[TV] Disney+ Star Wars: Cassian Andor

[Ihavewaffles]

Stopped work? Uhm, the scripts are done, so WHY?..Hope production picks up soon again..


‘Andor’ Showrunner Tony Gilroy Ceases Producing Work On Disney+ Series Amid WGA Strike.

https://deadline.com/2023/05/writers...es-1235361906/
By Denise Petski - May 10, 2023 8:04am

Andor creator/showrunner Tony Gilroy says he has ceased all non-writing producing duties on the Disney+ series amid the WGA strike.

“I discontinued ALL writing and writing-related work on ANDOR prior to midnight, May 1,” Gilroy said in a statement. “After being briefed on the Saturday showrunner meeting, I informed Chris Keyser at the WGA on Sunday morning that I would also be ceasing ALL non-writing producing functions.”

Gilroy released the statement following criticism on social media by a fellow WGA member that he had been performing producing duties on the show. Scripts on Season 2 of the series had been completed ahead of the WGA strike which is now in its 9th day.

The Star Wars prequel starring Diego Luna explores a new perspective from the Star Wars galaxy, focusing on Cassian Andor’s journey to discover the difference he can make. The series brings forward the tale of the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire and how people and planets became involved. It’s an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue where Cassian embarks on the path that is destined to turn him into a rebel hero.

The series was created by Gilroy, who worked on the original Rogue One script, and Toby Haynes is the show’s lead director. Ben Caron and Susanna White also direct episodes.

[Darththeo]

Stopped work? Uhm, the scripts are done, so WHY?..Hope production picks up soon again..


‘Andor’ Showrunner Tony Gilroy Ceases Producing Work On Disney+ Series Amid WGA Strike.

https://deadline.com/2023/05/writers...es-1235361906/
By Denise Petski - May 10, 2023 8:04am

Andor creator/showrunner Tony Gilroy says he has ceased all non-writing producing duties on the Disney+ series amid the WGA strike.

“I discontinued ALL writing and writing-related work on ANDOR prior to midnight, May 1,” Gilroy said in a statement. “After being briefed on the Saturday showrunner meeting, I informed Chris Keyser at the WGA on Sunday morning that I would also be ceasing ALL non-writing producing functions.”

Gilroy released the statement following criticism on social media by a fellow WGA member that he had been performing producing duties on the show. Scripts on Season 2 of the series had been completed ahead of the WGA strike which is now in its 9th day.

The Star Wars prequel starring Diego Luna explores a new perspective from the Star Wars galaxy, focusing on Cassian Andor’s journey to discover the difference he can make. The series brings forward the tale of the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire and how people and planets became involved. It’s an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue where Cassian embarks on the path that is destined to turn him into a rebel hero.

The series was created by Gilroy, who worked on the original Rogue One script, and Toby Haynes is the show’s lead director. Ben Caron and Susanna White also direct episodes.

You do know that script rewrites are a thing ... right? Unless it has been fully filmed, a strike can impact a show.

Also, he is pretty clear to why. He is standing with the WGA.

[eschatological]

Also, all the other entertainment unions are supporting the WGA as well. Which would include most of the crew.

[Shadowferal]

Also, all the other entertainment unions are supporting the WGA as well. Which would include most of the crew.

Disney as a whole is being affected. New Marvel stuff is on hold indefinitely.

[Darththeo]

Disney as a whole is being affected. New Marvel stuff is on hold indefinitely.

That's not quite accurate. Writers and Animators are still working, so cartoons are pretty much not impacted. The Phinaes and Ferb new episodes are being worked on per Dan Povenmire. Writers for cartoons aren't part of the WGA and often get paid significantly less than the WGA writers. However, they are also supporting the strike.

I don't think people realize how interconnected the entertainment industry is. And people are already whining about this strike impacting shows they watch. I am sorry, I support people fighting for what they feel is fair compensation for their work. Also, I rather them delay the shows than hire scab writers and try to push through production of any Star Wars show.

[Fencers]

Stopped work? Uhm, the scripts are done, so WHY?..Hope production picks up soon again..

That is not how it works. There isn't such a thing as a script that is written and everybody just makes that word-for-word as it is on the page. Rewrites, alterations, changes to direction, etc- are all script related.

Further, Hollywood is unionized. There is solidarity among various guilds and guild members for the WGA strike. In almost no way would writers and guild members of adjacent unions risk breaking solidarity or their own goose would be cooked.

Lastly, writers have multiple roles they may serve in pre, current, and post-production. Especially anyone that is producing or directing any ongoing production. This makes it extremely difficult to work under such circumstances- if you are a producer and someone asks for a line alteration you would literally have to excuse yourself from the room/conversation if you are also a unionized writer. Not just a writer of that script, just a writer, as in ever.

This would lead to failures and malfeasance in production roles as a producer(s) and/or director(s) excuse themselves from key aspects of the project. That then they are liable for the development/production of.

The studio can say "Tony Gilroy was unfit as a producer, showrunner, etc" because he had to leave the room every time a line needed altering or direction was asked for in the scene setups.

This is not reasonable and no one would put their livelihood or career on the line willy-nilly in that manner. Even now with the production requirements letters released earlier this week, the WGA and guilds are debating the roles outlined under those job titles for showrunners and producers as we speak.

[Fabinas]

That is not how it works. There isn't such a thing as a script that is written and everybody just makes that word-for-word as it is on the page. Rewrites, alterations, changes to direction, etc- are all script related.

Further, Hollywood is unionized. There is solidarity among various guilds and guild members for the WGA strike. In almost no way would writers and guild members of adjacent unions risk breaking solidarity or their own goose would be cooked.

Lastly, writers have multiple roles they may serve in pre, current, and post-production. Especially anyone that is producing or directing any ongoing production. This makes it extremely difficult to work under such circumstances- if you are a producer and someone asks for a line alteration you would literally have to excuse yourself from the room/conversation if you are also a unionized writer. Not just a writer of that script, just a writer, as in ever.

This would lead to failures and malfeasance in production roles as a producer(s) and/or director(s) excuse themselves from key aspects of the project. That then they are liable for the development/production of.

The studio can say "Tony Gilroy was unfit as a producer, showrunner, etc" because he had to leave the room every time a line needed altering or direction was asked for in the scene setups.

This is not reasonable and no one would put their livelihood or career on the line willy-nilly in that manner. Even now with the production requirements letters released earlier this week, the WGA and guilds are debating the roles outlined under those job titles for showrunners and producers as we speak.

I cannot understand why you would have to excuse yourself out for a line alteration. Is it considered an insult to your initial writing, therefore protecting your creation? Is there a union rule that specifically demands to not partake to any demand of changes in your scripts?

[rhorle]

I cannot understand why you would have to excuse yourself out for a line alteration. Is it considered an insult to your initial writing, therefore protecting your creation? Is there a union rule that specifically demands to not partake to any demand of changes in your scripts?

The WGA is on strike so no member is supposed to do stuff the union covers. That is the entire point of going on strike. Hurting the business to negotiate a more favorable contract. A person can always cross the picket line and be a strikebreaker (often called a scab) but that can have consequences with your union membership and I doubt many would do it for minor stuff.

[Fencers]

I cannot understand why you would have to excuse yourself out for a line alteration. Is it considered an insult to your initial writing, therefore protecting your creation? Is there a union rule that specifically demands to not partake to any demand of changes in your scripts?

You would be crossing the picket line for one. Second, if you have input on that line rewrite- you are writing. Which you are not supposed to be doing during this strike.

A writer would also be essentially giving up their privileges. Something changes in the script. You can't say anything but you hung out while it was happening. Can't give your opinion on that- you are on strike as a writer. Strike ends. Production is still ongoing. Too late to say anything about that now.

No one would do that.

If you are part of the WGA on strike, you are not supposed to be helping, assisting, lending input, having an opinion on, etc with anything that requires writing.

[Fabinas]

You would be crossing the picket line for one. Second, if you have input on that line rewrite- you are writing. Which you are not supposed to be doing during this strike.

A writer would also be essentially giving up their privileges. Something changes in the script. You can't say anything but you hung out while it was happening. Can't give your opinion on that- you are on strike as a writer. Strike ends. Production is still ongoing. Too late to say anything about that now.

No one would do that.

If you are part of the WGA on strike, you are not supposed to be helping, assisting, lending input, having an opinion on, etc with anything that requires writing.

Oh, ok, i knew about the strike, but i kinda thought this wasn't related to it.

My bad.

[Ihavewaffles]

How many times has he personally, or they the empire been stopped? What is he referring to?
I think Tony Gilroy will bring out the big guns next season, how else would that budget make sense?



- Lord Vader, the battle station plans are not aboard this ship, and no transmissions were made.

- An escape pod was jettisoned during the fighting, but no life-forms were aboard.

- She must have hidden the plans in the escape pod. Send a detachment down to retrieve them.

- See to it personally, Commander. There'll be no one to stop us this time.

- - - Updated - - -

How ‘Andor’ Broke Star Wars Rules to Reinvent Sci-Fi TV.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...tv-1235507880/
BY JAMES HIBBERD - JUNE 8, 2023 2:58PM

Star Wars may be a wild sci-fi fantasy galaxy of aliens, pirates and space wizards, but it actually has a lot of secret rules. For instance: Paper does not exist. There are no wheels. Doors always slide open — no hinges. And windows can be many shapes, but not square.

So writer Tony Gilroy was surprised when Lucasfilm proposed that he make a radically different kind of Star Wars series where he’d enjoy plenty of creative latitude: a prequel to Rogue One, the 2016 Star Wars film Gilroy helped improve with a script rewrite and reshoots. “The original mandate was: ‘Can you open a new lane for us? Can you find us a new audience?'” recalls Gilroy (in an interview conducted before the WGA strike). “‘If we back your play and use the down payment of the hard-core Star Wars community, can you make something, take it seriously, and make a new lane that we might build all kinds of new things from?'”

The idea wasn’t to shatter the rules of Star Wars, but to find an entirely new vibe and scene that felt different within the franchise’s existing, iconic aesthetic. “And in that, we were a resounding success,” declares Gilroy immodestly yet correctly, given that the resulting series, Andor, has received near-universal acclaim among critics and fans for its brand of grounded, grown-up Star Wars. And there were two sequences during the drama’s first of two seasons that particularly stood out: a rousing escape from a soul-crushing prison on Narkina 5 and a nail-biting heist operation on the planet Aldhani.

“I’m not obsessed with dams — just for the record,” production designer Luke Hull says.

Hull is referring to the fact that both his Aldhani base and his showstopping concept for Andor’s prison on Narkina 5 coincidentally use hydroelectric power as part of their design. Hull isn’t a Star Wars veteran — his last big gig was on HBO’s Chernobyl — but Gilroy calls him his “primary narrative collaborator” on the show.

“He’s the person I spend the most time talking to because everything we do has to be designed right,” Gilroy says. “He’ll be the last dog to die.”

Narkina 5 is an ingenious nightmare: a factory prison in the middle of an ocean where thousands of barefoot men in paper uniforms (paper clothing is apparently allowed) endlessly build mysterious Imperial widgets. Across a three-episode arc, the show’s protagonist, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), is imprisoned, toils away in desperation and then leads a breakout with the help of his work crew leader, Kino Loy (Andy Serkis).

From the start, the Andor team considered the prison arc daunting. They had to design, from the ground up, a wholly original and sprawling sci-fi incarceration system that fit within the Star Wars world and wouldn’t break the bank. “There are so many epic prison movies,” Gilroy says, referencing classics like Escape From Alcatraz and The Shawshank Redemption. “And I was like: We cannot do a prison if we can’t do a better prison — something fresh.”

Given that Narkina 5 is a work camp, the standard move would be to draw inspiration from something that’s historically familiar. “The obvious direction was something grungy like a Russian prison or gulag,” Hull says. “But what if it was more like a lab? If it was more like a clean room? And the prisoners are the expendable product in the machine? That’s actually more creepy.”

Imperial locations tend to be black and gray. “They’re the Navy,” Hull points out. A New Hope showed the Death Star’s detention level, which was likewise black and sinister. But black and gray are also monochromatic. So how about all-white instead? “Whether it’s all black or all white, you’ll know it’s an Imperial environment,” Hull says.

As for how a Star Wars prison should function, Gilroy says their first useful idea was “no bars.” He continues, “Then it had to be something where you don’t need to have 8 million guards. Then somebody said ‘electric floors’ and it was like, ‘Oh my God!’ ”

The team got to work designing a perfect, inescapable mousetrap, and then had to figure out how to reverse-engineer what they created to give Cassian a way to get out, all while playing fair with the audience. Every line of dialogue in Cassian’s prison orientation became crucial to his eventual escape.

“It’s such a strong and interesting concept and such a wonderful statement,” Luna says. “It’s a prison that is all about being productive to an economic system, where you have to be healthy and pristine and strong. And you need to have a little [false] hope that you can get out one day. It makes you reflect on the world we live in.”

One final design element, however, didn’t quite meet Hull’s high standards: Cassian’s cell toilet. “The Star Wars Toilet still keeps me up at night,” Hull sighs. “We probably could have done a bit more work to make it more interesting.”

For the crucial character of Kino Loy, Gilroy wanted Serkis after seeing him play an arms dealer in Black Panther, but says the actor kept him dangling for quite a while. Serkis was wary, he says, about returning to Star Wars after playing Supreme Leader Snoke in the sequel movies. “There was such confusion about Snoke and Snoke theories, I just thought people are going to flip out and wonder what the hell is going on and assume there’s some sort of link there,” Serkis says. “I thought, ‘This is a minefield.’ ”

Serkis was turned around by Gilroy’s script, which also gave him the opportunity to present a very different physical character to a mass audience: himself. The British actor is best known for his motion-capture work in The Lord of the Rings and the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise. Even in Panther, he was buried under an array of scars and tattoos and sported a South African accent. For Andor, he’d be stripped to his everyday self and in the same costume as every other prisoner. But Serkis says he didn’t feel particularly naked on set.

“You feel plenty naked in a motion-capture suit, too,” he says. “A character is a character and it doesn’t matter how you manifest that. It’s about who that person is or what that person is or what they represent.”

Serkis did construct his own backstory for Kino Loy to help him get his head around the character. He decided Loy was “someone who had a family and was a firebrand union shop steward that would stand up for workers’ rights in a normal situation,” but was beaten into submission by Narkina 5.

Serkis got to deliver arguably the most viral line of the show, after Cassian’s repeated attempts to convince Loy to attempt a breakout by asking how many guards are on each floor. In the last line of the ninth episode, Loy finally answers: “Never more than 12.” Gilroy points out that what’s effective about the line is how non-showy it is. “The really great lines are ones that feel like they’re organically there and you love them, but you don’t feel like the writer is there too,” he says. “That one was causal and strong, but no, I was not prepared for the reaction [by fans].”

The prison rebellion calcifies Cassian’s resistance to the Empire and shows he can be a leader, but not before Luna, Serkis and the rest of the cast started to feel like they were imprisoned themselves.

“The desensitization of wearing a paper suit and walking in bare feet was the most strange thing about the process,” Serkis says. “Week in, week out, everybody looking like a carbon copy of yourself, you feel like you’ve lost your identity. And everything about that set was hostile in its clinicalness. It did strange things to your head, like it was designed to do.”

That the Narkina 5 sequences were filmed at the end of Andor‘s 10-month shoot helped add to the actors’ weariness. “Every day, going into those white walls, dressed in that uniform, made you feel like just another number,” Luna says. “The prison metaphorically became a different thing for each actor — everyone found a way to hate the prison.”

Appropriately enough, the final scene of the prison break, when the prisoners jump from a platform into the ocean, was shot on the very last day of the season’s filming. “That was the last shot we did,” Luna says.

The Heist

“We were trying to avoid deserts,” recalls Hull. Indeed, like Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars fans have grown weary of staring at sand, which made the murky green hills of Aldhani (shot on location in Scotland) a rather refreshing choice.

The idea of sneaking into an Imperial base, however, is a well-worn trope. The usual arc is: The good guys go in, they’re discovered and they pew-pew-pew their way out. Broadly speaking, Andor does the same thing, but with many striking twists.

The team is led by freedom fighter Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay). She and her partner, Cinta Kaz (Varada Sethu), are the first significant queer characters in filmic Star Wars, but their identity isn’t just a way to burnish Disney+’s inclusion bona fides. “It wasn’t a novelty — ‘Here are the queer characters.’ It just normalized the normal,” says Marsay.

Given that the character is so groundbreaking, one would expect Andor‘s writers to portray Sartha as a flawless and fearless example of hyper-competence. But when the time comes for her to launch the attack, she freezes with indecision and terror. The move doesn’t weaken the character, but makes the mission seem perilous and her eventual command to “Go!” all the more brave. “The thing that was most interesting was her vulnerability and insecurity. She’s not just one-note,” says Marsay.

Once inside the base, the usual firefight mayhem is delayed as long as possible as the audience realizes the rebels are desperately trying to avoid hurting anybody. None of the Imperials are wearing helmets like the saga’s traditional Stormtroopers, which prevents them from becoming anonymous blaster fodder. And the rebels’ morality is flipped when one of them holds a gun to a child’s head and a “bad guy” pleads to let the kid go — a reversal of the action-movie cliché where a child is held hostage by a villain. “We wanted to make every single person have their own reality and to empathize with everybody here,” says Gilroy.

Generating all this stand-off tension required a bit of a cheat. One of the first weapons introduced in Star Wars is a stun gun used to harmlessly subdue Princess Leia in A New Hope. It’s a device Andor conveniently left off the stage entirely. “We want it to be hard; [having only lethal weapons] makes their decisions more difficult,” says executive producer Sanne Wohlenberg.

After fighting breaks out and the team makes its escape, the rebels’ sympathetic, manifesto-writing idealist Karis Nemik (Alex Lawther) is killed — but not by the enemy. He’s instead accidentally crushed to death by stolen cargo. “I try to put a lot of error in things,” Gilroy explains. “It’s what goes wrong that makes things really interesting. In reality, very few things work the way they’re supposed to work.”

Once the group is safe, there’s a final shock: One of the rebels, Arvel Skeen (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), tempts Cassian to betray the others. Cassian abruptly shoots him, a move that surprised the audience and even left some confused. There was nothing clear-cut or explained about Cassian’s decision, yet a complicated internal logic existed that felt true to the character.

Gilroy breaks down exactly what happened: “Cassian’s doing a very rapid mathematical algorithm in his mind about what [betraying the others] would mean and what the risk would be and what his future would be. I’m sure that there’s a moment where he is considering it. Cassian just wants to get his cut and get out. He is not a revolutionary at this point, but he’s seen their commitment and there is some respect and interest [in the rebellion] taking effect. Also, how could he trust this son of a bitch? If he’s willing to do that to them, what else is he going to do? He’s dangerous.”

The scene naturally made Star Wars fans think of the classic moment when Han Solo kills a threatening Greedo in A New Hope — a moment that frustrated fans after creator George Lucas re-edited it in the Special Edition to have Greedo fire first. Gilroy, naturally, doesn’t want fans to think his Cassian beat was some sort of comment on the other scene and almost bristles at the suggestion.

“I know what that is,” he says when “Han shoots first” is mentioned. “But no. That’s not on my ledger while I’m working.”

Andor is now in production on season two, which will consist of another 12 episodes. While the first season played around with doing Star Wars versions of popular genre tropes (a heist, a prison break, a local uprising), the second season is a bit different. “It’s not as clearly delineated in terms of genres, but it’s more clearly delineated in that each block of three episodes will be separated by a yearlong gap,” Gilroy says. “So they’re really stand-alone, and in many cases take place over one, two or three days.”

Looking back, Gilroy sees Andor as a minor miracle. Given its steep cost (estimated at $250 million), franchise-expanding tone, and intensive mix of practical and special effects, it probably never would have been greenlit earlier — and probably wouldn’t be ordered now, either.

“We got lucky making this during the gold rush a few years ago. A lot of people now have cold feet, and you can’t do this show inexpensively,” says Gilroy. “I’m just so relieved at the reaction because we were making this huge, obscure thing and we knew it was crazy. Like, ‘Is this too much? Have we gone too far?’ There were no focus groups or test audiences. Now it will be good if we can stick the landing and go out strong.”

- - - Updated - - -

So Mandalorian n other SW shows cost around 100-150 mil, so this some say makes this the most expensive SW show ever, but then we don't know the budget of Ahsoka...

Regardless, this gives me a good feeling that next Andor season will be awesome and Tony Gilroy is no muppet like jj.abrams to waste money on stupid crap

We'll get stuff like this n more

[Koriani]

Damn, I AM Impressed - 250 million on a series that was really a "will it work or not" for them.

And he's right, I also think even now, a couple years later he wouldn't get greenlit for 250 million on the opening season of an unknown series. Hot damn that's a shitton of money.

I mean I can't say the show 'looks it' - but I can say that yeah, the fight scenes/cgi ships were really well done and THOSE parts certainly show the money.

[SolomonGuad]

I like this project

[Ihavewaffles]

Genevieve O'Reilly and Andy Serkis Reflect On The Success of 'Andor' | Star Wars Celebration 2023:

Entertainment Weekly
Aug 9, 2023



'Andor' actress, Genevieve O'Reilly, and director, Andy Serkis, look back on filming season 1 and tease what to expect in season 2!

[SirReal]

This is the best Star Wars content created since Rogue One and in my personal top 5 of all time Star Wars movies & shows combined. It's incredible and Tony Gilroy knew exactly what he was doing.

[Twdft]

'Andor' actress, Genevieve O'Reilly, and director, Andy Serkis, look back on filming season 1 and tease what to expect in season 2!

Bolded is all i read, in my head cannon Kino Loy made it to the shore.

[Ihavewaffles]

After today's Ahsoka episode six, I really would want to see what the Gilroys could do with the Thrawn character...

Thrawn character would take things to another level...


Just imagine dialogue and confrontation between Luthen & Thrawn..

[cubby]

Genevieve O'Reilly and Andy Serkis Reflect On The Success of 'Andor' | Star Wars Celebration 2023:

Entertainment Weekly
Aug 9, 2023

'Andor' actress, Genevieve O'Reilly, and director, Andy Serkis, look back on filming season 1 and tease what to expect in season 2!

Will they bring back Andy Serkis' character? It would be great to see him join the Rebellion.

[Endus]

Will they bring back Andy Serkis' character? It would be great to see him join the Rebellion.

I love Serkis, and his character in Andor was great, but they had to swim to safety and the last we saw him, he didn't know how to swim and knew he couldn't make it. And nobody was offering to help, in their own rush to freedom. It's tragic, but man, is that a perfect tragic ending for a character and it would remove all pathos from that moment retroactively if they pulled a "lol it's fine he got to shore no biggie" for Season 2.

[Darththeo]

I love Serkis, and his character in Andor was great, but they had to swim to safety and the last we saw him, he didn't know how to swim and knew he couldn't make it. And nobody was offering to help, in their own rush to freedom. It's tragic, but man, is that a perfect tragic ending for a character and it would remove all pathos from that moment retroactively if they pulled a "lol it's fine he got to shore no biggie" for Season 2.

Honestly, Andor spent enough time in that prison to do flashbacks.

I like how it ended with the character in season 1 because it is a bit ambiguous. He could have in theory escaped, or he was stuck there. I do not want him to return because you'll have to explain it somehow, and chances are it will not come off convincing.