Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ⭐️⭐️½
You’ve probably heard of the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement, but if not, it’s Zack Snyder saying he has an alternate, extended cut of the movie Justice League. Some have seen this cut and are urging Warner Bros. to finish and release the Snyder cut.
And guess what? They are … in 2021 on HBO Max.
A rumor also exists that George Lucas has a cut of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ⭐️⭐️½
Doomcock adds, “According to my source’s sources Lucas was shocked at how much of his work was missing.” Doomcock concludes the video by campaigning for Disney and Lucasfilm to release this alleged George Lucas cut of the film.
A New Rumor Reveals George Lucas’ Initial Reactions to Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi and J.J. Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker – Bounding Into Comics
No idea if Doomcock’s sources are accurate, but I wouldn’t get too excited for a #ReleaseGeorgeLucasCut movement, but it is something Disney should at least consider.
Recently, I saw the Doctor Sleep: Director’s Cut ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ and Rambo: Last Blood Extended Cut ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ and enjoyed both. I think this is another great way to enhance the movies seen in theaters on streaming services. Release the theatrical cut in theater and extended/director’s/etc. cut on streaming.
How about alternate director’s cuts? For example, could James Cameron cut a better Terminator: Dark Fate than what Tim Miller cut? This kind of thing could open Pandora’s Box, but it makes me wonder.
Alternate cuts could get out of hand, but it’s something creatively to ponder. What do you think? Do you enjoy seeing alternate cuts of films?
Movies, Movies, Movies 
George Lucas retired from Lucasfilm in 2012. He is not actively directing, nor is he involved in the operations of Lucasfilm. So even if he did express his opinion on The Rise of Skywalker, there’s no way (legally or otherwise) that there could be a “George Lucas Cut” of a movie he had no hand in making.
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Hmm, not sure I agree. I don’t know if Doomcock’s rumor is true or not, but George Lucas’ retirement is questionable at best. He’s been a consultant at least (on the set of The Mandalorian, pretty close to Kathleen Kennedy through the years). As for legality? It’s owned by Disney, they bought Star Wars lock, stock and barrel, so if they want to roll out a George Lucas edited cut of Rise of Skywalker, what legalities would stop them? Am I missing something there?
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Consulting on a show is one thing. Taking over another director’s film? Not credible. He didn’t produce any of the Sequel Trilogy films; he only has a Based on Characters byline in those films. The most likely scenario is that JJ Abrams might have consulted with Lucas about the whole Palpatine thing, considering that on the audio commentaries of Revenge of the Sith he stated that only the Jedi could become Force ghosts.
I don’t think this particular rumor is true.
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Am not sure I believe this rumor either, but then there was a faction of people who didn’t believe the Snyder cut existed and there was no way DC and Warner Bros. would ever release it. Over in the DC forums some very, very passionate arguments online have happened over that. Now, we find out this is very true, the cut exists, and HBO Max is going to have it in 2021.
The streaming services are literally starved for new content right now and waving their wallets in the air. This is a shark in the water with bloody chum situation. Great time to be holding onto any kind of content that can drive people to a streaming service to subscribe and/or stay subscribed.
It wouldn’t shock me if George Lucas with Abrams’ blessing (and it’s unlikely Abrams says no to George Lucas) to share a recut of the film based on characters Lucas created.
If the original director gives his blessing to another director to recut the film, and the studio that owns the IP agrees, I don’t see any problem with allowing an alternative cut to be presented. Those who aren’t interested don’t have to watch.
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Again, I strongly disagree with the notion that Lucas has participated in any hands on way with The Rise of Skywalker.
As for the Snyder cut, that is a different story. Snyder had been making Justice League before he withdrew due to a family tragedy. I have no doubt that there is a Snyder cut of the Justice League movie.
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Ah, think I see what you’re saying now.
I don’t believe anybody is suggesting that Lucas participated in any hands-on way with Rise of Skywalker during the filming other than perhaps being a knowledgeable source on the characters and cannon. Is that what you believe as well?
What I am understanding, and honestly I didn’t dig that deeply into all of it because I don’t spend a lot of time digging into rumors, is that George Lucas *may* (or may not) have cut a version of Rise of Skywalker different than Abrams. Does that seem far-fetched? Yes. But who knows if Abrams and Disney said to George, here’s all the raw footage. Go ahead and make some cuts and see what you can do? Extremely implausible, but impossible? No.
Am I OK if he did and Abrams gave his blessing to see that released? Yes.
This might also be a case of speculation on Doomcock’s sources. Maybe Abrams, Kennedy and Disney discussed with George the possibility of cutting the film after the fact? Hey, here’s our raw footage, see if you can do better with this than we did? It can make a huge different how a film is edited with two different viewpoints using the same source material.
It’s well known that George Lucas LOVES to tinker around with Star Wars cuts. How many versions of the original films have there been (that’s rhetorical). So, that’s why when I saw this, it made me think there might be some fire where there is smoke.
Think you and I fundamentally agree, but we’re coming at this from two different angles, maybe.
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This is a good post in context made in the past to revisit: https://moviereviewsbyus.com/2020/01/03/15-more-star-wars-rise-of-skywalker-reviews-disney-placates-george-lucas-boyega-under-fire/
I will say this: Disney has had an odd relationship with George Lucas involving Star Wars post sale. Do they want him involved or not? When things aren’t going good with it, they seem to want him in, when it’s going great and George disagrees, it’s like he’s the crazy uncle.
I don’t know what to think of these rumors and, honestly, don’t know if he’d have done any better closing out the 9 films than Abrams did. I’m going with my original belief that they should have just stopped after the original trilogy.
It was fine to continue on with other Star Wars stories, the galaxy is large, but we didn’t really need any more told on the original characters in that timeline.
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I enjoy Director’s Cuts when they add substantially to the piece and feels like more in line with the vision of the movie the Director wanted. For example, Midsommar’s Director’s Cut last year added 23 minutes and was re-released to the theaters. As someone who saw the theatrical cut twice already, I knew I had to see this longer version and appreciated I could see it in theaters. That being said, Avenger’s Endgames extended cut sucked. I have no idea how Disney thought adding a few minutes of nonsense scenes would enhance the experience and wish that that cut had just been released on VOD/Physical Media later as opposed to another theatrical release.
On the issue of cuts by other people, I feel conflicted. Is it possible that someone else could edit the movie better than the cut put in theaters? Yes. However, I think once you have someone who’s not the Director releasing the newer cut it begs the question of why that cut wasn’t what went out to theaters originally. In the context of the Terminator example you bring up, I think a Cameron cut would be cool. My issue is that feels like an insult to Miller because A- it sidesteps his vision and B- Cameron served as producer and helped write the story already. If he had any huge issues with the original cut you’d think he’d have been able to voice those grievances/improvements during the original editing process as opposed to making his own cut. The way I usually process a DC is there’s a discrepancy between the Director vs producers/test audiences (in the case of Midsommar people were already complaining about the length of the original cut so it makes sense that the DC was released afterwards so bigger fans who didn’t mind the length could enjoy it) so a change has to be made that affects the artistic vision of the director. As such, a DC gives them artistic control again. Alternative cuts by other people don’t elicit the same response from me.
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An excellent response and I agree.
I think for me with James Cameron is that he was busy and distracted filming Avatar and there were clearly disagreements between Miller and him for that movie as it came out. Why those weren’t ironed out as you stated I don’t know (time is my guess — impatience to get the movie out on time and also Cameron probably wanted to respect Miller’s space as a director). I’m curious what changes he would have made to make a better Terminator film. Sadly, we may never see such a thing happen.
Then again, perhaps Cameron goes and does a Terminator TV show and directs some episodes there.
In the case of George Lucas? What could he bring to Rise of Skywalker? Probably nothing.
I’m with you that it’s very conflicting thinking of another director cutting somebody else’s film, but we essentially got that with Justice League when Snyder left the project and Whedon came in. Snyder contends that only about a fourth of the footage he shot was used in the original film. So when HBO Max comes out with the Snyder cut in 2021, we’ll essentially be seeing a movie as it was originally intended by the original director. These are special cases that I feel make sense.
Does every movie deserve a DC or EC? No.
In Star Wars, it will always be George Lucas’ baby, even if other people come in and tell the stories. Could he take their film and make a better movie out of it by cutting it differently with the footage available? It’s an interesting and admittedly controversial suggestion. The answer here is probably no, but these are strange times in the movie business and world. Perhaps we’d get some different creative visions of the same property and the best would rise to the top.
Confusing for those of us trying to review the definitive version? Absolutely, but maybe offering someone with a better creative vision to give us the film we love and weren’t provided with the first vision.
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These are some good point. It’s weird with both Cameron and Lucas being the original creators and almost life essence of the Terminator and Star Wars Franchises respectively. Maybe their position does warrant a special cut of sorts, just to see where it would’ve gone had it been fully under the influence of the creator. Parts of me are especially interested given how disappointing I found both Episode IX and Dark Fate.
In the case of the Snyder cut, I definitely agree. The fact that the stars of the movie on top of the director being so vocal on the differences has me squarely in his camp (even if I kind of liked Whedon’s charm in the movie). There’s a morbid curiosity in seeing just where Snyder’s depressing vision could’ve gone and after all the hype, I hope for his sake, that it’s worth it. But even if it’s not, I’m glad he’s getting his own cut.
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