Ron Howard says George Lucas told him THIS before making 'Solo'

Ron Howard has opened up about the single piece of guidance Star Wars creator George Lucas gave him before making Solo: A Star Wars Story.

While giving an interview to Vulture, the 71-year-old American filmmaker and actor, who directed the 2018 film Solo: A Star Wars Story, revealed that he conversed with Lucas before starting the project, and the 81-year-old American filmmaker and philanthropist asked him to remember the audience.

Calling to mind, Howard shared, "I talked to him once early, when I was just thinking about doing it. He wasn’t active on the films, but he said, 'Just don’t forget – it’s for 12-year-old boys.’”

He admitted, “I’d always been curious about Star Wars, and Solo landed in my lap when I didn’t have another movie set to go.”

The DaVinci Code director went on to note that a breakfast with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy in London changed into a meeting with producer Alli Shearmur and screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan.

Howard recalled, "They basically said, 'We’ve reached a creative impasse with [Phil] Lord and [Chris] Miller. Would you ever consider coming in?' I looked at some edited footage, and I saw what was bothering them. There was a studio that liked the script the way it was and wanted a Star Wars movie, but there was a disconnect early on tonally, and they weren’t convinced that what Phil and Chris were doing was working effectively.”

The Oscar winner confessed he could not “judge” that, as he “didn’t see enough of it to know. But they were sure.”

“Once I said, 'Okay, I think I can do this script, and I think I understand what you want of this script,' they said, 'We’d want to reshoot a lot.' I looked at the whole movie and then pointed out some things that I thought were great. And Phil and Chris were incredibly gracious throughout that process. They were just seeing two different movies. So, I came in, I had a blast, but there’s nothing personal about that film whatsoever. It’s still just a shame,” the Rush creator explained.

It is pertinent to mention that Solo: A Star Wars Story got mixed reviews, with a score of 69% on Rotten Tomatoes and reports in 2019 claimed the movie lost around $76 million at the box office.