Rogue One Rogue One: The Battle of Scarif

Hi everyone! So I’ve decided to edit a version of Rogue One that revolves entirely around the Battle of Scarif. This was the most exciting sequence in the film by far, and I feel would make for an exciting 40-50 minute long film.

In order to make The Battle of Scarif stand on its own (meaning you wouldn’t necessarily need to see all of Rogue One to understand what happens in this cut), I’m making the following edits and adjustments:

• Insertion of an opening crawl (of course!). It will summarize the events that occur during the course of Rogue One that lead to the Scarif battle.
• First scene of the film is the confrontation between Krennic and Darth Vader, with some adjusted dialogue for Vader.
• The Rebels will still bicker over going to war, but this stuff will be trimmed. As will Cassian’s super long monologue about the Rebellion.
• I never found myself that invested in Rogue One’s characters to begin with, so a number of “character” scenes and lines will be adjusted. The main focus of the edit will be the battle itself and the actual recovery of the Death Star plans.
• Insertion of classic Star Wars music cues from John Williams. I’ve been going through the entire saga OST and will be dropping tracks where appropriate. Most people have agreed that Giacchino’s score just didn’t cut it. Not that I totally blame him; apparently he had 3-4 weeks to write and conduct everything.
• Various SFX enhancements. This is big. Because I’m adding new music cues throughout the film, this means that I have to remove some of Giacchino’s cues. Unfortunately the music sometimes bleeds across the 5.1 audio channels with the sound effects, meaning that I’ve had to rebuild the sound design for entire scenes where John Williams’ music is now. This has been by far the most time-consuming part of the edit, but thankfully there are some really great Star Wars SFX libraries online that I’ve been able to use for this.
• A light sprinkling of those old-school wipes and transitions from the other Star Wars films. Why not?
• The film ends with Vader slicing and dicing Rebel scum, and watching as the Tantive IV flies away. I considered removing Leia's scene, but then changed my mind. So it will end exactly as the theatrical version did.
• With credits and everything, the runtime of the edit will be around 45-50 minutes.

So there you go. If you’re in the mood to watch Rogue One but would rather skip straight to the 'splosions, check out. Rogue One: The Battle of Scarif. It will be edited in HD with 5.1 surround sound to ensure the highest possible audio/visual quality. I'm planning to make it available on May 4, but there are currently a few sample clips online. I don't want to share fan clips on this board, but you can either PM me or Google "Maple Films Rogue One" if you're interested!

 

So you're cutting out the most interesting parts of Rogue One. Thanks but no thanks.

 

That's funny, because most people I know feel the exact opposite way. Same for the majority of opinions I've read online too. I still thought Rogue One was a good movie, but it dragged a lot in the first half of its runtime. Things really pick up once they get to Scarif, and it features one of the best space battles out of any of the SW films. I can see myself wanting to skip the attempts at character development and Forest Whitaker's pet tentacle monster, so this edit will fit the bill for me at least. Maybe some others will agree, maybe they won't!

 

Most? Not sure about that.