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Maul: Son of Dathomir (Released!)

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As of today, I have begun work on my latest project. Maul will see the “Return of Darth Maul” arc from the Clone Wars TV Show reimagined into a feature length film. I imagine this edit as an anthology story on the same level as Rogue One or Solo, exploring a new side of the Star Wars universe. Darth Maul has always been a fan favorite and his episodes in TCW are among the best in the series, so I think this would make a great anthology.

I have not created a complete cutlist yet- in fact I am still in the process of selecting episodes. “Brothers” (which follows Savage Opress searching for Maul) will be the opening scene, followed by “Revenge”. I am considering inserting certain scenes from the Season 2 Mandalore to introduce the Mandalore situation. The bulk of the story will consist of the Shadow Collective Trilogy, but I question if the ending will need to be reworked (the Lawless abruptly ends with Maul’s capture, I feel a slower more emotionally satisfying ending starring Obi-Wan may be in order).

The WIP crawl (I’d like to make the color red instead of yellow):

The Clone War rages. Republic and Separatist forces vie for control of the Outer Rim.

Unbeknownst to both sides, the fallen Sith Darth Maul lingers on, fueled only by his hatred for Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Now, a dark acolyte voyages into the depths of a twisted planet to find the fallen Sith…

I am also unsure on the title. Maul will remain the working title for now, but I have several other possible titles in mind:
–Son of Dathomir
–Maul’s Revenge
–Shades of Reason
–The Shadow Collective
–The Rule of Two (a reference to Sidious’s statement in the finale)
–The Shadow Reborn

I may end up creating more Clone Wars movie edits, but for now I’d like to focus on this one. You could think of this as a spiritual successor to smudger9’s Clone Wars edits but know that I am not restricting myself to his continuity. I have also made sure that this edit is not too similar to herekittykitty’s clone wars ep 2. I will keep this thread updated with the latest information and if you have any questions I’d be happy to answer them.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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I’d say you shouldn’t include the Mandalore episodes. I watched the Maul arc without ever seeing those episodes and understood them fine.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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I think the final scene being Obi-Wan and Maul’s rematch from Rebels might work depending on how it’s integrated.

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I like this idea, but I think you’ll need to go through a few different iterations using different episodes and arcs before you finally settle on something that works as a standalone.

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If it’s going to be “A Star Wars Story” I’d say it shouldn’t include a crawl, but we’ll see how Solo goes.

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snooker said:

I think the final scene being Obi-Wan and Maul’s rematch from Rebels might work depending on how it’s integrated.

It would be cool to have their final duel, but I don’t know if it makes much sense for this edit. Doing so would require a time jump, and then the story would need to spent lots of time on rebels (because Maul spends some time with the crew and looking for Kenobi before heading to Tatooine). Maybe splitting this into a two part story, one adapting Maul’s return and the other Maul’s revenge.

Collipso said:

If it’s going to be “A Star Wars Story” I’d say it shouldn’t include a crawl, but we’ll see how Solo goes.

I think a crawl is needed regardless. I want to make this watchable for anyone who has never seen TCW before, because the show can seem daunting and sometimes you just want to watch the best episodes. TCW is at times a building block, and the whole Maul arc comes from Nightsisters. If I don’t add a crawl then I’d need to explain Savage’s backstory (why is he bad but not with Dokou), in which case things would start getting out of hand. I also want to specify the time period, while it might sound obvious on a SW forum casual audiences can get confused with when anthologies take place.

TBH I think it was a bad idea to not give Rogue One a crawl. The opening is vague and I’ve heard some casual fans thought for a while that this was after TFA. And without a crawl the opening would need to be a slow exposition scene, rather than get right to what’s on everyone’s mind- finding Maul.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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Sounds like a great idea! I agree with snooker with the final duel, but like you said you will probably have to incorporate rebel’s somewhere in there and I don’t know if that will work.

An editor with a dumb username

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Make the first half revenge and revial and add a transition 23 years later then pick up with the rebels episodes.

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HerekittykittyX said:

Make the first half revenge and revial and add a transition 23 years later then pick up with the rebels episodes.

That could work, almost like how Rogue One has a 10 minute prologue.

My only question is would it be worth it? I personally find the clone wars arcs more interesting (armies of boba fetts, obi-wan is more prevalent + shows us a new side of him, and more epic duels). The rebels arc has the quick final fight, but beyond that is lackluster imo. Plus you’d have to introduce all the rebels cast.

Maybe following the end credits an “epilogue” could play, which would Twin Suns with only Maul scenes.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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OutboundFlight said:

HerekittykittyX said:

Make the first half revenge and revial and add a transition 23 years later then pick up with the rebels episodes.

That could work, almost like how Rogue One has a 10 minute prologue.

My only question is would it be worth it? I personally find the clone wars arcs more interesting (armies of boba fetts, obi-wan is more prevalent + shows us a new side of him, and more epic duels). The rebels arc has the quick final fight, but beyond that is lackluster imo. Plus you’d have to introduce all the rebels cast.

Maybe following the end credits an “epilogue” could play, which would Twin Suns with only Maul scenes.

I don’t think it should be after the credits, but yeah, the conclusion should just be the Twin Suns episode of Rebels without the Ezra and Chopper shenanigans.

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Zachary VIII said:

OutboundFlight said:

HerekittykittyX said:

Make the first half revenge and revial and add a transition 23 years later then pick up with the rebels episodes.

That could work, almost like how Rogue One has a 10 minute prologue.

My only question is would it be worth it? I personally find the clone wars arcs more interesting (armies of boba fetts, obi-wan is more prevalent + shows us a new side of him, and more epic duels). The rebels arc has the quick final fight, but beyond that is lackluster imo. Plus you’d have to introduce all the rebels cast.

Maybe following the end credits an “epilogue” could play, which would Twin Suns with only Maul scenes.

I don’t think it should be after the credits, but yeah, the conclusion should just be the Twin Suns episode of Rebels without the Ezra and Chopper shenanigans.

I think I found a solution. It’s complicated but I will try to explain it the best I can, though actual video would work better. I’ll intercut Twin Suns throughout the movie, in brief flashes showing Maul in the desert acting crazy, slowly building towards the battle. At first it will seem like visions from Maul’s crazy mind, but they slowly make more and more sense. Sort of like the black and white scenes in memento. I could even make them black and white, if not I’ll apply some filter to distinguish it. At the very end it would cut back to Twin Suns, only this time the filter is minimal and the two are about to have the fateful fight. End movie with Obi-Wan watching Luke.

I am almost done with the structure. “Brothers” will start right as Savage flies to the junk planet, no diner shenanigans. “Revenge” will stop right after Maul begins his slaughter of the innocent. Then we cut to Yoda sensing Maul’s return and Obi-Wan’s reaction. I cut the duel on the ship because it there were no casualties, it would have been the fifth lightsaber duel, and we haven’t met Ventress. Likewise the hologram scene contradicted “Obi-Wan going alone” because in the Revival duel (which will be trimmed to remove as much Hondo as possible) Obi-Wan brings another Jedi.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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Sounds like an interesting way to intercut twin suns. What other filters other than black and white are you planning to use?

An editor with a dumb username

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Can there be a second version that ties in to Smudger9’s edits, adding the Nightsisters Arc? As for title, I like Son of Dathomir.

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JeromeTheEditor said:

Sounds like an interesting way to intercut twin suns. What other filters other than black and white are you planning to use?

Haven’t fully decided, I still need to play around with it. But probably something similar to the “future” force visions from ROTS.

CourtlyHades296 said:

Can there be a second version that ties in to Smudger9’s edits, adding the Nightsisters Arc? As for title, I like Son of Dathomir.

I didn’t want to include Nightsisters because then you’d have Ventress show up as the main character only to be entirely forgotten. That being said I now have the idea to make a separate edit focused on Nightsisters, acting like a prequel to this one. I just need to think of episodes that fit with the general story to get it at 2 hours…

However you won’t need to see Nightsisters to understand this story (or any clone wars episodes, including Smudger’s). The opening crawl will call Savage a “dark acolyte”, and his actions + constant use of “brother” makes it seem like he’s part of a cult that thinks highly of Maul. There’s not much of a need to explain him, at least for this edit. And Ventress never shows up, so if you wanted to follow Smudger’s canon you can presume she’s still with Dokou.

LordZerome1080 said:

How about “The Shadow Reborn” for a title?

I like it! I will add it to the rest of the potential titles (I don’t have to make up my mind until the crawl, which I plan on making last).

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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UPDATE: The edit’s coming along nicely. I have completed nearly everything from TCW besides some transitions and begin work on Twin Suns soon. The current cut comes in at 1:49, which I fear is too short. The episodes are very episodic, each with certain fight scenes that didn’t do anything besides fill up the runtime and provide action (ex: Nal Hutta attack, 1st Satine rescue attempt). I ended up cutting more than I thought I would.

I have added a trimmed “Voyage of Temptation” between Brothers and Return. This catches us up to what Obi-Wan doing. I think the lavish starliner with the junk planet is a great contrast that shows the differences in Maul and Obi-Wan’s lives. The scenes also tell us of Obi-Wan and Satine semi-romance and how the Death Watch were once aligned with Count Dokou. It might seem strange for first time viewers cut to a seemingly different plotline, but by the midpoint they’ve converged and the meat of the story can begin.

The trimmed sequence lasts 12 minutes. I’ve cut a lot out of the episode (didn’t want us to forget about Maul) including the other two assassin droids and the smaller droids. https://vimeo.com/257436059
Password: Maul

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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Less is more sometimes, don’t worry about runtime. And really liked the 12min. Great job!

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OutboundFlight said:

UPDATE: The edit’s coming along nicely. I have completed nearly everything from TCW besides some transitions and begin work on Twin Suns soon. The current cut comes in at 1:49, which I fear is too short. The episodes are very episodic, each with certain fight scenes that didn’t do anything besides fill up the runtime and provide action (ex: Nal Hutta attack, 1st Satine rescue attempt). I ended up cutting more than I thought I would.

I have added a trimmed “Voyage of Temptation” between Brothers and Return. This catches us up to what Obi-Wan doing. I think the lavish starliner with the junk planet is a great contrast that shows the differences in Maul and Obi-Wan’s lives. The scenes also tell us of Obi-Wan and Satine semi-romance and how the Death Watch were once aligned with Count Dokou. It might seem strange for first time viewers cut to a seemingly different plotline, but by the midpoint they’ve converged and the meat of the story can begin.

The trimmed sequence lasts 12 minutes. I’ve cut a lot out of the episode (didn’t want us to forget about Maul) including the other two assassin droids and the smaller droids. https://vimeo.com/257436059
Password: Maul

Looks great so far

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I think it’s good that you added in “voyage of temptation” in there because it brings out satine and obi wans relationship a bit more and it will have a better impact when Satine dies. Great job!😃

An editor with a dumb username

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UPDATE: The edit is nearly done, all I have to do is the crawl. This is my first time making a professional crawl, so I’m probably doing something wrong. I downloaded DigiMod’s blender project and rendered the crawl, but the background is a solid black screen. How do I get stars to make it fit in with everything else? I tried chroma key but that did nothing, apparently the background is a million different shades of dark black.

Here is a short expert showing how I’m using Twin Suns. I’m playing around with different filters, feedback would be great: https://vimeo.com/258455046
Password: Maul

Oh and I decided on the title “Son of Dathomir”. Was between it and “Maul’s Revenge” but turns out 's don’t look nice on the crawl title font.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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I love both the title and the bit, however, maybe you could make the filter a tad less murky.

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I think you have to import your own still for the starfield behind the crawl.

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ChainsawAsh said:

I think you have to import your own still for the starfield behind the crawl.

Yeah, I though so too at first. But when I try and remove the background using after effects it didn’t work. Has anyone made a crawl for an edit before?

Maul- A Star Wars Story