- George Lucas visited the set of "Solo: A Star Wars Story," but he did more than just say hi.
- The creator of the "Star Wars" saga came up with a suggestion for a shot and director Ron Howard had the actors act it out.
- Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy said Lucas' suggestion will "probably get a laugh."
It has become a treasured tradition — like the president throwing out the first pitch at a World Series game — when the creator of "Star Wars," filmmaker George Lucas, visits the set of a movie in the saga he sold to Disney in 2012.
He doesn't do it often.
The last time was during the making of "Rogue One." But it's a way of Lucas showing his approval of what Disney is doing, and laying out some Godfather-like advice to the filmmaker of that project.
But it was a little different when Lucas came to the set of "Solo: A Star Wars Story."
And it wasn't just because Ron Howard had taken over the project — following the firing of its original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ("The Lego Movie") — who Lucas has known since the 1970s when he directed Howard in "American Graffiti." It turns out Lucas wasn't shy about giving some directing suggestions on set.
According to a profile of Howard in Entertainment Weekly, Lucas showed up on set and "didn’t offer a lot of advice except, ‘You’ll get this,’” Howard said.
Usually that's when Lucas would head out and everyone would get back to business. However, Lucas didn't leave.
“He had intended to just kind of stop by and say hi, and he stayed five hours,” Kathleen Kennedy, the head of Lucasfilm, told EW. “There’s even one little moment in a scene that — I can’t tell you what, sorry — but in the scene on the Millennium Falcon where George said, ‘Why doesn’t Han just do this.’”
Without giving anything away, Kennedy said that Lucas' suggestion is a "funny little bit that will probably get a laugh."
"Ron happened to be by the monitor and not inside the Falcon and he goes, ‘Oh that’s a great idea,’ and ran in and said, ‘George wants us to do this,’" Kennedy said. "So that was pretty cool. I think George felt pretty great about that. He could revisit these characters, and I think he felt so comfortable, obviously with Ron being there, that it was just fun for him."
"Solo" opens in theaters May 25.
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