Fan film(s) to "replace" the prequels?

I am aware that there’s a thread titled “What would have made the prequels better in your opinion?” I am also aware that “remaking the prequels” is an idea that has been floating around the net for a while.

However, when discussing how to remake the prequels, most people still talk about how “Episode I would have been better if Anakin did this” or “Episode II would have been better if Palpatine acted like that”.

I would prefer a different approach. My ideal approach would be to build a time machine and travel back in time to convince George Lucas not to make any prequels at all. I simply don’t see a need for any prequels. Prequels can never have the same emotional impact as the OT, because we know what’s going to happen in the end (Anakin turning into Vader etc.). Also, prequels inevitably take away from the magic of the OT (I like to think of the Clone Wars as a mysterious conflict in a time long past… I don’t need to see them in detail).

Unfortunately, the damage has been done, and there is no time machine to undo it. We have three prequels, and lousy ones at that. So what is the best course of action to erase the prequels from our minds and replace them with something better?

Waiting for a mainstream remake is no use. The retconning done by the prequels has been accepted as canon, even by most fans. More and more kids grow up with more and more Star Wars cartoons/games tainted by the prequels. Face it, the new generation of Star Wars fans consider people like us grumpy old men who aren’t open to anything new.

There is no way a fan edit can turn the prequels into good films, either. There's just too much wrong with their basic premises.

The only solution I can see:

- Make an independent fan film, preferably crowd-funded, that tells an alternative “origin story”. Ignore the prequels completely and make the film based SOLELY on clues given to us by the OT and (maybe?) the official novelizations.

- In my opinion, this alternative story wouldn’t have to consist of 3 episodes. I don’t like this “Episode so and so” stuff, anyway. For me, the OT consists of three films: Star Wars, ESB and ROTJ. A single, well executed 90-minute film or even a short film (depending on the outcome of the crowdfunding campaign) could be enough to set an example and to show that we can have our own visions of what happened before the OT.

I am sure others had this idea before me. But has anyone considered putting it into practice? Would there be any legal hurdles if it was a non-profit project? Would crowdfunding / collecting donations make it look like a commercial project?

I’m really interested in your thoughts.

"So what is the best course of action to erase the prequels from our minds and replace them with something better?"

Simple. Don't bother thinking about them. But it's hard when they keep being brought up in normal conversation.

"Face it, the new generation of Star Wars fans consider people like us grumpy old men who aren’t open to anything new."

Hey, I'm a part of this new generation of Star Wars fans! Sure, I might sometimes be called a grumpy old man, but physically, I'm far from it.

Handman said:

"So what is the best course of action to erase the prequels from our minds and replace them with something better?"

Simple. Don't bother thinking about them. But it's hard when they keep being brought up in normal conversation.

 I don't think you're doing the whole "normal conversation"-thing right...

Darth Id said:

Handman said:

"So what is the best course of action to erase the prequels from our minds and replace them with something better?"

Simple. Don't bother thinking about them. But it's hard when they keep being brought up in normal conversation.

 I don't think you're doing the whole "normal conversation"-thing right...

 Probably true enough.

Handman said:

"So what is the best course of action to erase the prequels from our minds and replace them with something better?"

Simple. Don't bother thinking about them. But it's hard when they keep being brought up in normal conversation.

It's really hard not to get constantly reminded of Episode I-III as a Star Wars fan. And it's not just in conversation with other fans. The problem is that every commercial new Star Wars product, be it a game, book or film, will be based on a canon that includes the prequels and therefore most likely contains "prequelisms", as DuracellEnergizer put it in another thread.

Handman said:

Hey, I'm a part of this new generation of Star Wars fans! Sure, I might sometimes be called a grumpy old man, but physically, I'm far from it.

I was over-generalizing - sorry if I offended you. Judging from my discussions with friends, acquaintances, and the schoolchildren I work with, I think it's safe to say that MOST Star Wars fans in their teens (and possibly even in their early 20s) prefer the prequels. It's always nice to see exceptions to the rule!

What I find really weird are people in their 30s or 40s who claim that they've been long-time fans of the OT, but still love the prequels. I considered signing up on theforce.net until I discovered a whole thread full of these people complaining about "prequel haters".

In general, I feel that OT "purists" are the minority nowadays.

There are a lot of "older" fans who love the PT and more than the OT.  I know a guy who is turning 40 soon and he's obsessed the PT, specifically Darth Maul.  He even has a tattoo of Maul on his shoulder.  He likes Maul simply because he looks cool and has "epic" lightsaber moves.  He doesn't see a thing wrong with either the PT or the OT, but prefers the PT over the OT.  And, yes, he grew up with the OT.

When I first opened this thread, I thought, "Cool."  Then I read the replies and realized I had gone to the Jedi Temple Forums.

unamochilla2 said:

There are a lot of "older" fans who love the PT and more than the OT.  I know a guy who is turning 40 soon and he's obsessed the PT, specifically Darth Maul.  He even has a tattoo of Maul on his shoulder.  He likes Maul simply because he looks cool and has "epic" lightsaber moves.  He doesn't see a thing wrong with either the PT or the OT, but prefers the PT over the OT.  And, yes, he grew up with the OT.

In my opinion, it's fine to love the PT. It boggles my mind, but it doesn't infuriate me. Each to their own, I guess.

What I really hate is when people start bashing "prequel haters", as if there were no objective reasons to consider the PT inferior to the OT.

darth_ender said:

When I first opened this thread, I thought, "Cool."  Then I read the replies and realized I had gone to the Jedi Temple Forums.

I don't know what the Jedi Temple Forums are about.

I probably wrote too much in the original post before I got to my main point - the idea of making a crowd-funded "purist" fan film to show what may have happened before the OT. I would like to keep this thread focused on this idea from now on.

By the way, no one has answered my initial questions yet: Has this idea been considered by anyone who has the time and ressources to put it into practice? Would it be feasible from a legal point of view?

Kabal said:

unamochilla2 said:

There are a lot of "older" fans who love the PT and more than the OT.  I know a guy who is turning 40 soon and he's obsessed the PT, specifically Darth Maul.  He even has a tattoo of Maul on his shoulder.  He likes Maul simply because he looks cool and has "epic" lightsaber moves.  He doesn't see a thing wrong with either the PT or the OT, but prefers the PT over the OT.  And, yes, he grew up with the OT.

In my opinion, it's fine to love the PT. It boggles my mind, but it doesn't infuriate me. Each to their own, I guess.

What I really hate is when people start bashing "prequel haters", as if there were no objective reasons to consider the PT inferior to the OT.

darth_ender said:

When I first opened this thread, I thought, "Cool."  Then I read the replies and realized I had gone to the Jedi Temple Forums.

I don't know what the Jedi Temple Forums are about.

I probably wrote too much in the original post before I got to my main point - the idea of making a crowd-funded "purist" fan film to show what may have happened before the OT. I would like to keep this thread focused on this idea from now on.

By the way, no one has answered my initial questions yet: Has this idea been considered by anyone who has the time and ressources to put it into practice? Would it be feasible from a legal point of view?

From what I've read, Adywan has some interesting plans for the PT including filming some new scenes.  Unfortunately, his PT won't happen for many years, but I'm sure it will be worth the wait.  But I'm assuming his PT will not be intended to replace the actual films, but rather exist as fan edits, much like his Revisited versions. Only Disney and Lucasfilm have the power to replace the PT and it's very unlikely they'll do that.

Writing my own alternate PT has been more than sufficient to erase the "canon" PT from my mind. I don't need or even want an alternate PT in film form made for me.

Remaking the prequels would probably involve a complete reboot of the franchise.

The earlier drafts of Star Wars had it as Episode I, not Episode IV, and I've heard it theorized that TPM might've been the movie George was trying to make all along.

The irony is that the world fell in love with his half-finished film and had, at best, a mixed reaction to his intended vision.

Personally, my biggest problems with the prequels are that GL wrote/directed them and that they are meant to be watched with the SE, not the originals. The actual story of the PT, how Anakin fell to the dark side, the Clone Wars, and the decay of the Old Republic, was always George's to tell. Those are just minor complaints compared to the much bigger problem of George scripting/directing them himself and retroactively re-directing the OT.

In that sense, the PT isn't worth the trouble of remaking/replacing. The ST and spin-offs, which will be from new writers and directors, will probably "ignore" the prequels even if they take place within the same continuity.

I'm perfectly happy with my remakes, and SilverWook paid for most of my extra actors one DVD at a time.

Danfun128 said:

If you mean his fanedits, they have the word "rediculous" in their titles, and should be fairly easy to find in the usual places.

Well, you got most of that right...

Post Praetorian said:

TV's Frink said:

I'm perfectly happy with my remakes, and SilverWook paid for most of my extra actors one DVD at a time.

 Where might one acquire such a thing?

 I doubt your son hasn't mentioned them yet...

In progress.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Episode-III-Revenge-of-the-Ridiculousness/topic/15144/

its clear from reading the forums that just about everybody has their own take on the saga and what was wrong with the prequels, even if George had done a sterling job, they were always going to have a hard time living up to the expectations of what fans had built in their minds since the original trilogy finished.

remakes and reboots are never going to change that story.

its clear from reading the forums that just about everybody has their own take on the saga and what was wrong with the sequels, even if George had done a sterling job, they were always going to have a hard time living up to the expectations of what fans had built in their minds since the original trilogy finished.

remakes and reboots are never going to change that story.

Double posts are the bane of OT.com's existence.

Double posts are the bane of OT.com's existence.