I was on fire after that workout. I felt focused and  my mind was clearer. It was prime real estate for day dreams to invade. I imagined what it would be like to work for a prominent director like Dexter Shuman. The rogue indie film maker, characterized by his slick silver hair and devil may care attitude, made for a good adventure fantasy.

I pretended to have production meetings, imagining what it would be like to be on the production team for his cult classic Right as Rain. A sequel was released a few years ago and it was horrible. Everyone compared it to the Star Wars prequels. It was that bad. The film used different actors, different settings and a different director. Dexter was nowhere to be found for comment.

But what if he was?

“It was definitely a terminal case of sequalitus.” I explained. “The entire plot was rehashed into another story with nothing new. Comparing the new trilogy to the first Star Wars film in the series shows how that was a perfect movie and was followed up by a perfect sequel.”

“What makes the second film a good sequel then?” Dexter asks.

“The Empire Strikes Back is an ideal sequel because it takes the material further, and expands on it. The interesting part was that the third film was the perfect example of how not to make a sequel.”

“So the third film is the bad version of a sequel?” Dexter follows up.

“Hypothetically, if Return of the Jedi was the second film and there was no Empire, then some we can see some shocking insights. The third film, what I call The Empire Strikes Again, repeated the previous events without creating anything new. In the first story, the climax occurs when the Death Star is destroyed. In true stereotypical sequel fashion, the other movie ends with another Death Star. It's clear that the first attempt at Star Wars bothered Lucas and he was obsessed with correcting some of the scenes, even if that meant making the entire film again. He got his bigger Death Star battle and a land battle like he planned on originally. That's no moon, that's George Lucas' ego.”

“He did deserve a lot of credit though.” Dexter weighs in.

“Of course. He knew what he wanted but his team helped guide him to make the best decisions for the movie. Later on he would force the story to be completely his way.” 

“The simple story of space Nazis was relatable to everyone at first. He had to know what he was doing in the beginning. The core structure was laid out in a book Lucas had read, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, about the Hero's Journey, the simplified blueprint for all storytelling. Ancient myths and folk tales were similar because of a certain logic that binds them together. The path is a circle where a hero goes on a quest to a magical land and returns having changed, for better or for worse.”

“That’s true. Lucas pulled off quite a feat with those first two films. It seems like the more he took over though, and shut other people out, the worse the movies got. He was definitely a good artist, but by himself he didn’t know what he was doing.”

“How would you fix The Phantom Menace?” Dexter hypothizes.

“That’s a tough question. I suppose if I wasn’t allowed to just scrap it and start over I could rework the story elements into something coherent somehow.” I began.

“First, cut Qui-gon Jin out of the story completely.” I continue. “He is redundant. That way we can focus on Obi-Wan. The story could be about something more important to him like discovering an ancient Jedi temple on Naboo. At some point he runs into Ankin, but the kid should be more adventurous and involved in the story. Maybe he stows away on Obi’s ship and gets caught up in the plot. When the Jedi discovers the underwater temple on Naboo, he finds a magic power source from an extinct civilization that contains the secrets to the origin of the Jedi. It is compromised when Darth Maul tries to take it over for the bad guys. During the fight, Obi-wan is injured and has no choice but to throw his lightsaber only to miss. Darth Maul is pleased, but the plan was to puncture the glass ceiling to destroy the temple instead.”

All of these ideas poured out of me like hot magma. I began to consider actually making this movie myself.

“Then what happens?” Dexter asked.

“The two heroes make a desperate escape as the water comes rushing in-” I get interrupted.

The smell of smoke brought me back to reality. Then it started raining. I looked around just in time to see Suez walk into the home. Crone must have lit a cigarette while I was zoning out and  the sprinklers went off. As I stood from the sopping wet recliner, I saw that it was the striped chair in the corner of the room. Theo was nowhere in sight.

“Billy, what happened?!” Suez bellowed. “After the other night, this is strike two! Three strikes and you're gone!”