Since the weekend, there was a lot of dust kicked up on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. By late Sunday night, the news began to hit the gossip sites and the trades alike. I reached out to several sources to find out exactly what was going on with Rogue One. When I asked a few crew members what was being reshot they laughed and said “everything.” Of course they were kidding but from the sound of it, the shooting will be extensive.

 Here are the common themes in what people behind the scenes are saying:

Some crew initially heard J.J. Abrams was supervising the reshoots.
Gareth Edwards is doing the reshoots himself but with a partner, Christopher McQuarrie.
Christopher McQuarrie, the final writer on Rogue One will be working extensively with Edwards onset to make sure they’re on the “same page” with the most recent draft of the film.
Christopher McQuarrie’s draft of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was considered superior to the film they shot previously.
It was not Edwards’ fault as McQuarrie’s draft wasn’t completed when much of the film was shot and revisions kept coming in that made the film feel uneven.
32 sets have been recreated for the reshoot.
The crew expects they are reshooting 40% of the film.
They are working 6 days a week for 8 weeks.

So that’s the word on the reshoots going down. The vibe doesn’t seem bad. It seems like they’re making the movie right. When the movie began filming there was a lot of talk that the budget had been greatly reduced slightly before shooting meaning more CGI would be needed. Now it looks like the movie is going to cost what it was supposed to cost from the start. The quality of the film wasn’t bad, it just needs to be better and all involved are happy to make that happen.

It is important to remember that this movie doesn’t come out until December. If it were September and people were saying the movie was awful we would be screwed and stuck with a bad film. That’s not the case here. The reshoots were always part of the plan but they’re way more shots to be redone than they initially thought.

I’m not that crazy about execs saying what works for films. They tend to turn out the same crap over and over again. It doesn’t sound like the situation is exactly like that here. It sounds like its a pretty good situation where everyone wants to make the film better than it was. As a Star Wars fan, I’m pretty happy they care enough to make sure it is right.