It was recently revealed that a new writer would be found for Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars spinoff following the completion of Gary Whitta’s draft. That ended up being About a Boy and Cinderella scribe Chris Weitz.

He has now talked for the first time about taking over the still very mysterious movie, and while he obviously wouldn’t divulge any specific details, the Academy Award winning writer was quick to offer plenty of insight into both his love of the Star Wars franchise and the pressure which come with working on it.

“It’s a total dream job,” he said of being hired by Lucasfilm in an interview with Collider. “The reason I make movies now has a lot to do with having seen Star Wars when I was seven years old. That’s the formative movie-going experience of my life. But, I don’t think I’m unique in that. Everybody who’s working on the movie was affected, in that way. I think it’s so incredibly special to be able to try to recapitulate that feeling I had when I was sitting in that theater, as a 7-year-old. It’s an extraordinary job. I’m incredibly lucky.”

As for the involvement of Lucasfilm and whether they’re heavily involved in the writing process, Weitz added: “It’s early days yet. But, I think that everybody involved feels such a sense of duty and responsibility to the franchise and to their own childhood memories that everybody is heading in the same direction.”

Rumour has it that this Star Wars spinoff will focus on a team of bounty hunters hired by the Rebels to steal the plans of the first Death Star. However, with a new writer on board, just how much is being changed? /Film asked the writer exactly that when they caught up with him at the US junket for Cinderella.

“It all eventually comes down to understanding the nature of what a given film is and making the characters people who you want to be as invested in as possible. I think in this case I’m not working from a whole cloth, right? So there’s a very strong structure from Gary’s work and that’s a huge advantage to me. But just like with Cinderella, it’s a director’s medium so it’s really about my making what Gareth needs to do his film.”