers.
Kasdan was said to be penning the Boba Fett movie scrupt which has been in the works for at least four years. The bounty hunter's creator Joe Johnston confirmed he was pitching a Fett film to George Lucas back in 2011. Fett was mentioned along with Han Solo and Yoda as characters potentially getting spin-off installments.
Larry would later be called-up to rewrite The Force Awakens script with director J.J. Abrams. A huge promotion for him but sort of expected since Larry had penned but Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi previously.
Simon is another story, helping spearhead the successful animated series Star Wars Rebels. Like The Cone Wars, is series that is canonical to the original trilogies and new films. A huge task for any writer or producer to keep in order.
He's also heavily involved with other major projects at 20th Century Fox and Sony. Partnering with Neill Blomkamp on his films Elysium and Chappie. He's also instrumental in the development of Fox's X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises as writer-producer.
Seeing Kinberg make the jump to writing the Star Wars spin-off films feels like it was already apart of his original deal with Lucasfilm. Considering that Simon was an established screenwriter before signing-on for his Star Wars deal.
As per usual the details surrounding the film from Godzilla director Gareth Edwards are varied and unconfirmed.
However, there was talk from reliable Slash Film that the movie could revolve around a group of bounty hunters who are tasked to secure the Death Star plans. These plans helped the rebels destroy it during the original film.
Could this end-up being out Boba Fett movie since he's the most notorious bounty hunter?
You might remember that LucasArts was planning on release a video game with the working title Star Wars 1313 (demo footage above). It seemingly would focus on the underworld of the Star Wars universe which included thieves and bounty hunters.
After it's eventually cancelation along with a Darth Maul game, it was revealed 1313 was in fact a Boba Fett game with players being placed in the role of the legendary bounty-hunting Mandalorian. Concept art revealed that he would be working with a team of fellow bounty hunters in the game.
While it's possible the Lucasfilm/Disney merger could have killed many of the games LucasArts had in development. They could have also given it the axe because of this Boba Fett movie was in the works and the wanted to fold the game into the film's development. Again, this first spin-off is said to focus on a team bounty hunters and would be set around the time Boba was still alive.
In my opinion, this very likely could be the Boba Fett centric film we've been hearing about for years.
Reports are coming-out from THR that screenwriter Gary Whitta is exiting Gareth Edward's Star Wars spin-off. Gary has taken to Twitter to confirm this and reveals he'll be now focusing on scripting Fox's Starlight. The film is adaptation of the Mark Millar comic which is mix of Incredibles meets Flash Gordon.
There are two other Mark Millar film projects in the works with Joe Carnahan's Nemesis and Matthew Vaughn's Superior. A director for Starlight hasn't been named but I'm sure one will be named soon. Kingsman is also looking to be gathering a lot of positive reviews which see that turn into a franchise.
My year of work in a galaxy far, far away is done! I’m onto my next project, adapting @mrmarkmillar’s STARLIGHT for 20th Century Fox!
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) January 10, 2015
