When Leslye Headland made her final pitch for The Acolyte ‘everyone was crying’

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The Acolyte will be with us a week this coming Wednesday, and the pre-show push continues as SFX Magazine catches up with producers Rayne Roberts and Simon Emanuel. By all accounts, Leslye Headland‘s pitch for the show was a powerful one, enough to incite some real emotions from the production staff as Roberts explains.

“Leslye said it was Frozen meets Kill Bill in Star Wars. It immediately communicated a kind of emotional entanglement and also high-octane action. It was like, ‘I think I understand what that is,’ and it started a conversation that led to me elevating her pitch, ultimately up to Kathy. Leslye is an amazing storyteller and when she finally pitched Kathy, everyone was crying. It was that kind of meeting.”

Producer Simon Emanuel went further, picking up on the elements that excited him.

“The thing I picked up on and got very excited about was Kill Bill. One of the things we talked about really early on was action, and I really believe that, in these kinds of shows, action has to be a character. It can’t just be, ‘Give me a punch, give me a lightsaber fight…’ So I introduced Leslye to a guy called Chris Clark Cowan, who was our action designer, and part of the team who worked on the Darth Vader sequence in Rogue One. Leslye and Chris completely fell in love, and action became such a component of this story. For me, it’s the best action the franchise has seen – and there’s so much of it.”

Sale
Star Wars: Temptation of the Force (The High Republic) (Star Wars: The High Republic)
  • Hardcover Book
  • Gratton, Tessa (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 448 Pages - 06/11/2024 (Publication Date) - Random House Worlds (Publisher)
Mark Newbold
Mark Newbold
Exploring the galaxy since 1978, Mark wrote his first fan fiction in 1981 and been a presence online since his first webpage Fanta War in 1996. He's contributed to Star Wars Insider (since '06) and Starburst Magazine (since '16) as well as ILM.com, SkywalkerSound.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Encyclopedia, Build The Millennium Falcon, Geeky Monkey, TV Film Memorabilia, Model and Collectors Mart, Star Trek magazine and StarTrek.com. He is a four-time Star Wars Celebration Stage host, the only podcaster to have appeared on every Celebration podcast stage since the stage began in 2015, the Daily Content Manager of Fantha Tracks and the co-host of Making Tracks, Canon Fodder and Start Your Engines on Fantha Tracks Radio.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

The Acolyte will be with us a week this coming Wednesday, and the pre-show push continues as SFX Magazine catches up with producers Rayne Roberts and Simon Emanuel. By all accounts, Leslye Headland‘s pitch for the show was a powerful one, enough to incite some real emotions from the production staff as Roberts explains.

“Leslye said it was Frozen meets Kill Bill in Star Wars. It immediately communicated a kind of emotional entanglement and also high-octane action. It was like, ‘I think I understand what that is,’ and it started a conversation that led to me elevating her pitch, ultimately up to Kathy. Leslye is an amazing storyteller and when she finally pitched Kathy, everyone was crying. It was that kind of meeting.”

Producer Simon Emanuel went further, picking up on the elements that excited him.

“The thing I picked up on and got very excited about was Kill Bill. One of the things we talked about really early on was action, and I really believe that, in these kinds of shows, action has to be a character. It can’t just be, ‘Give me a punch, give me a lightsaber fight…’ So I introduced Leslye to a guy called Chris Clark Cowan, who was our action designer, and part of the team who worked on the Darth Vader sequence in Rogue One. Leslye and Chris completely fell in love, and action became such a component of this story. For me, it’s the best action the franchise has seen – and there’s so much of it.”

Sale
Star Wars: Temptation of the Force (The High Republic) (Star Wars: The High Republic)
  • Hardcover Book
  • Gratton, Tessa (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 448 Pages - 06/11/2024 (Publication Date) - Random House Worlds (Publisher)
Mark Newbold
Mark Newbold
Exploring the galaxy since 1978, Mark wrote his first fan fiction in 1981 and been a presence online since his first webpage Fanta War in 1996. He's contributed to Star Wars Insider (since '06) and Starburst Magazine (since '16) as well as ILM.com, SkywalkerSound.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Encyclopedia, Build The Millennium Falcon, Geeky Monkey, TV Film Memorabilia, Model and Collectors Mart, Star Trek magazine and StarTrek.com. He is a four-time Star Wars Celebration Stage host, the only podcaster to have appeared on every Celebration podcast stage since the stage began in 2015, the Daily Content Manager of Fantha Tracks and the co-host of Making Tracks, Canon Fodder and Start Your Engines on Fantha Tracks Radio.
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