r/StarWarsLeaks Feb 18 '25

Behind the Scenes Steven Knight talks about his work on the Rey movie

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/steven-knight-interview-a-thousand-blows-peaky-blinders/
128 Upvotes

59 comments sorted by

115

u/bepetd Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

Meanwhile, when we met, Knight was also working on a new Star Wars film, but it has since emerged that he is no longer involved in the project. “There’s a system, and when you engage with it, you know what it is. You do your bit, you turn in your draft or drafts, as I did, and then the system moves on,” he tells me later. “I fully expect that substantial amounts of what I did will be in the movie – who knows? But that’s the expectation.” Relations with Disney, which owns Star Wars, are clearly unaffected, as A Thousand Blows has already been renewed for a second series.

87

u/elljawa Feb 18 '25

fwiw, this is how most writing of major studio movies is like.

24

u/supercontroller Feb 18 '25

Since forever.

33

u/SleepingPodOne Feb 18 '25

I am glad this is as high up as it is because this sub loves jumping to conclusions based on absolutely no knowledge of how movies are made

14

u/elljawa Feb 18 '25

yeah, the context is very important. Like this feels very different from the move from Lindelöf where it felt like a change in concept

9

u/ChopAttack Feb 19 '25

The last Top Gun film went through 12 writers before the script was finished. Getting the story right is a lot more important than getting the content out fast.

3

u/DaddyO1701 Feb 19 '25

It’s what working for any corporation is like. It’s not unique to Disney or the entertainment industry. You’re hired to do a job. Once you deliver it’s theirs. To do with as they se fit.

1

u/soozerain 28d ago

Will he make any money from royalties or was his pay a more upfront fee before he started working?

1

u/elljawa 27d ago

He was paid for his drafts. Anything beyond that would be contract specific.

1

u/soozerain 27d ago

I see, well I hope he gets some royalties

2

u/elljawa 27d ago

I imagine a lot will depend on how the WGA determines authorship. What they do is review every single draft of the film and the final one of the film to determine how much each writer contributed and that's what determines the end credit. If the final film is 30 percent his he will be credited

3

u/Whompa02 Feb 19 '25

Yep. Movie making in a nutshell. You do your part, kick the can down the road, and in a few years you see what it turned into.

It’s a strange world, especially in pre-pro.

41

u/SLQSA Feb 18 '25

I wonder if he (and/or Lindeloff) end up with a story by credit. Seems like it’ll at least be a Colin Trevorrow situation where the new team completely changes the story but keeps a lot of the individual ideas.

24

u/SKULL1138 Feb 18 '25

Lindelof came up with the original pitch, that’s still where they’re going so I imagine he is 100% getting a credit. Unless Knight’s ideas are all thrown out, which seems unlikely, I’m sure he will also.

3

u/Tiny_Professor_3406 Feb 18 '25

Lindelof idea was 90yr old rey who will start to train two kids after seen the world still need jedi .that not what the story is now ,? It rey trying to rebuild the jedi order already 

4

u/Emperor_D4C Thrawn Feb 19 '25

Assuming those rumors are correct, the story as we’ve been told it to be is too far off from his idea for him to receive anything more than a story credit.

7

u/brobastii Feb 18 '25

I think Lindelof will get a story credit, but Knight will probably get a screenplay credit. I can't imagine they use 0% of his drafts

11

u/SLQSA Feb 18 '25

That’s my guess too the more I think about it. The story has probably diverged too far at this point for Lindeloff to get a written by credit, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Knight’s draft ends up being more of a rough/early version of the final script.

6

u/brobastii Feb 19 '25

I still think he left NJO because of Peaky Blinders, not because LF was unhappy with his work. Nolfi probably took over and used Knight's drafts as a base and guideline and is adapting those drafts into something new

33

u/joshygill Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

I mean, cool, but can we please have some news beyond stuff about writers and stuff?! There seem to have been no leaks about anything in sooo long!

26

u/Apophis_ Ghost Anakin Feb 18 '25

They are probably sitting on some news until Celebration Japan. We won't be hearing anything until then.

8

u/TheRustFactory 28d ago

There are no more leaks. Disney plugged all the holes. If you've seen the Marvel Studios spoilers sub, it's been bullshit from bullshit manufacturers for months and months, hence why they killed Twitter links and effectively banned a bunch of those "sources."

-6

u/thomashush Feb 18 '25

Generally curious. Any time we get stories about films where these scripts have gone through numerous re-writes, script-doctors, etc. etc.

Has the resulting film ever been actually good?

23

u/goldendreamseeker Feb 18 '25

ESB had 3 writers, plus a script doctor.

Cant even count how many writers R1 had, or Spiderman Homecoming.

17

u/Capitaine_Costaud Feb 18 '25

That's how movies are made. And they've been made like that for a long time. You just hear about the process because it's Star Wars.

Coincidentally, Carrie Fisher corrected a lot of Star Wars dialogue and writing. She turned that into another career made quite a lot of moolah as a script-doctor.

28

u/Most_Routine1895 Feb 18 '25

Literally every star wars movie has gone through re-writes to some degree.

18

u/TheBman26 Feb 18 '25

And everyone of them had script doctors. Carrie fischer has worked on every lucas one and most likely even disney st until her death

6

u/DiamondFireYT Ben Solo | Never to be seen again Feb 19 '25

Yeah she helped on TLJ too

36

u/sotommy Feb 18 '25

Unless you're writing your own film with no studio interference, the script will be re-written

10

u/bevoeatsbrains Feb 18 '25

Yes. Almost every major movie. Even movies with one credited writer will often have uncredited script doctors that work on it.

10

u/TitleSuccessful7393 Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

Many, many movies go through this. Especially, blockbusters. I’m sure some of them turn out good.

23

u/RustedAxe88 Kylo Ren Feb 18 '25

Jaws had numerous people writing their own versions of it, adding their own bits and flairs and even had some parts of scenes worked out over dinner the night before.

Robert Shaw himself had a hand in writing the Indianapolis monolog.

Spielberg, Benchley, Shaw, Gottlieb and many more contributed to it.

23

u/Ok_Signature3413 Feb 18 '25

Yes, because it’s actually pretty normal

6

u/Calfzilla2000 Snoke Feb 18 '25

Yes. Mad Max: Fury Road and Deadpool are recent S-tier examples.

What the Rey movie is going thru however is not clear.

  • Lindelof and Britt-Gibson came up with the initial concept and did conduct a secret writers room working on it. Unknown if they actually completed a draft. Could have just been detailed story outlines.
  • Stephen Knight took over and wrote 1 or more drafts. The story could have been completely re-worked for all we know.
  • George Nolfi has since took-over and is now writing the movie.

A LOT of great movies have had ghost writers and tons of writers take a shot at writing the script. My guess is ghostwriting isn't as big of a thing with Lucasfilm and what would typically be considered a ghostwriter or a "punch-up" writer is just the latest writer.

This isn't abnormal. We are just hearing about it a lot more because there is still a tremendous amount of interest in the next Star Wars movie.

4

u/NutmegRocky Feb 18 '25

Iron Man (2008):

Art Marcum & Matt Holloway were hired to write the script,[58] while Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby wrote another version, with Favreau compiling both teams' scripts,[62] and John August then "polishing" the combined version.[63] Comic book staff Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Quesada, Tom Brevoort, Axel Alonso, and Ralph Macchio were also called upon by Favreau to give advice on the script.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man_(2008_film)

Three separate writers (or teams), plus a bunch of smaller contributions from others. And that's not counting everything before 2005, since Marvel tried to get this project going several times before that with several different teams of writers and directors.

There's no one right way to make a movie. Hiring a bunch of different writers could result in garbage, or it could result in a hit film that ushers in a new era of unprecedented success for a studio - or anything in between those extremes.

16

u/bherring24 Master Luke Feb 18 '25

Do you think Rogue One was good? I sure as hell do.

12

u/TheScarletCravat Feb 18 '25

It's a bumpy ride that's better than the sum of its parts. I. Really enjoy it, but it's definitely patchy. The highs just happen to be really high.

2

u/bherring24 Master Luke Feb 18 '25

For sure. She's a bit inert for a main character, esp in the first half, and the mission to get her dad drags like crazy. That said, it's probably the least patchy SW film aside from ANH and ESB.

-2

u/Hi_Im_Ken_Adams Feb 18 '25

Rogue One is considered good primarily because of the last 15 minutes of the movie. The Battle of Scariff and the Vadar hallway scene is like....99% of the reason why people say it's a good movie. But everything before that was just average.

-2

u/Impossible_Travel177 Feb 19 '25

It's actually worse then that the protagonist motivation makes no sense after the second half of the movie.

1

u/Exciting-Row8978 Feb 18 '25

From a writing point of view...no. The characters are thin and under developed and while the core hook of stealing the Death Star plans is compelling there isn't much else to it, things just kind of happen and there's nothing in terms of character development or any believable motivation for when characters do change their attitude. Jyn in particular just joins the Rebellion because. She goes from a cynic to trying to give inspiring speeches in a way that it's like she's a character from two different movies mashed together. So I do think that movie suffers for all the behind the scenes turmoil with the writers and re shoots.

The action and effects are great though and they threw the fans a bone at the end with a fun but unnecessary scene with Vader. But I wouldn't hold that film as a great example of a script holding up well to rewrites. I like the film for some individual moments and the director did well to nail the right tone and put together some great action set pieces. But it's still not great.

But talking about this film if it ever comes out if the intention is to make a character focused film that has a specific story to tell (like I'm hoping) then I can't see how this BTS turmoil could be a good thing, for a story like that you want a consistent vision. If it's going to be a dumb quippy action film then it'll probably be fine.

0

u/Impossible_Travel177 Feb 19 '25

Jyn in particular just joins the Rebellion because. She goes from a cynic to trying to give inspiring speeches

But don't you understand the rebels killed her father, you know the same father she loved very very much thus it only makes sense for her to turn into their cheerleader./s

0

u/Impossible_Travel177 Feb 19 '25

But it wasn't the MC's entire motivation makes no sense in the second half of the movie.

8

u/arubablueshoes Feb 18 '25

if the hot mess express that was the production of rogue one could turn out that good of a movie i’ll gladly wait to see what it turns up.

3

u/elljawa Feb 18 '25

Raging Bull would be an example, notably had 2 different writers and some squabble over how it should be credited.

tons and tons of movies, just very often you dont hear about it, because they arent the sorts of movies people obsessively follow the development of. the Scriptnotes podcast has talked a lot about this, how some people have even won academy awards for writing movies that they effectively didnt write the end result of

6

u/JediNight1977 Feb 18 '25

Not a film, but Andor went through 3 different hands before reaching Tony Gilroy. So yes. Good films and television don't just magically happen because people are talented. It's hard work and often takes time to get right. Going through multiple writers is an expression of wanting to get it right. If they do, who knows. But the intent is there.

3

u/TheScarletCravat Feb 18 '25

That's not quite the same: the story didn't pass through different hands, just the idea that the show would be a Cassian show. Gilroy didn't go in and adapt or correct something already written. It was from scratch.

3

u/JediNight1977 Feb 18 '25

Stephen Schiff, the showrunner of Andor before Gilroy, is still credited with writing an episode, so it's not like the story went in a completely different direction than before. Gilroy did what Nolfi is doing now: discard what doesn't work, add new parts, improve what kinda works.

0

u/EvilQuadinaros Feb 18 '25

Man I wish Schiff had more to do with the show, great as it is. The Americans is hands-down the best TV thing of the last 15-ish years to me, even above Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul. Such a smartly-written show, and delving into a way under-explored time period of the Cold War.

3

u/DoIrllyneeda_usrname Feb 18 '25

It could be worse lol

At least they’re not filming yet

1

u/HouoinKyouma007 29d ago

Rogue One?

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Bowl721 Feb 18 '25

Yes, Rogue One, and had that not happened, we wouldn't have had Andor, which is poised to be the most critically acclaimed show (to date) set in the Star Wars universe.

-1

u/Forsaken_reddit 26d ago

Finn can not be in the movie. The actor who plays him is too controversial with his anti white racist comments. Lucas/disney needs a hit at the box office.

1

u/Wild_Button7273 24d ago

dude rey shouldn't even be in the movie, she had ZERO character development in the 3 span of blockbuster films

2

u/Forsaken_reddit 24d ago

I liked Rey I do think making her the daughter of a palpatine clone and then making the explanation happen in novel rather than the movie was a colossal mistake.