Let's Remake Star Wars

[The Rogue Wolf]

Two random thoughts:

1. All these reboots only proves that Hollywood is completely bankrupt of ideas. It used to be they'd at least try to combine the best aspects of some previous hits in a new IP, but now it's just "redo this, but grittier and with more angst".

2. The prequels prove what happens when Lucas is given his "freedom": "Quirky" characters that lend next to nothing to the plot, an overreliance on CGI (I'd argue that the limitations of technology with the original trilogy forced a LOT of creativity) to show grand events that somehow manage to avoid any real emotional investment, and flat-out dereliction of duty to the actual story to the point where the principal romantic pair have all the chemistry of a lead ingot next to a plank of wood.

Also, were the lightsaber duels in the prequels any good? Sometimes it was hard to tell, what with the MTV-style "don't hold a shot on anything for longer than half a second" editing. (Pinball Yoda was entertaining, though.) The final duel in Return might not have had the same choreographed fanciness, but at least it could hold a damn shot for more than a couple of seconds and actually show some drama.

 

[Nimzabaat]

Let's Remake Star Wars

There's something I've been meaning to tell you about Star Wars since your video about the Phantom Menace re-release, and it's somewhat relevant to the choreography you brought up.

The Clone Wars IS better than Phantom Menace Bob
If for one reason

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqlyhwh8Ea1qc3188.gif

NO. Hell no. That scene shat all over the character of Yoda and changed him from being the wise teacher to another crappy gimmick. Yoda didn't need to be a powerful combatant to be respected. In fact that's one of the first things he says.

OT: I don't want George Lucas to touch anything Star Wars again, ever. He obviously hated everything about the original trilogy that made it worth watching. Christopher Nolan on the other hand... I'm forseeing zero gravity light saber duels, and i'm liking them.

 

[Tiger Sora]

I see just one flaw in remaking Star Wars, 4 to 6 especially. Who would play Han Solo? Ford is kinda old now. I don't know if theres anyone to fill his shoes.

 

[Toeys]

If you are saying that Star Wars mirrored and should mirror the wars close to the time of its production, then the most fitting would be to turn the EMPIRE into the GOOD guys and fit the REBELS with TURBANS.

(i actually think this and im not attempting to create a flamewar)

 

[cerebus23]

wait till lucas dies. it is the only way star wars will get some of the care and respect it needs.

and keep it out of the hands of hollywood, they suck almost as hard.

and yes from the empires perspective rebels would be terrorists. but then again there are rebels and there are rebels, if the sw rebels suddenly just started blowing up innocents for the lulz, they would not be very good guys anymore.

could just base stuff out of the old republic era seems to be far more wiggle room for lore and characters, without touching the core of the series that is still relatively recent.

except retcon all of episode 1 2 and 3 out of there and metacholorians or wth ever that lame ass stuff was.

and kill off every cute pandering kiddy creature, you know all the species that were made to sell toys and toys alone. so no more teddy bears beating the hell out of the empire forces.

star wars was never high art, nor was it great scifi. it just popularized scifi for the masses. then lucas just went bat crap crazy and completely motivated by merchandizing over substance, which was not helped by the fact that everyone around him kissed his ass.

heck most of the good stuff about 4, 5 and 6 lucas hated period. he was forced to make better movies by the people around him at the time. he was never a visionary or a great film maker.

 

[Jake the Snake]

If Lucas would actually let someone write a decent script and have some semblance of creative control (ie the power to veto things like Jar Jar Binks), I would actually support this. Let's face it, after all the nostalgia, the Star Wars movies really aren't that great. It's not really their fault, just the scope of movies and themes of the modern audience have evolved over the years. Get someone like Joss Whedon to give the story the love, respect, balance and fines it deserves, and I'd be willing to bet it would be a good series of movies. I mean, yeah it still can't possibly live up to the imagined bar been set, but it'd still probably be pretty damn good.

 

[Xanthious]

I say go for it. The Holy Trilogy isn't nearly as holy as it once was with Lucas changing it more and more with each subsequent release. I think if done right a rebooted Star Wars could be pretty damn awesome.

 

[D.Strormer]

Honestly, I never cared for the remake concept and, though much of what you bring up is very interesting as a concept, I don't think a remake is the right path. To put it another way, exploring how the current generation is radically removed from its predecessors is the very essence of the New Jedi Order series of books. Now, I'll be the first to say that I never, ever, want to see a NJO film series, but I would hold them up as an interesting, if imperfect, follow up piece.
That being said, if they ever did make more live action SW films, I would love to see a KotOR series, or better, the Thrawn trilogy. First reason, excellent book series already well framed in the SW style. Second reason, character development. Reasons 3 through 1,000,000, Mara Jade. 'Nuff said.

Also,

Vader. How do you portray him?

Do you continue with the current characterization of the already established movies? (ie. so steeped in misery and having lost everything has turned him into a cold, callous and cruel man whom you do not dare cross)

Or do you redesign his character starting at the end of "Sith"? (IE. Quiet, reserved, rules through calm fear with mannerisms and a tone of voice similar to Kreia, while still force choking the hell out of people. Someone who looks to be on the verge of suicide, but is putting it off for the sake of running his empire).

Read the novel Dark Lord, The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno. It isn't perfect, but it does a hell of a job of turning the whining child Anakin into Darth ******* Vader from the original movies, mostly through the Emperor constantly doing little things to make Vader angrier and angrier until he just enjoys taking out his pain and frustration on anything nearby because he can't reconcile how much of a moron he was when he was younger (ie: in Ep.3).

 

[The Lugz]

wups, double.

 

[The Lugz]

4)Right, let's spend hundreds of millions of dollars to get George Lucas to leave his series alone.

Hmm... that might actually be worth it.

doesn't matter how-many dollars you spend, he has more and he calls the shots
the pest will be changing return of the jedi from beyond the grave with a pager in his coffin set to go off at 4 year intervals commanding his lawyers to pull all star-wars merch and remake it.

search your feelings, you know it to be true.

If Lucas would actually let someone write a decent script and have some semblance of creative control (ie the power to veto things like Jar Jar Binks)

that's it! just before you meet jarjar qui-gon has a vision of him being a twerp and then doesn't save him in time

remove anakin's dialogue all of it, it's just balls anyway, cut to him and cut away just to recognize he exists and leave it at that

this would drastically improve the prequels

perhaps we could get someone with video editing skills to make this film as a Fan-cut

 

[Reaper195]

Movie remakes are almost always a bad idea. And considering how much Star Wars shit is still being shovelled out of the grave...I'd rather the entire franchise be put to rest and we fucking finally move on from it.

 

[Pebkio]

Yeah, I don't think so. At least not while Lucas is alive or lucid.

I liked the Jedi back when they were just a well-known but not-in-the-spotlight order of protectors using laser swords. Then they became the most important things in the universe. They ran all the wars. They dabbled in all the politics. Yawn.

And that's all George Lucas' fault. Seriously, he'd change the Jedi story to be the most important part.

I liked when Han Solo back when he shot first and was a ruffian and a criminal on the path to redemption. Then he was suddenly always a hero who won't shoot until someone shoots at him and lost his character arc. Yawn.

And that's all George Franchaserzise Lucas' fault. Seriously, he'd reinvent Han Solo to be a hero who only has to struggle over self-preservation. He'd also make him force sensitive or maybe even a potential Jedi.

I liked C3PO and R2D2 back when they were just robots who were programmed to work together and were built like every other robot. Then suddenly C3P0 was built by a six-year-old Darth Vader and R2D2 was owned by every important hero in the past 1000000000 years... removing the common-can-be-important connection. Barf.

And that's all Jorge Lucah's fault. Seriously, he'd throw in a scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader react to the two droids somehow. They could also be Jedi like what was made possible in the tabletop game. I mean, why not? It could just be another Jedi-centric trilogy because they've got laser swords and every scene has to have one.

---

...in other words, DON'T DO IT! At least... not without a good director at the helm...

 

[SonicWaffle]

No, Bob, you're wrong. War has not changed.

War...war never changes.

(I couldn't resist, sorry!)

 

[Baldr]

Here how I would remake:

Insert parts from the book and audio play into the story (some were actually shot but cut later in the original.)

Keep the look more like the concept art:

 

[Generic Redshirt]

The OT to me is kinnda like Jaws (which I believe Bob mentioned)
A lot of what makes Jaws such a great movie is the limitations they had. We don't see much of the Shark because it looked quite bad (apparently). Thus we now have moments where suspense is built up instead of just constant shark munching action.
The limitations in the OT help make it good. The more seasoned heads mulling around, the inability to put literally anything they wanted on the screen.
This to me is the problem with the prequels. George wants, George gets.
Also what is with this assumption that we can do it better? Sure sometimes the remakes outshine the originals such as Wizard of Oz of The Thing but how many times do we simply end up with Casablanca now in colour and with a happier ending?

 

[BehattedWanderer]

You want to see Star Wars rewritten to reflect the prequels? Am I reading this correctly? Bob Chipman, reasonably saying such things, even if his final though is one against it all?

How is that even possible?

Also, why remake it, when they can just remaster it, and still make a solid mint off of it?

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

How about instead of trying to remake ANYTHING, we work on coming up with the Next Big Thing?

No more Remakes. No more movies based on books/comics. No more Reboots. No more sequels/prequels or special-enhanced-shoving-in-the-word-nooooo-to-a-scene-that-was-perfect-and-has-no-reason-to-be-there-editions. We need something as compelling as Star Wars was for this era of films; something that people will look back on in 20 years and get just as pissed off about the prequel trilogy that was made later on. This era of movies, in my opinion, just doesn't have that. Yes, some of the best movies of this year were based on some other form of media, and yes, Star Wars borrowed heavily from it's inspirational movie, The Hidden Fortress, but I think anyone who's able to read past all of these commas in this large block of text is going to understand where I'm coming from, even if they don't agree.

Just... leave Star Wars alone. As a fan of the original trilogy, I have resigned myself to the fact that it will get remade. The allure of money is just too great.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Everything he listed as a pro sounds like a con to me.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Four reasons stacked against five hundred is not good odds or a good justification for remaking Star Wars.

Never tell me the odds.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

No need to remake the originals. The expanded universe has a ton of content.



Would make a great new trilogy.

The story from Kotor 1 would make a great trilogy also.

And did Bob see the Pinkett/Red Letter Media first trilogy reviews? Choreographed lightsaber fighting is crap. The duels in the original trilogy were symbolic of the emotional conflict between the participants. They weren't about being fancy and flippy, they were expressions of the feelings of the characters.

For more information check out the review here. Takes an hour but well worth a watch: http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/star-wars-episode-1-the-phantom-menace/