'Star Wars' Han Solo Spinoff In the Works With 'Lego Movie' Directors

When Christopher Miller was an intern at Lucasfilm, he was asked, and geekily accepted, to step into a Stormtrooper costume for one of George Lucas’ special edition Star Wars movies.

Now, in a paraphrasing of Darth Vader’s immortal words of “When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master,” a circle is about to complete.

Miller and his partner Phil Lord, the duo behind The Lego Movie and the hit 21 Jump Street movies, are tackling one of Star Wars anthology movies as their next directing project, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

The filmmaker team, who write, direct and produce, are stepping up to helm a movie that will focus on a young Han Solo, according to sources.

Lawrence Kasdan and Jon Kasdan are writing the script with the project now set for a May 25, 2018 release.

The new project is not the same as the one that was to have been directed by Josh Trank. Trank parted ways with the project in May amid a cloud of issues stemming from his Fantastic Four shoot. The project, rumored to be an origin story of the intergalactic bounty hunter Boba Fett, is still searching for a director.

Disney and Lucasfilm had no comment.

Unclear is how this move will impact Lord and Miller’s schedule. The duo became hot property not only with their witty take on the buddy cop genre with Jump Street but especially with 2014’s Lego Movie, which juggled a spectrum of geek icons from Batman to Star Wars.

They were to develop a Flash feature for Warners as a directing vehicle but now with the untitled Star Wars spin-off, that is likely off the table. As is a third Jump Street movie. However, they could stay on as writers or producers on those projects.

They were also developing an animated Spider-Man project for Sony, writing a treatment and producing, but since they were not intending to direct it, that could be less impacted.

The pair would remain involved in the Lego franchise they helped launch.

'Star Wars' Hunts for Han Solo: Disney Sees 2,500 Actors to Fill One Vest

It's a hunt that would make Jabba the Hutt proud.

Disney and Lucasfilm are scouring the galaxy in what some are calling the widest casting search ever for the actor who will play a young Han Solo in the planned Star Wars spinoff movie.

According to sources, more than 2,500 actors have met on the project or put themselves on tape, with casting director Jeanne McCarthy running point on finding the man to fill the vest made famous by Harrison Ford in the first Star Wars trilogy and The Force Awakens, which opens Dec. 18.

The contenders are being whittled down before Star Wars spinoff directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who worked with McCarthy on the hit Jump Street films, hone in on their Han. The movie isn't due to shoot until January 2017 for a May 25, 2018, release, so they have plenty of time to make a choice.

"This has been the easiest movie to audition for," says an agent with a client who has auditioned. "They are seeing everyone."

The strategy is a 180 degree turn from the plan producers took to find the young stars of The Force Awakens, the upcoming movie that relaunches the Star Wars franchise under the direction of Disney and Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy. Director J.J. Abrams took great pains to find relative unknowns to play the leads. Daisy Ridley, the movie's female star, had only a handful of television appearances to her credit when she was chosen. Co-star John Boyega only boasted a bit more experience, having appeared in British sci-fi comedy Attack the Block and other small projects.

The top-secret Solo project, with a script by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, is slyly working under the code name "Red Cup," a reference to the college party staple manufactured by, yep, the Solo Cup Corp. But with every agency sending clients between the ages of 18 and 32 in to read for the part, names are beginning to surface.

Actors who have read in person or auditioned via videotape range from the well-known (Dave Franco, 30, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 25, and Miles Teller, 28) to the sort-of-known (Jurassic World's Nick Robinson, 20) to relative unknowns (Kickin' It's Leo Howard, 18, and The Purge's Tony Oller, 24) and also vary significantly in age. Though sources say the "sweet spot" seems to be the mid-20s, the ages of the contenders span from Chandler Riggs, the 16-year-old star of The Walking Dead, to Hunter Parrish, 28, and Mr. Robot star Rami Malek, 34.

Casting directors are not just focusing on American actors, either, considering Canadian Hemlock Grove star Landon Liboiron, 23, and English actors Ed Westwick, 28, Tom Felton, 28, and Joshua Sasse, 27, among many, many others.

The casting team is said to be looking for someone who looks at least a bit like a young Ford (now 73, he was 35 when the original Star Wars was released) and can be funny and charming as well as handle the expected action scenes. A few young comedians have been asked to read.

Others who have thrown their hats in the ring include Fury's Logan Lerman, 23, The Fault in Our Stars' Ansel Elgort, 21, and Transformers: Age of Extinction's Jack Reynor, 23, plus TV faces like Teen Wolf's Colton Haynes, 27, and Bates Motel's Max Thieriot, 27.

With a search this galactic, reps would be wise to quote Solo's advice to Luke Skywalker: "Don't get cocky."

I think Doot is the obvious actor for this part. I'd especially like to see him doing the Kessel Run in less than 13 parsecs wearing a cardboard Millennium Falcon.

"Ooohoo! Parsec-y!"

This is great news. I know Li'l Jay will be happy. He was just wishing the other day that we could learn the story of how Han Solo came to be who he is, beginning with the character's birth and going all the way up to the second before he first appears onscreen in "Star Wars."

You know they're not going to do that. We're going to get to see exactly what Han did to piss off Jabba.

Disney's Young Han Solo Search Narrows to Final Shortlist of Actors After Screen-Tests

Chewie, we’re almost home.

The search for the young actor who will fill Han Solo's leather vest could be in its final stages, as multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that a shortlist quietly has emerged.

According to sources, last weekend in London tests were conducted involving actors Alden Ehrenreich, who did scene-stealing work in Hail, Caesar!; Jack Reynor, best known for his work in Transformers: Age of Extinction; and Taron Egerton, the star of The Kingsman and Eddie the Eagle.

Sources say there could be a few other names on the list, though due to the high level of secrecy on all Star Wars projects, it’s hard to ascertain them. Disney declined to comment.

Those who tested — and it’s unclear if these were costume tests or screen tests — were plucked from a previous group of around 10 actors who met with the directors. Among the names whispered to have met are Miles Teller, the Whiplash star who appears in the Divergent movies; and Ansel Elgort, the Fault in Our Stars star who also is in the Divergent movies.

Emory Cohen, who played Saoirse Ronan’s love interest in the Oscar-nominated Brooklyn, also tested. Actors from Richard Linklater’s new movie Everybody Wants Some also had meetings, according to sources.

Disney and Lucasfilm have searched from Alderaan to Yavin to find the new star, with sources saying that more than 2,500 actors have either met with those in charge of casting or put themselves on tape, becoming part of one of the widest casting calls ever.

As THR reported in December, Disney cast a wide net to find the right actor to play a younger version of the character made famous by Harrison Ford in 1977's Star Wars: A New Hope, as well as The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and 2015's The Force Awakens.

The character will debut in a Star Wars spinoff movie being made by Disney, Lucasfilm and filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) and scheduled for 2018.

Ford's swaggering Solo is considered a standout character of the seven-film Star Wars series. The 73-year-old actor’s appearance as Solo in The Force Awakens was a major factor in the movie’s critical and commercial success.

I guess Alden Ehrenreich is my pick of the three.

♫ Jabba Babies, they do their best for youuuuuu... ♪

It will never happen, but...

Miles Teller discusses 'young Han Solo' audition

Miles Teller has addressed rumours that he auditioned for the part of Han Solo in the untitled 2018 Star Wars prequel about the character’s origin.

Announced in July, the 2018 spin-off will tell the story of "how young Han Solo became the smuggler, thief, and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina at Mos Eisley". Reports emerged in December that Disney and Lucasfilm had auditioned more than 2,500 actors for the role.

Whiplash and Fantastic Four actor Teller has been linked to the Han Solo role numerous times over the past few months, though he has reportedly since been ruled out of the race, which is reportedly now limited to Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!), and Jack Reynor (Transformers: Age of Extinction).

Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the directing duo behind The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street, have signed on to direct the film, whose screenplay is being written by Star Wars franchise veteran Lawrence Kasdan and his son Jon Kasdan.

Speaking to the happysadconfused podcast, Teller did not go into details about his meeting with Lord and Miller, saying, “I’ve met Lord and Miller before. There you go. I don’t know. If my career’s gonna come crashing down, it’s not going to be in your podcast.”

Disney and Lucasfilm has given the currently untitled Han Solo spin-off film a release date of May 25, 2018. It will be the second in the so-called "Anthology Series" of Star Wars spin-off films following Rogue One, which is being directed by Godzilla's Gareth Edwards for a December 16, 2016 release.

Discussing the audition process further, Teller added that he had never seen the original films before auditioning and joked that he would cast Paul Giamatti as Solo. "I had never even seen any of the original Star Wars movies until maybe a month before, or a couple weeks before my first audition because I was like, ‘I should check this out’.

“It holds up. I just love Harrison Ford. I think it’s a great character. I love his brand, I mean so many guys would’ve played that part so wrong and he has humor at the right times, but he’s masculine... Harrison Ford is a very big actor, when you see the facial expressions and the things he does he goes big, but he’s just always the coolest guy in the room and he’s got all of those great qualities."

Speaking about the film in December, Ford said, "As far as the movie featuring a young Han Solo goes, I don't know what to think about that. I'm glad that somebody else is going to have the burden of being young. It's well beyond my understanding and control and I of course want nothing to do with it, in the nicest possible way. But I know it will be well done. It's just nothing to do with me."

I feel like they're finally getting the hang of this property -- instead of making the mistake they did with Star Trek (initially). Don't give us just adventures "set in that world." We want those characters as much as we can within the bounds of decent story.