Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli) wrote the first draft of Star Wars: Rogue One, with Chris Weitz (About a Boy) later being brought in to rewrite the screenplay for director Gareth Edwards.
However, a new rumour points to Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie being drafted in by Lucasfilm to spend two weeks polishing the script for the first of Disney and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars Anthology movies. It’s easy to understand why they would want to bring someone like this in, especially as these spinoffs could be big business for the studio moving forward as they look to expand the Star Wars franchise’s reach.
McQuarrie has done some great work as a writer as he’s responsible for the likes of The Usual Suspects, Jack Reacher, Edge of Tomorrow, and a number of other projects which he’s done rewrites on which he didn’t ultimately end up receiving a screenwriter credit for.
Very little is known about Star Wars: Rogue One, though it has been confirmed that it will take place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope and is set to focus on a group of resistance fighters who team up to steal the pans for the first Death Star. The impressive cast is led by British actress Felicity Jones, and includes Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, and Riz Ahmed.
Star Wars: Rogue One is currently shooting and will be released on December 16th, 2016.
