Mike O said:
moviefreakedmind said:
CatBus said:
moviefreakedmind said:
I'd love to hear what Landis himself said verbatim, but it seems that Empire magazine interpreted his statement as being the original versions specifically.
Sure, but Landis is already not the first speaker in that game of telephone. He heard it from Lucas. Lucas may have said "the original trilogy--yes, John, THE original classic films that started the whole thing, back in 1977, with no changes at all to what I intended all those years ago". A normal person could walk out of there thinking Star Wars was finally going to get a decent home video release and say that to the press without reservations, but in Lucas-speak, that just means a new 2016 Specialer Edition where Yoda is now CGI.
I don't think for one second that Disney would allow more changes to the trilogy due to the backlash it gets every time it happens. I could see Disney sweeping it under the rug, continuing to release the 2011 SEs, and then never mentioning the OOT ever again, but adding even more changes I just can't see them doing.
The backlash from 14 people on the Internet. 99.9999% of the population don't care at all, hence why it was the bestselling Blu-ray of all time when it came out and why it would break box office records in a heartbeat if a new version was released theatrically. People who care about the OOT are a tenth of a tenth of a tenth of a tenth of the population.
I think the number of fans who get excited by a new version are probably even fewer than those demanding the OOT. I don't remember any "FINALLY, blinking Ewoks" articles. They draw a bit of criticism with each new version. But you're right that the majority of fans seem to just accept the latest version as the real and final version, and sometimes consider previous ones as "unfinished" or "the ghetto version" (real quote). These are the same people who absolutely exploded when they heard that they would not use George's pages of scribbled notes on what he wanted the ST to be.
It's difficult to pin down numbers or ratios of fans who actually strongly care one way or the other. But it's fair to say that there are enough people who either like the SE or don't care.
On the other hand, Disney/Lucasfilm are obviously catering very heavily to the fans who would like to see more practical effects and less intrusive CGI in the ST. To the point that they're being mocked for making sure it's mentioned in every interview. I'm sure the party lines aren't exactly the same as the OOT/SE division, but it's probably a similar type of crowd who strongly cares one way or the other in both cases. This isn't a move they needed to win over the 99.99%, or whatever is the massive percentage of fans who don't give a shit.