Chris Weitz Talks About Writing Star Wars Standalone Film

It's been a quiet couple of months for Chris Weitz, who recently took over writing duties for Gary Whitta, who departed Gareth Edwards'Star Wars standalone film back in January. Weitz spoke to Slash Film about this gigantic new project.

First of all, Weitz is trying to stay away from the rumor mill. As you might guess, Edward's film is shrouded in even more mystery than The Force Awakens, which has had its VERY fair share of leaks in the past few weeks...

Weitz says:

I try not to read it because I don’t know how it would help me do the job that I have to do, which is to make the very best version of this movie possible. I think it was good to know a bit of what fans are hoping for but then again, I’m a fan as well so I know what I’m hoping for and I try to sort of take that as my lead and not get my head too occupied with what’s on the Internet.

Well, the man undoubtedly has a bit of pressure on his shoulders, but luckily, he has Whitta's first screenplay to work from. We doubt the central idea has changed too much from the Whitta days. Says Weitz about working from someone else's script:

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.

The Twilight and Golden Compass scribe is certainly excited about his new assignment: 

I saw Star Wars when I was 7 and it was a formative experience in my life, let alone in the notion of filmmaking. I’m probably only working on this stuff because I did have that experience then. But it completely possessed me when I was a child and it was a huge part of my kind of emotional make up. So I tried to be as cool as possible in these meetings while still being aware if I got the assignment I was going to be able to work on something I’ve been dreaming of doing.

More Star Wars news as we learn it.