Rogue One Bits: Running Time Revealed? ‘Catalyst’ Excerpt, Weirdest Interview & More
In this edition of Rogue One Bits:
The website for the Australian theater chainEvent Cinemashas revealed the running time ofRogue Oneas 133 minutes. That puts it smack dab in the middle of the pack, with the originalStar Warsstill being the shortest of the films at 121 minutes and theAttack of the Clonesstill being the longest at 142 minutes. Unless, of course, the site has posted incorrect information (althoughMaking Star Warsis fairly certain they were right the running time ofThe Force Awakenslast year)
Gareth Edwards' first film,Monsters, held its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in 2010. When Edwards went on to makeGodzilla, he didn’t forget about the fest that helped give him his start and he brought footage of his first major studio movie to the fest and paired it with a special repertory screening of the original 1954Godzilla. I know this because I was there, and Edwards radiated humility and intelligence, speaking thoughtfully about his work. And now,he’s set to return to SXSW in 2017as one of the fest’s keynote speakers, joining other artists like Lee Daniels and Jill Soloway. By then,Rogue Onewould have come and gone, so he’ll actually be able to talk openly about the movie and its secrets!
As expected, the newRogue Onetrailer dominated social media last week, with comScore reporting (viaVariety) that it generated 228,000 new conversations. In comparison,Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which held a special fan event last week, generated only 68,000 new conversations. Breaking news:Star Warsis still popular.
USA Todayhas posted the first excerpt from the upcoming novelStar Wars: Catalyst, which explores the relationship between the Erso family (as in Galen and Erso) and Orson Krennic in the decades before the events ofRogue One. Written by James Luceno, the book begins during the Clone Wars, before the Empire existed, and tracks Galen Erso being roped into the project that would eventually become the Death Star. They also have a few quotes about the book from Lucasfilm Story Group creative executive Pablo Hidalgo about why this book is necessary for Star Wars fans:
Hidalgo also explained how this extensive backstory makes Jyn Erso different from other Star Wars protagonists:
One of the great opportunities we have with Jyn, unlike some of our heroes in aStar Warsfilm, is she knows her past. She knows her parents. She knows where she came from. So we’re able to take these characters and really flesh them out because we have this grounding of them actually established in the context of the film.
You can read the whole excerpt from the novel at the link above.
Rogue Onescreenwriter Gary Whitta took toTwitterto share a gift from his fellow writer, Chris Weitz: a framed version of a fan-made poster that reimagines the famous one-sheet for Stanley Kubrick’sFull Metal JacketusingStar Warsimagery.
The Korean YouTube channel BuzzBean has posted their interviews with theRogue Onecast conducted during this year’sStar WarsCelebration and they’re…odd. When you combine the fact that these actors are all contractually obligated to not say anything interesting about their work before it is released with the fact that the host seems more interested in committing to silly bits than anything else, you get one of the stranger videos to have ever graced Rogue One Bits.
YouTuber ItsFishy has recreated the most recentRogue Onetrailer using footage from the video game Destiny and it’s pretty cool stuff. While it doesn’t necessarily align with every shot seen in the preview, appropriate images have been found for just about every audio element in the trailer. If you’ve playedDestinyand likeStar Wars(and I imagine that’s a fair number of people), this is a fun watch.
Well, I guess it’s time for us to retire from the trailer breakdown game. Red Letter Media has got this whole thing covered.
