“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” director James Mangold is already plotting a reunion with Lucasfilm on an upcoming original “Star Wars” movie. But it won’t mark his first time writing scripts set in a galaxy far, far away.
Mangold previously tried to develop a Boba Fett spin-off movie that would have taken the franchise in a dramatically different direction than what ultimately materialized in “The Book of Boba Fett.” In a new appearance on Happy Sad Confused, Mangold recalled writing a script that would have pushed the boundaries of what’s acceptable in the “Star Wars” universe.
“At the point I was doing it I was probably scaring the shit out of everyone,” Mangold said. “I was making much more of a borderline R-rated, single-planet spaghetti Western. They probably would never be able to embrace Baby Yoda if I had made that. It didn’t really belong in the world I was kind of envisioning.”
The director lamented that his plans for the movie were ultimately scrapped after Lucasfilm pivoted to focusing on television.
“In a moment of corporate realignment or whatever happened with the Han Solo movie, they just suddenly decided they weren’t making pictures like that, and the opportunities in streaming presented themselves,” he said. “I was just listening to Ennio Morricone all day, all night, and typing away. I’m not sure it ever would have happened. I’m not sure it was in anyone’s plans, what I was thinking.”
While making a “Star Wars” movie would be a daunting challenge for any filmmaker, Mangold is no stranger to playing in big sandboxes. In a recent interview with IndieWire’s Anne Thompson, he recalled overcoming his initial hesitation about directing “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” because he wanted to work with his heroes.
“I had admired all these cool potential collaborators all my life. And despite warning signs of this kind of a movie being a bear to manage and to launch, and expectations would run in all sorts of directions, and not all of them could ever be met, the thing that was most seductive was the personal opportunity to work with Harrison, Steven, Kathy, George, and John Williams,” he said. “It was impossible to say ‘no’ to what was essentially the personal opportunity of a lifetime because you don’t ever get close to people unless you do something together.”
