Re: Bester,
Q: Can you tell us about your approach to bridging the PT with the OT? In particular, do you show the birth of the twins and the death of Padme? Also, how do you retain the surprises of ESB?
A: I thought about this one til my head hurt. I tried to imagine if I had my mind wiped and was handed my version of the PT trilogy and the OT trilogy and told to watch them in chronological order. What would a first time viewer think and believe?
As a general principle I don't mind smart viewers working out a few surprises on their own. It's part of the fun of watching a movie. But you won't be spoonfed the answers...
In ROTS:Reborn Vader is never mentioned. I've recut the final moments of Anakin v Obi so it looks like he has died from being burned. Then later we see Palpatine arriving. Palpatine no longer says "He's still alive", he only calls for a medicalcapsule and then sits mournfully by Anakin's body. Then the last we see of them is Anakin on the floating stretcher/coffin unit thing. It's a mystery.
Padme no longer really recovers from Anakin crushing her spine, only mumbling an incoherent "I know there's still..." as she dies. The twins are shown as boy and girl (But not named) and are shown to be sent to live on tatooine and with senator Organa.
Now the new viewer sits down to watch the OT. It opens with a character called Princess Leia fleeing aboard the TantiveIV. At this point a really smart viewer might connect the set of the ship with the baby but possibly not.
Then this evil dude called Vader storms the ship, we think he's just another evil minion like Maul/Dooku/Grievous. Infact we don't even discover that he is even on familiar speaking terms with the emperor until half way through ESB.
Then we meet Luke who we instantly realise is the kid from ROTS. He then meets Obi-Wan who tells him a bogus story about his father being killed by this Vader guy. We know he's lying to Luke to spare his feelings about the betrayal of his father, but we don't know how big the lie actually is. We'll find that out at the end of ESB at the same time Luke does.
Now on the Leia question. In ESB Yoda says there is another hope so the slow/normal viewers think ahh that other baby must be the new hope. The smart viewers have already worked it out. Keep in mind that Senator Organa is only fleetingly mentioned as being from Alderaan in TPM by CPT Panaka is a seemingly irrelivant piece of info.
When we see Organa in AOTC/ROTS his Alderaan origins are never mentioned. Plus Princess Leia is never named as being Leia 'Organa' anywhere in the OT (That's just extra backstory that has grown up round the saga). So as I said smart viewers will put the ship and Leia together but I bet most won't and there aren't alot of other clues.
The Leia reveal in ROTJ will be a surprise to about 90% of viewers and the 10% that got it, can pat themselves on the back. The Vader reveal will be a mystery to 99% of viewers and the the 1% who worked that one out in ANH will have a smug sense of superiority to compensate for having been proved right. And they will have to wait to the end of ESB to be PROVED right about there theory. So even they have a bit of suspence.
Hope that all makes sense. Now if I can just find the Fresh Prince to give me a mind wipe and put my theory into practice.
Ryan