I suppose despite the rave reviews and amazing fans reaction to the film, not everyone is happy with all the aspects of the newest addition to the ‘Star Wars’ saga. When speaking recently to Heat Vision about the fact that ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ does not feature the franchise’s iconic opening crawl, the man who first designed said crawl for George Lucas in 1977, Dan Perri, had the following to say:
“Frankly, it is a huge mistake, because the image is so iconic and it’s so important to tens of millions, hundreds of millions of fans. I couldn’t imagine it starting without that. It’s foolish.”
Of course, the man might just be annoyed that what was clearly a labor of love for him and Lucas was something that was so quickly discarded by Gareth Edwards and company, especially when it had become an essential part of the DNA of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise. When he speaks of the forming of that original opening crawl with Heat Vision, it was clear it was no easy feat, as Lucas pushed him to get it just right before finally signing off on the iconic yellow words (see the original crawl below):
“I had no idea what he was doing, so it was just this stupid space film. I didn’t think anything of it. Everything I showed him, he didn’t like. So I was constantly going out there with new ideas, and he would tell me to look at certain films. The Buck Rogers films and all the serials from the ’30s that he was using for inspiration…He liked the idea, but then I had to start shooting and testing and setting type. I went through 20 or 30 or 40 different type styles before I settled on one. Once we did that, I shot tests for weeks and weeks and weeks. It was all on film. You shoot a test on black-and-white film and then it had to be developed the next day or late that day. I’d rush out to Van Nuys with it and wait for him for hours to show it to him and he never liked it, and it just went on and on and on…He accepted it and they cut it in. By then, it was only maybe a month before the release. The day I delivered it, it was such a relief to drive away from there knowing, ‘Wow, it’s done finally.’ He had so many things on his mind, he was so busy. He took a few minutes to look at it and he went right back to whatever other problems he had that day.”
Then again, the article also mentions that Perri has yet to see any other ‘Star Wars’ film besides the originals (not that we can blame him for skipping the prequels), but I do not think he should really judge ‘Rogue One’ until he sees it, as the film does pretty well without that crawl.
I personally kind of like the idea of saving the crawl for the main chapters of the franchise, and having the standalones not include the crawl really makes them seem different. But that is, as always, just my opinion, and I would love to hear yours in the comments section below.
