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.
"George, we hate you for making more Star Wars movies. Please make more Star Wars movies."
-The Internet
I've been thinking about an edit very similar to ^ that, where basically a new hope is told but incorporating many key scenes from the other two films. Weird we both had such similar ideas.
OT-DAWT-COM nieghbour and sometime poster (Remember, Tuesday is Soylent Green day!)
Hmm...well this is just a suggestion, but after the Luke and Vader duel from Jedi, Vader could go with Luke to help him destroy the Death Star in an effort to undo what he helped the emperor to create. And since you're pretty much making this fan edit with little use of ROTJ, then maybe you could have Vader live at the end and join the Rebels.
Hmm sounds like a interesting take on the whole OT we know and love. In fact, I myself was thinking about how radically different a Star Wars sequel could be. In any case, I'll be interested to see this when it comes out. Anyways, are you using the Original Unaltered Trilogy as basis or the Special Edition? I mean I guess I could appreciate either way as this is somewhat like Lucas's original vision, and he claims that the SE is his vision. However, the Unaltered is obviously better... :)
This thread might make for useful reading.
G E Predator said:
Hmm...well this is just a suggestion, but after the Luke and Vader duel from Jedi, Vader could go with Luke to help him destroy the Death Star in an effort to undo what he helped the emperor to create. And since you're pretty much making this fan edit with little use of ROTJ, then maybe you could have Vader live at the end and join the Rebels.
Hmm, I like that. However, there wouldn't really be any aftermath shots so I think I'd rather have Vader die in the battle, but go out saving Luke perhaps. Heck, Vader coming in to help could even be a surprise to replace Han's surprise assistance since Han will be in the battle to start with.
It isn't really a matter of special edition or not since a lot of stuff would be cut out anyway. No Jabba subplot would equal no Jabba scenes, no dance number, no sarlacc pit, and no Greedo. The celebration around the galaxy ending would be rendered unnessisary as well since I would probably end it with the medal cerimony from A New Hope (probably Adywan's version so Chewie can get his medal). The only special edition elements I may use are the more dynamic ship shots from A New Hope.
I haven't started doing anything yet and if I did I think I might wait until the blu rays are released just so I'll have a more complete set of materials to work with. I would also probably need some assistance to create some of the new shots like the Falcon approaching Hoth since I don't really have any experience with After Effects.
"George, we hate you for making more Star Wars movies. Please make more Star Wars movies."
-The Internet
Hey) I was also thinking of doing something like this - but more like Rogue-theX said keeping most of the original star wars and inserting scenes from Empire and Jedi - but would love to see other people try this!
one scene i had in mind: When the falcon emerges from hyperspace to find alderaan has been destroyed, the asteroid field is practically none-existant - so i was going to use the exterior shots of the asteroid field in empire to replace the exterior shots of the ships.
although theres only the lone tie-fighter in the original star wars, id try and work out a way to involve all the ships from Empire of that scene cos its just so great to watch.
I wasn't so worried about keeping the Skywalker story intact - it would have been just like an expanded version of the original star wars film.
When our heroes resue leia from the death star - its Hoth they go to, then you get to keep that stuff and then when they leave hoth they meet up in space for the briefing from Mon Mothma et al and then go to attack the death star. There would be some tinkering to do to get it flow smoothly.
The main problem i can't resolve tho is with the 2 death stars, especially the part where Leia is rescued from the first death star - but i guess for the final battle as most of the action would be of the rebel assault from return of the jedi - you could add close up footage from of the x-wings and Y-wings from the original movie...
hmm... a lot of tinkering tho and maybe some rotoscoping would be needed to make it convincing.
Feel free to use any of those ideas if you want, id love to see someone tackle this :)
You can never go home again, but i guess you can shop there.
cutnshut said:
Hey) I was also thinking of doing something like this - but more like Rogue-theX said keeping most of the original star wars and inserting scenes from Empire and Jedi - but would love to see other people try this!
one scene i had in mind: When the falcon emerges from hyperspace to find alderaan has been destroyed, the asteroid field is practically none-existant - so i was going to use the exterior shots of the asteroid field in empire to replace the exterior shots of the ships.
although theres only the lone tie-fighter in the original star wars, id try and work out a way to involve all the ships from Empire of that scene cos its just so great to watch.
I wasn't so worried about keeping the Skywalker story intact - it would have been just like an expanded version of the original star wars film.
When our heroes resue leia from the death star - its Hoth they go to, then you get to keep that stuff and then when they leave hoth they meet up in space for the briefing from Mon Mothma et al and then go to attack the death star. There would be some tinkering to do to get it flow smoothly.
The main problem i can't resolve tho is with the 2 death stars, especially the part where Leia is rescued from the first death star - but i guess for the final battle as most of the action would be of the rebel assault from return of the jedi - you could add close up footage from of the x-wings and Y-wings from the original movie...
hmm... a lot of tinkering tho and maybe some rotoscoping would be needed to make it convincing.
Feel free to use any of those ideas if you want, id love to see someone tackle this :)
I really like the asteroid idea. I'll keep that in mind.
Your idea actually sounds a lot like mine except I did want to include the Luke's training story and Vader duel. Although, I could perhaps completely cut out Vader being Luke's father and just have Ben's story about Vader killing his father be true. I don't know, I'm still a long way off from starting this.
For the Death Star, I thought I might blend the Yavin Battle with the Endor Battle to make it more epic. That way we'll have the larger scale battle from Endor but still have the emotional impact of having Luke involved. This would require some use of After Effects to alter the Death Star so that it will be the same in both the New Hope and Jedi footage and the planet will either need to be corrected so that it won't be red in one shot and green in another. I'll more than likely need outside help for that part though as well as for changing the Falcons Yavin approach to Hoth.
"George, we hate you for making more Star Wars movies. Please make more Star Wars movies."
-The Internet
Darth Bizarro said:
This would require some use of After Effects to alter the Death Star so that it will be the same in both the New Hope and Jedi footage and the planet will either need to be corrected so that it won't be red in one shot and green in another.
Yavin's moon is green/blue. the difficult part is to add the red yavin giant to all ROTJ shots.
Im very interested with this project. I hope it will be executed well :)
-Angel
So based on some of the comments and my ideas here is a basic outline that could work. There are other thinks I would like to work in but this would be the most plausible. Some of the transitions might be a little jarring so some work on this will still need to be done.
1. A New Hope begins as normal and plays out as normal until...
2. Falcon comes out of hyperspace and cut with more elaborate astoroid field from Empire Strikes Back. After being chased by some fighters, they start heading towards that small moon that is clearly a small moon and nothing else.
3. A New Hope continues until after the Tie Fighter chase, no homing becon secure aboard their ship. The Falcon arrives on Hoth using shots from the Yavin 4 arrival digitally replaced with the snow world.
4. Probe Droid is launched and lands on Hoth. No Wampa scenes since this would indicate a greater passage of time than has actually occurred within the edit. Han can't leave yet because his ship has been damaged from the prior battle.
5. Empire continues with Han running away with Leia and Luke going to Dagobah, although how Luke knows to go there I haven't worked out yet. I may have to find a way to work in the Wampa scenes somehow just so Luke can have his vision or maybe it can just be a dream. Falcon is on the run minus the asteroids and no going to cloud city. They eventually rendezvous with the fleet while Luke still trains. No relationship develops between Han and Leia. Since Luke and Leia won't be brother and sister in my edit, I'd rather keep leave who she ends up with up to audience interpretation.
6. Luke finishes his training with Yoda caped off with the scene from Return of the Jedi where Yoda dies. Certain bits will be removed for continuity purposes.
7. Breefing room but can't decide which one to use since both have their advantages.
8. Luke flies his X-Wing to the Death Star knowing he must confront Vader. The scenes with the Emperor will be cut in at various points earlier to show that Luke is expected and why he is able to get past secruety so easily. "Skywalker has just landed Lord" and "Good, see to it he finds his way here" could be dubbed in over the intercom in Vaders meditation chamber perhaps.
9. Luke fights Vader on the Death Star using the fight from Cloud City. This plays out all the way except Luke doesn't allow himself to fall and he doesn't loose his hand or his lightsaber. Luke is captured and taken to the Emperor. Luke's lightsaber will need to be rotoscoped blue since he never built a new one. Vader and Luke fight and the Emperor is killed. Vader is critally injured and Luke tries to save him but Vader tells him to leave him.
10. Luke leaves on the X-Wing and joins the Death Star battle. This battle with consist of a combination of the Endor battle and the Yavin battle. Han will be flying the Falcon and Luke will fly into the core with Han instead of Wedge. At some point Vader will suprise show up to help but be destoried (or he could just fly off at the end on his own). Leia will be in the War room from a New Hope and Tarkin will still be around at this point as well.
11. Death Star destroyed, A New Hope medal ceremony finale from Star Wars revisited so Chewie can get his medal.
Final note: This may seem wack but I almost want to try to set the final Death Star battle over Coruscant and use some prequel footage to have some of the Emperor scenes take place on the planet. Then I'll keep the Coruscant victory celebration from Jedi. Heck, the Cloud city fight could take place on Coruscant as well which might be easier to cut as I could use Cloud City as the Emperors palace or something.
I'm also thinking of using some Cloud City shots for the surface of Alderaan before it is destroyed since the cloud city designs were originally created for Alderaan but never used.
Bear in mind, still all just ideas at this point.
"George, we hate you for making more Star Wars movies. Please make more Star Wars movies."
-The Internet
how are you going to cover the change in wardrobe?
Bingowings said: Do you want to see the project finished as a playable film or a flick book?
just pretend they dont change clothes :)
You can never go home again, but i guess you can shop there.
You could set it over a longish time period but in still in one film which would allow for a bit of mixing up of sequences (like the fore-mentioned joining of the Asteroid sequence from ESB with the emergence from hyperspace in ANH).
Without having to explain why the characters change clothes and visibly age.
BarBar Jinkx said:
how are you going to cover the change in wardrobe?
I was just going to take a page from Lucas's book and have them do like Padme and change cloths every 5 minutes.
Actually:
For Han I was going to try to stretched his A New Hope shots as much as I can for the battle (might not work) so he'd be in his vest the whole movie.
Leia would only switch to her Hoth gear after they land and would continue to where it while they're are running away. When she gets the the end and helps corrodinate the battle, back to the white dress and donuts in her hair.
Luke would be wearing his white tunic until Hoth, then his wardrobe change would follow with the rest of Empire until he goes to Coruscant/Emperor's Palace/Cloud City. Then sometime after getting taken by Vader but before arriving at the Emperors throne room, he'd switch to his black outfit. I thought it might be fitting that Vader might have given him a Sith wardrobe seeing as how he is taking him to the Emperor to be turned.
"George, we hate you for making more Star Wars movies. Please make more Star Wars movies."
-The Internet
How are you gonna deal with vader's voice and the green/blue button?
Im not gonna niptick about the shining of his helmet ofc :)
-Angel
How bout this - one transition would be to have Vader chop off Lukes hand & have vader stood over Luke as he gets his robotic hand and then the 2 of them stand at a window on the Executor as they approach the deathstar/ curuscant
You could even have some of the landing platform dialog used there & have vader give luke his new (red blade) lightsaber
Bingowings said: Do you want to see the project finished as a playable film or a flick book?
This sounds like a lot of work, with some stress added to it. But, hey, if u can do it, by all means go ahead. I would look forward to seeing something like this.
Hay I'm just an Idea man - it takes people with talent to pull that kind of sith off!
Bingowings said: Do you want to see the project finished as a playable film or a flick book?
How does Obi-Wan die? Or did I miss that?
I've thought of something like this, though my version is a little more conservative, preserving Empire as much as possible. Some ideas to mull over, if you're interested.
If you're trying to keep it shorter than three hours, the final version would have to be mercilessly cut back.
- Open with A New Hope and continue as normal until Death Star sequences
- Use establishing shots and footage from Return of the Jedi to make it appear that the Death Star is still under construction (backed up by Imperial conversations about the station "not yet being operational", also makes the Rebels seem very speedy in their resistance)
- After the escape from the Death Star, remove TIE Fighter sequence, have the Falcon blast into hyperspace immediately after escape (mostly for time constraints, if all footage was included, the film would be over five hours). Leia reveals that the ship is being tracked.
- Shots of the Falcon flying toward Hoth.
- Cut to establishing sequence of Vader's fleet from Empire Strikes Back. Cut to inside Vader's chamber. Edit the screen so that Tarkin appears to Vader on it and asks him "if the homing beacon is secure", have Vader respond that he is "sure the rebels are in the Hoth system".
- Cut to an establishing shot of the Rebel base. Show R2 being hooked up to a computer console and having the DS plans appear on a small screen. After this, cut to Han entering Rebel command room and informing the general that he cannot stay and must pay Jabba the Hutt. Edit conversation so that Han retains some of his irreverent tone and so that the general shows less respect for him.
- Cut to Star Destroyer releasing probe droid (not so much searching for the Rebels as scouting out the base, so the Empire can launch an effective attack). After droid emerges from the snow, cut back to Rebel command as they track it. After Han volunteers to investigate, cut to Luke on Tauntaun traveling toward impact site - suggesting that Luke also volunteered, though of course there's not enough footage to make this transition completely smooth.
- After Wampa attack, cut to Han destroying the probe droid and the Rebels concluding that the Empire knows where they are.
- Cut to Wampa cave. As Luke hears the beast approaching he fumbles at his ice encased feet before hearing Obi-Wan's voice telling him to "use the Force, Luke" as in A New Hope. Luke eventually "lets go" and summons the lightsaber to him, escaping into the snowy wastes.
- Cut back to Rebel base. Han returns and begins working on the Falcon before 3PO approaches to reveal that Luke is missing. Han gets on Tauntaun and returns to the snow.
- Continue as normal - Yoda, Falcon escape, Cloud city etc. If any footage is to be removed for time reasons, it should be from Jedi. Remove mention of "another".
- After Luke discovers that Vader is his father, Han is encased in carbonite and Luke is given his new arm, cut to Vader arriving on the now complete DS to inform them that the Emperor will be arriving soon.
- Cut to Luke returning to Dagobah ("I have a promise to keep", etc.) to speak with Yoda. Remove mention of Leia as Luke's sister. After Yoda's death, cut to Chewbacca being delivered to Jabba. Edit footage so that this scene, not 3PO and R2's arrival, includes the dramatic musical sting as Han in carbonite is revealed. Maintain the overly suggestive reveal of Lando in disguise, as these are, after all, the two characters we saw head off to free Han only minutes before.
- The restructuring of the next few sequences will be difficult, but remove as much excess as possible (possibly Rancor sequence, dance sequences in general). Get to Sarlaac as quickly as possible.
- After escape form Tatooine, cut to Emperor's arrival on DS. Cut from Emperor's arrival to Rebel fleet establishing. Rebels discuss their plan, in an abbreviated fashion (possibly with less grinning from all involved, so that the mood matches that of Empire and ANH a little more closely) and then head off to Endor. DS hologram would have to be altered to depict a complete DS.
- Remove all superfluous conversations between Vader and the Emperor. Maintain mystery around Emperor by not showing his face until Luke's arrival.
- Cut down Endor considerably. Speederbike sequence either removed or cut down as much as possible. Cut excessive Ewok cuteness, speed through all Ewok sequences as quickly as possible by removing all but the most pertinent details.
- Luke gives himself up to Vader. Cut to Han and Leia at bunker. Rotoscope all but one Stormtrooper out. Edit Han's dialogue, "Not bad, there's only one of 'em", "It only takes one to sound the alarm", "Then we'll do it real quietly". Cut to Han and Rebels capturing lone trooper. Ewok theft of speederbike removed by these means.
- Cut to Luke's meeting with Emperor. Ground battle on Endor cut back to near non-existence. As the Emperor tells the commander to fire when ready, cut to Tarkin giving the DS operatives the nod. In the midst of battle, feature the brief scene of Tarkin being offered and refusing an escape ship. After DS is destroyed, cut to Han and Leia sharing an edited version of their kiss. Then cut to Luke burning Vader's body. Pan up from body. As we pan up into the starfield, credits begin to role over a more gentle, less triumphant Star Wars theme such as the Force or a selected piece from the PT.
Again, this version would have to be put together first and then subjected to a merciless editing operation to make it work, though I truly would like to preserve Empire as the beating heart of the edit.
I tired to do something very similar a loooong time ago with the Super 8 mm digests that were released in the 1970's and early 1980's. I only had eps IV and V to work with and when all three movies came out on VHS I thought, well, I can now chuck these or.....
There are a lot of little things that may be moved around and some things work better than others. The source material is what it is and imho I think that the audience has to suspend a lot of what they already know to try to enjoy a project like this.
The scenes on Hoth could be used to represent the northernmost/southernmost latitudes of the fourth moon of Yavin (i.e. there could be a walker assault on the rebel base concurrent to the battle with the Death Star....or is that something you're trying to get away from?).
I started tinkering around with a 6 in one edit way back when. Actually before Sith had even come out. Hoping to do it in 3hrs 59 minutes.
The OT is definitely easier to scale down, because there simply isn't enough stuff. But I have been hung up on the two death star things.
How to have one death star, still have Luke as a pilot. (not completely necessary that he be the one to blow it up) and still have Luke/Vader/Palps sequence work.
Its tricky. And moreso, I really would want to do it without actually changing too much plot. I agree that they could go straight to Hoth after the DS escape with the princess. I actually think they could not even go to the death star. They could get tractor beamed into the Star Destroyer that Vader is still on and is holding Leia Prisoner. Which frankly makes sense. I never liked that Vader is so hard up to get those plans but just takes off back to the DS and trusts loser troops to find them. Maybe he is still nearby on his SD.
One thing I have already done:
Falcon takes off from Hoth into heavy Star Destroyer traffic. Immediately cut to frontal attack and then hiding on the back. Then I edited in their conversation about Bespin and a romance scenes from the cave as if they happened while clinging to the back of the ship. Then they go to Bespin as if nothing is wrong with the Hyperdrive.
My ultimate dream would be to have the Luke/Vader/Palp sequence some how cut out..(I believe rotoscope is the method, though I admit to not knowing how to do that) and added to Emperor's thrown room on Coruscant, which I feel is where it SHOULD be. Kinda thought it would be awesome if the first Vader/Luke conversation about Anakin took place in the Jedi Temple ruins. Thats a whole other thing of course.