I finally saw _Phantom Menace_ too (for the usual reason I see 'science
fiction' movies - a work freebie), and was fired with enthusiasm
for new possibilities in moviemaking.
To wit, diffs(1). I can't wait for it to come out on DVD; because
it could be a decent B-movie with nothing but redubbing the
dialog(2). I want C.J. Cherryh(3) to write new dialogue, any set
of good actors to record it in anonymous Dark of Night(4), and
then we can see the lovely cities and chase scenes *and* some
coherence to the sentient action.(5)
Improvement 1: Jar Jar and his people, currently an embarassment
to many and an irritation to most. Assume they're the only original sentients of
Naboo(6), driven into retreat & therefore both in a
technological spur-line and alarmed at seeing outsiders. Jar Jar
doesn't have to be an idiot. (Rename him; Asterix?) We also get a
better dramatic moment when Amidala asks for help if she admits
the white lie behind "we've always lived in peace but they
have a terrible inferiority complex". Nah; in the SW
universe, the good guys *especially* have blood in their history.
Use it. Bring on the reversal of fate; jack the guilt.
Improvement 2: For the PC, or just the minimally historically
aware, the "Trade Federation" - today's USA-fronting
WTO, plus Adm. Perry's marketing techniques! - gets Yankee
accents, not Nipponese ones. Rename somebody 'Kitchener'.
Improvement 3: you get to make your own improvements.
- It's particularly easy with digital media to issue a file
that's exactly the 'diff'erences between some public file and a
desired, edited version. One wouldn't change any released copy of
Ep1, just happen to add the diff to the DVD output before sending
it to your VCR. (No, there isn't common 'ware for doing this to
video yet -and in audio people tend to sample and reissue- but
the vast bulk of the data in a movie is graphics. Also see
footnote 3.)
- Dubbing, not redubbing? Hard to tell. I thought the human
actors were trying to ignore most of the dialogue as they spoke
it.
- Or anyone else competent with Livy, hyperdrives, and dialogue.
- AFAIK it might be perfectly legal to issue diffs for
copyrighted works, as it doesn't change the original work or even
reduce the market. I would expect copyright owners to get twitchy
about it.
- I don't think anyone could make it coherent as science fiction.
- Which they'd better be, so we can avoid wondering how
humanoids from different planets are interfertile.
