So I’m trying to come up with ideas for a possible edit to combine the entire trilogy into one film that might resemble the complete film that Lucas claims to have had in mind all along. True or not, I think it might be cool. The problem I’m having is trying to find a way to piece it all together into a coherent story. He’s some ideas I have so far and if anybody has any ideas for how to tie it together or opinions on the idea in general, I’d love to hear them. My main reason for wanting to do this is to try to remove as much of the crap in Return of the Jedi from the film as possible except for the key stuff and reorganize the rest of the films accordingly to accommodate this.
-Only one Death Star which would appear at the very end of the joined movie. Luke would still be the one to blow up the death star but at the same time, the much more elaborate battle from Jedi will be intact. Possibly replace Wedge with Luke and actually have him fly into the core with the Falcon.
-Have the Falcon during the Endor battle be flown by Han instead of Lando. Cut in unused clips from other parts of the movie and perhaps other clips from Mr. Ford and Mr. Hamill’s body of work to create additional tactical conversation between the two during the battle.
-No Jabba subplot at all. Han never gets frozen which allows for the complete removal of the opening of Jedi. Perhaps even no Cloud City, no Lando, and even no Boba Fett.
-Somehow make the Empire duel between Vader and Luke occur on the Death Star at some point instead of cloud city. Luke doesn’t let himself fall and is instead taken to the Emperor right then and there.
-After escaping from the Death Star with Leia in A New Hope, they go straight to the Rebel base on HOTH. This would require new effects shots of the Falcon arriving and landing on Hoth. They have the plans but they are still ill equipped to take it on. Then the homing beacon aboard the Falcon leads the Empire to Hoth (not the probe droid).
-Luke’s Jedi training with Yoda occurs all at once and Yoda dies before he ever leaves…or, Luke still leaves but returns to see Yoda only at the very end of the film to discover he is now a Jedi.
-No brother and sister, no Yoda saying “there is another.”
-No Ewok battle at all. Han and Chewie are in the Falcon and Leia is in the tactical room from A New Hope. In other words, Jedi is basically gone except for the fight with Vader and the Death Star battle.
A major problem I have is how can I have the movie end with Luke confronting Vader and the Emperor and still have Luke blow up the Death Star. Basically I want something that plays out like A New Hope but with the Jedi training, the confrontation with Vader and the Hoth Stuff still intact. Might be impossible I know, but still, it’s worth thinking about.