New Film from Director Kyle Newman, "Chewie" about the Life of Actor Peter Mayhew

On of Hollywood's top 2011 Black List scripts is finally going into production. In 2011's voting "Chewie" came in at third place with 59 votes.

The film entitled "Chewie" will be devloped by Director Kyle Newman (Fanboys) in partnership with Inferno Entertainment.  The film is based on a script by Evan Susser and Van Robochaux (Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre), and will be produced by  Jess Rosenthal and D.J. Gugenheim.

In December of 2011 the writers sat down with EW's Jeff Labrecque for a wide ranging interview on the script. 

"ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was the spark that made you think this was a story you wanted to tell? 

VAN ROBICHAUX: We had been talking to each other about stories we’d heard over the years about how the making of Star Wars had been sort of a nightmare and had almost fallen apart at every step along the way. So we were trading funny stories about it, and there was a line that we came upon that said, “Peter Mayhew, the British giant who played Chewbacca worked in a hospital before, during, and after the making of Star Wars.” And we just sort of were fascinated by this idea that he was trading his days back and forth between being on the set of Star Wars as Chewbacca and working as an orderly in a hospital. 

EVAN SUSSER: Yeah, especially because we’re young and we have actor friends who are maybe doing guest spots on The Office and then it’s back to their day job as a waiter. And in Peter’s case, the day job was a hospital, which is life and death; and it’s not just The Office, it’s the most iconic film of all time. So we really had a handle on the story from there.
VR: Plus, we really fell in love with the character and the real person of Peter Mayhew, who’s this sort of gentle giant. He’s kind of a hard guy to get in touch with, so this year at Comic-Con, we drove down to meet him. We were about 65 percent of the way done with the script and we just had some things we wanted to fill out. We waited in line to get his autograph and we decided we could probably ask him one question — no matter how weird it was. So we asked him, “What did your father and brother do for a living?” And he just answered without even blinking, and then we figured, okay we’re on a roll. So we asked him, “Where exactly in London did you grow up?” “What was the name of the hospital you worked at?” And that really helped fill it out. Meanwhile the people behind us were like, “Ask about the Millennium Falcon and how fast it can go!” "

"George Lucas, of course, is very protective of his lucrative properties. Have you encountered that yet and do you expect to? 

VR: As we understand it, for this movie to get made, George Lucas is going to have to give his approval. But we hope that’s it’s a loving enough portrayal of him and the making of the movie that they’ll get onboard. So we’re kind of waiting to hear if he says, “I like this, this is okay.” Or, “How dare you make me a character in a film!” We think it’s a very loving portrayal of a guy we really look up to. So we hope he likes it. 

ES: On the other hand, we’re worried that Harrison Ford is going to beat us up."

Stay tuned to LR for more news on "Chewie" as it develops.

SOURCES: THR's Heat Vision Blog and Entertainment Weekly