Moth3r said:

Repeating this, 'cos it always makes me chuckle:

zombie84 said:

Steve Sansweet has his head so far up George Lucas' ass he could probably see Rick McCallum's feet.

LOL. Yep, the only reason he's leaving Lucasfilm is because Lucas had a bowel movement.

He must have expressed an opinion not sanctioned by Lucas.

I'll always remember him for his "this is the best these films have ever looked" comment when unveiling the GOUT a few years back.

Wonder what he's going to do with the warehouses of crap now.

I know the current rumor is that the BD's are scheduled to come out around the end of '11 but it's possible they could show up in May, more or less in sync with the traditional SW theatrical release date, right?

Sansweet announced that in April 2011 he will be leaving the company

So, he's leaving in April.  Let's say for the sake of argument that the BD's will come out in May.

. . .  ',:-|

Pretty interesting timing, huh?  Think maybe he knows for sure something we all suspect and wants to avoid the backlash?

Love or hate the guy, he has an impressive collection of SW items a lot of us wish we could have had, or still owned today. To label the entire collection "crap", or wish it to burn is really not cool. :/

Its ridiculous to say all those things (Celebration, Insider) would not have happened without Sansweet. What a bunch of propaganda. Its also asinine to say LFL was anti-fan until Sansweet came onboard--the fan club was actually a much better place and SW Insider was a magnificent mag under the guidance of fan club president Dan Madison.

Although I will say that Sansweet basically put out a focal point for the burgeoning collecting community in the early and mid 1990s, before it got huge, before the internet as well. Hats off to him I guess. Unfortunately, in hindsight this was the beginning of the end, as it made LFL realize the possibilities of milking the franchise, and his close relations starting in the later 1990s kicked off a new and unprecidented era of SW shit merchandising and total oversaturation of product placement.

But again--any of this stuff would have happened without him anyway. SW was too big for it not to.

SilverWook said:
Love or hate the guy, he has an impressive collection of SW items a lot of us wish we could have had, or still owned today. To label the entire collection "crap", or wish it to burn is really not cool. :/

Sorry I wasn't clear, I wasn't labeling the ENTIRE collection "crap", I have no problem with vintage OT stuff- you can probably guess that I have quite a few vintage pieces myself. I really meant the past 10+ years of prequel, SE & clone wars stuff which I'm sure he has a lot more of than anything else.

And I think JediTray said it would be better for the stuff to go to charity than for it to "burn"......

My take on this. 

Mr. Sansweet has done alot for all the SW collectors in the way of turning the hobby in to something far greater.  If, during his tenure, he has indeed dipped in to the dark side.....only he can rectify those mistakes.  Bashing him won't make it happen any sooner nor will it make him any more amicable or empathetic to the fans...he is only human.

I wish him well and hope that his departure can only help strengthen the fans position in the near future when it comes to all that we speculate.  

I remember when Ben Burtt started working with Pixar....it was and still is my hope that he made a stand in defense of the OT and stuck with it even though at this point he may not be able or willing to discuss it publicly. 

I have always hoped that Dennis Muren would make a stand as well opposing Lucas in defense of all the HARD work that people did to actually make Star Wars and start the journey through the changes to film-making and history.

I am STILL hoping to see this happen in my lifetime.

:)

But what if Sansweet isn't really leaving Lucasfilm after all? What then?

;)

I have several of Sansweet's books and there's no doubt he's been a great fan and a supporter of the franchise, but the fact is he became a LFL sycophant, and whether he wanted to or not- told an outright LIE to the fans when he presented the GOUT DVDs.

Maybe he voluntarily left LFL, or maybe he was let go, but I hope whichever is the case, that he's having second thoughts about being an accessory to the current LFL culture, and I hope that he'll end up doing something constructive and positive for the preservation of the films that we all love.

none said:

First interview after announcement: (starts around 8:15)

http://www.forcecast.net/story/topstory/Weekly_ForceCast_October_29_2010_134680.asp

 

The first topic seems to be launched at this community.  And yes you'll all want to bitch and moan, but realize you've got his attention, now it's time to focus on how do you convince him/others of the importance of the original films as seen back then.

A sign that he most likely appreciates the original's impact is when later in the interview (~23:50) he explains how the coolest thing he was able to show off was the Biggs cutscene footage.

 

 

Wow, what an interview.  He puts some of the basics into a simple perspective.  It certainly shows how splinters of the same cause can create  a bigger wall which may be harder to climb.

Thanks for the listen....it was very enlightening.

He basically sounds like a Lucasfilm employee in that interview, at least as it pertains to us here. One who like most people wouldn't mind a restored original version, but ultimately doesn't care that much, and finds that people passionate about it are a nuissance to his job.

"Your complaints have been noted, but sorry no, now stop asking because it is clogging up my inbox." That is paraphrasing how the experience of the OOT issue was like from his end of things. Which is essentially the viewpoint of a Lucasfilm lackey. It's a nuissance that people like the original versions so much because his job is ultimately to defend, or at least tolerate and rationalise, their suppression. Which is why I don't believe the man has much integrity. He's a guy like many of the sort you find at a place like TFN--they would like to see the original versions treated properly, but ultimately are just fine watching the SE (and all of its home video glitches) and will find themselves compelled to defend this or rationalise it. Which is why he fit in so well with the role he played at Lucasfilm. He has a good point in that the company runs the way it runs and they are well aware of the demand, etc., but it really does seem like he ultimately doesn't actually care. Being on the company payroll probably made him hold back some criticisms or hype things a little bit more than he otherwise would have, but in the end I do believe that his behaviour at Lucasfilm is a fairly accurate representation of him as a person. Like Baronlando so eloquently put it, this is a man so loony that he had to build a second home to house all the merchandise he was addicted to buying and then he turns around and tells fans to grow up because they want to actually watch the movies.

Sansweet was complicit in the drowning of the OOT. Him leaving Lucasfilm changes nothing. The destruction of the OOT is still going on and he did nothing to stop it. Don't people at Lucasfilm realize these are not just a certain version of a movie that is being suppressed, it's the essence of everything that is at stake? Do they even know how monstrous they really, really are?