UPDATE: The movie still isn't online but Topher Grace has published a trailer of his Star Wars Prequel edit online, watch it here. It not only clarifies the story, but makes the film a lot more action-packed. Whats better is that the character motivations are even more clear and identifiable, a real character arc not bogged down by podraces, galactic senates, Jar Jar Binks, politics or most of the needless parts of the Star Wars prequels. While I know the missing pieces and could even fill in the blanks in my head as the film raced past, none of those points were really needed. Whats most shocking is that with only 85 minutes of footage, Topher was able to completely tell the main narrative of Anakin Skywalker's road from Jedi to the Sith. And the result? Topher Grace's Star Wars film is probably the best possible edit of the Star Wars prequels given the footage released and available. What this means is a lot of footage ended up on the editing room floor, and a lot of creative choices were made in the editing process. It should be noted that the Star Wars prequel trilogy is almost 7 hours in total length, and the shortest film ( Episode 1) is more than 51 minutes longer than Grace's fan cut. The result is an 85-minute movie titled Star Wars: Episode III.5: The Editor Strikes Back. He even created a new opening text crawl to set up his version of the story. He used footage from all three prequels, a couple cuts from the original trilogy, some music from The Clone Wars television series, and even a dialogue bit from Anthony Daniels' (C-3PO) audio book recordings. His idea was to edit the Star Wars prequels into one movie, as they would provide him a lot of footage to work with. Instead of cutting a short film, he wanted to use something he was more familiar with. He recently became interested in the editing process and wanted to learn more about the art form. He loves the Star Wars films, the Back to the Future movies and all the same signature titles of any film geek who grew up in the 1980s. I was told I could blog about it afterwards if I wanted, so here goes.įor those of you who don't know, Topher Grace is a film geek. The event was held somewhere in the Hollywood area in a a screening room filled with filmmakers, editors, actors, actresses and only a few press friends. I was told the screening was a secret private event arranged only for friends only and was asked not to talk about it beforehand. It's worth checking out.Last month I received a cryptic e-mail inviting me to a private screening of a new Star Wars film edited by Topher Grace - which is funny because I had no idea there was a new Star Wars film in the works, with or without Grace's involvement. We discussed what we thought about the movie, and at a certain point, Newman and I had a rather lively debate about the prequels.įinally, Grace recently launched a website called cerealprize.
You can also watch the video blog I recorded after the screening with Peter from Slashfilm, Alex from First Showing and director Kyle Newman ( Fanboys) below the trailer. I'm really hoping Grace decides to show his cut at the some point in the future (like Comic-Con) because I think fans would get a kick out of seeing what he did with the films.įor a lot more on what Grace did with his edit, click here for my original article. However, maybe time and constantly being asked about it has started to change his mind, because Grace has just released a trailer for his cut of the films and you can watch it after the jump. At the time, Grace said it was a one-time screening and he sounded very adamant about his decision. When I first wrote about it, the one question everyone kept asking was, "how can I see it?" The unfortunate answer was never. Gone are the politics, General Grievous, Jar Jar Binks (except for one shot), the clone army, and about 99% of the first movie." His combined prequel trilogy moves quickly and omits huge chucks of story in favor of action and streamlining the narrative events of the prequels. As I said at the time, "while you may think there is no way to make the three films work as one coherent movie, Grace accomplished it with only a few minor flaws. Topher Grace Edited the STAR WARS Prequels into One 85-Minute Movie and now he has released a trailer.Ībout two years ago, I wrote about a very cool screening I got to attend: an 85-minute version of the three Star Wars prequels that was cut together by Topher Grace.