Prequels Simplified

This is a project I just started after my last one failed miserably. My goal is not perfection, it will work more as a proof of concept. (So… don’t expect Adywan level of quality here.)

My concept goes like this:
It will all start with Qui Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi landing on Tattoine. (Both to mirror OT and to simplify PT)
They were on their way to Naboo, but they had engine problems, so they had to land on Tattoine. (Jar Jar Binks and Amidala will not be with them. Any scenes that have those two on Tattoine will either be completely cut or they will be rotoscoped out.) After they land, Qui Gon Jinn will state he feels a strong presence in the Force. (He will be dubbed) After that, Qui Gon Jinn will be attacked by Darth Maul, seemingly out of nowhere. So they will assume the strong presence was him. But after reaching the junkyard where Anakin works, Qui Gon Jinn will realize the presence he felt was Anakin after all. Qui Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi will talk and Qui Gon Jinn will say “the force is strong with him” about Anakin. Qui Gon Jinn speculates that Darth Maul might have been after Anakin for some reason. He might have felt what Qui Gon Jinn felt. The owner of the Junkyard will not be a freaking flying bug alien, so Qui Gon Jinn will be able to convince him at the first try to repair their spaceship and to let Anakin and his mother to come with them. But Anakin’s mother refuses, saying that this is the only life she knows, but she wants better for her son, so she allows them to take him away to make him a Jedi. (So no pod race, no Jar Jar antics, nothing like that.) So they go to the Jedi Council, both to report about the Sith lord they fought on Tattoine and so Anakin can train to be a Jedi. They refuse because Qui Gon Jinn already has a padawan and state there are more urgent matters to attend to at the moment. They leave for Naboo but they leave Anakin behind at the Jedi Temple. Qui Gon Jinn tells Anakin that when he comes back, he will convince the council and he will train him to be a Jedi.

They leave for Naboo, where the Trade Federation blockade takes place. At this point only Sith we will see is Darth Maul. Stuff happens and they end up on the planet. They meet Binks. (Will only be called Binks and will be dubbed) They fight their way trough, save the pilots, pilots blow up the trade federation ships, battle droids turn off and they save Naboo. (no miracle child accidentally saving the day or whatever)

After that an epic lightsaber takes place between Darth Maul and Qui Gon Jinn. Qui Gon Jinn dies, Obi-Wan Kenobi slices Darth Maul in half and Obi-Wan Kenobi decides to train Anakin himself.

Now to do list:
*About 70% of Phantom Menace will be cut. Only important scenes will remain. (But I will not cut an important or potentially great scene just because it has Jar Jar in it. I will simply get rid of Jar Jar)
More will be added later.

this sounds interesting, do you plan on doing the other 2 films as well?

Yeah, actually I forgot to mention, all three will be merged together and it will turn either into a duology or a single movie depending on how much cheese I get rid of.

So… time for a little update…

For my little experiment, I thought about what could be done with the usable footage we have and concluded that nothing would work unless I completely repurpose 90% of the scenes to eliminate the underlying issues with the movies. This means rewriting most of the dialogue, which in turn requires dubbing 90% of the characters. (Which should be easier, since it looks like I am cutting about 60 to 70% of the first movie at the moment.) Since I am already making such heavy cuts to these movies, I already need to rescore the whole, recreate sound effects and so on. (Which means I am working on a silent movie at the moment.) I suck at two things, rescoring and color correcting… So this will be a bit difficult. Not the mention the problems I am having because some footage I am left with seems a bit too short to serve the exact purpose I need.

Anyway, this is what I have done so far:

Tattoine sequence is about 85% complete, it still needs to be polished since some (if not most) of the cuts is a bit too rough, but it is getting there.

Sequence goes like this.

Intro crawl: (WIP)
Star Wars Episode I -The Origins- (WIP Title)

It is a time of peace for the Republic. Jedi serves as peacekeepers for the galaxy. Reports of a caped man using Jedi weaponry, traveling from planet to planet, searching for someone and making trouble caused unrest. So two Jedi’s are sent to investigate.
Meanwhile the Federation of Allied Planets are making their first move.

Camera turns to Darth Maul’s ship. It lands on Tattoine, Darth Maul walks out and his droids go into town to search something. Scene cuts to one of his droids in the town.

Obi-wan an Qui-gon chats a little, Obi-wan asks “if the rumors could be true?”, “could this man be a Sith lord?”. Qui-gon says that “we can’t be certain, but this is what we are here to investigate, but I feel a great disturbance in the force, be extremely careful.” then they land on the planet. Qui-gon goes alone, but tells Obi-wan to stay in communication. Obi-wan tells him that they could use some spare parts for the ship. While walking, Qui-gon stumbles upon little Anakin, asks him if he has seen a peculiar man in black cape, who tells him that he doesn’t know anything, but knows someone who could know something, then takes Qui-gon to flying bug alien (whom I will replace if I can) they talk and Qui-gon learns a bit about the caped man and his droids. Qui-gon also asks for the parts they need, also he feels the force is strong with Anakin, so he asks to take Anakin and his mother with him as well. He can’t convince the bug creature with words, so he uses Jedi mind tricks to convince him. It works and bug says “take them, two less mouths to feed”. Then Qui-gon and Anakin goes to pick up Anakin’s mother. Anakin’s mother refuses to leave, saying “this is the only life I have ever known” but she wants better for her son, so she agrees Qui-gon to take him to be trained as a Jedi. While going to the ship, they are attacked by Darth Maul, lightsaber fight ensues, but they escape on ship. Qui-gon tells Obi-wan that the guy he fought was strong with the force and was definitely a Sith. And he says “I think he was after Anakin. He sensed what I sensed.”

They go to the Jedi Temple, (but only the bare minimum of politics at this point, which served no purpose in the first movie anyway, in fact, other than the underlying sub plot about how Sidious got raised in the ranks by manipulating people, it was entirely pointless.) they are hesitant to take him in, because Yoda can sense the fear in him and tells that his future is clouded. Qui-gon tries to convince them, but they tell him they can discuss this later, now there are more pressing matters to attend to. Naboo is under blockade by the Federation. So they send Qui-gon and Obi-wan to investigate and resolve the matter peacefully if they can. (or by force if it is necessary) They leave Anakin behind at the Jedi Temple where he will be safe, Qui-gon promises him that he will convince them and train him when he comes back.

We cut to Darth Maul and Count Doku walk and talk. (normally, this scene happens between Darth Maul and Sidious, but what’s the point of making it so obvious who Sidious is so early in the trilogy? So I will replace Sidious with Count Doku in all related scenes. He is a former Jedi who turned to the Dark side after all.)

This is it for now. When I am able to, I will try to upload a very rough cut version of what I got so far, so I can get some opinions. (most likely it will be a silent and subtitled video)

Until then, signing off.

So… this is the first draft of my edit:

https://vid.me/pPRK

Like I have said, it is a very rough cut, just as a proof of concept. (not even the transitions are in place. also please ignore it whereever you see Jar Jar, no Gungans will be present in my edit. he will be edited out when I get to that part.) This is the first half of the first movie, it takes about 20 minutes but I am trying to make it shorter.

So what I have in mind is, they hear a report of a suspicious man who carries a Jedi weapon and causing trouble, they suspect it might be a Sith (they find it unlikely, but are ordered to investigate anyway), they track Darth Maul to tatooine and they land there. Qui-gon feels someone strong with the force, he goes to investigate, Obi-wan tells him they also need spare parts. While walking around, Qui-gon stumbles upon little Anakin who is fighting someone, he breaks them up. Transition happens and he enters the bug aliens shop (I am thinking about replacing the bug alien with a tall jawa, there were tall jawa’s in A New Hope and I don’t see why one of them wouldn’t have a shop, they do deal in junk after all) and he says Anakin told him about the place (thus explaining how he found the place), Qui-gon tells him about the spare parts he needs, also asks for information and sensing Anakin is strong with the force, he asks if he can pay for Anakin’s and his mothers freedom. Bug alien is more than happy to sell Qui-gon some spare parts, but not willing to give any information or to part with his slaves. Qui-gon says he wishes to see the parts, they move to the junkyard and Qui-gon uses Jedi mind trick on him, twice and it works both times. Bug alien thing agrees to part with his slaves and agrees to share what he knows, bug alien says, “I will tell you what I know, but lets go outback, somewhere that doesn’t smell like a dump”. They go to outback (back of the shop) and he tells Qui-gon what he knows. Darth Maul has been searching around for someone or something, his droids search the place day and night as well and he is a dangerous man.

Rest will take place like I previously stated.

I also restored some of the deleted scenes as I think it worked better for the version I had in mind.

So, what do you guys think? Could this work or is it a waste of time?

So… no one is even remotely interested or has any input and/or advice?

Ok then… good to know.

To be honest, you posted during quite possibly the busiest time of year, and your posts are pretty lengthy. It’s on my read list, but I don’t have time right now *<:)
runs off after children