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The Star Wars Mono-logy (a 3-in-1 OT Edit: hard drive failure ended the project)

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 (Edited)

This is an edit I will be starting in the New Year.  =)  It is something that I am sure has to have been done before, but I can’t seem to find a reference to any particular edit.  Either way, I’m sure my way of going about it will be at least partially different from any other edit.  Most of you know that the Star Wars trilogy was originally planned as one movie (allegedly), so I, intrigued by “what if” scenarios, decided to edit the trilogy into one continuous narrative.  It will begin more or less the same as Star Wars, but will move into Empire after our heroes escape the death star.  The rebel base will now have been on Hoth from the beginning, and the Empire finds the base by tracking the Millennium Falcon.  This leads into the battle of Hoth and the bulk of TESB and then ROTJ.  There shouldn’t need to be much of any fancy editing to transition between ESB and ROTJ as it already has a fairly continuous narrative.  Now, the death star will no longer be destroyed in Star Wars, but will carry on existence throughout the film, only to be destroyed at the end of ROTJ.  This idea will be accomplished by eliminating the second death star storyline in Jedi as well as replacing some shots of the second death star with custom shots of the original death star done in after effects.  The plan is for the edit to be somewhere between 2 hours and 2 1/2 hours in length.

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I've thought of how to condense the OT and this is exactly what I had come up with. I'll be interested to see what you come up with. And don't be afraid to make the runtime closer to three hours, there's a lot of plot here, trimming scenes too much will make the pacing choppy. Besides, with such a grand story a epic length is appropriate.

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I'd shoot for a runtime of about 198 (?) minutes. It sounds interesting, if not impossible.

I’m just here because I’m driving tonight.

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Yes, Lando/The Rebellion in general destroys the Death Star.  It's more of a victory for the alliance as a whole, rather than a personal victory for Luke.  The climax of Luke's story is the duel with Vader ending in a personal victory as he succeeds in redeeming his father.  

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i was wondering how this could have been done a while back, but in a very non-star warsy way of introducing flash backs. the film would open near the climax of ROTJ when vader presents luke to the emperor, and would supplement a very abridged trilogy up to that point. you could potentially leave han in carbonite, and assume leia is on one of the cruisers if you wanted to cut out endor.

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So I've officially started this today and I've noticed one glaring problem.  (not really a problem, just a small issue.  One of many to come I'm sure.)   I will have to cut Grand Moff Tarkin's role WAYYY down so that his absence for the the entire second act (Empire Strikes Back) isn't a really obvious thing that distracts from the story.  I will be adding him into the third act (Return of the Jedi) during the attack on the death star just so that his character has some kind of payoff (using his scenes from the attack on the death star from Star Wars), but he will have to be cut down considerably so that he is little more than another member of the empire, hardly any more memorable than Admiral Piett.  

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Maybe there is some way to have Vader communicating with him in Empire? If putting him on a Executor viewscreen isn't doable, it could just be on audio as there's too much interference to send a visual signal in the asteroid field.

Cushing did enough films the proper words you would need him to say have to be out there...

Interesting idea you've got for an edit. :)

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I'd given this 3-into-1 idea some thought myself so I'm very happy somebody is gonna do it.

IMO I'd open cut to Vader arriving on DSII early and intoduce Jerjerrod as the Moff and not Tarkin. Cushing is awesome obviously but his superiority to Vader would be hard to understand in an 120min movie. Plus if you're gonna cut him to the bone why not cut him completely.

Here's an idea to get round the Tarkin destroying Alderaan problem... open with Alderaan being destroyed by Vader. He could order it from on board his Star Destroyer and then we see him chasing Leia on the Tantive IV. I've always wondered what happened before the first shot of ANH so it would be cool to find out.

Perhaps shots from the Endor battle and a few select shots from the Coruscant ROTS battle could be used to show the battle above Alderaan. There are a number of shots of a rebel blockade runner in the ROTJ battle which would prove handy.

True I haven't quite figured out how you then resolve the problem of the boys heading off to Alderaan anyway but I'll give it more thought.

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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The problem I'm having with eliminating Tarkin completely is that my main idea to link the first 2 movies together is that the tracking of the Millennium Falcon is what leads them to Hoth and, subsequently, the battle of Hoth.  I can't find a way to make this idea understood without Tarkin's line "You're sure the homing beacon is secure aboard their ship?  I'm taking an awful risk, Vader.  This had better work."  There isn't any other similar line in that film or Empire that would explain how they knew where the base was and it just doesn't seem plausible to me that they just followed them there.  Don't worry I am planning on cutting as much of Tarkin's superiority to Vader as I can.  I like the idea of adding him into Empire as a hologram or some other message.  I will look into that and see if there's a place in the film I can do it and if it's even something a novice in after effects like myself can pull off.

Onto the progress of the edit.  I have completed all the shots I need to show the millennium falcon landing on Hoth.  All I've done is take the shots of them landing on Yavin and used custom mattes to cover up the forest with a snow landscape.  I think this will work fairly successfully.  I've roughed out the transitions between SW and Empire and it seems like it will work fairly well.  The only thing that's a little jarring is how different Luke looks between the films, but of course there's no way to really explain this without the scene with the wampa, which will, of course, be gone in this edit.

I've also been thinking of something else I'd like opinions on.  Would there be any interest in an extended edition of this in addition to the normal edit?  What I mean is a version (that would be released after the original edit) that JUST links the films together without cutting them down for run-time.  There would be no edits apart from what is necessary to merge the narratives.  What do you guys think?  Any interest?

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That last one sounds pointless in my opinion. If we wanted that we'd just marathon the films.

I’m just here because I’m driving tonight.

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What about cutting from the Falcon escaping DS1 to various bits of footage from ESB of Vader saying "I want that ship not excuses" to his underlings and "My lord, we have them" "the rebels are there" etc etc. Maybe even have Vader blame Captain Needa for the Falcon escaping the DS1.

They could blast out of the DS1, fly past the imperial fleet (Buzzing Needa's tower) and go into hyperspace.

btw Leia actually says the Empire are tracking the Falcon without the need to have Tarkin repeat it. She could be saying this after they've jumped to Hyperspace. The Falcon Turret fight could take place before they jump.

Or what if there is no tracking beacon, The Falcon hides ammongst the Imperial fleet and Vader has to call in Boba Fett who tracks them to Hoth (Rather than Bespin). It would be cool if Boba Fett was a co-villian with Vader as he'd appear throughout the narrative this way in more concentrated way than he does in the OT.

Will Luke be making only one trip to Dagobah and if so will Yoda survive?

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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I think this sounds interesting... But will you be having both battle of Yavin and Endor I would suppose you need both really.

Somehow you could perhaps tease the 2nd deathstar before the first one gets destroyed. This might weaken the victory at yavin and put it into perspective

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Now that you point out those possibilities and after working a bit with the footage, I do believe you are right.  It may very well be that I will cut out Tarkin completely, or rather just as much as possible.

I won't cut out the the tracking beacon simply because it's a much easier way of showing how the empire finds the base, keeping it simple will help cut down the runtime.  However, I do like the idea of introducing Boba Fett earlier in the film and I'll try and see if I can work him in some other way.  Also, on the point of Boba Fett, I will try and make his death in ROTJ a little less ridiculous.  I haven't given it too much thought, but I was thinking of possibly having the blaster shot that Luke deflects hit him, and that's what activates the jet pack and sends him over, or if I can find a way, I would love for Han to be the one to kill him, just in a less stupid way.  I'll let you know when I figure out what to do with that particular scene.

I am still planning on Luke having two trips to Dagobah as I feel Yoda's death is a real important factor in the story and can't find a good way of putting it in before Luke leaves for Bespin because I want to keep it so that Luke disobeys Yoda's advice in Empire.

The Battle of Yavin will not occur in this film.  There will only ever be one death star in this.  It will be destroyed at the end of the film by Lando and the rebellion.  If you missed it, this was explained in the first post of this thread.  =)  Thanks for the interest.

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Btw I am hoping to get a clip for you guys of the transition between SW and Empire.  I should have that up sometime in the next few days to please your peepers.

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Ah yes I now see what you mean sorry about that.

So It sounds like an amalgamation of both the battles at the end somewhat.

That is an interesting take the Battle of Endor (Shield Generator) could be a ground invasion in this instance on the Pyriamid base in star wars. But they are both forested planets so those could be tied together perhaps at a stretch.

Nevertheless I am intrigued how this will play out.

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I have run into another problem and I'm not sure how I'm going to get around it.  The whole bit with Luke and the wampa is completely gone.  We now jump straight from arriving at the base almost directly into the battle of Hoth.  This poses a problem that I feel really dumb having not foreseen.  Luke not being attacked by the wampa means that we lose the scene where Ben's spirit tells him to go to the Dagobah system.  I cannot for the life of me think of another place to put this scene that would make any sort of sense.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

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Can you rework some footage from Jedi to make the visitation a dream?

If this were in writing I'd suggest him getting injured during the Death Star escape. You'd cut the TIE fighter battle and rush him to the infirmary on Hoth. While recovering, he has a dream of Obi-Wan telling him to complete his training.

I’m just here because I’m driving tonight.

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You can just use the audio of Ben saying go to the Dagobah system over another shot like how it is used numerous times in the final act of ANH. You just need the right shot of Luke. Maybe something as simple as over a shot of Luke in the cockpit and then he instantly tells R2 he's going off to Dagobah.

Either that or dream sequence.

Maybe he has a vision or hears the voice while he's staring into space on board the falcon wrapped in the blanket post Ben's death.

Or could footage of Luke in the cot from the end of ESB be used as if he's sleeping on board the Falcon/Hoth and tricked into footage of him waking up from a fevered dream where Ben tells him about Yoda.

Or could the original footage be used but cut in straight after Luke drops into the Snow after blowing up the AT-AT.

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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Yeah, my initial thought was to just have Ben's voice tell him while in the cockpit of the X-Wing.  I was just hoping maybe somebody could come up with something that doesn't feel quite as forced (no pun intended).  I think that may be the route I go, unfortunately.  =T  Oh well, thank you for the help guys.

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Not sure what you can accomplish FX wise, but I feel it would make sense right after the Battle of Hoth, right after Luke waves at the Falcon.

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@DominicCobb - The problem I've been having with that is Luke is wearing different outfits in each of those scenes.  

The solution I am playing around with right now:  Luke's initial plan is to meet up with the rebels.  He gets in his x wing.  R2 beeps.  "No, I'd like to keep it on manual control for a while."  Later, we cut to him crash landing on Dagobah.  As he get's out of his x wing and looks around we hear Obi-Wan, "Luke.  The Dagobah System.  Here you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me."

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If the transition from escaping the deathstar and hiding on Hoth feels a bit empty you could perhaps use some naration to explain the passage of time.

Perhaps the radio drama will have something you could use.

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I'm pretty happy with the transition between SW and Empire.  I've got it to a point where it's actually pretty smooth.  I'll try and get a clip up on vimeo for you guys tomorrow if I can.

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I'll be very interested to see this. Question: which version of the films will you be using as a basis? It could be very cool to stick entirely to the original versions (rather than SE or Revisited) and make the thing look like it could have been made in the '70s.

Also, a film as long as this one is going to be deserves an intermission, like an olde-stylee epic. Thoughts on where this might go?

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