Warren Ellis has been working on the script for this project since 2006, back when it was supposed to be an 80 minute direct to DVD animated movie. He used to talk about it on his mailing list.

These type of edits always miss the point, like if we just had more lightsaber fights and incoherent space battles with no stakes per minute, the movies would somehow be better. That the Republic gets destroyed by Jar-Jar Binks as the Emperor's patsy is one of the best parts of the prequel trilogy.