OLIVIA MARNE
Mental image : Clint doing a cart-wheel across the office floor, while whistling ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ , and screaming “Good lord! it’s Christmas already!’
It has been a big news day for “Star Wars”. Ben kicked off the good news earlier today with word on the very talented director who might be helming the first of the recently-announced “Star Wars” sequel trilogy (psst! it’s “X-Men : First Class” director Matthew Vaughn), and now, in possibly even more exciting news for the fan community, word has leaked that Harrison ‘Why did I ever do Star Wars!?’ Ford has warmed up to the idea of reprising Han Solo for the new film/s.
A source tells the usually-reliable EW that Ford, who hasn’t had a lot of praise for the “Star Wars” films (he says his character, Han Solo, is one of the least interesting characters in his filmography), is “open to the idea” of playing Han Solo again.
Though mostly surprising news, Ford did appear at a recent 30th anniversary screening of “Empire Strikes Back”, to support the release, even staying to watch the entire film, and yes, he does keep in contact with George Lucas – even doing a new “Indiana Jones” with him two years back. So seems the ‘warming up’ has been coming on for a while.
The 70 year-old actor will likely have a stipulation in his contract that Solo be killed off early in the picture though. In an early draft of 1983’s “Return of the Jedi”, Han Solo was supposed to die. The idea was scrapped when producer and storyteller George Lucas came to the conclusion that a ‘dead Han Solo’ wouldn’t sell toys as much as an alive one would. Ford was apparently cheesed, believing that killing his character off would’ve given the final instalment in the original trilogy some depth.
Ford will likely ask for a similar plot development for the next chapter.
The EW source says that, at this moment, Ford’s not ruling out a return to space.
“Harrison is open to the idea of doing the movie and he’s upbeat about it, all three of them are,” referring to Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Ford.
Ford will likely want to see a script, and also approve of the chosen director, before officially agreeing to bring the smuggler back to cinemas.
Still, enough for a cart-wheeling Clint.. I’d think!
“Star Wars : Episode 7”, the first produced via Lucasfilm’s new home at Disney, will be released in 2015.
