'Rogue One' director Gareth Edwards, it seems, wants John Knoll's name removed as a story writer for the new Star Wars movie. The incident came to light, thanks to a poster where Edwards scribbled some notes suggesting corrections. But, things are not what they seem.
Scott Chitwood, a co-publisher of Red 5 comics, tweeted a picture of the 'Rogue One' official poster with Gareth Edwards' notes demanding certain hilarious corrections from Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), the premier visual effects house behind such path breaking films like 'Jurassic Park' and 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day' among many others.
Of course the notes were Gareth Edwards just having fun with ILM; a good natured joke rather than making any serious demands. The poster needs to be enlarged to read some of the comments. The comment on question is one addressing the 'Story by' credit to John Knoll, at the bottom right part of the poster. Edwards' light natured fun in fact draws attention to the immense importance of ILM and its artists in the history of cinema.
As can be seen from the image, Edwards asks to "delete" Knoll's name from the story credit. It was John Knoll, the Chief Creative Officer at ILM and a well-known visual effects artist, who had suggested to ILM, now owned by Disney, the story of 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.' Gary Whitta is also credited as a co-story writer.
The story of 'Rogue One' as per starwars.com, "In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction," was mentioned on the opening crawl of George Lucas's original 'Star Wars' (1977). The events of the new movie takes place before 'A New Hope' begins, thus making 'Rogue One' a prequel/prologue to the original trilogy.
Some of the other "demands" by Edwards is that a "smaller font" be used for ILM and a "much bigger font" for his name as a director. The 'Godzilla' director signs off the poster with the words "To ILM, Just a few final thoughts, Love."
'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,' the first in a series of spin-offs of the 'Star Wars' saga, releases on 15 December in Singapore and will have its premiere at Los Angeles, California, on 10 December this year.
