Behold: The No-Budget Remake of 'The Empire Strikes Back' by 1,500 Fans

 By 
Chris Taylor
 on 
Behold: The No-Budget Remake of 'The Empire Strikes Back' by 1,500 Fans
The climactic moment of Empire Strikes Back Uncut stars cats. Also babies. Credit: Casey Pugh

Star Wars fans: Doing anything for the next two hours? No? Good. Then put your feet up and watch the surreal crowdsourced craziness that is Empire Strikes Back Uncut -- a shot-for-shot remake of the 1980 classic, below.

Whereas the original had a budget of $33 million (or about $114 million in today's dollars), this version had more modest funding -- something along the lines of, oh, let's say a nice, round $0.

Crowdsourced with the help of 1,500 fans who each selected 15 seconds of the movie to reshoot, the stitched-together version is a madcap mixture of the most creatively cheap scenes you can imagine. One second Han Solo and Princess Leia are kissing in the carbonite chamber -- well, some guy playing Han and a dachshund in a Leia outfit -- the next second, we're watching an homage to the classic A-ha video Take On Me.

Once you're done with this version -- starring cats, kids, babies, cookies, potatoes, and anything else the hundreds of amateur filmmakers had on hand -- you can watch the original Emmy award-winning Star Wars Uncut from 2009, below. Or head over here and read our interview with Casey Pugh, the designer and engineer behind this Lucasfilm-approved lunacy.

Impressive, fans. Most impressive.

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