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takyon writes:

Filmmaker Colin Trevorrow will not direct Star Wars: Episode IX:

Star Wars: Episode IX needs a new director. Lucasfilm has announced that Jurassic World filmmaker Colin Trevorrow is leaving the project. [...] Playwright Jack Thorne, best known for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, was recently hired to do a comprehensive rewrite of the Episode IX script by Trevorrow and his Safety Not Guaranteed co-screenwriter Derek Connolly.

While the nature of the disagreement with Lucasfilm isn't clear, there have been rumblings of discontent for several months. During that time, Trevorrow also suffered withering reviews for his passion project, The Book of Henry, which was a critical and commercial calamity.

Although Lucasfilm's new movies have found immense success at the box office and with audiences and critics, the process of working with directors on the new saga and spin-offs has occasionally been fraught. Chronicle filmmaker Josh Trank was set to direct an unspecified stand-alone movie (believed to be a Boba Fett project) before parting ways amid chaos on the recent Fantastic Four movie. And The LEGO Movie directors Phil Miller and Chris Lord were removed from the young Han Solo film and replaced with veteran Ron Howard amid disputes over the state of that project.

Star Wars IX was planned for release on May 24, 2019. Star Wars: The Last Jedi comes out on December 15, 2017.

Also at The Hollywood Reporter (discussion). Lucasfilm statement.

Safety Not Guaranteed or Steins;Gate?

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