That was fast.   He of Willow and Happy Days is back, so says StarWars.com with Ron Howard to Assume Directorial Duties on the Untitled Han Solo Film.  The release date remains unchanged - May 25, 2018 - and part of that official announcement is as follows:

Lucasfilm is pleased to announce that Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard has been named director of the untitled Han Solo film.

The Han Solo directors are out?  Not much is known, other than this "A Message from Lucasfilm Regarding the Untitled Han Solo Film" post in which Lucasfilm says:

The untitled Han Solo film will move forward with a directorial change.

“Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are talented filmmakers who have assembled an incredible cast and crew, but it’s become clear that we had different creative visions on this film, and we’ve decided to part ways. A new director will be announced soon,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm.

Posted by director Chris Miller, on Twitter, we see that filming has commenced on the first and also untitled Han Solo anthology film.  Its working title is "Red Cup"  as in Solo will no doubt inspire new waves of fan merchandise. (I'd buy a Red Cup logo shirt.)   The film is supposedly slated for May 2018 but it would not surprise me if that moved.

Han
First
Shot pic.twitter.com/KReR6rgKFT

— Chris Miller (@chrizmillr) January 30, 2017

Today is the day!  StarWars.com reveals Episode 8 title, and now let's all hope this means the packaging templates are being updated as the first stuff will be in your grubby little hands in about 8 months.

If it's true, 2017 is looking up already!  As a possibly 40th Anniversary present, check out this article: "4K Theatrical Restoration of the True Original “Star Wars” possible for 2017."  A choice quote:

"According to recent comments made by Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, a 4K restoration of Star Wars Episode IV “A New Hope” does indeed exist and now the only real question is whether or not the cleaned up and sharpened version of the movie will be hitting the big screen once again."

While you're all coming down off the high of the Rogue One trailer and the recent news that Ben Affleck is bringing you a new Batman movie, how about checking out movies you've got memorized?  The 1997 cuts of the Star Wars Trilogy - that is, the Special Editions - are coming to theaters, briefly, for the May the Fourth Be With You campaign at Alamo Draft House theaters.  I'm not quite sure of the date, it would be handy if they included such things in the name of the promotion.  Click here for dates and deets.

While we don't normally post movie-related dirt here, this blurb has been going around and was just too good to not share.   Michael Jackson has had his eye on a lot of things, one of which was apparently the role of Jar Jar Binks.   (So says Ahmed Best.)  This video on Vice has a bit about it, and apparently - assuming this is not an elaborate joke - the singer wanted to do it as practical effects.   It certainly sounds like it's trying to troll fans, but there were so many bizarre stories, true or otherwise, out of the prequels that it's certainly worth contemplating the possibility.

In what feels like an increasingly implausible thing to say, another Star Wars movie was announced today!  This one has no final title yet, but will be released May 25, 2018.  According to StarWars.com the new film will be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller - scribes of The LEGO Movie and the spectacular Fox TV series, The Last Man on Earth.   The writing will be done by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan.  And the focus of this new Star Wars anthology film?  A young Han Solo.

Someone you don't know exited a movie you don't know anything about.  According to a report on StarWars.com, director Josh Trank is no longer associated with the upcoming Star Wars side-movie.   Josh Trank is also associated with this year's Fantastic Four movie.  Coincidence?

The 20th Century Fox fanfare by one Alfred Newman is an identifiable part of the Star Wars experience.  Much like the lightsaber, the Force, and the big floaty yellow space words this quick clip of music opened the entire saga over the course of the previous three decades and change as both a throwback and as a signal to the future that something really exciting was coming.  But history movies forward, legends change, and corporations must make decisions between being good stewards of our culture and the needs of a good branding opportunity.

StarWars.com updated today with The Star Wars Digital Movie Collection Coming April 10.  While no pricing was listed, Amazon is asking $99.99 when I started writing this, but dropped it to $89.99 a few minutes later.   iTunes has theirs for $19.99 per movie with no visible bundle at press time.

Also, new and legacy (old) special features will be included in this digital HD format.  It's also notable that, like albums, "digital bonus offerings may vary by retailer" meaning you will need to see which version you need to buy, or your friend needs to buy, or gets uploaded to YouTube for 30 seconds so you can scope it out there.