by Hugh Ken Knott B. Seriuz
After years of frustration, George Lucas will finally get the Star Wars prequels exactly the way he wanted them to be. The 62-year-old filmmaker plans to have the Special Editions released in 2009, for the 10th Anniversary of Phantom Menace. This time, Lucas feels he will finally have the films that he first invisioned back in 1975.
"The prequels just didn't turn out the way I originially intended them to be. The voiceover performances in all three prequels was terrible and the acting left too much to be desired. I just didn't have the technology to achieve the quality writing and acting that I needed back in the late 90's and in the first half of the 00's."
According to Lucas, Phantom Menace will no longer feature Jar Jar Binks. Thanks to the magic of cgi, Binks will be deleted and replaced by a new character to be voiced by Chris Tucker. Lucas has also decided to digitally remove Jake Lloyd to replace him with Ryan Gosling. Gosling will then be digitally inserted into the other two prequels.
Among the other changes are the following:
-Several dialogue passages will be removed and be replaced by new dialogue written by Lawrence Kasdan.
-Several scenes with Natalie Portman will be reshot to include Ryan Gosling.
-The character Qui-Gon Jinn will be digitally removed and Obiwan will be the one who discovers Anakin and takes him under his wing. Jinn will also be deleted from the lightsaber duel and Obiwan will just defeat Maul.
-The words "midichlorians" and "padawan" will be deleted.
-Padme will no longer die in childbirth. Instead, she will go into hiding with the Organa's and she would eventually die 6 years later.
-Prequel Yoda would be replaced by ESB Yoda, except for action scenes.
Other changes will be determined.
"Finally, I will get the prequels I originally envisioned back in the 70's."