‘Solo’ Act Caught Up in Studio Frictions

By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief

Alden Ehrenreich enjoyed his drama classes at Palisades Charter Elementary School, but it’s an open question whether they prepared him for the on-set theatrics surrounding the filming of “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” where he plays the young Han Solo.

What is fact being that the original co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who created the highly successful and strikingly original “Lego Movie,” have been replaced by veteran Oscar-winner and TV advertisement regular Ron Howard.

And the movie is due to open in six weeks’ time.

According to multiple sources, the original directors were fired by Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy over the perennial “creative differences”—used to animation, they were taking too long to set up shots.

Howard, according to Vulture, gets it done in three shots—they were taking 10 times as long.

The other dark side in this seemingly endless Star Wars drama was Ehrenreich—with suggestions he was finding it tough to nail a sardonic yet warm version of a “young Harrison Ford.”

Nobody said that would be easy, but after 3,000 auditions, when Ehrenreich, a protégé of Riviera resident Steven Spielberg, emerged from the pack, he felt right. But not everyone agreed.

Again, according to sources spanning rumor to gossip, Lucasfilm brought in an on-set coach to help the 28-year-old actor master step into very big shoes.

“You could see he became more relaxed, more Harrison-like. The coach helped,” one colleague said.

Lucasfilm/Disney also ran into problems with promotional posters, erasing handguns in some territories because, well, guns are not cool with the kids right now. And there is the almost-inevitable plagiarism suit.

If the finished film, out May 25, is wonderful, no one will care.

But, as its predecessor “The Last Jedi” made massive money but not enough money to sate its financial backers, Lucasfilm is now hoping that the force is with them. Of course, it is.