The Director and the Jedi Page #2

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so perfect in terms of the schedule.

So we now go Ireland,

straight to Iceland, three days in Iceland...

I've eliminated a travel day. Genius.

And no matter we do,

nobody here knows any movie

where they had to build 120 sets.

And it's not just building the set,

because every time you build a set,

the lighting guys need to come and light it,

set dressing, stunts, special effects.

So, when you look at the schedule,

we have weeks where we're shooting

eight different sets,

and then they need to turn around.

It takes them months to build them,

especially a set like the casino,

which is a huge, giant set.

This is actually my first time seeing it all.

- Are you pleased?

- Yeah.

It's big.

One actor gets sick.

Rian gets sick for one day.

That has an effect that goes all the way.

It's like... House of cards.

The whole thing falls.

Everything has to be so perfect to get it done.

And it's not going to be.

Yeah. Good work. Boy, it's...

Yeah, it's tight.

It is 100 days. Walk in the park.

Jesus.

No, it's good.

It's good to, uh...

It's good to get my head, like, around it,

and in the right place in terms of the pace

that we're actually going to have to

accomplish to get all of it done.

We are here on Skellig Michael,

off the west coast of lreland.

This is a little pre-shoot.

Our main shoot isn't for a few more months.

But because it's a bird sanctuary,

it's a UNESCO heritage site,

it is so inaccessible,

we could only get there

for two days to shoot.

After months of planning,

and working it all out,

we finally have our crew here,

and it feels really nice to put

Luke Skywalker in front of a camera.

So, this is literally the moment

right after VII,

and I always knew that I wanted to see

what the very next thing that happened was.

And so, that's what we're coming in on.

Some young kid shows up

and hands him this symbol of everything

he's walked away from.

It's not like he's gonna fire it up

and say, "Let's go."

He's done with that.

That's why he's here.

And I think it's just because

the attitude of tossing on the go

worked really well.

So, it's still keeping that,

kind of, like...

Well, see, again, I mean,

I told Rian this. It's no surprise,

I said I just fundamentally disagree

with your concept of this character

and how you use him.

Now, having said that,

I'll do everything within my power

to realize your vision,

'cause, you know,

it's not my character to decide.

It belongs to other people,

they just rent it out to me.

- And cut.

- You got that?

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, so, they could be walking down...

So, now, there's a lot more meetings,

a lot more preproduction,

a lot more planning.

Casting.

- Casting. We're trying to find...

- Rose.

...who's going to play the character of Rose,

which is one of the few new characters in the movie.

As we speak,

of course another agent is calling me.

But it felt so good to get out here

and actually roll some film.

It's going to be hard to go back to work now.

It's going to be hard to go back looking at charts...

- And designs.

-... having board meetings.

Clearly, you know why we're here.

You know why we are here.

So the question is just to quantify,

if there is a way to quantify.

So, if we said, okay,

what if we took these characters out,

will it save, and if so, how much?

You know, if we were to look at

where are the cost savings,

the cost savings are those things that

we haven't already committed to,

in the biggest sense of the word.

And that pretty well starts

at the fathiers,

down through the sea cows.

So, at the moment, the casino is

coming through weekly. Daily.

A significant proportion of the work

-has already taken place.

- Correct.

At a certain point, we had to fit

our budget and our plan into a box.

And the box was big, but it was a box.

So, it had limits.

I mean, if one said, "Let's not do the sea cow.

"Let's stop at this point,

create a CG version."

I do have to say, from my visit

to the location in lreland,

I think without a helicopter,

we are dreaming, somewhat.

I do think it is very pivotal.

You know, we need to find different ways

how not to compromise the movie,

but sometimes you have to deal

with situations like this.

So, you know, it's tricky.

The fact that it's come so late

is a little bit of a surprise,

and I think it's just beginning to dawn,

or become a reality to all,

the sheer scope of this project,

which is enormous.

If we took The Force Awakens

and we take Rogue One,

we put them together,

this project is still bigger.

So, it's double the size.

We now go back, we look at,

I suppose, options to say,

do we keep this character?

Is this character potentially more expensive to do

as an animatronic practical effect

than potentially to do

in postproduction CG effects?

Can we still fulfill that expectation

on the money that we have?

And, if we don't, how can I trick him to think

that he's still getting

the same thing he asked for,

but, in fact, it didn't cost quite so much money?

- Hey!

- Hey.

You all right, sir?

How are you?

Wonderful. How're you doing? Good.

- Cool. Okay, fish.

- That looks so real.

Yes, it certainly is.

- You guys are amazing.

- Yeah. Will that be all right?

Yeah. That'll work. All good.

Okay, so, this is said entity.

How are you? Good to see you.

Yeah, it looks fantastic.

We just made that

a little bit salmon-y colored.

- Pinky, fleshy colored.

- Yeah. Yeah. It's perfect.

He has only two ways of responding, Rian.

Either you get the reaction,

which is very high-pitched giggle...

Or you get a, sort of, "Mmm."

It was eventually decided

to build the sea cow,

because it was Rian's ambition to always

try and achieve things practically.

So, to actually go to lreland and

place the sea cow on a rocky outcrop,

the sea, the sound,

the light, all of these aspects

just gelled together to make

the whole shot just look incredible.

I do think the flippers and

shoulders are in the right place...

- Yes.

-...over here.

But I feel like this is much more right

in terms of the relation with the belly.

Okay.

There's a level of humor in Star Wars,

a naivety and an innocence,

and Rian, in this case,

has particularly latched into that.

He loves the blend of

the grotesque with the beauty.

And there's a balance in that.

It feels a little bit more like it should be

a bit more gargle-y.

Yeah.

Cool. All right.

The tree.

Well, we have a lovely site

in Iceland

that we've tech-scouted.

So, we know physically what it is

we're trying to get out of the tree.

I don't know if it's a practical place, necessarily,

for Frank Oz to try to puppeteer.

So, these concerns are sort of looming.

That tree can go in Iceland.

There's no doubt we can put that tree there.

So can the Millennium Falcon.

Whether or not someone wants to pay

for all of those different aspects,

or whether or not we cherry-pick

the ones that we want,

and bring the others back here.

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