MEMO
From: George Lucas <bossman@lucasfilm.com>
To: Undisclosed recipients
Date: 22nd August 2011
Subject: Star Wars 2011/12 Star Wars Special Editions.
Dear Friends and Colleagues
Once more I have viewed our earlier works, the original Star Wars films, and once more I find them lacking. The level of action, of pacing, and continuity pales in comparison to our prequel trilogy, which I'm sure you'll agree were our defining works.
As such, I've come up with a list of proposed changes that we're going to explore, to improve the original movies and give them a chance to stand alongside their modern counterparts.
The following are the major insertions, and are sure to be the most expensive. The attached zip archive (with the usual password) contains the 1,457 minor changes that shouldn't be too much hassle.
Star Wars: Episode IV
-Renaming the movie from "A New Hope" to "The Imperial Menace" to give a long-missing sense of symmetry to the movie titles.
-The opening scene is to be a huge spacebattle over a rebel stronghold, the biggest battle we've ever seen. Leia's ship flees the battle and arrives ar Coruscant persued by 36 Star Destroyers and 12 Super Star Destroyers. Minor dialogue changes will support this new action
-C3PO will now mention that he is fed up of having his mind wiped, and turn to face the audience in a brave fourth-wall moment that that fans will love. We're thinking of changing his design so he can wink at the audience.
-When R2 and C3PO get into the escape pod, we're going to see the Force ghost of Quin Gon Jin pulling the lever that launches it to Tatooine.
-When the stormtroopers storm Leia's ship, their weapons fire is going to ignite the rebel troops, just like it does to General Greivous in Episode 3.
-Darth Vader will now stun Leia with Force Lightning.
-When Leia is stunned, she will yell "father" and we will cut to an extended flashback of her and Bail Organa, as he explains to her that her mother died very young.
-In the flashback there will be another flashback to Padme dying.
-In this flashback there will be another flashback to Padme meeting the young Anakin. The camera will zoom into Anakin's shadow which will then cut back to the present, and the image of Darth Vader.
-When the escape pod crashes on Tatooine, it will now land in a field of baby Sarlaccs, and there will be an amusing sequence in which R2 and C3PO must make their way out. The Force ghost of Mace Windu appears to help them.
-When the sand people find R2 and C3PO, one of them will comment "This one has had his memories erased" just to hit home why he doesn't remember the previous movies.
-When we first meet Luke, he wakes up having a Force Dream in which Darth Maul, Darth Tyranus and Darth Sidious are standing around his bed laughing. They all then unleash their red lightsabres and slice towards him. Luke wakes at the last second.
-When Luke looks up at the twin suns, we're going to include a sky full of CG creatures. I have a vision of some sort of flying birdmen that liven that shit up a bit.
-When they purchase the droids, we're going to have the Force ghost of Ki-Adi-Mundi using his force powers from behind Luke, making him choose R2 and C3PO.
-When Darth Vader is interrogating Princess Leia in her cell, we're going to give the interrorgation robot a cute voice to make this scene a little more family friendly.
-When R2 goes to find Obi Wan, Jabba the Hutt's barge flies past.
-When the sand people surround Luke and the robots, one of them says (subtitled) "This one looks like the son of the one who murdered our cousin tribe".
-When Obi Wan appears, in a moment that's going to knock the audiences socks off, it will be Ewan McGregor playing him, aged with CG work.
-There will be a new scene on Coruscant in which Emperor Palpatine uses Force lightning to kill all of the senators in the senate chamber. When they're all dead, he will say "Senate disbanded."
-There will be a new scene on Dagobah in which Yoda is visibly upset over what has happened. He then looks to a photo of him and Chewbacca together.
-This blends into Chewbacca and Han at the Mos Eisley Cantina. In a really clever bit of continuity, Watto sees them and goes to a screen, activates it and says to Jabba the Hutt that he has found them and expects a reward.
-There will be a new scene in which Jabba dispatches Greedo to get Han. Some minor dialogue changes will cover the continuity of this.
-When Obi Wan and Luke return to his uncle's ranch, we're removing the charred bodies. Instead the Force ghost of Yaddle will inform them what has happened. This is far more family friendly.
-Obi Wan and Luke travel to Mos Eisely and in a huge camera pan we will see that a Pod Race is happening.
-In the "You don't need to see my identification" bit, Obi Wan will now use the force to make a rock hit each of the stormtroopers on the back of their heads knocking them out.
-There will be three musical numbers in the Catina, one of which will have a dance sequence.
-In the scene in which Greedo shoots Han, we're going to cut to Obi Wan, who it becomes evident is using the Force to ensure Greedo misses Han.
-We're going to insert new dialogue following the "under twelve parsecs" line in which Han will explain how a parsec is an impressive feat under the distance measurement of the Kessel run, and further convey what I was expressing with this scene.
-The meeting on the Death Star will have more Force lightning used on the Admiral challenging Darth Vader's "sorcerers ways". We're changing the line "I find your lack of faith disturbing" to "I find your lack of faith shocking" to support this.
-The scene will now be extended to include a hologram of Emperor Palpatine, who will now be the one to order Vader to "Release him".
CONTINUED ON MEMO PAGE 2. DO NOT DISTRIBUTE.
