Topher Grace Gives Star Wars Fans a New Hope and Re-Cuts The Prequels

If you’ve ever prayed to the geek gods for a Star Wars prequel that didn’t make you want to commit light-seppuku, get ready to say Grace.

When That 70s Show star Topher Grace decided he wanted to learn how to edit (presumably after watching Spider-Man 3), he decided to dive right into his dream project. He was going to do for real what fans everywhere have been doing with selective memory for the past 10 years: re-cut the Star Wars prequels.

Grace has cut The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith into ONE MASSIVE film telling the story of the life and “death” of Anakin Skywalker. And how much of the three films’ collective 7 hours of material made it into the supercut?

85 MINUTES! That’s right. According to neophyte editor Grace, only about 20% of Lucas’s vision was worth saving.

So what got left on the cutting room floor? According to folks who have seen the finished product, everything you’d expect. No podracing, Jake Lloyd, or “death sticks”. But, in an attempt to create a lean but cohesive narrative, Grace has also sacrificed a lot of the prequels’ great action sequences in order to focus on Anakin’s descent.

So when do fans get to see Episode 3.5: The Editor Strikes Back? Unfortunately, probably never. Less than a hundred people were handpicked by Grace to attend the screening, so no chance of a pirated copy, and Grace says he does not intend to release the cut online.

Unless we can get him to change his mind… Come, young Foreman. Give in to your anger over midichlorians. Think about Jar-Jar and let the hate flow through you. No? Oh well. So be it… editor.