Since when did reshoots become a fear tactic for "reporters?"
After the first teaser trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story came out, the reaction was pretty favorable. No one had any reason to worry about anything in regards to the movie's production.
That is, until yesterday when this made it's way across the Internet:
A friend of mine posted the first story from Page Six on my Facebook wall and the first thing I did was start looking for quotes. What did the Disney execs actually say? What is their reason for the panic?
Of course, the "panic" and "not happy" were speculations from "sources." The only thing that seemed iron clad for information was that the reshoots were happening.
Ok. And? Reshoots are very common with big budget movies, especially action-heavy pieces like Star Wars. Is this supposed to be news? Rogue One isn't out until close to winter, almost seven full months from now. It ended principle photography back in February and has been in post-production since. If they found anything that didn't work or that they wanted to do better, that's where these reshoots come in, not because the studio execs are panicking.
Naturally, some feedback from Disney on the subject came later that night:
Wow, I cannot believe how panicked and terrified the execs just sounded with that. They must be fearing for their jobs on this one.
This isn't without precedence though, especially this year. In late March-early April after the critics firebombed Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice for being too serious, dark and humorless, this rumor started to spread about the next DC Comics movie, Suicide Squad:
This coming off the heels of two trailers for the movie that were set to "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Ballroom Blitz" respectively. The rumors eventually made their way to the movie's director, David Ayer, who responded in kind on Twitter:
He would later reinforce the truth of the reason behind the reshoots in a public interview:
Again, doesn't seem like much of a story, a big budget movie gets some reshoots to fix things found in the rough cut. Standard procedure almost, but coming off the heels of DC's second cinematic universe project getting skewered in the press, this was certain to add clickbait fuel to the fire, no different than using the word "panic" to describe the new Star Wars movie.
It even happened with Star Trek: Beyond when a round of ordered reshoots earlier this year had been discovered and actress Shohreh Agdashloo was added to the cast at the seemingly "last minute," even though that movie opens on July 22nd, just two weeks before Suicide Squad.
The bottom line here is that there's a lot of clickbait assumption happening with these major tentpole blockbuster movies and with all of the pressure and expectation on these productions, even the smallest most insignificant news about the production is going to get attention and give people on the Internet a reason to freak out. It's not necessary, though. In fact if anything, reshoots should be considered a good thing because they can improve a movie or fix problems within it before it hits theaters. It's better to see a good movie with a ton of reshoots the first time out than a not-so great one that comes out and makes fans pray for a director's cut on Blu-ray.