Darth Lucas

I've been thinking about something kind of radical.  It would mean scratching the story as it is and starting over, but I think it might work and be quite interesting.  I wouldn't be completely throwing out all of the work done, as the ideas discussed and the central characters will still be present.  But here's my idea:  adapt the original rough draft of Star Wars, taking out characters and replacing them with prequel characters.  Obviously it wouldn't fit perfectly, and  a lot would have to be changed, but with some work, I think I could make it fit into the larger story I want to tell, and the story has the advantage of essentially being George's uninhibited creativity from when he could still write well thrown onto paper.  Really just an idea at this point, but I want to know what you all think of this.  Good idea?  Should I give it a shot, or should I just continue with what I have?

I've made some changes.  I've added Qui-Gon into the mix.  So, now Qui-Gon is the Jedi that brings Obi-Wan's message and he follows him along his journey.  However, Qui-Gon is not Obi-Wan's master, but just a friend who was also trained by Yoda.  Obi-Wan considers him a mentor, but he is not his master.  Also, the young man they meet in the cantina is no longer Anakin, but Tarkin, who takes them to Anakin, who is Tarkin's friend and captain of the ship on which Tarkin serves as copilot.

Replace a shot of Stormtroopers running through a corridor to the shot in Woody Allen's "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex" where the sperm are running through the hall.

So glad to see this is happening.  =D

And here's Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith:

http://i.imgur.com/GKD8A9O.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2qOTRZb.jpg

SWfan2000 said:

Darth Lucas said:

sans_fi said:

In case anybody wants them, Ive made some small tweakings on my Star Wars trilogy posters as the prequel posters.

In the same spirit, here are the prequels, OT style.

http://i.imgur.com/8d0ouWZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2jvFq0r.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TzyDKOh.jpg

 

More brilliance! Could you do the prequels in 1997 OT/SE style?

http://i.imgur.com/VEBcwuD.jpg

Ask and you shall receive.  Working on AOTC and ROTS.

Been working a lot on this lately.  Here's the beginning of Episode I as it stands right now  It's still pretty rough, but I like where it's going:

The Mandalorians are a group of warriors attempting to take control of the Galaxy from the peaceful Republic.  They are mediocre in terms of fighting skill, but their scientific knowledge makes them a formidable enemy.  Experts in the art of cloning, when one Mandalorian warrior is killed in combat, they simply send in two clones to replace him.  At the head of their forces is the mysterious Maul, a dark creature who brings pain and suffering wherever he dwells.

Maul and the Mandalorians kidnap Queen Padme Organa of Alderaan, a key player in the Republic, as leverage to force the Galactic Senate to hand control of the Republic over to them. 

The Jedi have been the guardians of peace and justice in the Republic for a thousand generations.  The Jedi Masters are monk-like Jedi who live at the Jedi Temple.  They are scholars who attempt to learn all there is to know about The Force.  The Masters are responsible for training the Knights.  Jedi Knights are warriors who travel the Galaxy protecting peace, justice, and freedom.

Obi-Wan is a Jedi Knight stationed on the planet of Tatooine, as a kind of Galactic Peace Corps, helping a tribe of Sand People learn to survive with their limited recourses.  Obi-Wan is visited by a fellow Jedi Knight who brings a message to Obi-Wan that he has been given orders to return to the Jedi Temple for a debriefing on his future involvement in the war effort.  Obi-Wan refuses, saying that he cannot abandon his work with the Sand People.  But when the Mandalorians attack the village, wiping out the tribe, he realizes he must return to the Jedi Temple.

As his ship was damaged in the attack on the Sand People tribe, Obi-Wan walks across the desert to the space-port of Mos Eisley to search for a suitable transport.  He enters the infamous Mos Eisly Cantina.  A young man and two aliens are playing a game of sabacc at a round table in the center of the Cantina.  The young man wins, upsetting the two aliens.  A bar-fight ensues.  Obi-Wan, being a defender of peace, takes out his lightsaber and breaks up the fight.  Sitting down with the bloody young man, Obi-Wan learns his name is Anakin Lars, the pilot of a spice freighter, and after learning Obi-Wan’s problem (and what he was willing to pay), he agrees to transport him to the Jedi Temple.

I think the yellow saber would be a good idea if it was like, the color lightsaber of a Jedi Master.  Like when you reach that rank, you get a yellow blade.  So, Yoda, Kit Fisto, Mace Windu, etc. would all have yellow lightsabers.  But then again, it would be kind of confusing when Obi-Wan becomes a master and joins the council but still has a blue blade...  oh well, it's a cool thought nonetheless.

sans_fi said:

In case anybody wants them, Ive made some small tweakings on my Star Wars trilogy posters as the prequel posters.

In the same spirit, here are the prequels, OT style.

http://i.imgur.com/8d0ouWZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2jvFq0r.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TzyDKOh.jpg

team_negative1, you've switched off your update computer.  What's wrong?

I'm going to see how it works with the script.  If it turns out to be more trouble to explain than it's worth, I'll keep the lightsaber for the Jedi, but if I can make it work seamlessly, then I think it would make for an interesting connection to Obi-Wan's spiel on the lightsaber in ANH.

I had this thought as well.  I justify it by saying that in a culture that is able to design and develop a brand new armored space station more powerful than your first in like, six years, it's safe to say technologies advance quickly.  As for the Vader thing, I never really thought that he meant building a lightsaber was a uniquely Jedi skill.  I always just thought he meant that building your own weapon was a right of passage for a Jedi.  Simply a weapon for the masses, the lightsaber is more symbolic for the Jedi, part of their soul.  As the galaxy becomes more reliant of blasters and laser-projectile weaponry, the Jedi continue the use of lightsabers, because it is part of their soul, such as the katana is for the samurai.  So the Mandalorians would use very clean, mass produced lightsabers, very phantom menace-y in design.  And that would be juxtaposed by the Jedi's lightsabers: unique to each individual who constructed it, more revenge of the sith/OT in design.

How do you guys feel about people other than Jedi using lightsabers?  Ben describes the lightsaber as "the weapon of a Jedi Knight."  But to me that doesn't necessarily mean that Jedi were to only ones to use that weapon.  I've started to liken it to a sword to an actual knight.  Yes, it's their weapon of choice, but it's also the main weapon used by most armies.  If you look at early concept art for Star Wars, you see images of Stormtroopers fighting with lightsabers and that's what kind of inspired the concept.  The idea would be to have the Clone Wars taking place at a time not long after the invention of the blaster.  You would see the gradual shift from armies fighting with lightsabers and other futuristic forms of ancient weapons to the various kinds of blasters you see in the OT.  We would see the shift in there being a romantic sense of honor in fighting to a very mechanical, less humanized, modern sense of war.  "An elegant weapon of a more civilized age."

Yeah, I've been experimenting with that kind of method in audacity, but the results always have an echo-y effect on the finished audio.  Although, the more I do these tests, the more I realize that center channel isolation may be the way I'll have to go.

Yes, the music technically wouldn't be removed and it will by no means be perfectly clean, but hopefully I can pull it off so that it isn't very noticeable.  Basically the idea is to cut the sections of the audio track that don't contain dialogue or irreplaceable sound effects and then add the new soundtrack and any sound effects that were cut, essentially reworking the soundtrack from scratch.  Tedious, but that's the only way I've been able to think of to get it done.  I've been experimenting with some less than ideal results.  If anyone knows of a more effective way to do it please share.  I've seen some pretty decent soundtrack replacement on a smaller scale in edits in the past, usually just individual scenes, but have yet to figure out exactly how they were able to accomplish it.  Again, I'm aware of the difficulty of a project like this, which is why I haven't fully committed to it yet, but if I can figure out a way to do this in a way that isn't so jarring and tedious, I really would love to continue with the project.

They need to be mentors.  Luke needs to take on the Ben Kenobi role for whoever the protagonist is.  I'm not sure how I want Han and Leia to fit in.  Maybe as people that the protagonist meets along their journey, similar to Nimoy in '09 Star Trek.  Just people to provide exposition and context to the main character and move them along their journey.  Also, I hate to say it, but I think Luke needs to die in either episode VII or episode VIII.  You can't expect the protagonist to grow if their mentor hangs over their shoulder to give them advice throughout their entire journey.  Obi-Wan, Gandalf, Morpheus: It's a popular and extremely effective plot device to have the mentor sacrifice themselves for the hero.

This is just an idea at this point.  Not sure if I’m going to actually do it.  What I want to do is take the prequels, color correct them to match the look of the OT films (for example TPM would be corrected to match ANH,  AOTC to TESB, and ROTS to ROTJ).  I would also be replacing the entire soundtracks of the prequels with music from the OT.  I wouldn’t actually be changing the storyline at all, just the color correction and soundtrack replacement.  I’ve got an idea as to how to effectively replace the music, but I have to do a test to make sure it will work well.  If it all works out, though, and there’s any interest in something like this, this will most likely make its way onto my list of projects.

Been working more on the storyline.  Really starting to like where it's going.  Here's a question for you all.  The Mandalorians are the main villains in my story, so I'm going to try and work a Boba Fett origin story into the trilogy.  I know it isn't necessary, but I do like the idea of as many links between the trilogies as possible, I just think backstories like this were done poorly in the Lucas prequels.  I don't necessarily want Boba Fett to be directly involved with the main storyline.  Just a quick something to explain how he became a bounty hunter.  Was he a Mandalorian who went rogue?  Was he young like in AOTC?  What do you all think Fett's origin story should be? 

All these jokes and all I can think about is why the hell did George wear a white tie with a white shirt?  But in all seriousness I hope he has a good marriage and a fun semi-retirement.  Who knows?  Maybe he'll be so overwhelmed by the joy of marriage that he'll tell Kathleen to get to work restoring the original negatives of the OT.  Wishful thinking, maybe?

Took a break from story development and whipped this up in Photoshop.  It's how I envision the final duel between Ben and Vader in Episode III.

http://i.imgur.com/ARm1IXX.jpg

Yes.  Email as many people as possible to get an OT convention of some kind together!

Yeah, I don't do usenet.  I've had too many problems with it in the past.

I'm leaning toward my first idea.

-She was married to Anakin before the events of Episode 1.  She was kidnapped by the Mandalorians (basically the stormtroopers of my prequels) to use as a slave.  Anakin rescues her during the adventure.

I'm just worried because with how this idea plays out plot-wise, it is extremely similar to Leia's rescue and escape from the Death Star in ANH, and I don't want it to seem like I'm just doing the same story, thirty years earlier, ya know?

You are forgetting that, while there are none in the fellowship itself, LOTR is not at all void of strong female characters, and that most of them are very central to the story.  Most great stories have a strong female character.  I do believe that any Star Wars movie does NEED a strong female presence in order to feel complete.

nofranchise said:

Hi

This is kind of a long shot. I have been trying for ages to torrent the Puggo Grande version without luck. 

Is MySpleen still hosting it? Would it be rude to ask for an invite? 

Just putting it out there - as a long time lurker, I only got around to registering now. 

Thanks!

 

Yeah, I feel your pain.  This hasn't been seeded in ages.  It's literally going to take me three weeks to download this at the rate it's going.