Chris Weitz ("About a Boy," "Cinderella") doesn't just want to write a fantastic space journey screenplay for the first "Star Wars" spinoff film, "Star Wars: Rogue One." He also wants to write a fantastic space journey screenplay that is grounded in plausible science.
Dear @neiltyson I'm writing the Star Wars standalone @RogueOne2016 -- have a brief astronomy Q for you -- sending you this twitter hail mary
— Chris Weitz (@chrisweitz) May 31, 2015
We will, of course, been monitoring very closely to see if noted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson responds to Weitz's inquiry. But it appears as if the writer and story creator John Knoll are focused on providing well throughout out sci-fi/fantasy elements. Knoll wrote the following message to AICN in an email discussing the mystery planet in "Rogue One."
"I assure you we did discuss the magnitude of the cheat at some length. I'm from a family of scientists and engineers, so I assure you this kind of thing doesn't happen by accident, at least not on work I'm supervising. Some of us at ILM consider our unofficial slogan 'We overthink it so you don't have to.'"
That's a pretty strong public endorsement of grounded science in an otherwise unrealistic film setting. It's refreshing that despite the blasters, lightsabers and Force users, some aspects of the "Star Wars" universe are still going to be believable with a hint of real-world science backing them up. That's especially helpful for the more somber tone director Gareth Edwards is rumored to be going for.
"Rogue One," the first in an upcoming line of "Star Wars Anthology" films, will hit theaters in December of 2016. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the first film in a new trilogy, will debut this year on December 18.
