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The Original Trilogy Radical Redux Ideas Thread — Page 3

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I’ve looked again at snooker’s ideas for Jedi, and from the sequence above, I’m convinced it would work.

But skip the Ewoks completely if possible. The main problem with that is having Luke go to Vader. Perhaps he just takes off in the shuttle right after the rebels land?


Sharing some images of what I’ve been playing with:



The last one is a replacement for the cave matte painting, using backgrounds from Battlefront. The shuttle on the forest also came from there.
Just playing around a little, might be good inspiration for others.

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^
Very good!

Here’s my sequence for Jedi:

Vader lands on the Imperial Capital and speaks with the emperor.

Han’s rescue, albeit trimmed to have Chewie already be captured by the time the opening rolls around.

Dagobah.

The Rebel base on Endor (Home One and the rest of the fleet are parked down on the planet). Here we have the briefing scene. (The plan is now to reclaim the Capital and if possible kill the Emperor/Vader).

Luke and Leia (it is implied they are in part of a Rebel Base).

The gang takes off.

The gang flies past the Executor and lands on the Capital, at night.

“My Son is with them.”

Luke surrenders himself.

https://gfycat.com/InsidiousUnsteadyHarrier

Later that night Han and a squad of rebels inflitrate the shield generator. Leia is left behind in the shuttle/somewhere with Chewie.

Meeting the Emperor

The fleet emerges from Hyperspace, the shields are up, start of space battle. Ends with ‘We’ve got to give him more time!’.

Han plants the charges and Stormtroopers storm the room. Using the ‘I love you’, ‘I know’ clip, Han realises that in order for the Rebellion to complete their mission, he must sacrifice himself. The bunker suddenly explodes around him as the charges go off. Leia looks on at the explosion in disbelief as Chewbacca cries out.

“Ha ha, I told ya they’d do it!”

Luke snaps and tries to kill the emperor, and hides. Vader reads Luke’s mind and threatens Leia, his sister. Luke snaps again and almost kills Vader.

The rebellion begin bombing the surface in and around the Emperor’s compound. The Falcon is heavily damaged.

Like tosses the saber. ‘I am a Jedi, like my father before me.’ ‘So be it… Jedi.’ The Emperor starts zapping Luke as he pleads for his father’s help.

Vader tosses the Emperor down into the shaft, and is critically hurt.

The Executor is disabled and crashes into the Emperor’s compound.

Anakin Unmasked.

Luke flies away from the planet and jumps to hyperspace.

Montage: Fireworks across the capital, Lando is the new owner of the falcon. Leia is in charge of her own capital ship? The celebration happens, minus Luke/Han/Ewoks.

Luke lays his father to rest as the ghosts of Yoda and Ben look on. Anakin appears and smiles. Luke continues to watch the flames.

Cut to credits.

I don’t know if all of this is feasible with my VFX abilities, but I tried to keep it tame. I know that most of the ground Endor battle is busted along with the fight in front of the bunker. If anyone has anything to add/critique, please say so.

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Great effects work, I like it!

The Revenge outline is good, but I think its too ambitious given the existing footage.

I like the idea of Han’s sacrifice, but you don’t have reaction shots or dialog from Leia, Chewie or Lando to support it.
But if they all die on the explosion then Luke’s reaction is enough.
So my suggestion for a darker ending is have the entire team killed on the explosion…

A simple lighter option is to have them plant the charges and just run before they go off.

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Am I the only one who doesn’t want to lose Endor and the Ewoks? Sure, they’re a bit childish, but they’re lots of fun. Maybe I’m just saying this based on a mix of nostalgia and not wanting to deviate too much from source material. Besides, eliminating them entirely and moving the shield bunker attack to the capital would be next to impossible, VFX-wise.

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The problem hinges really on how central the Death Star 2 is to the plot of ROTJ (annoyingly repetitive as it may be), as the macguffin being protected by the shield generator in the first place and the cornerstone of the emperor’s trap for the rebellion (he doesn’t just want to lure them into a space battle, but specifically in to one with (what they don’t yet realise is) a ‘fully operational’ and pretty much impregnable battle station. this specifically translates into the tactics of the endor battle; the plot necessity of lowering the death star shield and the need to engage the imperial starfleet at close range rather than being picked off by the super-laser. So, even in the spirit of radical redux, some kind of macguffin in place of the DS2 really needs to be kept for the plot to revolve around (maybe not another death star but some kind of powerful super-object/weapon; I know there was some talk in the sequel thread about making starkiller base a ‘star forge’ so maybe it could be some kind of reactor - Coruscant’s main energy source or something which doubles as a big gun in palp’s evil plan?). So the third act structure in this proposed outline would have three main locations; the Capital with Luke, Vader and the Emperor; the ‘Sanctuary moon’ with Han, Leia, chewie and the droids; and the ‘DS2’ (or equivalent) with Lando et al in orbit of Coruscant/the sanctuary moon.

You can see here why the choice was probably made to condense the luke/vader/emperor action into taking place on the DS2 - as it means one less location to establish. But in the spirit of radical redux I think it could probably be separated out again in a more ‘workable’ kind of way; set all the vader/emperor stuff in ‘the capital’ with new establishing shots, maybe tweak some of the mon mothma briefing exposition to set up the relationship between the capital planet, the moon and the macguffin station (making it a power plant rather than a new death star for instance if you wanted to go down that route). Luke and co would then go to the forest moon as usual, the emperor would instruct vader to go there to get luke and luke would return with him to the capital. as an aside; It would be fun to see the emperor’s throne room as the spire of the imperial palace (the former jedi temple) and provide a nice mirror to anakin skywalker’s fall in ROTS by setting his redemption in the same place (as well as seeing what’s happened to the jedi temple under 20 years of imperial rule). In such a way you probably wouldn’t have to change much of the throne room scenes (you could just say that the windows are dark because its nighttime, maybe add a few building lights in the background here and there); though the underground lava chamber idea is also cool if more difficult to execute. The battle then continues, perhaps with Han and Leia sacrificing themselves to bring down the ‘DS2’ shield, lando et al destroying the reactor and proceeding to storm the capital as vader kills the emperor etc…

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I must admit that as much as I don’t want to see Han and Leia die in an edit if it could be pulled off well I would be open to it.

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I think Force Awakens and Rogue may have provided the needed elements for us.

The planet based “Deathstar” (Starkiller base) can be used to establish the space battle taking place over the capital planet.
No need to change the battle mechanics since they are similar, it’s easier to adapt existing VFX than to create new elements.

Rogue 1 can perhaps provide some imperial interior and shield generator shots if needed.

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Anakin Starkiller said:

Am I the only one who doesn’t want to lose Endor and the Ewoks?

No, but it’s worth toying with the idea. What would this movie look like?

next to impossible, VFX-wise.

That’s Radical Redux!

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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SparkySywer said:

Anakin Starkiller said:

Am I the only one who doesn’t want to lose Endor and the Ewoks?

No, but it’s worth toying with the idea. What would this movie look like?

next to impossible, VFX-wise.

That’s Radical Redux!

It does get to a point where it becomes the scriptwriting forum… while we should think big we should also think possible. Snooker has shown us moving Luke and Vader to Had Abaddon is possible, even if it takes ages. But putting Han and Leia there is impossible- they all walk around trees and lurk through bushes. It’d look strange in an urban landscape. Then the Ewoks… while we can like or dislike them they play an instrumental part of the story and if removed would make the film much shorter and the Endor Sequence play out anti-climatically. Then there’s the dialogue.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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I have no problem with removing the Ewoks since the Endor sequence is the weakest part of the film.
The extended bunker and Jerjerrod scenes would make up for it in depth.

Considering new material that needs to be created, realistically I think we can show:

  • Luke going to Had Abaddon and surrender (Rogue, Ep II)
  • Had Abaddon (Rogue, Ep II, TFA )
  • Rebel base & holograms ( TFA )

A movie like this would be more “episodic”, with less exposition due to cut dialog.

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I like a lot of the Endor stuff so the only reason I suggested cutting it and moving the shield generator to the Capital was to reduce the amount of locations in the final act.

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as an aside; It would be fun to see the emperor’s throne room as the spire of the imperial palace (the former jedi temple) and provide a nice mirror to anakin skywalker’s fall in ROTS by setting his redemption in the same place (as well as seeing what’s happened to the jedi temple under 20 years of imperial rule). In such a way you probably wouldn’t have to change much of the throne room scenes (you could just say that the windows are dark because its nighttime, maybe add a few building lights in the background here and there)

This is what I’ve always wanted to do. I could give it a shot in a year or two when I’m done restoring the Tosche Station scene.

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4throck said:

I have no problem with removing the Ewoks since the Endor sequence is the weakest part of the film.
The extended bunker and Jerjerrod scenes would make up for it in depth.

Considering new material that needs to be created, realistically I think we can show:

  • Luke going to Had Abaddon and surrender (Rogue, Ep II)
  • Had Abaddon (Rogue, Ep II, TFA )
  • Rebel base & holograms ( TFA )

A movie like this would be more “episodic”, with less exposition due to cut dialog.

…called the extra special special edition…

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“you could just say that the windows are dark because its nighttime, maybe add a few building lights in the background here and there”

Footage will match better if we add starfields to the night sky on the establishing shots.
We associate those stars with space, so we need to establish that they are visible from the ground.
That’s much less work than adding sky + buildings to every window shot. Only a few will do.

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I’m obsessed with those Coruscant panoramic views

Italian faneditor.

EDITS LIST:
Episode IV - THE HEIR OF SKYWALKER. Episode VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI RENEWED. DYAD IN THE FORCE (3-into-1 sequels).
PM me for links if interested.

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Quick and dirty Jedi temple with a Return of the Jedi star field:
alt text

Unaltered interior view:
alt text

I think it matches very well, would be better with a touch of color correction and if the spire was added to the temple.

Anyway, just a quick test to show that it’s doable 😉

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This has become the turn Death Star 2 into Coruscant thread. Not that I’ve put much thought into it but how would the story change, how would the Space Battle work? Would Endor remain?

After being beaten and battered by prequel hate, I promise not to be that to the next generation.

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I could see it go three ways:

  1. Endor still exists and the space battle happens over it.

  2. Endor still exists but the battle happens over the capital.

  3. Endor doesn’t exist and the battle happens over the capital.

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Previous fanedits have moved the Vader/Luke/Emperor scenes to another ship, off of the Death Star. Doing the same but moving it to Had Abbadon or Coruscant is what I’d go with.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories