princethomas said:
Ok. I've been kicking this idea around for years. I got it by watching a lot of the big famous "epic" movies. Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia etc. People throw that term around a lot, but I was thinking about what it is. Those movies are very long, but more importantly, they take place over a long period of time. The jump forward in time multiple times without much warning or explanation. I started wondering about Star Wars in that way. What it would be like. I settled on 3 hrs and 59 minutes, because at some point its cheating. I mean how long is a "movie" before it becomes something else. There are almost ZERO mainstream movies that ever hit 4 hrs. GWTW, LoArabia, Ben Hur, the Ten Commandments etc. Are all in the 3:30 to 3:50 range. The key for me is this. Im not doing it because I think its better this way. I don't believe that at all. Its just a fun puzzle to try to figure out. For that reason I am not going to go the Godfather II or Once Upon a time in America route. Yes, I think a very good movie could be made with the OT as the main story and 30 to 45 minutes of prequel flashbacks. Im just not trying to do that here. I also am not trying to "correct" anything here. This is an OT board and I get that, but Im a full Saga fan. I do have my issues with the movies but Im not doing that here. I'm keeping Jar Jar Binks, and Im cutting a huge chunk of Return of the Jedi. Its just part of completing the puzzle. Some things I have: Opening shot is now the Federation invasion ships landing. (will explain in the crawl that the Jedi were betrayed and escaped by stowing away) First "person" seen is Jar Jar. Using the shot of him coming up from the lake that takes place later. Then it cuts to him almost getting run over. Its a good intro and it fits with all the lowly creatures vs. sophisticated society stuff that runs through the whole thing. Jar Jar takes them directly to Theed where they escape. Shorten Pod Race to 1 lap. Shorten battle to little more than the lightsaber fight. Clones is tough. There is a ton of stuff that can be cut, but also there is a ton of little expositional things that need to stay. I'll cut or move the fight with Dooku to before the battle. Using the battle as the seque to Sith. Montage of scenes from Geonosis and other battles from Sith playing right into the opening space battle. In the OT, I want to make it so there is just one death star. I plan to have the death star escape be the end of ANH. However, the problem is, I don't want to lose Luke's flying part of it. Also its tricky to do since the appearance of the death stars are so different. In Empire. I did one cool thing little thing. When the Falcon escapes Hoth I cut right to the part where they attack and then hide on the back. Then after they "float away" I cut in the scenes onboard scenes that take place in the cave. The other tricky part is how to either avoid Han being frozen or how to rescue him quicker, I'd really like to lose all of the first part of Return of the Jedi, but Im not sure how to just yet. Its hard and probably not totally doable, but its a fun exercise nonetheless.
I'd be really interested to see how it turns out. Certainly don't be afraid to make hugely radical narative changes, such as ones I'm laying out for my Skywalker duology (trilogy, if possible), which will most likely have each movie 3 hours long.