Via Gamespot.com:

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens still performing incredibly well at the box office, it’s funny to think that we’re now less than eleven months away from the next Star Wars movie. The standalone Rogue One opens in December, and it has been revealed that a high-profile script doctor was brought in to fine-tune the screenplay.

Birthmoviesdeath have corroborated a story that originally ran in the Latino Review that Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation writer/director Christopher McQuarrie was hired to tackle the script. McQuarrie was the fourth writer to work on the movie, following John Knoll, Gary Whitta, and Chris Weitz.

As well as writing such movies as The Usual Suspects and Edge of Tomorrow and directing Rogue Nation and Jack Reacher, McQuarrie has a reputation as one of the most in-demand script doctors in Hollywood. His work on World War Z helped turned a troubled, overbudget movie into a hit, and BMD’s source suggests that he “saved” Rogue One.

Rogue One is directed by Godzilla’s Gareth Edwards. It is set before the original Star Wars, and focuses upon a group of mercenaries who are hired to capture the plans to the Death Star. The cast includes Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Forest Whitaker, and Mads Mikkelsen.

The second standalone Star Wars movie will be the young Han Solo film, which is set for a 2018 release. Last week, it was reported that the list of potential actors in the running to play Solo has been narrowed to around a dozen names, including Miles Teller, Dave Franco, Jack Reynor, and Logan Lerman.

Star Wars: Rogue One will hit cinemas on December 16, 2016.