It's Not a Trap! - Calling all Admiral Ackbars!

Some of y’all are probably aware that footage was shot of Alien Pilots for RotJ during production. I was bored the other day, and decided to see if I could cut some of those pilots into the space battle as a joke. . . It worked far better than I expected. . . I ended up using the Sullustan Pilot as Blade Leader and was able to turn “Red 2” into a Mon Calamari Pilot with an absurd kill count.

Here’s a WIP of the Alien Pilots in context with the beginnings of Phase3’s restoration of the unused footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNbINBT88XY

I was able to create some good dialogue for the Sullustan Pilot from scraps of Nien Nunb’s VO from Battlefront 1, but I need to redub the Mon Calamari Pilot with VO that sounds well. . . a little more Mon-Cal than Simon Williamson.

If anyone does an Adimral Ackbar impression (It doesn’t need to be dead on, because the Pilot is a different character), and wants to redub Simon’s lines for fun, shot me a PM. I find real VO is always much more fun than AI.

G&G-Fan said:

Honestly I unironically support edits that add even more alien presence to Star Wars. I think it’s cool. This is a galaxy full of different sentient alien species, they shouldn’t be regarded as looney tunes characters.

Bro, no joke when I posted this last night, I was thinking to myself this might be something G&G will unironically enjoy!

.Mac. said:

Absolutely loved this, Joy! Very interested in seeing how this goes.

Also, couldn’t help but wonder what the Mon Calamari would possibly be saying to himself right after each kill.
…
“That was a trap.”
…
“That was a trap.”
…
“Heh, he fell for that trap!”
😄

Imperial Fleet moves in to attack

Capt. Fadlan: “Got 'em right where I want 'em!”

.Mac. said:

Absolutely loved this, Joy! Very interested in seeing how this goes.

Also, couldn’t help but wonder what the Mon Calamari would possibly be saying to himself right after each kill.
…
“That was a trap.”
…
“That was a trap.”
…
“Heh, he fell for that trap!”
😄

“Wedge, why is Red 2 flying a Y-Wing?”

Wedge: “If I let Fadlan fly an X-Wing, there’d be War Crimes.”

For fun, here’s my full Recut of the first part of the Battle of Endor with the new pilots (Color is still WIP): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZShuQmTrG-6KyHqjE_GJWj2igWrLko9K/view?usp=drive_link

It’s crazy how natural they feel in context. . .

Excellent work adding that footage in. I love the idea of having more alien characters in the fighters. Unfortunately it makes the Mon Calamari on the freighter seem less special. Same thing with Niem Numb on the falcon. Too bad they didn’t dust off a Greedo or Ree-yees mask when filming those. I’m curious to see how this progresses

I remember reading that there was a female pilot as well in that battle, but they were edited out because Lucas didn’t think America was ready to see women die in battle. Is there any footage of that available?

Bored at 3AM said:

I remember reading that there was a female pilot as well in that battle, but they were edited out because Lucas didn’t think America was ready to see women die in battle. Is there any footage of that available?

They shot quite a few female pilots, and one is actually in the film redubbed as a man: “Red 3” who gets blown up by two interceptors. I frankly don’t think the redub had anything to do with “watching a woman die in battle”, but rather the rushed state of Jedi’s production. (If you see the original footage it’s obvious that all of it was going to be redubbed.)

Here’s some of the female pilots footage: https://youtu.be/806P_lVgPM8?si=GmzCwY5wYZ0bq34t

I haven’t seen any color prints of the female pilots, because if I had, I would have found a way to cut “grandma” in, lol!

jkimm said:

Excellent work adding that footage in. I love the idea of having more alien characters in the fighters. Unfortunately it makes the Mon Calamari on the freighter seem less special. Same thing with Niem Numb on the falcon. Too bad they didn’t dust off a Greedo or Ree-yees mask when filming those. I’m curious to see how this progresses

Yeah, it would have been awesome if there were even more aliens!

I actually don’t think the Sullustan and the Calamari pilots take away from Ackbar and Nien in the scope of the whole film, because we’ve already had several scenes featuring the hero characters in the build up to the battle. The other benefit of adding in the Calamari pilot as “Red 2” - is that you get a hotshot confident Mon Cal to cut against Ackbar’s fretting. (I’ve got “Red 2” kinda filling in the role Wedge played in the other OT films as the most featured secondary pilot.)

Yeah, still a good bit of work to do on the sequence. I need to fine tune the color grade, and Phase3 is working on a cleaning pass of the Alien shots to bring them in line with the rest of the footage. Now if I can just find someone to redub “Red 2”. . .

Those are really good points.

Although I haven’t used them, there are several AI apps that will colorize black and white footage. Would be cool to add some of those female pilots.

I’d love to see the female pilots reinserted or, at the very least, a woman’s voice used to redub Red 3

UPDATE: Here’s the footage in context with the first pass of Phase3’s restoration: https://youtu.be/rNbINBT88XY

Oh yeah that’s really good