Ellen Page is Han Solo, Jessica Alba is Princess Leia for Jason Reitman’s live read
Likely fulfilling the dream of some Star Wars fan, who would normally keep that dream to themselves or a Reddit thread, Ellen Page will play Han Solo to Jessica Alba’s Princess Leia in the upcoming Empire Strikes Back live-read from Jason Reitman. As announced yesterday, Reitman is staging one of his now-traditional run-throughs of the film with another all-star cast, with Aaron Paul’s Luke Skywalker facing off against J.K. Simmons’ Darth Vader, Stephen Merchant contributing his British gangliness to C-3PO, Dennis Haysbert his insurance company pitchman smoothness to Lando Calrissian, and Kevin Pollak playing Yoda and myriad strangled Imperials. And now he’s brought Page in to play the gender-flipped Solo, hoping to reexamine Empire in the way he did with his all-black version of Reservoir Dogs and all-female Glengarry Glenn Ross. Or, at least, to get the Internet talking about what is otherwise just a bunch of actors sitting on stage, reading aloud a movie it’s seen 100 times.