Mac's Wishlist Of Ideas/Suggestions For Improving RETURN OF THE JEDI — Page 2

doubleofive said:

My concern is why does it have to be Adywan-specific, and not just go in the Wishlist Thread you already referenced?

Who else right now can or is willing to attempt any of this? If there was one guy and his team who I believe can pull these kinds of ideas off, it would be Ady’s - that’s why it is Adywan-specific, otherwise I don’t follow what the concern is. If anyone else wants these ideas, they’re certainly up for taking of course.

Do you think you might make a cameo as a soldier or pilot or something 005? That’d be really cool 😃

Bingowings said:

Did you manage to archive any of the ideas and mockups from your wordpress collection of wishlist ideas 005?

Once a certain former member threatened to sue or something if I didn’t take down their mockups, I’m pretty sure I just wiped it out.

doubleofive said:

My concern is why does it have to be Adywan-specific, and not just go in the Wishlist Thread you already referenced?

This.

Thank you so much for your kind and supportive words, nhoj3 😄 I’m happy you managed to find time to read it! Right away I could tell you were another person here whose ideas and thought process I’d greatly value, and that’s why I was hopeful you might see what you thought about this 😃

You and others are right, there are ideas in there I admit would be over-reaching and very, very difficult to accomplish (borderline impossible), on top of being controversial too, such as inserting a brand new actor as Madine and shooting whole new shots with him at the helm of his own cruiser, etc… but then there’s always smarter people than I who come along and say, “Well, there is no way that can work exactly in that way, but how about this alternative?” 😃 That’s what I’m hoping for, for this to be helpful and inspirational to Ady or anyone who reads it, and my mind would be blown by the sheer genius if they manage to pull much of these off. Like you said, I didn’t want to hold back with ideas, because no matter how difficult or controversial they may be, there’s no way of knowing for sure what can or cannot be done or what other ideas it might influence 😉

Regarding the lookalikes and voice impersonators, if the interest was there, that actually might not be so difficult. I think that’s how Ady initially found a Darth Vader for ESB:R, was through Facebook? I’m pretty sure he still has a fellow with an authentic 3PO costume too (and a great voice). Putting out a call for certain parts on social media could always be a good idea 😃

I basically sacrificed most of my bedtime where I funnily enough, accidentally stumbled upon this thread where I must have clicked it while falling asleep during Ady’s ANH:R HD thread - and then I saw this upon waking. So I kept reading and decided to continue after I woke up later.

.Mac. - I loved how you structured the story and it would be amazing if Ady even adopted some of your ideas into ROTJ:R. With the way technology is scarily progressing lately especially in the advent of AI, maybe some of your ideas can be achieved?! And as for Crix Madine - not a bad idea to recast I suppose. Upon reading, I was automatically kinda wondering what if YouTuber Dave Cullen could be considered or interested in such an endeavour? I know he’s a Lore nerd and everything, but I’m sure we can find other actors out there. 😃

Once again, nice work!

Hey thanks so much, FVDnz, I truly appreciate it and glad you liked it! And I haven’t heard of the fellow-nerd Dave Cullen before so I’ll be sure to check him out after this. Hope you’re all caught up with your sleep again! 😄

Jedit: Oh yeah I’ve seen some of Dave Cullen and his vids before! I just didn’t remember his name.

Hard to believe how much time has already flown by… So much has happened since originally posting this list (keep in mind this was posted after Rogue One but before TLJ) and so we have the completed sequel trilogy, a Solo film, various TV shows, multiple games and books.

We also have a handful of useful tools at our disposal now, such as deepfake (I remember someone by the name of Shamook who did spectacular work at improving (or even perfecting?) the CGI faces of Luke from Mando and Tarkin/Leia from RO, all from the comfort of his own home [I was happy to hear he was hired by Lucasfilm later]) and, yes, even with the rising popularity of AI. So either individually or together, these can absolutely be used to aid with recreating people/faces and voices where necessary (which is only getting better), something someone with enough time and talent from home can certainly accomplish if they wanted. And then I’ve heard of tools for significantly helping clean up most old and grainy footage, so possibly certain deleted scenes could be recovered and somehow implemented, such as the gunners aboard the MF? Drones are certainly the norm nowadays, so pretty much anyone can go filming in, say, a large forest for some scenic and professional-quality shots, too!

So, with all that in mind, I actually gave this wishlist a reread and see how it holds up for even me and, overall, yeah I still stand by the ideas I’ve outlined (maybe 95% of it). I realize it’s not in everyone’s taste to change too much about a classic (even if flawed), but, at least the way I humbly see it, since we already do have projects like ‘4K77’ (which aim at preserving the original film as best as possible), I’m completely fine with anyone willing to attempt a slightly more radical approach for improving this film (while still respecting and maintaining the original story, of course)… So that may include cutting away unnecessary fat from the meat and then sprinkling on extra good flavors, if that’s what it takes 😄

So about the ~5% of ideas I have listed which I’m no longer in favor of, the main ones are:

• I would no longer want to have a new actor portray General Crix Madine - Even if the intent was to film new shots/scenes with him and thus give more weight to the epic battle, I always felt that swapping out an original actor would hit too close to home for many (including myself, but was willing to suggest it anyway), but now with both AI and the ability to clean up old footage, I’d much rather keep the original actor, if at all possible.

• I was also in favor of removing the Ewok celebration at the end for a more bittersweet and somewhat poignant ending, but, having a change of heart over the years, now I do prefer to keep most of it, especially for seeing our main heroes all together again and happy. Still, would absolutely love to see Adywan or someone try to attempt some kind of a new ‘liberation of Coruscant’ sequence, as to further raise the stakes of this climatic battle and to give more of a closure to the Empire and this trilogy as a whole (a potential idea already outlined in OP)!

• Still wish we can see a stronger portrayal of Vader in ROTJ, including minor edits throughout the final duel, that way (over all) his character is slightly less pitiful (imho) and slightly more of the badass like we witnessed before. I still stand by that. So, I have this idea listed where we could see him once again doing what he does best, Force choking (the idea is/was he must Force choke the Emperor’s Royal Guards, who are preventing him from passing, so he can get past and speak with the Emperor), but it was never as well-thought-out as I would’ve liked and so, as it is, it feels shoe-horned in, so either the idea must be improved or the idea must be axed. Perhaps someone has an idea for how to improve that idea or a better idea altogether! 😃

Btw, to make it easier on people, I wish there was a way to somehow denote which bullet points are for continuity errors and which are for other ideas/suggestions. Would even be nice to have the ability to change the color of texts (eg: red text for glaring continuity issues, black for all else).

For anyone else who wishes to take on the challenge of reading the massive OP, discuss as much of it as you like - what ideas you like and don’t like - I love talking Star Wars! But I only ask that we keep it nice and civil please 😉

I love the idea of two SD’s escorting the Executor coming into view at the beginning of the film. If something like this can be done, that would be amazing! Just doesn’t make sense using a normal SD really. Would look cool seeing them come out of lightspeed and Endor Prime actually appearing in view.

And it would be cool to see how expansive Home One could be too…

FVDnz said:

I love the idea of two SD’s escorting the Executor coming into view at the beginning of the film. If something like this can be done, that would be amazing! Just doesn’t make sense using a normal SD really. Would look cool seeing them come out of lightspeed and Endor Prime actually appearing in view.

And it would be cool to see how expansive Home One could be too…

Thank you again, FVDnz! To tell a little story, I was actually inspired by Adywan who stated a long time ago how he didn’t like the original reveal of the DSII and also that Vader should arrive from the Executor. So when I read that I was most definitely on board with the idea, but since we still don’t know his specific plans for that yet, I got to thinking it over and imagining how the new intro might go… Finally I thought of how I do love the sounds of ships exiting light speed and it was like, Voilà, that can be it! And it progressed from there to as you read it. I just hope it’s good enough that many others including Ady himself will actually like this too as a possibility 😃

As for expanding Home One, I’m all for making a massive cruiser appear large as it should be - which can also potentially be world-building and, imo, that’s always a good thing for Star Wars 😉

It would also be awesome to see the DSII in full circumference during the space battle too, over seeing the same position throughout the film. Plenty of opportunities there, not to mention the Executor’s destruction.