‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ Reshoots More Extensive Than Reported, ‘Edge Of Tomorrow’ Writer Reshaping Movie

UPDATE: Writer and director Christopher McQuarrie has denied any involvement in the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story reshoots. Here's his response.

After two days of conflicting reports surrounding reshoots of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — first from Page Six, then Deadline — Making Star Wars has entered the fray with a radically new understanding of exactly how Rogue One will change in the coming weeks.

Drawing on his own anonymous sources, Making Star Wars’ Jason Ward claims that the Rogue One reshoots will be fully twice as long as previously reported: six days a week for eight weeks. Sources estimate that 40 percent of the movie will be reshot, necessitating the rebuilding of 32 sets.

As we guessed earlier this week, many of the reshoots seem to be about bringing the movie more in line with Christopher McQuarrie’s polish of the script. McQuarrie — writer of the two most recent Mission: Impossible movies and Tom Cruise sci-fi actioner Edge of Tomorrow — was brought in approximately six months ago to patch over Rogue One ’s story problems. Since the movie was deep into shooting, many of his revision became ad hoc changes, creating a final product that felt cobbled together and less cohesive than it should have.

According to Making Star Wars, McQuarrie’s draft of the script was largely seen as superior inside Disney, so this reshoot will go some lengths to reconciling the movie’s original vision with this new draft.

While it was initially rumored that J.J. Abrams would be brought in to supervise reshoots, it now looks like director Gareth Edwards will stay in charge, partnering with Christopher McQuarrie to radically update Rogue One.

These new leaks from the Rogue One set add a third spin to the ongoing story behind the reshoots. The initial Page Six report held that the reshoots were being done to fix drastic problems. The day after more Disney-friendly sources came forward to say the reshoots were more about changing the tone to be more in line with The Force Awakens, downplaying the darker, war film elements. But this new understanding is the best interpretation yet, with a proven sci-fi action writer bringing a steadying hand to an uneven production.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is out in theaters Dec.16.