While Han Solo will forever be among the most recognisable and best-loved rogues in the cinematic pantheon, he’s nothing without his hairy sidekick, Chewbacca. Now might finally be time for the Wookiee to win – or at least the man who played him, as the script about Peter Mayhew’s time on the original Star Wars trilogy has entered a new stage of life.
Kyle Newman, the Star Wars-obsessed fillmmaker who brought us the flawed-but-fun comedy Fanboys, has picked up Evan Susser and Van Robichaux’s script Chewie, which landed on the Black List and generated a lot of buzz, though little forward movement.
But now things have changed, and Newman is looking to get the movie made, locking in a deal with the seven-foot-three-inch actor for his life rights so he can develop the script further. Susser and Robichaux’s angle looks at Mayhew attempting to balance his acting dreams with life as a hospital worker, and the hirsute suit role that would change his career forever. It all sounds like a grrhhiiiyyalllrrrrrr idea, as Chewie might say.