Disney's Rejection Of Steven Soderbergh's Star Wars Script Marked A Shocking First
So, you want to be the head of a movie studio, eh? In the time since producer extraordinaire and industry legend Kathleen Kennedy took over Lucasfilm as George Lucas' handpicked successor, she helped revitalize a franchise badly in need of it following the then-dismal reception to the prequels ... and has received almost nothing but slings and arrows for it. Despite the sequel trilogy's checkered reputation these days, her oversight led to a string of billion-dollar hits and a new generation of fan-favorite characters. Similarly, her championing of "The Mandalorian" successfully brought the "Star Wars" brand to streaming television. And in a studio landscape where creative visionaries rarely get a chance to flex, Kennedy certainly deserves credit for allowing Tony Gilroy the time and space (and money) to do, well, almost anything he wanted to do with "Andor."
All told, it's a thankless job — and this latest development only makes that more apparent. We're still grappling with the news that Disney shot down a movie focused on Adam Driver's Kylo Ren/Ben Solo at the last possible moment. Now, another twist of the lightsaber only makes this decision all the more disappointing. There's no denying the revolving door of talented filmmakers that have come and gone unceremoniously from various projects set in that galaxy far, far away. But the loss of Steven Soderbergh's film, titled "The Hunt for Ben Solo," actually marks a first in the franchise. The claim to fame comes courtesy of Soderbergh himself (or, at least, the BlueSky account commonly attributed to the writer/director). As he posted:
Also, in the aftermath of the HFBS situation, I asked Kathy Kennedy if LFL had ever turned in a finished movie script for greenlight to Disney and had it rejected. She said no, this was a first.
"Also, in the aftermath of the ['Hunt for Ben Solo'] situation, I asked Kathy Kennedy if [Lucasfilm] had ever turned in a finished movie script for greenlight to Disney and had it rejected. She said no, this was a first."
The Hunt for Ben Solo was this close to happening before Disney's Bob Iger and Alan Bergman reportedly killed it
To steal a memorable line from Ben Mendelsohn's Director Orsen Krennic in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" – We were on the verge of greatness, we were this close. Unlike every other "Star Wars" movie proposal that either died on the vine (we still think about you, Rian Johnson's hypothetical trilogy of standalone films) or spectacularly imploded for all to see (step right up, Phil Lord and Chris Miller's original "Solo" movie), the series of circumstances that led to the dismissal of "The Hunt for Ben Solo" remains completely unique. Not that this distinction will make it any easier for fans to swallow, of course.
Still, this saga only highlights just how much faith Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm as a whole had in Steven Soderbergh's script (which had been developed by Soderbergh, his wife Jules Asner, and their regular collaborator Scott Z. Burns). Typically, various "Star Wars" movies and shows only move forward after getting the official green light from Kennedy's Disney overlords: namely, CEO Bob Iger and second-in-command Alan Bergman. The fact that Kennedy and the Soderbergh team opted to bring this to Disney fully-formed in terms of its script, cast, crew, and even budget and a proposed start date for production (as per a report by The Playlist) indicates the high level of enthusiasm and confidence that Lucasfilm had in this project.
Instead, an all-too-familiar narrative prevented us from seeing this come to fruition. Lucasfilm was railroaded by studio suits who were likely scared off by negative reactions to "Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker." Soderbergh ultimately made "Star Wars" history with "The Hunt for Ben Solo" ... just not the good kind.