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Star Wars: A (formerly?) 3-in-1 fanedit of the Original Trilogy (* unfinished project *)

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 (Edited)

The project in its original form is dead and I consider it a failed experiment, however I’ve been thinking about bringing it back in a very different form, especially after Act on Instinct contacted me about voice acting.

I made this comment about it, asking for your opinions and describing it more, if you’re just opening this thread for the first time. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to just copy the same comment here.

Original Post, since I can’t bring myself to delete it all on a preservation forum lol:

I think the worst thing about the Original Trilogy is that there are two Death Stars. Two of them. I don’t know who thought this was a good idea. But I’m sure you all probably understand why it’s problematic, so I’m not gonna get into it that much.

Around May, I was wondering if you could make a fanedit to solve this. I don’t think you can make a fanedit of RotJ with that goal, but you certainly can make a 3-in-1 fanedit of the Original Trilogy where the Death Star is not destroyed in ANH, and survives until RotJ.

So now, instead of going to the Rebel Base on Yavin IV after escaping the Death Star, they go to Hoth after escaping the Death Star. The Empire attacks the only Rebel Base while they’re analysing the plans and preparing for the assault on the Death Star.

That’s really the only story change.

There are a few other things I’m gonna be doing in this fanedit, too:

-There’s not gonna be any opening crawls. The latter two prequels repeat everything in their opening crawls multiple times, so prequel 3-in-1 fanedits get the luxury of being able to just have one opening crawl and still getting across all exposition. However, the original trilogy is reasonable and doesn’t repeat information you already know, so I have two choices: Have three opening crawls in the movie, or come up with something else. I chose the latter, and I’m using narration, in between chapters*. The narrations are accompanied by music and visuals relating to the dialog.

-Speaking of chapters, the movie is split up into 4 chapters. Chapter 1 starts with the rebel blockade runner, and ends with the crew leaving the Death Star. Chapter 2 starts on Hoth, ends on Home One (ESB is not changed story-wise). Chapter 3 starts with Lapti Nek, and ends when they leave Tatooine. Chapter 4 starts with the Rebel briefing, and ends with Vader’s funeral.

-Luke and Leia aren’t gonna be siblings. That’s the other thing I don’t like, but it’s pretty easy to do so it’s not super important.

*I’m also considering adding a narration at the end as an epilogue, but if I did that, I’d want to talk about Kylo Ren in it. However, every time you see Kylo Ren, he either has an aggressive face or a mask, two things good guys don’t have. But I don’t want to show him as a bad guy, for obvious reasons. So unless TLJ has Kylo Ren looking friendly, we can’t have an epilogue narration.

At this point, I’ve gotten the general movie done, but, at the moment, it’s 5 hours long, so a lot of fat trimming needs to be done. I’d be very happy if I can get it down to ~2 hours, but I’ll honestly be happy enough if it gets below 4 hours.

Also, I’m gonna have to replace every instance of the Death Star in Chapter 4, because it can’t go from finished to unfinished, obviously. If anything’s gonna kill this project, it’ll be this. Update: I’m adding an explanation that there was an unsuccessful attack on the Death Star before Chapter 4.


So, normally I wouldn’t have made this post until after the actual fanedit’s done, but I want to know what you guys think: Can this work? Tips? Any other form of feedback I can’t think of right now?

PS: I’m calling this “Star Wars”, because whenever I watch or think about Fanedits, Unrated Cuts, Special Editions, Directors’ Cuts, etc, I like to pretend the original media doesn’t exist, and this is the only thing that does. If that’s the case, then obviously the movie would be called “Star Wars”.


Edit: It looks like the movie’s not gonna get any shorter now, so if anyone’s interested in voicing the narration, PM me.

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I think that you can pull this off, if your Luke vs Vader edit shows anything 😃. It will make for a very interesting edit nonetheless.

A few questions:

-Yoda spoke of ‘another’, how will this handled in your edit?
-Will the Death Star show up with the Imperial Fleet and will it destroy Hoth?
-Without a lot of very precise (and annoying) rotoscoping of the final battle, a lot of the best shots in ROTJ will be lost. Will you edit around these shots or will they appear in the movie?
-How much time has progressed between Chapter 1 and 2? Does the probe find the hidden rebel base or is it the Falcon’s tracking device?
-Who’s narrating it?

So far, this sounds like a less extreme version of The War of the Stars, and I am very excited. I hope to see this get made.

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snooker said:

I think that you can pull this off, if your Luke vs Vader edit shows anything 😃. It will make for a very interesting edit nonetheless.

Thanks!

snooker said:

Yoda spoke of ‘another’, how will this handled in your edit?

I’m probably just gonna cut that out. After Yoda says “Now, matters are worse”, we go right into the next shot. I never liked the idea of another, so, I guess I’m killing two birds with one stone.

snooker said:

Will the Death Star show up with the Imperial Fleet and will it destroy Hoth?

Didn’t think of that. That’s a great idea! No guarantees, though. I’d have to explain why it gave enough time to evacuate (maybe it shows up late, maybe it takes too long to charge, idk. But I don’t know if I can do that or not. I’m hoping so (because that’s a wonderful idea) but, unfortunately, no guarantees.

snooker said:

Without a lot of very precise (and annoying) rotoscoping of the final battle, a lot of the best shots in ROTJ will be lost. Will you edit around these shots or will they appear in the movie?

That’s my biggest concern. I want to rotoscope the final battle, but that might be a really daunting challenge. I’m not sure yet.

snooker said:

How much time has progressed between Chapter 1 and 2?

I don’t know and don’t plan to come up with an answer. Definitely a lot less than the 3 years between the theatrical movies.

snooker said:

Does the probe find the hidden rebel base or is it the Falcon’s tracking device?

Both. The Falcon’s tracking device brings the Empire to Hoth, but they send in the probe droid first to confirm their findings. It’s possible they could have found the tracking device, dumped the ship on some other planet, and used another ship to get to the real rebel base, and the Empire doesn’t want to waste resources blockading a desolate planet.

snooker said:

-Who’s narrating it?

I have no plans so far on who the actor will be, other than that I don’t want to do it.

benduwan said:

will there be delet footage in?

Unlikely. That adds runtime. If any deleted footage will be added in, though, it might be less-than-a-second clips from TFA, or Jerjerrod’s conflict.

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I think this concept is a very interesting idea. I really liked your Luke vs Vader edit, and I think you can pull this off

A few questions:

In the original, Luke gets furious after Vader threatens to turn Leia to the dark side, and attacks him. How will this be handled in this edit if they are not siblings?
Who’s gonna blow up the Death Star in this edit, Luke or Lando?

Overall, I’m very excited and definitely want to see this get made

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Cut out “so, you have a twin sister”, replace “your sister” with “the princess”.

It doesn’t sound perfect (last time I did it) but I think it’s better than Luke and Leia being siblings.

Either Lando or Gold Leader. Depends on how much of the Battle of Yavin I’m gonna reincorporate. I was originally leaning towards Gold Leader but now I’m almost certainly gonna do Lando.

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Maybe this is just me being desperate, but what if I explain in a narration that there was an unsuccessful Rebel attack on the Death Star. That way I can keep the Death Star damaged, and maybe in this attack, the Emperor might trick them into thinking the laser was damaged and not operational, so that this would be their only chance to attack it. Also, that would mean the Emperor wouldn’t there for shits and giggles, he’s there to boost morale while the Death Star is repaired.

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Here’s an idea: What if Leia transmits the plans from R2 to the Rebel base right after they escape the Death Star? Then as the Falcon desperately tries to hold off the sentry ships, we cut to Yavin 4 where they are briefing the pilots on the Death Star’s weakness. The ships arrive at the Death Star as the Falcon is still holding off the TIE’s, and Red leader immediately heads to the trench while Vader flies out to intercept. Red leader manages to hit the target and it destroys most of the station, killing Tarkin.

In this version of events, Leia never suspects that the Empire is tracking the Falcon. Our heroes then go to Yavin 4 for the medal ceremony, which is what leads the Empire to drive them out.

For the Luke vs Vader scene, after Vader says ‘It is the only way you can save your friends. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for…’ Cut to Leia being injured and troops coming up behind Han. Luke snaps.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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NeverarGreat said:

Here’s an idea: What if Leia transmits the plans from R2 to the Rebel base right after they escape the Death Star? Then as the Falcon desperately tries to hold off the sentry ships, we cut to Yavin 4 where they are briefing the pilots on the Death Star’s weakness. The ships arrive at the Death Star as the Falcon is still holding off the TIE’s, and Red leader immediately heads to the trench while Vader flies out to intercept. Red leader manages to hit the target and it destroys most of the station, killing Tarkin.

In this version of events, Leia never suspects that the Empire is tracking the Falcon. Our heroes then go to Yavin 4 for the medal ceremony, which is what leads the Empire to drive them out.

I like the idea of Red/Gold Leader trying a lone-wolf mission, and putting the failed attack between Chapters 1 and 2 also explains why there’s no real Death Star oriented stuff in Chapter 2, the Rebels are weakened, and the Empire is working on repairing the Death Star, especially the laser. But unfortunately the only real place I see that fitting is in a narration, putting it an actual scene messes feels like it would mess with the pacing.

Although, killing off Tarkin in a narration would feel like a cop-out. I might wanna have Tarkin killed in this attack, because him not being in Chapters 2-4 is a little problematic, but maybe I can just pepper Tarkin scenes in 2 & 4.

NeverarGreat said:

For the Luke vs Vader scene, after Vader says ‘It is the only way you can save your friends. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for…’ Cut to Leia being injured and troops coming up behind Han. Luke snaps.

I like it, and it also lets me not use the “The Princess” sound bite. I’ll try it out.

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SparkySywer said:

Although, killing off Tarkin in a narration would feel like a cop-out. I might wanna have Tarkin killed in this attack, because him not being in Chapters 2-4 is a little problematic, but maybe I can just pepper Tarkin scenes in 2 & 4.

If you want to keep Tarkin alive, perhaps you could use shots from Rogue One of Tarkin watching the completion of the Death Star. Maybe the laser canon was blown up in the first attack and they needed a new one. But if you went down that route I’d just stick to the window reflection of Tarkin, no in-your-face CG. You could even cut Tarkin from those shots and still use them. Just an idea.

“Always in motion is the future” 🌌

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Is there a way to combine the trench run/Yavin battle with the Endor battle? That makes it easier to keep Tarkin alive, though you’d need to pepper him in throughout the events of ESB and the first 2/3 of ROTJ somehow.

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I originally did that, with Lando and company keeping the fleet away, and Red & Gold groups blowing up the Death Star, but I wasn’t a fan of Red Leader destroying the Death Star, and having three impersonal TIE Fighters attacking them from nowhere was a little weird.

I could still probably put Tarkin clips from the Battle of Yavin in the Battle of Endor. Haven’t tried yet, though.

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Lol when I was 6 years old I watched star wars for the first time on my dad’s home made coppy on VHS I thought the 2nd death star was what was leftover from the first one with it’s side blown out…
One of my oldest memory’s

We ❤️ Star Wars and give it all the moneys. Please don’t sue us.

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SparkySywer said:

Maybe this is just me being desperate, but what if I explain in a narration that there was an unsuccessful Rebel attack on the Death Star. That way I can keep the Death Star damaged, and maybe in this attack, the Emperor might trick them into thinking the laser was damaged and not operational, so that this would be their only chance to attack it. Also, that would mean the Emperor wouldn’t there for shits and giggles, he’s there to boost morale while the Death Star is repaired.

Maybe just replace all shots of the completed first DS with shots of the second DS. It wouldn’t make a huge difference story wise.

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That would be even more difficult. I’m fine with what I’ve come up with now.

Question for you guys: What scenes could go? A reasonably sized 3-in-1 OT movie is a lot harder than a PT one, because most scenes in the OT do something, most scenes in the PT don’t. I’m admittedly having trouble coming up with what scenes to cut.

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I assume you’re focusing on Luke for this edit, so anything not involving Luke could be cut. This includes Leia’s scenes in ANH, Han and Leia in ESB, and Han, Leia, Lando in ROTJ.
ANH would work if the last we saw of Leia until the rescue was her being marched away on the Tantive.

Potential Cuts to ANH:

After crashing on Tatooine and remarking on its desolateness, Threepio could see the sandcrawler in the distance and call for help, thus skipping all of the meandering droid activity. You’d probably have to edit out the large skeleton for continuity.

To take out the Imperial Conference scene, you could hold the Homestead kitchen scene until after Ben’s Hut, so it’s Ben’s Hut - Homestead kitchen - Sandcrawler Destruction -(wipe to)- Burning Homestead -(Wipe to)- Return to Sandcrawler.

You could remove the Han/Greedo scene as well, just cut from ‘Get back to the ship, get it ready’ to ‘Okay I’ll take it’.

Taking out the destruction of Alderaan would require some tricky editing, but you could have it work by placing the chess game right after the jump to hyperspace. Then Obi-wan feels a disturbance in the Force, and Han enters the scene.

You could cut the Trash Compactor scene entirely. Just cut from Han jumping into the compactor to Obi-wan at the tractor beam control, then back to Luke and friends toweling off outside the compactor. While you’re at it, you could cut right from ‘you’re braver than I thought’ to a shortened Obi-Vader lightsaber battle, then right back to our heroes after they’ve regrouped across from the ship.

Potential cuts to ESB

Cut the Wampa cave and Han’s search for Luke. Luke is attacked and knocked off his Tauntan, but remains in the snow until Obi-wan’s Ghost shows up. Then Han shows up and in the next scene Luke is in the Bacta, presumably rescued that night. This removes the Han/Leia bickering as well.

Cut a lot of the Walker Battle. Keep it from Luke’s perspective, with minimal cutaways to other actors.

Cut the asteroids entirely. After Han discovers the Hyperdrive malfunction, he turns the ship around and immediately lands it on the back of the Star Destroyer. During this time, the two of them can share a kiss.

If you wanted to get artistic, you could show brief snippets of Han and Leia’s misadventures in Cloud City as Luke is in a Jedi Trance (3PO being blown up, Han being tortured and put in Carbon Freeze, Leia looking frightened in the direction of Darth Vader). If we weren’t shown anything about Lando or Cloud City beforehand, we are left in suspense about what is actually happening to Luke’s friends. The first time we visit Cloud City is with Luke.

Cut Yoda’s ‘There is another’ line.

Shorten Luke vs Vader by removing the bit where Vader throws things at Luke.

Potential cuts to ROTJ

Move Yoda’s death to before Tatooine. This is why Luke is taking so long to get there. His speech ends with ‘Pass on what you have learned’. Cut Obi-wan’s ghost.

Keep the Droids entering Jabba’s Palace. Chewie is already captured, as per 3PO’s dialogue. Show Leia trying to rescue Han after the droids are captured, and then Luke can arrive. Cut the Rancor scene - Jabba has decided that they will all die simply because Leia ruined his favorite decoration. Anything not directly relating to Luke is cut.

Cut Leia’s first scene with Wicket. Shorten the fire-building scene by having 3PO’s Godlike pronouncements work the first time, then cut directly to his story. Shorten Luke and Leia’s conversation.

Cut most of the ground battle and the attack on the Death Star. The focus should be on Luke vs Vader.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
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Imperial Conference was already cut. Great minds think alike?

By putting Ben’s Hut before the dinner scene, I assume you mean that R2 doesn’t run off, right? I like it. Edit: It didn’t turn out so well, having Luke get called off, then wipe to Ben’s hut feels really awkward.

Han & Greedo was something I was on the fence for, but I think I’ll go with it.

Alderaan Destruction scene being removed isn’t something I thought of, and I like the idea. I feel like it might be kind of a surprise, which I prefer to dramatic irony. The only problem is that Tarkin says “It’s time we demonstrate the full power of this Battle Station”, which I can’t really figure out how to edit around while still leaving the scene in, which you’d need so Alderaan doesn’t come out of nowhere. Will it still work? Edit: Jumping from the hyperspace scene to the chess scene doesn’t look so good.

Trash Compactor is also a good idea. Will be done.

The “You’re braver than I thought” to fight cut was already in there, too.

I like the Wampa cut. Good idea.

I’m also cutting out the Asteroid field like you said, which has caused a ripple effect and a lot of other scenes are going with it. Chapter 2’s starting the be structurally different to Empire, too.

I don’t wanna cut out the throwing things bit, I’ve always liked it and it’s less than a minute long, so cutting it won’t do much good.

The “there is another line” and everything on Dagobah in RotJ were both already cut. Dagobah scenes from RotJ are covered in the narration before Chapter 3.

Leia’s scene with Wicket and C3PO’s bedtime story have been cut already, too.

With all of this, it’s down to ~4h30, and I haven’t even gotten to trimming the Battles of Endor and Hoth.

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To take out the Imperial Conference scene, you could hold the Homestead kitchen scene until after Ben’s Hut, so it’s Ben’s Hut - Homestead kitchen - Sandcrawler Destruction -(wipe to)- Burning Homestead -(Wipe to)- Return to Sandcrawler.

What I meant by the ‘Homestead kitchen’ was the section where Owen asks Beru where Luke has gone. So after the fade out to night, we open on Luke’s speeder as they search for R2. Then we get to Ben’s hut and after that scene we get Owen looking around for Luke.

Also: If you go right from the Tusken Raiders jumping on the Bantha to the distant battle cries after the attack, you could cut out a minute in between, and simply imply the attack on Luke. Then another 40 seconds could be cut from them finding 3PO and simply have them lift him up out of scene.

If you kept the interrogation scene, you could keep the ‘set your course for Alderaan’ scene, and put it in place of the Destruction of Alderaan. That way the audience may assume that the Falcon gets there in time to see the laser firing, and it’s a surprise when they’re too late.

There’s some fat you can trim after the Control Room scene. There are a lot of shots of our heroes just wandering around the Death Star, so maybe just leave the shots of them getting in the elevator and get rid of Ben wandering around as well.

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I think the worst thing about the Original Trilogy is that there are two Death Stars.

I’d say it’s the second worst, number one being Leia being Luke’s sister. Though I’ve already remedied that problem for my edits, I have yet to tackle this one. Though leaving the Death Star intact throughout the trilogy or having Luke only blow up the superlaser are valid options, I intend on simply moving the Emperor’s throne room to Coruscant, probably at the top of the Jedi Temple (now Imperial Palace)'s central tower. The hard part will be replacing the starry sky outside the windows with a view of Coruscant. The Death Star is destroyed by Luke in ANH and never seen again (TFA included). It’s not like anyone super important was involved in blowing it up the second time anyway, so that wouldn’t be a big loss. It would also keep us from having to follow too many battles at once, something that, while not a problem per say, feels rather unnecessary.

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Sorry about my lack of activity recently, school got in the way, but would you guys be interested in seeing a prototype, since I don’t know how long it’ll be before I finish?

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Alright, I’ll render it overnight and upload it tomorrow. PM me for links.

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Alright. All finished. PM me for a link.

Keep in mind this is a prototype. Nothing is final. I have not finished cutting things out. The wording in the narrations is not final, and there is no voiceover. I also kinda forgot to remove the “he’s my brother” scene. So that’s still in the prototype. My bad.

The video’s also kinda laggy in some spots, don’t know why. I’ll look into it so it’s not in the final version.

It’s 4h29, and a massive file (10.5ish GB), so I don’t expect anyone to download or watch the whole thing, but go over it if you guys want.

TIMESTAMPS
Chapter 1: 0h00
Chapter 2: 1h18
Chapter 3: 2h55
Chapter 4: 3h21

I guess looking at those timestamps, I know where I should focus the fattrimming.

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