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The first of three planned Disney "Star Wars" spinoff films,
"Rogue One" is intended as a standalone movie, although it is
set before the original 1977 film "A New Hope."
Anticipation is high with tickets selling fast ahead of the Dec.
14 world rollout, and box office analysts are predicting that
"Rogue One" will take in some $130 million at North American
movie theaters on its opening weekend.
"Rogue One" doesn't start with the signature "Star Wars" theme
music or the screen crawl of story information that opened the
previous seven films in the franchise.
"You don't have to have seen 'Star Wars' to come and see this
film. You could never have seen it in your life and everything
you needed to know, you learn during this movie," Edwards told
Reuters.
"My goal would be, if we do our jobs properly, that by the time
the film ends, the first thing you want to do is watch 'A New
Hope' and see the rest if you haven't seen it before," he added.
Secrecy has been tight around plot details, but "Rogue One" will
follow a group of rebels led by Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) who
embark on a mission to steal the plans for the Galactic Empire's
new super weapon, the Death Star.
Not only is a female character front and center of the action,
but the film has one of the most diverse casts yet for a
big-budget Hollywood movie, including Mexico's Diego Luna,
Chinese actors Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen, and British-born actor
Riz Ahmed, who is of Pakistani descent.
Edwards, who also directed action movie "Godzilla," said the
diversity came directly from the plot.
"In our story, the rebellion is fractured and it's before 'A New
Hope.' ...There's all these other groups from all over the
galaxy that are not really getting along and functioning
properly.
"So we needed to visually represent that with different
ethnicity and all sorts, so it was just a really good
opportunity and the second you do that you also go 'OK, now we
can cast anyone in the entire world' so it's amazing," Edwards
said.
(Reporting by Reuters Television; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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