Disney declines Ben Solo film pitch from Adam Driver

Adam Driver said this week that he and a creative team developed a proposal for a solo film centered on Ben Solo, the Kylo Ren character he played, but Disney executives declined to move forward. The project, conceived after conversations with Lucasfilm leadership in 2021, would have taken place after the events of 2019s The Rise of Skywalker and was pitched to studio executives earlier this year.

Driver said he began exploring another Star Wars film after Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy reached out in 2021 and that he remained interested because he felt the character's story was unfinished. He described approaching filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, who collaborated with Rebecca Blunt on an outline, and then bringing on writer Scott Z. Burns to produce a screenplay. Driver called the resulting script "one of the coolest scripts I had ever been a part of" and said he had told Kennedy that "with a great director and a great story, I'd be there in a second."

According to Driver, Lucasfilm executives responded positively to the concept, but senior Disney leadership ultimately rejected the pitch. Driver said the studio's executives, including the company chief and his peer, did not...