NotTheDri0ds

A few years after my last two failed edit attempts have left to rot… I return bearing yet another wild idea!

Inspired by Luke Burrage’s “The Silent Menace”, I have decided to try my hand at… basically remaking The Phantom Menace from the ground up.

Alongside completely muting the audio of the film (to be replaced with pure soundtrack + subtitles whenever I have the ability to do so), I have radically restructured the entire film… mostly for the sole purpose of seeing how much I can fuck with it without completely breaking all logic.

This ain’t really a straightforward “fixed it for you <33” edit, since those are dime a dozen now, moreso just an experiment.

The edit itself is still in early stages, and is heavily subject to change.

Current changes in mind:

New Crawl:

"Star Wars
Episode I
Guardians of Peace

For thousands of generationns, the Republic has thrived under the protection of the JEDI KNIGHTS, having vanquished the evil LORDS OF THE SITH milennia ago.

Now it is a time of great terror, however. The greedy TRADE FEDERATION has been dealing in the shadows with a mysterious SITH LORD, promising them power and fortune for their compliance. To prove their devoution to the Sith’s nefarious cause, the FEDERATION has set sights on the planet of ALDERAAN, setting a blockade of deadly warships around the planet.

As moves are made to invade the peaceful planet, the Jedi Knight QUI-GON JINN and his young apprentice OBI-WAN KENOBI are wrapped up in scouting for a young, force sensitive child on the distant planet of TATOOINE…"

• Film starts with a pandown, showing the Trade Federation ships over the planet of Naboo (VFX work required). The Viceroy and Sidious discuss their invasion plans, with the only worry that Qui-Gon will arrive soon and ward of the invasion once he learns about it, as he is the Royal Family’s primary guardian. Sidious tries to quell their fears, saying he has sent an assassin to deal with the Jedi.
• Wipe to Maul’s ship approaching Tatooine, landing, and sending droids out.
• Another wipe leads to the scene where Anakin says goodbye to Shmi, then the deleted scene where they realize they’re being followed by a Probe Droid, and then, finally, the duel with Maul, and Qui-Gon escaping the planet.
• After the escape, we get another scene with the Trade Federation guys learning about Maul’s failure, but Sidious insists that things are still going to his plan.
  (From here on things are a bit more muddy, still trying to work out how to do things)
• Qui-Gon arrives at Coruscant, learning about the invasion, and he and Obi-Wan leave to investigate, Qui-Gon telling Anakin to stay behind.
• They arrive on Naboo (Working on new VFX to establish it), meet Jar Jar along their way towards the palace to rescue the Queen.
• After rescuing Padme, they try to leave, as pilots try to attack the Federation ship, both fail, so they have to fall back on the planet and think of a new approach, when they get the idea of using the Gungan army as a distraction while they try to capture the Viceroy.
• The rest of the movie plays out pretty much the same, minus any shots of Anakin, and the entire space battle. Instead, the droids get shut down at Padme’s command at blaster point.
• Obi-Wan, as Qui-Gon’s apprentice, is now the new guardian of Alderaan
• The Senate scene being moved to near the end, before the funeral. The issue at hand is the prosecution of Viceroy Gunray, and the Chancelor electing to not prosecute him is what leads to the Vote of No Confidence.
• Film ends on Qui-Gon’s funeral

Clips:

The Queen’s failed escape
https://streamable.com/hzxvn8

The Droid Army’s deactivation
https://streamable.com/4xdccd

Eyepainter said:

Not that the idea you’ve come up with is bad. It’s just that it doesn’t really “fix” the original three prequels.

Exactly

ELAYEM said:

Maybe we could have an alternate prequel trilogy focused entirely on Cassian, Saw and the rebellion

again, interesting idea

but not really a Radical Redux of the Prequel Trilogy, moreso just throwing the PT away and calling something else something different

Honestly, I’m not really a fan of the “alt PT that includes Rogue One” ideas. Like aside from that hardly really being a fixed ver of the Prequel trilogy, imo they don’t quite gel together storywise.

The only thing I think could really fit an alt PT thing would be the Kenobi series, since it follows a main character from one trilogy, and a prominent secondary character from the other.

Ayy! Can’t wait to check this version out once all’s said and done!

Sorry for making you kinda jump through a lot of hoops regarding this lmao. That is definitely my favorite of the three!

I believe the Anti Cheese Edit recorded new voice over for Jar Jar and the Nemoidians from scratch, which is probably the best approach for something like that.

Peter Pan said:
The idea behind the bongo in the first shot was actually to substitute the classic opening shot as it looks like space ship anyway. That‘s also why I’m fading between the starfield moving up and the underwater scenery, the idea was to make the upwards moving stars look like bubbles. Maybe I have to extend the shot before the bongo appears and add some real air bubbles.

Ah, I see. Honestly I’d like to see that idea more fleshed out. The disappearing Bongo’s still a bit of an issue though.

Peter Pan said:
In regards to the establishing shot of the invasion army, I‘d be glad if someone could help me with that.

I’d be down to assist! Currently been on the lookout for good, free assets for this, but have had trouble. I know Battlefront 2 has the ships, but I haven’t been able to locate a good rip of them yet.

EddieDean said:

Here’s a quick little attempt at a crawl.

Woah, that’s definitely the best written version so far! Interested in seeing what your concept for the opening will be like.

Also apologies if I’m sorta flooding the thread a lot with my thoughts lmao, brain just starts writing and doesn’t know when to stop.

My suggestion is something like:

There is a Great Disturbance in the Force! For centuries, the peaceful people of Naboo and the neighboring warrior race of the GUNGANS have lived in a shaky state of peace. However now tension threatens to engulf the planet in CIVIL WAR, causing QUEEN AMIDALA to plead to the Senate for some sort of solution to this conflict.

Hindered by war profiteers and those that see instability as an opportunity alike, Supreme Chancellor Valorum has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, chivalrous warriors and ancient scholars of the Force, to aid the young Queen of Naboo in his stead.

Unknown to all, a dark force lingers within the shadows, waiting for the opportunity to strike, as Jedi Master QUI-GON JINN and his young apprentice OBI-WAN KENOBI make their way to the Gungan underwater city to settle the conflict between the two races…

(Note: Could probably use some condensing, but sorta trying to get the general ideas across. Keeping your proposed middle paragraph.)

Sorta agree. The base idea of the Jedi initially being sent to settle the feud between the Gungans and Naboo is an interesting idea, and could help tie together their cooperation at the end a lot better… but the Federation should be an established presence too.

Some suggestions:

The crawl needs a few more drafts imo. Alongside setting the Federation up as taking the Naboo v Gungan Crisis as an opportunity, it needs a few more drafts for the grammar and the like.

One thing that’d need new VFX is a proper pandown of the planet. Perhaps it can show the blockade arriving from hyperspace or something (if I had a good model of the donut ships, I could probably mock something up), before transitioning to the scene of the Jedi swimming to the Gungan city (removing that first shot of the Bongo, since I feel it was more confusing than anything else).

Better yet, said shot of the Federation arriving could be before the scene in the Queen’s throne room, suddenly throwing a wrench into the equation, while simultaneously properly setting the Federation up instead of them just kinda… appearing.

Some personal things: I’d remove the line from Panaka about the Federation needing Padme to sign a treaty, I think the bearded guy’s “They wouldn’t dare!” is enough, and Panaka’s line is pretty clunky. I’d also cut down the whole “Where are you taking them?” “To Coruscant” part.

Otherwise, this has gotta be my favorite of the proposed alternate openings. Definitely a creative idea.

Also gotta say, I love the addition of the Vulture Droids soaring overhead tipping the Jedi off about the invasion. I genuinely had to go back to see if they were in the original film or not.

Shittily deepfake Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen onto Sir Alec Guiness and Sebastian Shaw and use a shitty text to speech to replicate their voices, for brand continuity. Because simply recasting isn’t enough, the flesh must be consistent.

Eyepainter said:

Don’t forget the ewoks!

Oh especially the Ewoks

NotTheDri0ds said:

Completely remove Jar Jar from the entire PT, but don’t change any of the scenes to accommodate that. Jar Jar’s actually a mass hallucination spread through the entire Republic.

Expanding on this idea, do it to literally every character the fanbase deems “annoying” or “bad”. Reva, young Anakin. Not just the men, but the women, and the children too, after all.

I’m interested in seeing how the medium would look. In all honesty I’d rather it be a bit too noticeable than hardly visible at all, if it’s supposed to be going for a more classic A New Hope look.

Replace all of Anakin’s lines with the WillfromAfar text to speech voice.

Completely remove Jar Jar from the entire PT, but don’t change any of the scenes to accommodate that. Jar Jar’s actually a mass hallucination spread through the entire Republic.

That’s definitely a lot more subtle. I wonder if there’s a way you could get a middle ground between the two? It could just be Vimeo’s compression, but I can hardly notice it.

Also, hope my critique hasn’t been too scathing, lol. Looking back my previous replies did turn out a bit more blunt than intended.

Nah, I love film grain, especially in cases like TPM where it looks a bit too smooth without it, just think the amount used is a bit much in my opinion.

I think there’s definitely a bit too much grain, to the point it’s a bit distracting imo.

Oh yeah. Rescoring is a really effective tool, even if, for me atleast, it’s a pain to do (namely isolating/remaking the base sound of the scenes is the bane of my existence).

Hands down though, the redubbed Anakin is probably my favorite change. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but I was pretty surprised with all Trooperman managed to accomplish getting it to mostly blend in, and the new lines he was given definitely helped improve his character.

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

On a related note, I would love to hear from Trooperman again…what’s he been up to? What does he think of his edit now?

Same, honestly.

Personally, this is probably one of my favorite (released) AOTC edits, mild jankiness aside. It’s just so impressive in how ambitious it is in what it tries to do, and genuinely is probably one of my favorite ways to watch the film now. I could probably go on a massive ramble about the things I like about this, but that would be kinda hogging the thread lmao.

Yo, is a link to this available anywhere?

Somehow, British Wedge was the most cursed part about this lol. Great job implementing them into the original audio!

Genuinely impressive work! The wide shot is a bit jank, but I’d say for a fan edit it’s passable.

I know the current idea is to skip the Negotiations opening, but recently I’ve started my own attempt to streamline it as practice. Not sure if I’ll turn it into an edit on it’s own so dropping here incase anyone finds it interesting.

(Apologies for the upcoming wall of text)

Basically for this rough cut I:

• Removed the permission to land bit, like a fair few edits
• Removed the first shot of TC 14 introducing themselves
• Cut the intro of Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon around when Qui-Gon tells Obi-Wan to be mindful of the living force
• J Cut to TC 14 reporting the Jedi. Quickened a few of the reactions from the Nemoidians by splicing multiple parts of shots together, subtle change but made the other guy say to send the Droids, plural, skipping the Sidious discussion entirely, to make the Federation seem more independent.
• Cut the scene of TC 14 serving the Jedi Tea a bit sooner, skipping Qui-Gon taking a sip, moving straight to
• The ship blowing up, skipping the Jedi’s reaction and the shot of the room filling with gas, instead a small group of droids just walk in, see the cloudy room, and then the lightsabers
• Cut a few lines/reaction shots during the action sequence to make the Nemoidians seem less incompetent
• Reshuffle events a little, after the Jedi run off the Viceroys are pre occupied by The Queen calling, only cut back to the Jedi in the hanger when the Nemoidians claim there were no ambassadors
• Cut back after Qui-Gon mentions his plan to land on the planet, snip a few lines in the dialogue and work in the “I will not condone a course of action that will lead us to war”, trying to make Amidala appear stronger
• End the scene on Naboo when the beared guy says the word “Invasion”, as the rest of the scene felt pretty clumsily done

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16YAhcpxM0La0k0mrK9i54WkObBv4qdoi/view