Director Chris Miller has announced the start of filming on Disney's Han Solo movie with a joke.
The director, who is making the Star Wars spin-off with fellow 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie director Phil Lord, has posted a pic of the clapperboard with the caption "Han First Shot".
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Harrelson role in the Han Solo movie
Actor Woody Harrelson talks about joining the Star Wars universe, confirming he will play a 'criminal and mentor' in the forthcoming young Han Solo spin-off.
Han
— Chris Miller (@chrizmillr) January 30, 2017
First
Shot pic.twitter.com/KReR6rgKFT
It's a reference to the old Star Wars debate about whether Solo shot first in the original movie – director George Lucas upset some purists when he changed a scene in a special edition to show the captain of the Millennium Falcon shooting Greedo after being fired at.
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The tweet suggests Miller and Lord are bringing their sense of humour to a movie, which the clapperboard suggests is called Red Cup. That too could be humorous take on a brand of plastic cup in the United States called Solo, in any case it is clearly a temporary title so the movie can attract less attention during scripting, planning and pre-production until the – no doubt – splashy announcement of the real title.
It has previously been known just as Untitled Star Wars Han Solo Anthology Film.
Shooting in England, the movie centres on Solo's "early scoundrel days" before he emerged as the charismatic smuggler with a price on his head who joins forces with Luke and Leia to battle the Empire in Episode IV.
Miller's comic cheekiness gives heart for fans that Solo will be the irascible, wise-cracking rogue that everyone loved in the original Star Wars trilogy.
Alden Ehrenreich will play the younger Solo with Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, Woody Harrelson as Solo's mentor and Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones in an undisclosed role.
Chewbacca, Solo's loyal buddy and co-pilot, will also appear, with speculation that Finnish basketballer Joonas Suotamo will take over from 72-year-old Star Wars veteran Peter Mayhew for at least the most physically-demanding scenes inside the furry suit.
Han. First Shot. @chrizmillr love it. @starwars pic.twitter.com/O0uBP0O3Py
— Peter Mayhew (@TheWookieeRoars) January 30, 2017
At 27, Ehrenreich is playing Solo in his early twenties.
"The story focuses on how young Han Solo became the smuggler, thief and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina at Mos Eisley," Disney said in a statement when announcing the movie in 2015.
Three thousand actors reputedly auditioned before Ehrenreich won the role through multiple auditions over six months.
A Los Angeles native, he was discovered by Steven Spielberg at age 14 in a bat mitzvah video before shooting his first two movies, Tetro and Twixt, with another legendary filmmaker in Francis Ford Coppola. His other movies include Stoker and Beautiful Creatures.
At a fan event last year, Lord and Miller said they loved Solo's dichotomy, describing him as both "sarcastic and optimistic," and adding that "he's a maverick, he's a scoundrel, he's clever but not smart."
In a world where Star Wars fans will be drip-fed all manner of details regularly, last week it was announced that the official title for the next instalment in the sci-fi saga is Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi – leading to speculation whether that was a reference to Luke Skywalker or Rey from The Force Awakens.
The eighth episode is out in December, with Red Cup aka Star Wars: Title To Come out in May next year.