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Star Wars Standalone film ideas


Odine
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Title says it all. There are multiple threads with people writing banging ideas so I thought maybe some could be consolidated.

 

I had a thought what might make an interesting film would be an adaptation of the Odyssey.

 

The film could begin with a crippled star destroyer that has suffered catastrophic damage after a battle with the rebels/resistance. We follow the imperial captain as he tries to help his crew survive as the ship burns through the atmosphere of some planet and crash lands on a strange world. Where they are stranded, without communication and forgotten about. Left to die.

 

Initially we don't like the captain because he is an imperial/first order officer. But slowly we learn to see he is just a human and he grows likeable as he tries to keep his surviving crew alive and lead an escape from the planet they are on.

 

He leads the surviving crew on a bizzare voyage from planet to planet (they have no hyperdrive ship for now) where they encounter strange people and beings who offer "aid" (insert trick/disrupt/kill where appropriate) on their journey. This is where Greek myth can be pillaged and adapted to suit the story.

 

The captain is driven by his desire to make it home to his wife/or son etc and the crew are in it to get back to safe space and make it to their respective territories.

 

It could be a single film, but might feel rushed. A two film story might work. But the Greek epics are filled with material to make a compelling film along these lines.

 

What do you think? And what have you Got?

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Guest El Chalupacabra

I have a few ideas I already mentioned in other threads, but I will repeat it here. Nothing really fleshed out but....

 

Firefox/Rebel Assault II style story

 

Basically, in the style of Rogue One (I'd like to see the writers, directors, producers from Rogue One do this type of story), set between ANH and TESB. Admittedly, this is not a new idea, as both Firefox, and Rebel Assault II use this theme, which itself is just a variation of "capture the super weapon/capture the plans to avoid certain defeat" themes used ad nauseum everywhere, but it is a simple, effective, and it is a very Star Wars theme, nonetheless. The rebels get word of a new, experimental TIE, capable of cloaking. We know cloaks exist in Star Wars, because according to the TESB line where Han evades a Star Destroyer by parking the falcon on the Star Destroyer hull, the imperial officer ponders if he was cloaked, and the other imperial officer responds that not on a ship that small.

 

So, the rebellion hires an ex imperial gone mercenary and expert pilot (basically a Kyle Katarn type), who actually has worked for both sides of the war, including against the rebels at one point (both as an imperial, as well as a merc). Mon Mothma hires him anyway, as he is best suited for the job, along with a commando team to get the pilot in. There are actually two missions: steal the experimental cloaking TIE prototype for the pilot, and the commando team must destroy all records of it, as well as the facility, the only facility of its type capable of production of said ship, that is producing it.

 

The pilot character should be totally chaotic neutral, is NOT altruistic, and is really just doing it for the money and the fact he has a grudge against the imperial commander overseeing the experimental cloaking TIE project. The imperial commander is revealed to have framed and expelled the pilot from the imperial navy years before. During the mission it is revealed that there are two of these experimental cloaking TIEs (like Firefox). The movie ends with the pilot successfully stealing the TIE, the commandos destroying the facility and plans, and a dog fight between the rebel merc pilot, and the imperial commander whom he has a grudge with in the other prototype.

 

If Clint Eastwood were young enough, I'd like him to play the pilot, but that is impossible. So, maybe an actor who has that kind of Dirty Harry vibe. Unfortunately, no one comes to mind. The guy who played Cassian Andor would be great, too, but they killed him off in R1.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

Fall of the Sith Order

 

I've also recently mentioned I'd like to see a film with a Sith or dark side user focus. One idea I threw out there was the fall of the Sith Order. This could be set 1000 BBY during the Old Republic (not necessarily KOTOR...by Old Republic, I mean pre PT). I would like to see such a film told almost exclusively from the point of view from the Sith, with the Jedi and Republic featured, but as the "antagonists" and not featured as much. Now, I think the Sith should be clearly and irredeemably evil, but the story should be told almost like an "anti-hero's journey," with a young sith apprentice, and his master seeking to overthrow the head of the Sith order as an A plot, with a B plot of the Jedi and Republic planning a final assault on the Sith Order, their capital planet, to end a bitter war. The Sith apprentice, who goes by his birth name (as he hasn't earned his Darth Title yet) is later revealed to become Darth Bane. His master, is a wise, and powerful Lady of the Sith, second only to the head of the Sith Order. I haven't worked out most of the plot, but suffice it to say that while the sith apprentice and Lady of the Sith successfully wrest power from the head of the Sith Order, they do not rule the Sith for long, as the Jedi and Republic forces mount an invasion of the Sith capital planet, and slaughter the Sith Order. The movie ends with the Jedi and Republic giving no quarter, and Darth Bane escaping, who goes on to form the rule of two, and recruiting his new apprentice.

 

One idea is this could all actually be a story told by Yoda, to Obi Wan, or Luke.

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Fall of the Sith Order

 

I've also recently mentioned I'd like to see a film with a Sith or dark side user focus. One idea I threw out there was the fall of the Sith Order. This could be set 1000 BBY during the Old Republic (not necessarily KOTOR...by Old Republic, I mean pre PT). I would like to see such a film told almost exclusively from the point of view from the Sith, with the Jedi and Republic featured, but as the "antagonists" and not featured as much. Now, I think the Sith should be clearly and irredeemably evil, but the story should be told almost like an "anti-hero's journey," with a young sith apprentice, and his master seeking to overthrow the head of the Sith order as an A plot, with a B plot of the Jedi and Republic planning a final assault on the Sith Order, their capital planet, to end a bitter war. The Sith apprentice, who goes by his birth name (as he hasn't earned his Darth Title yet) is later revealed to become Darth Bane. His master, is a wise, and powerful Lady of the Sith, second only to the head of the Sith Order. I haven't worked out most of the plot, but suffice it to say that while the sith apprentice and Lady of the Sith successfully wrest power from the head of the Sith Order, they do not rule the Sith for long, as the Jedi and Republic forces mount an invasion of the Sith capital planet, and slaughter the Sith Order. The movie ends with the Jedi and Republic giving no quarter, and Darth Bane escaping, who goes on to form the rule of two, and recruiting his new apprentice.

 

One idea is this could all actually be a story told by Yoda, to Obi Wan, or Luke.

Into it

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All of my ideas will either be Legends-friendly, meaning they can conceivably fit within both canons like Rogue One, or completely Legends.


Star Wars

 

Star Wars is an idea that springs completely from the continuity of the old canon that I was hoping would be compatible with both canons to attract more viewers, but I've heard that the new film out now changes the Jedi Order's planet of origin so Star Wars will be 100% Legends. It is a story I have been trying to write for over a decade and have had to scrap several times and start over from scratch due to new information being released from LucasFilm about this era, since I wanted my story to be completely EU-friendly. Sadly, when Dark Horse comics decided to tell the same story with Dawn of the Jedi, with a heavy heart I stopped writing my story. But with Disney's acquisition of LucasFilm, the EU being decanonized, and the Star Wars license being transferred from Dark Horse back to Marvel, Dawn of the Jedi was never completed and we never actually saw the creation of the Jedi Order as was intended. My newest revision of Star Wars would be reworked to incorporate the events of Dawn of the Jedi into its back story, necessarily drastically changing several events and characters.

As established in Dawn of the Jedi, the setting is 25,783 years before the Battle of Yavin. On the planet Tython, a decade-long conflict known as the Force Wars rages on. The Je'daii Order (the precursor to the Jedi Order), a 10,000-year-old monastic/warrior religion having previously practiced balance and harmony between the light and dark aspects of the Force, now sees itself rent in two as the followers of Ashla (the light side) battle the followers of Bogan (the dark side). On one of the planet's moons, a prominent Je'daii Master by the name of Rajivari, retreating from the conflict on Tython, seeks the wisdom of exiled Je'daii elder devoted to the light by the name of Kane Valor, also known as the Sky Walker, who lives as a hermit in the desert. The two of them decide to form their own new order, but disagree on how to gain new followers. Kane is content with letting the order grow slowly and organically as it attracts locals, whereas Rajivari wishes to return to Tython and recruit more of the Je'daii following the path of the light. Kane begrudgingly blesses Rajivari to do so, despite having a premonition in the Force that he will bring greater darkness in doing so.

 

Meanwhile, back on Coruscant--which at this time is under the control of the Infinite Empire of the Rakatta, a Force-sensitive species enforcing their will on the galaxy through the dark side--Kane's daughter Hannah Valor slowly earns enough money working as a gladiator, saving up to return to buy her freedom from slaver and leave Coruscant. She is aware of what her father does on Tython and believes him a fool for "chasing after shadows." Hannah does not believe in the supernatural.

Facing her final opponent, a towering Taung by the name of Laeus, and inexplicably experiencing a vision as real as life itself where she is slain by her opponent and is absorbed into some cosmic energy greater than the universe itself, Hannah is able to defeat Laeus. Now free, Hannah leaves Coruscant, remembering her vision and seeking out her father on Tython's moon. Finding an entire community of followers having risen up around her father--calling themselves Jedi, a local dialectic corruption of Je'daii--father and daughter are reunited. Despite many protestations, Hannah is able to overcome her doubts and learn the ways of the Force. She makes friends with several other Jedi of various species.

One night, Rajivari and several followers return from Tython. Rajivari converses with Kane in his dwelling about his newfound insight and his devotion to a mysterious deity known as Krath, whom he reveals speaks to him on a daily basis. Kane senses the taint of Bogan within Rajivari, but being a practitioner of nonviolence, he does not raise his hand against his former student, despite the latter's clear intent to kill his old master. Rajivari Force chokes Kane, who still offers no resistance but simply sits on his floor mat patiently, never breaking eye contact. When Kane dies, his body is absorbed into the Force. Rajivari and his followers return to Tython and unite form an alliance with the followers of Bogan.

Hannah discovers her father's empty hut the next day and instantly knows that something is amiss. Visited by the spirit of her father, he informs her of what has happened, and that he blames himself for allowing Rajivari to return to Tython, believing a much worse conflict is coming. He recognizes that Rajivari is under the influence of a malevolent ethereal being, whom Rajivari mistakes for a god.

Hannah and her closest Jedi take up arms, and so are born the Jedi Knights. Returning to Tython and allying with the followers of Ashla, they do battle with the Rajivari and his minions. Over the course of the story they learn about an ancient, enigmatic race of beings known as the Celestials. These were transcendent beings who influenced the minds of various species and built their corporeal empire through slave labor, ruling over them mystically from a higher plane of existence. One such slave race was the Kwa, who built various Infinity Gates all over the galaxy, one of which is located on Tython, but they cannot determine how to use it.

Eventually led to the ancient, fabled planet of Ondos, they discover nothing but a lifeless, planet-sides spherical rock wondering aimlessly through space. In their space suits, Hannah once again sees a vision of her father, who instructs her to join hands with her fellows as they concentrate through the Force and join their minds as one, allowing them to perceive the ancient wonder of this planet. Opening their eyes and feeling fresh air fill their lungs, they are in awe as they find their spacesuits gone as they stand barefoot in simple robes in lush grace, a paradisaical garden setting complete with trees, animals, and a rushing waterfall surrounding them. Hannah also finds her father in a completely corporeal state, as flesh-and-blood as he was when he was alive, allowing father and daughter to embrace as they never had before.

Suddenly, they are joined by beings who mirror the same humanoid races as all of the Jedi present--a human, a Twi'lek, etc. Calling themselves the Whills, they reveal that these are not their true forms, but that they were the progenitors of all humanoid species in the galaxy, indicating common ancestry, and are appearing in the forms of their descendants because it has been so long that they no longer remember their true forms. This was the first race of beings in the galaxy to have discovered the Force (or what Tythonese peoples call the Force; they obviously would have called it something different) and learned to commune with it, millions of years ago. They mastered it to such a degree that they were able to become one with the Force not just upon death, but while alive as well, to the point where the entire species transfigured into the incorporeal plane of existence that is the Netherworld of the Force, taking all life on Ondos with them, including all animal life and vegetation, leaving the planet's physical form a lifeless rock seemingly traveling aimlessly. In reality, the Whills use the world as a vehicle and control its course from their ethereal plane of existence where the Jedi now find themselves.

It is further revealed that there was a schism within the Whills in more recent history, mirroring on an incorporeal level the same this that the Je'daii of Tython now experience. The fallen faction of Whills, driven from Ondos, scoured the galaxy for beings to manipulate. Finding the Kwa and others, they constructed an empire and became known to history as the Celestials. Krath was one of these Celestials. With the Whills' intervention, they were able to banish the Celestials to the Void, though Krath cunningly escaped. Manipulating events on Tython, Krath has now found a willing follower in Rajivari, and will summon the other Celestials back from the Void should the dark side triumph over the light, which is now a real possibility.

Finding themselves back in their spacesuits, the garden world and the Whills gone, and Kane once again appearing as a Force ghost, he begs Hannah to stop Rajivari. The Jedi once again depart for Tython.

I haven't fully developed how events play out, but eventually we see huge losses on both sides, but not true defeat. Eventually, Hannah and Rajivari square off against one another, the latter having been severely physically altered by allowing Krath to use his body as a vessel. Hannah narrowly defeats Rajivari by running him through with her sword (lightsabers don't come around for another 10,000 years or so, by the way). In his last moments, Rajivari repents of his evil deeds. Though he has died redeemed, Krath, having embedded himself so deeply into Rajivari's mind, takes over the body and pummels Hannah with Force energy so intense and unlike anything she had ever seen before that she does not stand a change. Speaking to her mind, her father Kane tells Hannah to let him handle this one, and he takes over, not dominating Hannah's mind and body but merging the two into one, working in tandum. They fight against Krath on a corporeal as well as incorporeal level, mainly being a battle of wills (no pun intended). Kane and Hannah are able to triumph over Krath's consciousness and dissipate it into nothingness, but not before discovering that he has already opened the ethereal tunnel to the void for his fellow Celestials.

Kane releases Hannah, but says that he will always be a part of her (or something to that effect, meaning it metaphorically). With the followers of Bogan weakened, the new Jedi Knights prepare for not only for retaliation but for the inevitable Celestial invasion, thus setting the stage for sequels.




Untitled Yoda Origins Story

This is one that hopefully would be friendly to both canons, but drawing almost completely from Legends. Completely adapting what is known about Yoda's early life from supplemental materials (see the sections entitled "Early Life," "Jedi Master" and "Early Engagements"), we meet Yoda 175 years after the fall of the Sith, where he is an eccentric little brat living as a thief to make ends meet, but he has a strong connection to the Force. Though he was born just a hundred years after the conflict that destroyed the Sith, he knows that his uncle was one of those Jedi who battled the Sith and perished in the Seventh Battle of Ruusan. Finding himself and his best friend stranded on a mysterious swampy planet, they encounter Jedi Master N'Kata Del Gormo, who instructs them in the way of the Force. I have not yet worked out what conflict the film would see.



I'm drawing a blank on my other ideas at the moment. Basically, they would involve a young Qui-Gon Jinn and possibly Boba Fett, all completely compatible with the EU but new-canon friendly as well. Only Star Wars is old-canon only because they changed the planet of origin for the Jedi in the new canon.

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I think there is a story to be told about how people get away from the Empire. And or why they settle away from the Republic on those remote and desolate worlds. The story likely is within a couple generations of a family, and those that are not willing to join the front lines. Just people trying to live. What is heroism, cowardice, romance. What happens to indigenous cultures on these worlds. The more intimate, humanitarian underside of cyclical galactic war. Could be Thorn Birdish, historically Underground Railroadish. I suppose all themes that may well suit an older broken Obi-Wan Kenobi.

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Title says it all. There are multiple threads with people writing banging ideas so I thought maybe some could be consolidated.

 

I had a thought what might make an interesting film would be an adaptation of the Odyssey.

 

The film could begin with a crippled star destroyer that has suffered catastrophic damage after a battle with the rebels/resistance. We follow the imperial captain as he tries to help his crew survive as the ship burns through the atmosphere of some planet and crash lands on a strange world. Where they are stranded, without communication and forgotten about. Left to die.

 

Initially we don't like the captain because he is an imperial/first order officer. But slowly we learn to see he is just a human and he grows likeable as he tries to keep his surviving crew alive and lead an escape from the planet they are on.

 

He leads the surviving crew on a bizzare voyage from planet to planet (they have no hyperdrive ship for now) where they encounter strange people and beings who offer "aid" (insert trick/disrupt/kill where appropriate) on their journey. This is where Greek myth can be pillaged and adapted to suit the story.

 

The captain is driven by his desire to make it home to his wife/or son etc and the crew are in it to get back to safe space and make it to their respective territories.

 

It could be a single film, but might feel rushed. A two film story might work. But the Greek epics are filled with material to make a compelling film along these lines.

 

What do you think? And what have you Got?

Brilliant!!

 

I'm with Mara Jade. We need an X-Wing series with Wedge Antilles. They could still fit it in the current Canon. Boy coming back here reminds me of much I loved discussing the EU back in the day :) I'm reading the Aftermath series at the moment...

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Just as an FYI, before Dawn of the Jedi came out, the story went through several incarnation. The latest one mirrors the one described above almost exactly, except that there was no Je'daii Order, the Force Wars of Tython erupted between several Force-using religions, and Kane retreated into a desert on Tython, not its moon. Ashla and Bogan were still the terms used for the light and dark sides of the Force at this time period, except it had not been established that those were the names of Tython's two moons (Did I mention that? If not, it is Ashla where Kane has gone for solitude in the final version), but rather were taken from the names of deities in local mythology.

 

There was no Rajivari--he was actually introduced by The Old Republic MMO. Rather, Kane had a son and a daughter--Deak and Hannah--and the two of them retreated to Coruscant with their mother until the latter died. Deak cared for Hannah until she was of age, but then went to meet his father on Tython, just as Rajivari goes to meet Kane on Ashla, leaving Hannah an abandoned atheist to fend for herself. The gladiatorial sparring match, Force vision, and going to Tython to meet her father are pretty much still the same. Eventually, Deak would betray his father and join Bogan (the dark side) and come under the influence of Krath, but would be a one-man show. He wasn't going to have any followers.

An earlier version saw Kane Valor with the name of Clian Ormon, and the protagonist was his son, Jaminius Ormon, a male who was the early version of Hanna. One of Clian's closest disciples, Lettow, would fall to the dark side and cause the same havok that Deak/Rajivari would, by himself. Eventually, the Force would begin to consume his body, as well as his soul, until there was nothing left but a shell known as the Bogan Demon, later named Krath (inspired by a Sith cult in the Tales of the Jedi comics of the same name, said to be named after a demon from their childhood stories. I figured this could serve as that inspiration).

In a way earlier version, the Sky Walker figure himself was the protagonist, and his name was Anton Climac.

All of this was inspired by George Lucas' back stories in his original draft of Star Wars, which saw a Jedi Order founded long ago by a holy man called "the Skywalker," mixed with the established EU canon at the time. My Sky Walker figure--Anton Climac/Clian Ormon/Kane Valor--had his character based mainly off of Saint Anthony the Great, the founder of Christian monasticism. The story of the first Jedi closely resembles that of the first Christian monk, including his self-imposed exile in the desert, pilgrims coming to see him and staying, and a community growing around him. Also, it is with a heavy heart that I scrapped the brother-sister angle, not just so that the story would fit established lore, but because there was recently released a novel called Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void which stars a female Je'daii Ranger named Lanorie Brock, dealing with her fallen brother. I thought the story was too similar to mine, especially taking place in such close proximity to mine. The characters of that story may even be around during mine, or Hannah may even meet Lanorie.

As you can see, this story is my baby. Seriously, what did you guys think? Any suggestions? Comments in general? Not so much for this post here, but for my other post above?

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