Mads Mikkelsen Says to Relax About 'Rogue One' Reshoots: It's Still 'the Same Film'
Mads Mikkelsen at the 2014 Independent Spirit Awards (Photo: Giana Mucci/Yahoo Movies)
Mads Mikkelsen would like everyone to take a deep breath and calm down about those reshoots on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Disney film, which chronicles the Rebels’ theft of Death Star blueprints immediately before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, is undergoing weeks of additional shooting before its theatrical debut this December. Some media outlets have reported that Rogue One is “in crisis” and may be undergoing extensive changes to feel less like a war movie. But according to Mikkelsen, who reportedly plays the father of Felicity Jones’s protagonist, the summer reshoots are blockbuster business as usual.
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“Basically, all the big films I have done always have reshoots, it is part of their budget,” Mikkelsen told The Independent. “They’re either not super happy with a scene bit, the way we were acting, or maybe there’s something they want to add. It’s not a new thing, it happens with every film. Whether it’s bigger or less, I have no idea, I have nothing to compare with. It’s the same film, it’s just adding little bits here and there to do the final polishing. That’s my feeling.”
Mikkelsen does have some experience with big studio movies, including 2006’s Casino Royale and the upcoming Doctor Strange. However, he didn’t speak to the larger scope of the reshoots, saying that his will only involve one day of filming. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney has brought in some heavyweights to work on Gareth Edwards’ film this summer, hiring writer-director Tony Gilroy (who penned the Jason Bourne movies) to do script revisions and stunt coordinator Simon Crane to buff up the action sequences. The issue, reportedly, is that Disney would like the tone of Rogue One to be lighter, closer to that of The Force Awakens and the original Star Wars trilogy.
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“This is the closest thing to a prequel ever,” a source told THR. “This takes place just before A New Hope and leads up to the 10 minutes before that classic film begins. You have to match the tone!”
Reshoots could also make room for an appearance by Alden Ehrenreich, the star of the upcoming standalone Han Solo movie, who had not yet been cast when Rogue One began filming.
As Mikkelsen points out, reshoots are not unusual for multimillion-dollar movies (and are even pretty commonplace for smaller ones). Another of the year’s most anticipated blockbusters, Suicide Squad, also went into reshoots this spring, forcing director David Ayer to fight rumors that the film wasn’t funny enough. “#SuicideSquad ‘reshoots for humor’ is silly,” Ayer tweeted. “When a studio loves your movie and asks what else you want, go for it! #ThanksWB #moreaction.”
Related: The ILM Team Reacts to Your ‘Rogue One’ Trailer Reactions
Maybe Rogue One just needed #moreaction too? We’ll see the results for ourselves when the Star Wars prequel opens on Dec. 16.
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