SilverKey

nice mock-up, ben_danger!

I like the idea of having the Hutts being a part of the Separatists. It makes a lot of sense for the greedy Hutts to join the Separatists which consists of other greedy factions like the Trade Federation.

I'd keep Jabba in the background though, and keep Poggle making the announcement in the arena. Geonosis is his planet after all.

Maybe it would be cool if we could put Jabba in the meeting Obi-Wan is spying on. That meeting is filled with cartoonish characters anyway, and adding Jabba might make it a little more serious. We could even use Christopher Lee's dialogue from the Clone Wars movie to work the involvement of the Hutts into the dialogue.

Yeah, the scene of Anakin's "turn" is worth its own thread :P

Bingowings, that new crawl is simply amazing! Great job man, as usual.

I don't know if we could actually make that plot work with the material we have, but I think it's an interesting take. I agree that we never truly saw the Golden Age of the Republic, but I don't think that would have been possible with the prequels. If Lucas wanted to show the Golden Age of the Republic, he would have had to go back in the Star Wars timeline for possibly of years, and had he done that, the prequels could not have been about the fall of Anakin Skywalker and the rise of the Empire.

I think Lucas handled it quite well, the Republic was already falling apart when the prequels start, but the main characters know it too: Palpatine says as much in TPM, and his words are proven true in the Senate scenes, in AOTC, Sio Bibble mentions how powerless the Senate is, and Dooku (in a deleted scene) says that it's time to start over. And we have characters who are fighting against it, like Padme and Dooku, albeit for differing reasons.

What might work for a scenario Bingowings is talking about, is putting more emphasis on the characters who are fighting to keep the Republic together, like Padme. The deleted scenes from ROTS with the start of the Rebellion would work nicely in this. It would also create a nice bridge between the PT and OT: Leia follows in her mother's footsteps, kind of like Luke follows in his father's. It also works nicely as a mirror: the childeren succeed in where their parents failed.

I also wanted to say that I think not having Anakin confess the Tusken slaughter to Padme is a great idea. (don't know who said it, but props to you!) I've been thinking about the same thing. It could make the scene in the garage where Anakin breaks down the turning point in their relationship: Padme sees this broken man, and she wants to care for him. Also, it could also give the scene where Obi-Wan tells Padme about the slaughter of the younglings in the Temple a lot more impact. Here, Padme could realize that Anakin killed the Tuskens too, and the line "Not Anakin, he couldn't", gets a whole new meaning, because she knows Obi-Wan is telling the truth, but she can't, or doesn't want to, accept it.

BingoWings, the scene you mentioned is on the DVD, they only cut it down. The part you mention takes place just before the scene as we see it on the DVD starts. I guess they cut the scene down a little, so they wouldn't have to spend too much time on completing it for the DVD release.

Personally, I think it's a great scene. It goes in a little deeper on the issue of creating an army as mentioned in the opening crawl, and I like that we hear Padme's (a main character) point of view. It really adds to her character.

ben_danger, I agree with you that AOTC edits are the most interesting. As you say, the plot is let down the most in that movie, especially when it comes to the lovestory, and the character of Anakin. I think ROTS handled those two elements much better, but the overall impact of the movie was deminished because AOTC failed to do those elements right the first time.

Thanks for liking my ideas guys. I didn't know the rearranged finale of TPM had been suggested before. I've been following this thread for a while before I joined in, but I hadn't seen it before, and it was just something I thought up.

The prequel movie I'm most interested in fixing is AOTC, and I'm thinking of doing an edit of it sometime. Of course, TPM and ROTS could use some work as well, but I think there is a really interesting movie in the mess that is AOTC, but most of it has been left on the cutting room floor.

I'm mostly interested in the extended scenes on Tatooine. There were supposed to be scenes of Padme giving 3PO his plating, a conversation between Padme and Beru, and Anakin and Padme were originally to recieve Obi-Wan's call in the garage. I think especially that scene would have been interesting to see, because it would also have Anakin and Owen arguing whether Anakin should go to help Obi-Wan or not. Like, you know, Obi-Wan told Luke in ANH. There is some footage of this on the 2001 OT VHS release. It would be greatly appreciated if  anyone could tell me where to find it.

Some crazy ideas I had for the prequels, some radical, others not so much:

Maybe TPM's finale could be arranged around Anakin taking out the droid controlship. Qui-Gon is dead, Amidala is captured, and the Gungans are dying on the battlefield. After Qui-Gon's death, Anakin hears his voice, like Luke heard Obi-Wan's voice during the Death Star battle. The line "Remember, feel don't think" could be re-used. Anakin pilots (not by accident) his ship into the droid controlship, and takes it out. This way, Anakin is the true hero of the Battle of Naboo, and we also see just how strong he is with the Force. It could also be a nice mirror of the earlier mentioned scene in ANH.

Another idea I had was having Qui-Gon's body disappear, after he dies. The explanation Jedi disappearing as given in ROTS felt forced, and never made much sense to me. If it's something a Jedi has to learn, how did Anakin manage to reappear as a ghost?

I have no trouble believing that a Jedi disappering after his death has something to do with his state of mind. Obi-Wan sacrificed himself, Yoda went prepared and peaceful to his death, as did Darth Vader. The same could be said for Qui-Gon. Jedi like Mace Windu and the Jedi who died in battle didn't disappear, because they couldn't "prepare" for the deaths.

Having Qui-Gon's body disappear would sidestep the problem of having a forced explanation in the final 5 minutes of ROTS.

An idea I had for for the Senate scenes in AOTC was to remove some of the lights of the Senate pods lined up against the wall. The crawl states that many systems have left the Republic, so the pods of the senators of those systems would be unused, and there wouldn't be any need to see those pods "activated". I think it would be a subtle way of showing just how much the Republic is falling apart, especially in contrast with TPM.

Another cool idea, Bingowings!

I agree with doubleofive that it would require a work around with the current dialogue. Maybe if you remove the flesh hanging from the helmet, and dub in a line of Han saying "It's just a (Stormtrooper) helmet", it could work.

I like that idea, and your mock ups look great!

And it doesn't have to create a continuity error with the scene in the swamp in ESB, because R2 couldn't probably fire his boosters because he was under water, and he only flew out of the water because the creature spat him out.

It would be cool if it could be done with the footage from the prequels.

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

Hey peoples!

I don't mean to take over here but I would love some imput on two of my new vidz.

Without going into great detail I've had issues with the Yoda/Palps fight in ROTS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO_f39t8LGM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuZRgNsz4vA

So feel free to check them out and let me know you're thoughts...maybe type them here on this thread...

P.S. Look at both descriptions of the videos...I've gone into some details as to why the changes...

I couldn't view the first video, but the second one was great! It could do with a little polishing, but the rearrangement is very clever. I thought a re-editting that scene would be very difficult, but you really managed to open it up. Great job!

Great idea of replacing Yaddle with Shaak Ti in TPM, Vaderios. It could create some a nice bit of continuity between TPM and AOTC.

As for the same shot of the Jedi Council appearing in TPM and AOTC: I believe it's mentioned on the audio commentary of the AOTC DVD that the Council scene originally wasn't in the script, and that they decided to add it later. They created the scene using bluescreen footage of Ewan and Hayden, and pasting the scene together using templates and footage from TPM.

Great color correction work on those TPM shots, vaderios! I don't think it works on all of them, but most of them look way better, especially those of the Droideka's in the hangar, the battledroids on the Trade Federation ship, and Amidala's ship landing in the swamp. Funny that I never noticed the pink hue before.

Great job on the edited shots of Amidala's ship arriving on Coruscant too! Did you add in some ROTJ concept art in the background in the second one?

DuTwan, you bring up some good points, don't worry about coming across as negative.

Personally, why I don't like Dooku saying Obi-Wan should join him and help him destroy the Sith, is because it is a pretty big statement, that is never followed up on. Why does he say that? Does he really want to destroy the Sith? Or simply want Obi-Wan to join his cause? It seems like such a random line.

The prequels, and especially AOTC do this a lot: what the prophecy is actually about isn't mentioned untill ROTS and the mystery of who ordered the clones is never solved. Also, Dooku states that the Trade Federation was betrayed by Sidious, and came to him for help, but in ROTS, they are seen talking to Sidious. In my opinion, all these little things are just illogical, contradictory, and confusing.

Bingowings, that picture of Dooku on the Jedi council looks really good! Great job man. I couldn't think of a way to do it, but this looks like something we could actually pull off. We need to give him other hands though, I think Plo Koon would like his back :P

Thanks for the words of welcome and compliments guys.

I choose to insert Dooku in TPM's final moments because it's subtle, and because, to me, it works two ways: Mace's line and the pan hint at Palpatine being the master, and when Dooku shows up, it both creates some ambiguity (is that old guy the true Sith master? / who is he?) and sets him up as being the new Sith apprentince for the next two movies. Also, as Bingowings mentioned, it creates a bit more of an arc for Dooku, and makes him a stronger character.

ben_danger, I hate to disagree with you, but I don't think having Dooku on the council in TPM would work, because he and Obi-Wan can't meet before AOTC ("It's a shame our paths have never crossed before").

On the topic of Dooku: next to Sidious, he is the only recurring villain in the PT. Maul, Fett and Grievous are all in only one movie. Dooku dies early on in ROTS, butI think we could make his character feel less disposable if we add as much to him as we can. Here are some thoughts I have:

• Show him at the end of TPM at Qui-Gon's funeral (like in the images I posted)
• Leave in in Ki-Adi Mundi's line of him being a political idealist
• In his conversation with Obi-Wan, remove the line "...and together we can destroy the Sith!" and add in the line "The Republic can not be fixed. It is time to start over", taken from his deleted scene with Padme.
  
• Take out all references to him being Yoda's apprentice. I don't think that fits, considering Yoda's comments on Jedi training in ESB.

This way, I think we can give his character a little more depth

What do you guys think?

Hey guys. First time poster here. I signed up because there are so many creative ideas going around on this board and in this thread, and wanted join the fun.

I wouldn't call this radical, but here's my idea of inserting Dooku into The Phantom Menace:

Right after Mace's line "Which was destroyed, the master, or the apprentice?" and the pan towards Palpatine, we cut back outside, where we see Dooku watching Qui-Gon's funeral, a sad look on his face.

I think it's subtle, adds to his character when it comes to his feelings towards the Jedi, Qui-Gon and the Republic as he explains to Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones, and it doesn't contradict anything.

More ideas to come.