According to James Mangold who was to direct it, the Boba Fett movie was an “almost R-Rated” spaghetti western that probably freaked everyone out!
As we know, after Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, James Mangold will direct the next Star Wars which will focus on “the dawn of the Jedi”. But this will not be his first attempt with the Lucasfilm franchise.
As Variety recalls, in 2018, he had indeed been hired to make a film about bounty hunter Boba Fett. He was also set to co-write the project with Simon Kinberg, best known as the screenwriter and producer of the X-Men films. The feature film was however abandoned by Disney.
Recently, at the microphone of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, the director returned to the subject, specifying that this cancellation was not too surprising given the general tone of the project.
As I was preparing it, I was probably scaring everyone. Instead, I was making a spaghetti western about one planet, almost R-rated. They probably never could have included Baby Yoda if I had done that. It didn’t really belong in the world I imagined.
The reference to Baby Yoda evokes the more family-oriented tone of Star Wars series such as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. And that’s how Lucasfilm and Disney decided to continue the story of the bounty hunter (still played by Temuera Morrison) as opposed to James Mangold’s standalone film.
The latter knew, moreover, that his darker approach would probably frighten studio executives, although it was ultimately Solo’s box office failure that determined the fate of the project.
“In a moment of corporate realignment or whatever happened with the Han Solo movie, they suddenly decided they weren’t making movies like that, and the streaming opportunities presented themselves.“said James Mangold.
“I was just listening to Ennio Morricone [compositeur de western spaghetti] all day, all night, and I was writing. I’m not sure that would ever have happened. I’m not sure what I thought was in anyone’s plans.”
A SECOND CHANCE
Today, James Mangold therefore gets a second chance to make a Star Wars movie with a feature film that will trace the origins of the Force. The director said his new project was inspired by biblical epics such as The ten Commandments. That promises!
“When I mentioned to [la présidente de Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy] the idea that I had of going back – way back – I was surprised it excited her and the other wonderful people she works with at Lucasfilm,” the director told io9.
“For me, it’s like this: I want to be part of the saga but I also don’t want to have so many traditions in the air that I can barely tell a story. I asked him, ‘Can we do some sort of Ten Commandments of the Force?’ A sort of origin story of how the Force was known, understood, wielded and harnessed.”
Find an excerpt from James Mangold’s interview for “Happy Sad Confused” below:
The film, currently in preparation, does not yet have a release date.
James Mangold is currently in theaters with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.