IIRC, RLM's answer to this question was "everything".
You hear about screenings of original prints every now and then, but as 005 said, Lucas' thoughtpolice try to shut them down.
It's almost like the original cuts of the films have become 'unfilms', as Orwell would put it. They never existed.
My advice? Put Star Wars to bed and get your kids into the Lord of the Rings films instead.
I think RedLetterMedia, as usual, put it quite well. Jar Jar is just a "cartoon rabbit who steps in the poopy" and the prequels would have been just as bad without him. He's barely in AoTC or RoTS and those films still suck.
WhatsMyName said:
She maybe mentioned, but never plays a part in the EU. Her acting still sucked in Thor when she said, "That's a good look!" I just about gagged.
In fairness, I don't think you can blame Portman for her performance in that film, more the one dimensional nature of her character and poor direction. She's not a bad actress.
Sweet. Looks great on my laptop, can't wait to get home and try it out on my HDTV!
Wow, Thorr, that's actually a lot less time consuming than I was expecting. Good luck with the rest of the project, I will check in from time to time.
Great work so far Thorr, the sample clips look brilliant. I love that trailer.
How long does it take for you to scan, say, one second of film? Is it a seriously lengthy process? I don't mean to sound impatient, I am genuinely interested.
Well first off I would go back to the OUT and make a bunch of notes on any allusions the characters make to significant events in the past, or anything they establish about the way things were. That would be the canon I would work with.
A New Hope follows a revolution. Similarly to 1984, very few people remember what life was like prior to the revolution and only a handful of the ones who do talk about it. To make it convincing, one would probably have to look at a seizure of power in recent history - such as the ones that took place in Russia, Germany or France, and base the story on a combination of those. Palpatine's rise to power in the PT as we know it is clearly based on Adolf Hitler's. However, I think given the context of A New Hope (in a deleted scene, Biggs and Luke talk about how the Empire is beginning to 'nationalise commerce in the central systems', implying that Palpatine's rule is of a Marxist nature), Palpatine's rise to power should be more in the vein of Lenin's - i.e. one executed through force.
Now that the political background is established, we of course need a character story to take the fore. A New Hope has often been referred to as a 'road movie in space', and I believe another cinematic archetype - the 'buddy movie' - would be perfect for Episode I. The 'buddies' in this case would of course be Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. The first meeting of these characters would be important, and they would have to build a strong friendship throughout Episode I, just as Luke and Han do in A New Hope. One could perhaps cast Anakin as an adventurer, living a life of thrills and excess with his brother Owen. Then he and Obi-Wan are thrown together in unlikely circumstances and forced to work towards a problem despite their differences. At first they dislike each other, but at the conclusion of Episode I Anakin comes to respect his new mentor and pledges to become a Jedi Knight, following Kenobi on a 'idealistic crusade' at the disapproval of his brother.
Episode II sees the Jedi drawn into the Clone Wars*, with Obi-Wan unable to complete Anakin's Jedi training. Anakin is regarded as a maverick by his peers; he has a far less rigid morality than the average Jedi, and will often use questionable methods in order to do what he believes is right. Most disagreeably for his fellow Jedi, he retains his lifestyle as a party animal, and surrounds himself with vices whenever not carrying out his duties. Obi-Wan on the other hand has a strict devotion to the Jedi creed, and is seen as the Jedi order's poster boy by many. The Republic is at this point clearly losing the Clone Wars, with even the core systems becoming battlegrounds. The climax of the film would see Anakin doing battle with an evil Jedi for the first time, and clearly drawing on the dark side of the force, but ultimately being defeated. Following this he is taken hostage by the Republic's enemies and held captive.
Episode III poses a major problem, as it will inevitably be darker in tone than the other two, but it also needs a certain amount of denouement. The beginning of the movie sees Anakin and Obi-Wan reunited to take part in a battle that will decide the fate of the Republic. Most of the film is based around the lead up and actual fighting of this battle. It is made clear that our heroes are getting old - Obi-Wan is beginning to look wizened and pessimistic, while Anakin's life of excess has clearly taken its toll on him. The two have also become bitter as a result of the perpetual war, causing disagreements between them frequently. Ultimately, Palpatine's forces crush the remaining forces of the Republic and he takes power. At this point, an ultimatum is offered to the Jedi and the Republic at large: serve the new Galactic Empire, or face persecution and death. Anakin, ever the maverick, sees the new Empire as a positive development; he is keen to see the end of war, and for some order to be restored. Palpatine realises the young man's potential at this point and takes him on as his apprentice. Obi-Wan on the other hand stays true to the Old Republic, and the two do battle. Obi-Wan wins, and Anakin is horrifically disfigured. In disgrace, he locks himself into a suit of armour, and abandons his former title in favour of one that suits his now patriarchal role in the Empire - Darth Vader.
The conclusion of the trilogy would see the remaining Jedi forced into exile due to the persecution of the Empire, with Obi-Wan returning to his home world of Tatooine where he learns that Anakin had fathered two illegitimate children. I'm sure you can all guess where this is going, so I won't bother explaining any more.
* The Clone Wars would see the Republic's combined military forces going against Palpatine's revolutionary force, made up of clones.
Obviously Obi-Wan, Anakin and Palpatine are not the only characters that would be present, and the story needs a lot of fleshing out, but you get the idea. Also a strong villain would need to be present throughout, below Palpatine, though not necessarily his apprentice. Perhaps the commander of the Clone army could be a former Jedi, but I haven't given it that much thought.
coinilius said:
I was thinking about ways to punch-up the opening of TPM and it struck me – why not just start with the invasion of Naboo underway, skipping over all the faffing about on the control ship and Amidala talking about invasions and legalities? The edit could go straight from the (re-written) opening crawl to the shot of the Federation ships descending on the planet, and then it would be a straight run from the ships landing and disgorging troop carriers to the Federation army advancing on Theed.
This would also mean that the first bit of dialogue in the movie would be when Nute Gunray is walking down the stairs with the captured royal court and the talk about ‘processing’ them, etc. It would be a lot quicker and more action-oriented, and with a suitably re-written opening crawl it would hopefully be enough to set up who the characters are even though there introductions would be much more ‘on the fly’ as it were... for instance, if the crawl already sets up a ‘young Queen’ then the shot of Padme looking solemnly out her window at the Fed army invading her city, it would hopefully set up who she is for the audience fairly well (and without having clunky exposition lines like ‘it is Queen Amidala herself!’). Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would first be seen sneaking through Theed and jumping out at the droids. It would also work well with a Gungan free edit, as all their opening stuff would be cut, and Jar Jar could just be established as some ‘stray’ Qui-Gon picked up on an earlier adventure.
I must say this is one of the better ideas I've seen for a TPM edit.
Along with killing Qui-Gon off earlier, although that was one of mine.
Lovely to hear the good news, Ady.
Will there be a high definition DVD-9 version too or will you leave that to your fans?
The score was cut for a reason, mostly. I find it actually spoils the atmosphere in the training and duel scenes.
Great poster, almareon.
Very good work on the Emperor scene Ady. I'd told myself I wasn't going to watch it until the project was finished, but I couldn't resist! Excellent job.
Just happened on the new sneak peek last night. Excellent work JD! Made me feel genuinely excited about Star Wars for the first time in a while.
A stormtrooper is able to Princess Leia with a rifle set to stun at a medium range in one shot.
Vader told them not to kill the heroes. Simple.
Some students made a film called The Solo Adventures in the style of the CGI Clone Wars series.
http://www.daveschool.com/facebook/FaceBook_Solo_page.html
Not only is the animation pretty great stuff, the video also features the voice of John Armstrong - who, iirc, has voiced Solo a few times.
Because they can?
To use up the rest of the year's budget to put off a restoration of the OOT?
Who can tell?
Or, more appropriately, will the blu-ray set really be worth buying solely for the movies?
Let me explain. Here are a couple of screen captures from Wookiegroomer's RoTJ (DVD9 version). I believe this release was created from the German HD broadcast, but I could be wrong.
Very high quality stuff, I'm sure you'll agree. Aside from the obvious benefits of a much larger storage medium, can we really expect a huge quality increase next year when the blu-ray is released? Will Lucasfilm even bother with new scans of the OT, or will they stick to the 1080p HDTV master that Lucas and co. seem quite happy with?
Audio too. Do you think they will go back and fix the godawful soundtrack of the DVD release?
Uhm. Ady already made a purist version of ANH:R, featuring music from ANH exclusively.
Just had a thought.
Will Lucas take this opportunity to finally unveil the new CGI Yoda, or will he do that with the blu-rays?
Not at all.
I loved Empire Strikes Back, I enjoyed Return of the Jedi and at the time I thought the Special Editions and Prequels were awesome at the time.
I think you're a tad late with that one.
I think so. It also had a complete lack of editing/cutting.
George Lucas has stated that only the 2004 versions of the films will be in the blu-ray release.
Can't wait to download this. I haven't seen the '97 SE in years.
Maybe GL will dust off the Lost Cut for an official release?