Ron Howard

The news that Ron Howard would take the directorial reins on Han Solo from Chris Miller and Phil Lord was met with a mixed reception by the ardent Star Wars fanbase. Some remembered Howard as the director behind Apollo 13, a movie partially set in outer space (the same location as much of Han Solo, presumably!), and figured he’d be right for the job. Others had fresher recollections of Ron Howard’s Inferno, a.k.a. Bad Tom Hanks Hairpiece 3, and expressed some misgivings. But today, one ardent supporter of Howard‘s has made a statement from the shadows on why he’s a perfect fit for the franchise, though he may have some rubbery, alien skin in the game.

If his past efforts are any indication, Ron Howard's visit to a galaxy far, far away (Woo, 'Star Wars'!) will go off very well.

And now, the story of a big studio movie that lost its creative team, and the one director who had no choice but to keep it all together — it’s Han Solo’s re-hiring process.

We’re still reeling from the news that Phil Lord and Chris Miller have walked off (or been fired from) the Han Solo spinoff Star Wars anthology film, but this movie has a release date in less than a year, and it is coming to theaters, with Lord/Miller or not. Although the news that the directing duo was not finishing Han Solo was announced today, the search for a replacement was already underway. Deadline says that Lucasfilm’s top pick at the moment is Ron Howard, the Oscar-winning filmmaker of movies like Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code:

The Dark Tower movie hasn’t even dropped a first trailer, let alone confirmation a TV arm of the franchise will ever come to fruition. Still, executive producer Ron Howard at least remains optimistic, saying “creatively, it could work very well.”

Inferno marks the third movie from director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks based on the popular novels by Dan Brown about Harvard professor and symbologist Robert Langdon. They’re all vary degrees of bad — and Inferno is easily the worst of the bunch — but what’s particularly galling about this franchise are the years Howard and Hanks, two of our most dependable filmmakers, have wasted on it. Together they’ve made Splash and Apollo 13; separately their credits include Cinderella Man, The Paper, Saving Private Ryan, Captain Phillips and so many others. How many great movies could they have made, as a team or as individuals, if they hadn’t committed their talents to these cruddy thrillers?

Novels like The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned cemented F. Scott Fitzgerald’s status as a literary icon, but some bookish types (myself included) would argue that his wife, Zelda, was the more talented of the pair. Her creative contributions have certainly been less valued in comparison to her husband, but thanks to Ron Howard, she’s finally getting the biopic she deserves (or one would hope), with Jennifer Lawrence set to play the title role in Zelda.

About the only pop culture gag repeated as often as Trump’s Zapp Brannigan quotes would be Arrested Development narrator Ron Howard fact-checking the candidate. Now, we’ve finally gotten our wish, as the world’s worst election finally gets the Trump-rested Development it deserves.

Fans of The Dark Tower have been speculating for a while about how the movie adaptation could be reshuffling the story around a little bit. Characters were cast that don't appear in the seven-book-long series until much later than the first installment, which hinted at some possible plot reconfiguration. A promo image of the Horn of Eld posted by Stephen King himself on his Twitter also suggested that this version of The Dark Tower might not take the same path as the one we’re familiar with. Later, for EW’s coverage of the film, director Nikolaj Arcel talked about taking the story in a slightly different direction from the books, utilizing plot elements but moving them around a bit to make the story more movie-friendly.

It's a weekend crowded with newcomers at theaters, with various entertainments aimed at all ages and interests.