Do not want! - Lucas messes with the trilogy again.

If you look at the body of Marquand's work, and his philosophy, I'd definitely say it was much wiser than if Lucas had directed it. Put another way, his weakest film was probably The Legacy, but I'd much rather watch that again than any of the prequels.
 
Gary Huff said:
Yet another change.

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That's the best change old Georgie has made yet. Although, you'd think with all the money Star Wars has brought in, that they could have at least made the aspect ratios for the Chuck Norris shots match. Oh well, more to look forward to when the next versions come out on Blu-ray.

snowleopard said:
I'll make a donation to get the original trilogy from 35mm to BluRay as well. One request though, can we trim about 40 seconds of Ewoks out of Jedi? Not all of them, just a couple shots. That's the only thing that's hard to watch, about 40 seconds. If the answer is no, I'll take it the way it is. I mean was.
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This could be a good Kickstarter project. The fans could raise enough money so that George Lucas would have to sell the rights to the original trilogy, and then the fans can hire a remastering team to put it all back together again. I mean, if enough funds can be raised for an expensive chrome plated Robocop statue for Detroit, I'd say anything is possible.

Either that... or as Sad Max suggested:

Sad Max said:
Of course the logical conclusion to all this is that eventually Lucas re-jiggers everything to make it the fulfillment of his utterly incoherent and incomprehensible original story notes (Luke Starkiller, Han Solo is a lizard, etc) and thus erase every last trace of the movie that actually hit screens in '77.
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Maybe someone could just go back to the original screenplay, which I believe was titled The Adventures of the Starkiller Episode One: The Star Wars, and make an entirely new movie?
 
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There was an organisation called the ORIGINAL UNCUT TRILOGY PRESERVATION something or other years ago that were trying to scan 35mm copies and put them on DVD. I think actually their website was www.originaltrilogy.com

It stopped around the same time the 1993 Laserdisc masters hit DVD in 2006 or something like that. The website is still around but I don't think they're trying to scan the films anymore. Don't know why. Maybe they got a letter from Lucasfilm, maybe they just got ran out of steam.

But if anyone of you are serious about doing that, you should contact those guys.
 
Personally, if I had the cash, I'd remake the prequel trilogy as fan films and do them with early 70's technology - no CGI, only stop motion, miniatures and blue screens. Production design, wardrobe, hair, makeup, casting, everything would look and feel very 70's sci-fi to match the old movies.

Also, I'd change A LOT of the stories.
Stuff like, one villain throughout the three prequels
Lightsaber design would look more mechanic, although some jedi might have carved wood handles
Anakin would be at least a teenager when he and Obi-wan met
Obi-wan would be the main character and focus, not Anakin.
Yoda wouldn't be the most powerful jedi. He'd be like an old 3rd rate teacher who the others kind of look down upon. Powerful enough to teach early recruits, but no high rank or anything, making the loss of the Jedi culture all the more tragic.
I'd have humor in there, and lots of true characters.
C-3P0, R2-D2, Chewbacca, Greedo, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, E.T or Elvis would NOT be in the films. Neither would Roger Rabbit.
Anakin wouldn't be a slave, there would be no pod racing.
I would structure the movies like the old trilogy.
Yoda wouldn't have or use a lightsaber.
No midichlorians. I repeat, no midichlorians.


I could go on, but I don't have time tonight.
 
Jawa -
I am not a huge fan of the franchise, but I think all of your ideas are solid. Especially having Yoda be like a 3rd rate teacher. Your script would have been MUCH more interesting! Al of the great Westerns are structured like that: High Noon, Doc Holliday in the Earp films, Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven. They all had to reach deeply inward to find the answer.
 
But you'd still keep Jar-Jar, right? :happy:

JK. I like it. I too like the Yoda angle. Having him someone no one much listens to anymore. However, he does know just one or two old tricks that just might help...
 
I agree with a lot of it. I don't know if I'd go so far as to make Yoda third-rate. I don't think that's really in keeping with Empire. He doesn't have to be the top dog, but having other Jedi look down on him belittles him -- and the Jedi, really, in a number of ways. Those guys are supposed to be THE elite -- the SEALs of the Republic. I don't think there are any third-rate SEALs.

With that in mind, I certainly would portray the Jedi as far more impressive. Looked in the first 10 minutes of Ep I than Lucas was going to do exactly that, but then, no, they ran like scared little girls and didn't do all that much of note afterward.

I would make Anakin into Vader earlier, much earlier, and have him be the badass Vader for a good amount of time before he goes into the armor.
 
But what appeared (to me, anyway) as a major theme in the new trilogy (to the degree there was an identifiable theme, at all) concerning the Jedi, is that over thousands of years they have become arrogant, self-absorbed, and deadly complacent. Part of the grand tragedy of the Republic's fall is that its guardians fell victim to their own success.
 
I would keep Anakin as a slave...BUT AS A REAL SLAVE. The way it was portrayed in Phantom Menace he was just some happy go lucky kid with a cranky ethnic employer. I always pictured Anakin having a squalid, dehumanizing, brutal life as a slave, which would be a real foundation for his rage and make his fall from grace more believable. People who are brutalized at a young age, often become abusers themselves.
 
When watching Phantom Menace, in my mind I thought that Darth Maul would be the bad guy through the trilogy of prequels, as the chief strongman to the Emperor, someone so strong he could out fight Jedi Knights. I envisioned at some point that the Emperor would try to turn Anakin, as Anakin turned inward with rage, and in a fight - perhaps as a trap or test by the Emperor, Anakin/Vader would have to fight, and ultimately would kill Darth Maul in a brutal, ruthless fight. But instead of defeating the bad guy for a resolution, he would become the bad guy as a resolution.

Darth Maul seemed to have much potential that was never exploited.
 
Sad Max said:
But what appeared (to me, anyway) as a major theme in the new trilogy (to the degree there was an identifiable theme, at all) concerning the Jedi, is that over thousands of years they have become arrogant, self-absorbed, and deadly complacent. Part of the grand tragedy of the Republic's fall is that its guardians fell victim to their own success.
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Did anyone in the movies actually come out and SAY that? (I don't remember if anyone did or not.) If not, then it probably wasn't an actual theme, because as ham-fisted as they were all written, every important point was actually vocalized by a character.
 
It's never explicitly said in so many words (which probably means that you're right) although I find that scene with the Jedi librarian smugly telling Kenobi that if she has no record of a place, that means it doesn't exist communicates the idea about as well as an explicit statement would have...
 
David Jimerson said:
Did anyone in the movies actually come out and SAY that? (I don't remember if anyone did or not.) If not, then it probably wasn't an actual theme, because as ham-fisted as they were all written, every important point was actually vocalized by a character.
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What's almost amusing about that is if you take any screenwriting class, or read any screenwriting book, or just about any writing book, period, one of the big no-no's is expositional writing like that. Time and again teachers, peers, consultants will use the phrase "show me, don't tell me".
 
vader's noooooooo really takes away from the music.

i don't know if anyone has discussed this yet, but i think lucas was trying to make the connection to the reaction luke gave when he found out that vader was his father.

 
Gah. Why not just use the Wilhelm Scream, and be done with it.

Your father was betrayed and murdered by a young Jedi named Darth Wilhelmus.

NYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAH!
 
snowleopard said:
What's almost amusing about that is if you take any screenwriting class, or read any screenwriting book, or just about any writing book, period, one of the big no-no's is expositional writing like that. Time and again teachers, peers, consultants will use the phrase "show me, don't tell me".
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Good point. But there are (what look to me like) a number of subtle clues (the subtlety suggesting that Lucas probably did not insert them on purpose) that the Republic is a moribund polity that's become sclerotic and hidebound and complacent: the rise of mercantilism that comes to dominate Republicanism (sound familiar?), the increasingly weak and indecisive legislature, the arrogation of power by highly-placed corruptible individuals, the separation of the ruling class from the ruled - the Republic's already tottering and part of the problem is that its guardians have become tradition-bound and myopic. The Jedi - and the Republic itself - are as responsible for its fall, as is Palpatine himself.

Man, re-reading that I'd sure like to see the not-Lucas' movie one could make based upon those elements. It could be really good.
 
I'm still not sure about the slave thing. Seems like it wouldn't have much to do with the rest of the themes.

I think a more interesting fall from grace would be if Padme wasn't interested in him at all, but he fell in love with her. Then out of jealousy he'd use his jedi skills to start manipulating her, and that would be the start of his fall into corruption.

Hell, maybe there could be a love triangle between anakin, obi-wan and padme or something. That'd be more relevant to the characters than Anakin being a slave.
 
Sad Max said:
Good point. But there are (what look to me like) a number of subtle clues (the subtlety suggesting that Lucas probably did not insert them on purpose) that the Republic is a moribund polity that's become sclerotic and hidebound and complacent: the rise of mercantilism that comes to dominate Republicanism (sound familiar?), the increasingly weak and indecisive legislature, the arrogation of power by highly-placed corruptible individuals, the separation of the ruling class from the ruled - the Republic's already tottering and part of the problem is that its guardians have become tradition-bound and myopic. The Jedi - and the Republic itself - are as responsible for its fall, as is Palpatine himself.

Man, re-reading that I'd sure like to see the not-Lucas' movie one could make based upon those elements. It could be really good.
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I'm sure you could make an interesting movie from those ideas, and I'm sure Lucas tried that, but a STAR WARS movie?? That's supposed to be entertainment. You know, Hero's Journey, laser swords and spaceships and stuff. What kid would be interested in buying the trade federation action figure? They want to be Han Solo.
 
Sad Max said:
Good point. But there are (what look to me like) a number of subtle clues (the subtlety suggesting that Lucas probably did not insert them on purpose) that the Republic is a moribund polity that's become sclerotic and hidebound and complacent: the rise of mercantilism that comes to dominate Republicanism (sound familiar?), the increasingly weak and indecisive legislature, the arrogation of power by highly-placed corruptible individuals, the separation of the ruling class from the ruled - the Republic's already tottering
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THAT was vocalized a few times, not least when Padme said "it is clear to me now that the Republic no longer functions."
 
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