Rogue One: Ben Mendelsohn says 'vastly different' version of the film exists
'We did have multiple, multiple ways of going at any given scenario, we had multiple readings of it'
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Your support makes all the difference.A significant chunk of the publicity mill surrounding Rogue One's release focused on rumours of drastic reshoots.
They were fairly easily dismissed as standard practice in Hollywood film-making, and the film's critical success has shown there was never much need to worry about the fate of the first of the planned Star Wars anthology films.
However, looking back at the film's vast swathes of promotional material potentially tells a very different story, with key scenes and action sequences highlighted in Rogue One's various trailers now tellingly absent from the final cut.
How much did the reshoots actually end up altering the film's DNA? Ben Mendelsohn's interview with Collider seems to hint at something very intriguing about what ended up on the cutting room floor.
It seems as if director Gareth Edwards deliberately shot multiple versions of scenes even during principal photography to give some freedom to the editing process. Mendelsohn revealed, "We did have multiple, multiple ways of going at any given scenario, we had multiple readings of it. So should they ever decided to, there would be a wealth of ways of approaching these different things."
"And I know from having seen sort of the crucial kind of scenes throughout it, I know there’s vastly different readings of at least four of those scenes," he added; referencing that the rest of the movie has "enormous differences within I would’ve said 20 or 30 of the scenes."
Rogue One follows a wayward band of Rebel fighters brought together for one improbable mission: steal the plans for the Death Star. These events, of course, directly link into the first scenes of A New Hope; when Princess Leia is seen concealing the plans in R2-D2 before she's captured by the Galactic Empire.
The film largely centres around Felicity Jones' Jyn Erso: a criminal misfit who becomes entangled in the Rebellion's ambitious, and resolutely dangerous, schemes. Donnie Yen, Diego Luna, Jian Wen, Forest Whitaker, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, and Mads Mikkelsen also star.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in cinemas now.
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