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Jim Ward steps down

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Always interesting to monitor regime changes at LFL and how they affect product...

TFN is reporting that Jim Ward is leaving Lucasarts (which I gather means Lucasfilm as well*) for personal reasons. Apparently, this was officially confirmed.

As you may or may not know, Jim Ward was one of the main pushers to get the OOT on DVD; he had been trying to get Lucas to release the originals for years, and finally was able to spearhead the infamous GOUT release in 2006 (lackluster as that was--it was out of Ward's hands). I wonder how this will affect the future of Lucasfilm, and how his replacement will measure up.


*actually this has me thinking--in addition to duties at LFL did he have a seperate Lucasarts post and therefore is only leaving the software division but staying with the larger company? My feeling is no, but the specific naming of Lucasarts only makes me wonder
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Interesting......

What's important here is that he is a champion of the OOT, now whether he's only left Lucasarts or Lucasempire all together could affect things greatly.

Nice sig.

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt

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Oh, just fucking great.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Weird, and just this morning I was thinking up yet another possibility for a Star Wars release that would satisfy everyone....

in case anyone was wondering, it was this:
for each movie of the OOT it would go-
-one disc mastered from the 35mm interpositive of the original release with all of the soundtrack options. I guess they could also master the 70mm version and put it on a separate disc, but I get the impression that going to see a 35 movie in 70 was kind of a novelty back in the day, sort of like seeing an IMAX print in this day and age.
-one disc mastered from the 35mm interpositive of the '97 SE release.
-one disc mastered from the Lowry-restored version, which I'm assuming is what they're using to make the 3D release. If they really wanted to go all out, they could seamlessly branch the 2004 version in there as well.

In regards to Ward leaving Lucasarts, I wonder what the "personal reasons" were. It would also seem that we need to wait and see if he is leaving Lucasfilm altogether or just leaving Lucasarts. I wonder how this is going to affect The Force Unleashed, if at all.
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Originally posted by: Fang Zei
Weird, and just this morning I was thinking up yet another possibility for a Star Wars release that would satisfy everyone....

in case anyone was wondering, it was this:
for each movie of the OOT it would go-
-one disc mastered from the 35mm interpositive of the original release with all of the soundtrack options. I guess they could also master the 70mm version and put it on a separate disc, but I get the impression that going to see a 35 movie in 70 was kind of a novelty back in the day, sort of like seeing an IMAX print in this day and age.
-one disc mastered from the 35mm interpositive of the '97 SE release.
-one disc mastered from the Lowry-restored version, which I'm assuming is what they're using to make the 3D release. If they really wanted to go all out, they could seamlessly branch the 2004 version in there as well.




Been watching Bladerunner much?

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt

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It's too bad if Jim Ward is indeed leaving Lucasfilm altogether- sounds like he was our only ally there.

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Originally posted by: Fang Zei
yea, well, there ya go


No complaints there. I've never loved that film more than I do now since I bought the 4 disc 25th anniversary dvd release. In recent news, Ridley's 3 disc American Gangster release is impressive too. Man that guy likes dvd.

If only Lucas himself would step away from his companies. What is he a businessman or filmmaker?*

*Rhetorical question.

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt

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I think a friend of mine put it best. "Hey George your past impact on culture is more important than you are. Snap your fingers and make a few thousand people happy please."

Except I would hope it's more than a few thousand in reality.
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Oh man, how awesome would it be to see ANH, ESB & ROTJ given the same treatment as Blade Runner received?

I promised myself I wouldn't cry...
Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!
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Originally posted by: Fang Zei
I think a friend of mine put it best. "Hey George your past impact on culture is more important than you are. Snap your fingers and make a few thousand people happy please."

Except I would hope it's more than a few thousand in reality.



Just remember, the majority of SW fans are OOT fans, but the passionate ones are in the minority, as most people really aren't that motivated like we are to spend time trying to preserve something they know is better. I have never met a person who says they like JediRocks or Greedo shooting first, although the one debate among the community would have been if Lucas just spiffed up special effects and left the scenes like the ones I named above untouched.

I can give you an example of ET DVD release in 2002. Originally, they were just going to release the SE, and I was mad cause I wanted the original version, but still would have bought it if it only contained the SE cause I wanted the movie. They ended up releasing both versions, but I can honestly say I never email Universal/Spielberg to release the Original Version, and I think that is how the majority of SW fans are.

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Like I said in another thread, Lucas hasn't gotten around to giving the movies the royal treatment because he doesn't need to. The Blade Runner Partnership, on the other hand, can only really make money off the sales of the movie itself because (and this is even brought up on one of the featurettes) it's hard to even find any kind of memorabilia/collectibles from the film. The real irony is that all of the versions of the movie weren't released until now because of the legal holdup whereas Lucas has always been able to give the original versions the best possible treatment and simply hasn't.
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If Blade Runner just put out the final cut it would make a ton of money. Thats all they planne to do, initially. The only reason BR got the royal treatment was because BR is Scott's home video manager and Final Cut producer Charlie DeLazaurika's favorite film. So he went the extra mile because he's BR's biggest fan. It would be like if you or me worked for Lucasfilm and were in charge of releasing the OT--we'd give it the same treatment DeLazaurika gave Blade Runner.

But neither the royal OOT or the royal BR is necessary. Blade Runner happened because someone high up wanted it to. And thats what we need. That was how the 2006 release happened--Jim Ward wanted it to.

EDIT

Also, BR happened because Ridley Scott is not a dickhead.
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I guess they're lynching anyone who doesnt like the SE at Lucasfilm.
Well, enjoy the GOUT, because it's going to be a very long drought........
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But if Ward is leaving, it's hard to imagine the next guy giving up on the originals when presented with the facts. Here's an asset we happen to have that's not being exploited, what responsible executive can just ignore that? Especially when there's no sure thing (a new movie) on the horizon? It's comical that there is going to be a major star Wars merchandise push this year with the cartoon and game etc., but the actual movie doesn't warrant any attention. (You walk into the store and it's a 1993 laserdisc while the Family Guy Star Wars dvd right next to it is beyond deluxe. This is the bizarro world.)
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Baronlando,

Those have pretty much been my exact thoughts on the matter, and even if Ward had stayed I doubt he would've been the person to give us what we want after trying and basically failing the first time around. Don't get me wrong, I give him credit for at least bringing all of this to George's attention, I just don't see why he would've bothered any more with it after what George ended up doing (and, as I've stated in the past, I almost wish they'd just pulled the plug for the time being instead of insulting us with such a half/no-assed effort).
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Originally posted by: Baronlando
But if Ward is leaving, it's hard to imagine the next guy giving up on the originals when presented with the facts. Here's an asset we happen to have that's not being exploited, what responsible executive can just ignore that? Especially when there's no sure thing (a new movie) on the horizon? It's comical that there is going to be a major star Wars merchandise push this year with the cartoon and game etc., but the actual movie doesn't warrant any attention. (You walk into the store and it's a 1993 laserdisc while the Family Guy Star Wars dvd right next to it is beyond deluxe. This is the bizarro world.)


True, but having said that all we got with Ward was a Laserdisk port.
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If Ridley Scott himself had been adamantly opposed to including anything besides the Final Cut in the new dvd, even though he doesn't own the rights to his movies, I still somehow doubt we would've gotten anything besides the Final Cut. Zombie is dead on in that assessment. It annoys me to no end that LFL let the sole motivating factor behind the '06 release be money.

That's the problem here with Star Wars. Lucas keeps going on and on and on about how it's his movie (and from a financial/legal standpoint, it is). But this is yet another bit of revisionism, isn't it? Back in 1980 he told Kershner to fly to the London premiere of TESB without him since it was his movie (Kersh's) and not Lucas'. He's just lucky that Kershner doesn't have a problem with the changes Lucas has made to his (Kersh's) movie. Let's not even get into the argument that Lucas was justified in changing the late Richard Marquand's work since "he directed some of the movie, so it's his to do what he wishes with."

If they finally get it right with the hi-def release, all will be forgiven. But as baronlando put it, it's quite bizarre to think of what we fans are dealing with in the meantime.

Also, comparing Ward to de Lauzirika is apples to oranges in my opinion. While CdL had some association with Scott's company, Blade Runner's restoration and subsequent royal treatment on dvd/hi-def was done out of respect for the material more than anything else. Ward, though he did at least get Lucas' attention over the OOT matter, just works for the guy at the end of the day. I would think he's more experienced in the realm of business than he is in the realm of producing. Star Wars still awaits its Charles de Lauzirika, whoever that ends up being.
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Well, we'll have to accept the laerdisc ports for the next 20-30 years; maybe someday well get a remastered OOT, but probably not in the first half of this century. Unfortunately, they'll have to try to recreate what it was in 1977 from the GOUT. But until hell freezes over Im jumping over to the star trek crowd until then.
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I'm not sure if I'd be that pessimistic. In any case, we are very close to achieving our own virtually-recreated OOT: Adywans SWRevisited has some breakthrough de-SE'ing, which could be taken even further if someone was up to it, and if the X0 project ever moves beyond the realm of myth then a combination of these sources could yield a version of the OOT close in resolution to the 2004 version; such a version would be acceptable to upconvert to HD, or if someone was really ambition he could start from the beginning with HD sources. I'd say that if more than 4 or 5 years go by with nothing from LFL something like this will materialise. In fact, it ought to be a great joint project that everyone from OT.com should work on (how appropriate would that be?).
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It's funny though, because if someone started from the beginning with HD sources they would still have to worry about de-SEing the wipes.

Ah, the trouble that could be saved if George would simply dig up those interpositives....
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Originally posted by: zombie84
True, but having said that all we got with Ward was a Laserdisk port.

At least he was able to accomplish that much.

However, the creation of a new petition on this site is long overdue: the OOT on Blu-ray.

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Originally posted by: generalfrevious
Well, we'll have to accept the laerdisc ports for the next 20-30 years; maybe someday well get a remastered OOT, but probably not in the first half of this century. Unfortunately, they'll have to try to recreate what it was in 1977 from the GOUT. But until hell freezes over Im jumping over to the star trek crowd until then.


Not sure how that would be a much better camp as far as this discussion goes. It's impossible to get the original theatrical versions of Star Treks I, II, and VI in an anamorphic DVD either.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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I have anamorphic Wrath of Khan '82. You can still get it (used) pretty easily actually. http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-II-Wrath-Khan/dp/6305910189/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1202188180&sr=8-3

A homemade original (or "original-ish") Star Wars would be pretty cool. I've been using Final Cut Pro, maybe I'll take a crack at it. A few weeks ago I was discussing which "lost" shots from the 77 version are the most important.