Hal 9000

We'd all view this as a good thing, even if it's only good for a new source for "despecialization" efforts. 

Easterhay is for Easterhorses. And my ignore list.

I like the look of it, and am looking forward for the 16GB version. 

Yes, the new clip is a big improvement. Looking good so far. There are a few things, and I know it's just a rough mockup, that would be curious if this is the first ten minutes of a single film. Things like Qui-Gon seemingly ending a phone call as Shmi walks up, and Yoda's line, "More to say have you?"

And I'd suggest cutting anything you wouldn't want to include, since it's a single film. If you don't want the prophecy stuff, may as well lose it. It's not set up in ANH or ESB and has no payoff in ROTJ. You might give Threepio some thought too. Watching the films in machete order made me expect to see some sort of revelation in ROTJ for the characters about the droids having been present for the events of Anakin's rise and fall. 

This could be a good project.

Wow. So it sounds like the existing masters for the six films really wouldn't resolve much beyond a standard 1080p presentation. 

Huh. Does anyone happen to know the standard resolution of a typical digital cinema?

Well worth cashing in on the ancient Audible free trial offer. :)

Stupid question: When people speak about resolution as being 2K, or 4K or something like that, is it referring to horizontal or vertical resolution?

Just finished listening to chapter 1. It's very compelling, especially with the passable Lucas impression. I feel like Lucas himself is narrating somewhat. 

Very enjoyable so far, and many hours left.

Great news! I cringed for you when I heard about it. My cobble-job of prequel editing was frustrating enough; I cannot fathom the aggravation you must feel at times conducting this massive project. 

Have fun storming the castle!

I've heard dozens or possibly hundreds of offers to sign up for a trial of Audible and get a free book. But you, sir, have just made the suggestion to finally get me to do it. 

I mean, I'm not gonna buy anything, but I do want to check out the book!

^Just read your reply after posting mine. 

Actually, it might be a good idea to use ROTS as the frame narrative, with a few flashbacks to the events of AOTC. There'd be a few tricky pieces, such as establishing Dooku's identity.

When Palpatine reminds Anakin about what happened with his mother and the sand people, you could easily insert a flashback sequence to those events. 

You could insert some of Anakin and Padme's backstory right before Anakin's first nightmare about her death, though I can't rattle off any specific suggestions. 

Eh, it might help make it feel like a more cohesive single film... because it basically would be to start with. 

And I rather like what you've done for a prologue. It's rough, as you said, but I like the duel as a frame. 

It might be cool to (this phrase should prompt you to ignore what follows) have the Obi-Wan/Luke dialogue play over the opening logos as you did, then have it get quiet during the ALTAIAGFFA title card. Once the audience expects the opening logo and musical blast, kick in abruptly with the duel of the fates score. 

You might be able to do without the "fear leads to anger" scene. I think the key beats to keep in your TPM prologue are Anakin's difficulty leaving his mother, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan's (identities, and) relationship with each other, the idea that the Sith are out there, and some clue as to why they are fighting a lightsaber duel in the first place. You hit almost all of these on the head, so I look forward to what else you'd come up with. 

Going the route of a single film would allow for more creativity than a three-film structure. Among other things, you might be able to use ROTS for the majority of the film, and make it seem as though Anakin really was an all around good guy until the latter end of the Clone Wars. 

Nice idea, and good work so far! I'd love a good go-to single film as a stand-in for the prequels for a machete viewing. No offense intended to anyone, but I personally haven't cared for any of the prior attempts at crunching the prequels into a single film. But coming at it with the intent on viewing it between ESB and ROTJ make just make it work.

I'd say if you're abandoning the titular "Episode I, II, then III," just make it one prequel film for the machete viewing order. That'd be a logical parenthetical flashback between ESB and ROTJ, given that the episodic numbering is being interfered with either way. 

This'd be a good project, and I think emanswfan is still planning on giving it a try. 

For my own project, I merely upscaled using Apple's Compressor app. Though I also added a uniform layer of film grain to my project, which helps them blend together. I also cross-faded in a slight blur to the HD footage as a deleted scene approached and after it was over. The effect is that the HD footage starts to blur slightly for ten or so seconds as it is about to go into a deleted scene. (The deleted scene itself is not blurred.) Then after it's over, it starts slightly blurred and gradually comes off of it.

I don't know; it's better than nothing. And you're right, it's absolutely worth keeping some of those scenes for story purposes. 

Downloading now, along with Team Blu's May 4th releases. It's a Star Wars Christmas.

Does anyone know if the final version of the Emperor scene has ever been made available yet in HD? I'm planning cobbling together a crude custom SE for personal use and archiving, and view Adywan's version of that scene as the best option. If not, I'll have to wait for the final release. Thanks.

The Skywalker dynasty has conspired to control the galactic government for generations, playing both sides of the divide. It's obvious once you WAKE UP.

I'm looking forward to checking out what you all have put so much work into!

Hmm, "New Jedi Order" would be a better title if it weren't already taken. "The Order Of The Jedi" sounds like a trip through the Taco Bell window.

Maybe NJO can be the title of a fan edit, if that's the case. 

We should round up a bunch of scoundrels and raid the place afterward. 

Harmy's Eleven.

Just taking a principle to its extreme, that's all. 

I'm still enjoying EU stories, by the way. But all the same, I'd rather read things that aren't in as immediate danger of being overruled. I won't pretend like it doesn't matter at all, but I'm not going to let it cast a shadow over the things I enjoy.

I'll find some novels to get into other than post-ROTJ or Clone War era entries. Maybe Kenobi or something. Or the Empire and Rebellion series, since the new "canon" Luke book was supposed to be #3.

I suppose Obi-Wan and Owen *could* be brothers. The prequels need not necessarily preclude it. Cliegg Lars moved to Tatooine some time after giving up Obi-Wan to the Jedi Order. (The difference in their last names isn't a counter-argument, because it would have been a consideration at the time of the ROTJ novelization anyway.)

Without a religious hierarchy with infallible pronouncements to interpret this for me, my computerized mind produces logical rationalizations. My mind is going. I can feel it.

Well, hello there.

Star Wars, at least as long as I've been around to observe it, has always had a ~two-tiered continuity. The first is ~G-canon, which comprises the theatrical films and their adaptations, as well as whatever George Lucas has directly influenced AND cares to include. (I.e., The Clone Wars is G-canon but the Holiday Special is not.)

The second level is ~C-canon, being most of the EU as we've known it. It's not at that higher level of canon, though it's still valid unless contradicted by something G-canon. There are some Star Wars works that do not even make it up to this level of canon that, to me, are outside of continuity altogether. 

This recent announcement seems, at first blush, to say that all C-canon material is now pushed down to being outside of continuity. In reality, I think it's more of a blanket statement that they are not going to go out of their way to be consistent with past EU. In other words, what was C-canon will remain such, though it's all on probation and can be erased at a moment's notice by something G-canon (or D-canon?). In that sense, it's really not anything new. 

So you can have your Darth Plagueis or Shadows Of The Empire novels, and they'll still basically be C-canon unless new material going forward contradicts it. These two examples should be relatively safe from immediate danger, whereas stuff like The Thrawn Trilogy will certainly be precluded by new content pretty quickly.

I hope I don't sound like I'm griping; this is the sort of mental exercise that is fun about a fictional universe. We're just not usually asked to engage in it with so much material all at once. 

Ha ha!

Well, I don't think any of us were surprised by this news. I was secretly hoping that they would err on the side of keeping some of the existing EU, perhaps even grandfathering in select works to this new ""canon.""

The "Legends" banner to me implies the same thing as the "Infinities" logo. Is it indeed all prior books that will carry such a label? Even things like KOTOR, set thousands of years before anything having to do with the films? That seems somewhat arbitrary and harsh to me. I totally get having to jettison the entire post-ROTJ EU, and perhaps even heavily pruning the rest. I'm just surprised it all had to go, even very recent publications set in prior eras.

Perhaps it's asking for too much, but I am a little disappointed they didn't put together a short list of a few key works that can be grafted into this new canon. Take something like "The Approaching Storm" for example, which was written during the production of AOTC as an official lead-in novel. Surely something like that wouldn't harm future continuity, even if other things like the various Clone Wars novels might. 

Even though I haven't done much more than dip my toes into the EU at any point, I appreciate its existence. To have that depth as a backdrop lends verisimilitude to the Star Wars universe and makes it feel like a genuine subcreation that can be explored almost endlessly. With the recent announcement, it's as if a black hole swallowed most of it up and created a vaccum of content. Are other authors going to now rewrite the various eras of the Star Wars story? Could Zahn or other others "resubmit" their books for "canonization," if they like?

Then again, I'm the sort of geek who was tickled by the Paul McGann 'Doctor' character popping up in the mini-episode of Doctor Who "Night Of The Doctor" to, among other things, bring into screen-continuity all his various audio adventure content. I like it when a franchise goes out of its way to demonstrate kindness to the continuity of its past. That care and attention to subcreation is part of what makes it fun.

All that being said, I still have questions about all this and I hope they continue to clarify what is going on.