Oftentimes when we hear that a script is being polished or rewritten, it raises a few red flags. However, most of the time it is done just to iron out a few wrinkles the overall story may have. World War Z had some narrative problems, and brought in Damon Lindelof (Prometheus, Tomorrowland) and Drew Goddard (Cabin In The Woods, Daredevil) to work on the third act. Their contribution was so beneficial, they received a writing credit on the film. This is a bit of a common practice within the industry.

So now comes a rumor that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story brought in Christopher McQuarrie to work on Chris Whitz’s script based on a story by Gary Whitta.

More on this report below.

LatinoReview provided the latest Star Wars scoop. According to them, McQuarrie was brought in to do some rewrites on the script. While the site has been known to break a few scoops in the past, they, as are we, are treating the story as a rumor.

If the rumor is true, Disney and LucasFilm certainly went to the right person to give the script some muscle. McQuarrie is just coming off directing and co-writing Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. He is also credited for writing Edge of Tomorrow, and directing Jack Reacher. But The Usual Suspects is considered one of his best works on his filmography. As you can see, McQuarrie has quite the resume. After watching Rogue Nation, it’s easy to see way the two studios may have leaned toward him to “toughen up” the script and give it that spy thriller touch.

It’s not clear when McQuarrie was brought in, but the site speculates that since he finished Rogue Nation ahead of schedule, this gave him enough free time to do a pass on the script for at least two weeks. Two weeks isn’t a whole lot of time to completely revamp the script, so his short time writing the script tells us that he was just there to fix a few things. So it should be interesting to see how much of an impact the writer has made on the script, and if his contribution warrants a writing credit.

We still don’t even know much about the film itself, other than the fact that Rebel Alliance are attempting to steal the plans to the Death Star. We don’t know the names of the characters, or if the ones not seen in the images will aid or hinder the group, though there are a few theories. There are also rumors that Darth Vader could make an appearance, which if true, would make narrative sense as the film does place some time after the events of Revenge of the Sith but before the events of A New Hope. There is even a wilder rumor that the film’s female lead, played by Felicity Jones, is the daughter of Boba Fett.

What we do know is that these Star Wars spinoffs are meant to “tell stories that may not involve Jedi.” Rogue One and the Young Han Solo movie would certainly fit that bill.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story also stars Diego Luna, Mads Mikkelsen, Forest Whitaker, Donnie Yen, Ben Mendelsohn, Alan Tudyk, and Riz Ahmed. Directed by Gareth Edwards, the film is set to open in theaters on December 16, 2016.

[Source: LatinoReview]