Which Became the Genesis of Andor
The creation, production and release of a major Hollywood film involves anywhere from dozens to perhaps hundreds of people. Many promising film projects are started but undergo disruptive personnel changes, multiple screenplay rewrites, struggles for financing, production problems and other unforeseen events. Those who work in the filmmaking industry have learned to operate with cautious optimism and will believe it when they see the film on the big screen.
John Knoll was a young man with a dream of working in the world of films. He was astounded watching Star Wars in 1977 as a teenager and was an avid modelmaker. Knoll learned the realistic models in the film had been made by Industrial Light and Magic, a division of Lucasfilm. In 1978, his father took him on a business trip to Anaheim, California. Once there, he looked in the phonebook and discovered Industrial Light and Magic was a short drive away. On a whim, Knoll called up ILM, said he was a modelmaker who wanted to work in the industry, and he was invited to stop by. The next day his father dropped him off and he spent the day there. The hours spent at ILM convinced him he had found his calling, but he would need the education to be hired.
Knoll attended the University of Southern California while working as a freelance modelmaker and graduated with a BA in Cinema Production in 1985. He applied to ILM in February 1986 and was hired as a Motion Control Camera Operator. He was living the dream. He was promoted to Visual Effects Supervisor in 1990. Knoll worked on a range of film projects over the next decade while there was a lull in the Star Wars saga. George Lucas resumed the series with a prequel trilogy starting with The Phantom Menace which Knoll was thrilled to work on because he actually made a cameo appearance as one of the rebel pilots. The film was released in 1999. This was followed by Attack of the Clones in 2002 and Revenge of the Sith in 2005.
While working on Revenge of the Sith, Knoll wrote a proposal for a film project for Lucasfilm with the working title, “Destroyer of Worlds.” Knoll took his inspiration from the opening crawl at the start of Star Wars and the second paragraph which reads: “During the battle, rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.” Knoll wanted to explore who these rebels were, how they came up with the idea of stealing the plans, how they succeeded, and if they could find a weakness in the DEATH STAR, so it could be destroyed. As intriguing as the treatment was, Lucas did not pursue it because he wanted Revenge of the Sith to be the last film released in the Star Wars series. Knoll filed the treatment away and focused his efforts with ongoing film projects at ILM.
The events of the acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd., which included ILM, by Disney in 2012 is beyond the scope of this post, but Kathleen Kennedy, a senior executive at Lucasfilm was promoted to president. Disney’s plan was to continue to expand on the existing six film Star Wars franchise and produce related but stand-alone films as well. When news of this reached ILM, Knoll saw a chance to pitch his original film treatment.
“Talking with friends in the hallway, I would give my thirty second version of the movie.” Knoll recalled. “They said, ‘You need to make an appointment to pitch this idea to Kathy.’ So, I made an appointment and pitched it to Kathy.”1
“John, who is somebody I’ve known over the years, called me up and said, ‘I have an idea that I have been thinking about and kicking around and I’d love to come in and talk with you about it,’ Kennedy explained. “He came in and essentially pitched the idea that’s spelled out in the opening crawl of A New Hope about rebel spies that go in to steal the plans to the Death Star.
“The pitch was so compelling,” Kennedy continued, “I said, ‘I think this this could be great. I think it might actually be one of the best stories to start off the new stand-alone movies.’ It seemed to fit very much into the genre of a World War II-type story—a heist movie.”1
Kennedy said she would present his proposal at the next development meeting. Knoll was elated. He waited patiently but stayed busy to curb his enthusiasm. He had heard nothing after a week, so he shrugged off the hope. Then he got an email from Kiri Hart, Senior Vice President of Development for the Lucasfilm Story Group. They were definitely interested and wanted to move forward with the idea.
Conceptual drawings were now needed, so Knoll got together with Doug Chiang, co-production designer at Lucasfilm, who began generating vehicle and spacecraft drawings. Chiang contacted Christian Alzmann at ILM to brief him on the project and after discussions, generate a group illustration showing the principal rebels, droid, and aliens. By this stage, the chief protagonist among the rebels was a young woman, Jyn Erso and an intelligence officer Cassian Andor. These were shown at the next development meeting and momentum for Rogue One began to build
By mid-2014, Gary Whitta was chosen to write the screenplay and Gareth Edwards (Monsters) would direct the film. Felicity Jones was selected to play Jyn Erso with Mads Mikkelsen as her father and engineer of the Death Star. Diego Luna was chosen to play Cassian Andor. Over the next two years, most of the events mentioned at the beginning of this post transpired but Knoll was directly involved in the film’s production and he relished the work on his “baby.” Final editing was completed in late 2016.
Rogue One – A Star Wars Story was released in December 2016. It thrilled countless Star Wars around the world. Viewers learned how Princess Leia came into possession of the Death Star plans, which tied-in perfectly with the opening of Star Wars – A New Hope. The film grossed just over one billion dollars at the box office.
And it all started when John Knoll gave Kathlene Kennedy a phone call. 1. Rogue One – A Star Wars Story. Bonus disc. 2017.