Right, got through the initial planning for the Order 66 arc, and everything’s ready for work on the workprint to begin.
It’s a good arc, this, but it loses momentum in a few places: The capture and return of Tup’s body, Fives spending an episode going into and out of Tup’s room, the Jedi and Kaminoans arguing over which medical centre Tup’s body should go to, and Fives leaving Kamino city and returning to it. So I can smooth a lot of that out.
The main question is what exposition and subplots to cut. I think I want to focus this on the mystery and investigation, and in particular Fives’ point of view. I don’t think we need to see Dooku and Sidious worrying about the plot, other than the last scene where they confirm it’s all sorted. I might cut out enough content that it’s only in that final moment that it’s explicit that Sidious is behind the whole thing. I’ll naturally minimise the Sidious-Palpatine connection, as I have done throughout.
I’m not sure yet on how many of the red herrings to follow, nor when to reveal that the Kaminoans are in on it. I might minimise the amount of confusion Tup shows too, which I think would enhance the mystery. I quite like the early suspicion about the Jedi, since they did ostensibly request the clone army at this point in time. I’ll tease all this out through trial and error.
I can cut a lot of the less useful content if Fives keeps hold of Tup’s damaged chip, but that might mean trimming Fives’ reaction to Tup’s death, since Fives gets captured in that scene (to escape again later). I’ll try that edit early to see how feasible it is with trims and zoomed shots.
I won’t trim much of the initial action scene though, as it’s important at this part in the story that we see just how competent and inter-reliant the Jedi-clone combo has become at this stage in the war. I might cut a lot of the establishing shots and context for Ringo Vinda though, since it’s odd that such a protracted battle can be carried out on a ring station that could feasibly be attacked by orbit far more easily, especially since the Jedi retreat but then appear to have ovwerhelming force there, despite Trench later being seen with a huge force. I know it could technically work, but I don’t want the audience to have to jump through those hoops when there’s more important stuff to focus on.
Either way, it’s going to be a fun one to edit because I always like playing with these narrative challenges. Should come out around 50 minutes long, I reckon.