Anchorhead

generalfrevious said:

Yeah but a blockbuster film from 1980 is vastly different to one from 2015 because they still based their films on original ideas. ...... today we have the Internet, so they have to exploit existing franchises to get people off youtube for three hours. And the prequels were one of the first recognizable brands for studios to use.

There have been a fair number of blockbusters in that span of time that weren't exploited franchises.  No doubt that's much more the case the past five years or so, but to lump the 90s and 00s in there isn't necessarily fair.

The PT may have influenced the marketing trend of First Of An Epic Trilogy... It also may just be the fact that the trend was being born around the same time. 

That said; It seems far worse now, ten years removed.  If I really had to pinpoint the genesis of the Epic Trilogy In The Making, I'd go with Lord Of The Rings.  If the PT had any impact, it was that it showed story and acting aren't terribly important.

As Boost pointed out, these days the concept is pushed onto the audience before the first film is even released. It's as though the studios have decided all it takes to get people to buy into the franchise is to tell them it's Epic before they even see it.  It must work to an extent because they keep doing it. 

If you look at the film The People vs George Lucas, several of the people interviewed specifically state they knew they had to see all three before they could write it off officially.  By then the studio already had their money.  The studio prolongs the mediocre product just long enough to ensure they have the money all but guaranteed. 

I didn't do that with the PT.  I saw the first one, quickly realized it was shit, and moved on.  However, that's not typical behavior so it's a safe roll of the dice for the studios.  Keep telling them it's Epic and they'll believe you.  In fact, it's stated as fact in the trailers. 

It's been explained before;

http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperorsNewClothes_e.html

Many franchises have done very well with different actors in the same role.  It would take a while to adjust to the new actor, but I suspect thirty minutes in or so, I'd be just fine.  Ultimately it's the story that draws me in.

I think the article summed it up nicely;

 There are so many stories to tell, so many points in history to visit, so many treasures to unearth that continuing the adventures of Dr. Henry Jones Junior isn’t just a choice; it’s an obligation. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, Last Crusade and  Kingdom of the Crystal Skull are more than just films; they are, to borrow a line from a galaxy far, far away, a first step into a larger world.

An Indiana Jones 5 would inspire kids to learn more about history, archaeology, and morality, just as its predecessors did, just as cinema should. So dust off the old fedora, sling on the old leather jacket and let the Raiders March play. Let go of your own memories, and let some new ones for new people form, because the man in the hat needs to come back.

I also agree with Tobar and Crow on not making it some sort of reboot\origin.  The trend of starting over needs to go away.  The audience doesn't need to be treated like a child.  Show another Indiana Jones adventure that happens to have someone else playing the part.

James Bond, Dr. Who, Batman, Rooster Cogburn, Darrin Stevens, etc.  It's been done before without patronizing the audience with a lengthy and unnecessary explanation and it works well.

I've said it before, I'll say it again;  If you can successfully recast 007, Kirk, and Spock (and they did) - you can recast anyone.  Granted, the crew of the Enterprise started with an origin story, but it didn't have to.  The recasting of the crew was so fantastic, they wouldn't have missed a beat.

Couple of thoughts;  

1. If this topic has a point, please feel free to come to it.

2. Koryo, make note of the fourth sentence in the guidelines, particularly the second half.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Guidelines-for-Post-Content-and-General-Behavior-Or-How-Not-To-Get-Banned/forum/2/post/450138/#TopicPost450138

More recognition for Harmy's work, more exposure of who Lucas really is and how he's worked against the original film.  This was a linked story on Yahoos home page today.

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/30/7952859/despecialized-edition-download

Darth Id said:

 Are foreigners so incredibly averse to reading that they'd rather suffer that kind of cacophonous aural abuse?

And by "reading," I guess I mean either subtitles or just reading a book instead of watching a movie

 Weird that I somehow missed that being a joke.

My warning stands.

He specifically states that he knew the relationship between Luke, Vader\Annikin and the twins when he was originally writing Star Wars two years before it was released.  However,  The original screenplay is wildly different than the 1977 film and absolutely nothing like the next two films. 

The first screenplay has Luke Skywalker as a 60-year-old general, Annikin Starkiller is 18 and living with his father, Leia is a 14-year-old princess and Vader is a general in the Empire, not some legendary masked\cloaked figure. 

None of the story or relationships Lucas continually claims were always part of his Original Vision® are even remotely present or even possible.

That he can sit there and state all those lies with a straight face is insulting. That he thinks no one will challenge him or bother reading the original screenplays or 1977 interviews shows how colossal his ego really is. 

generalfrevious said:

I'd say we could trace it all the way back to the opening crawl of TPM:

...the taxation of interstellar trade routes...

 Kidding aside (and you may not be), that's a very good indicator of how out of touch Lucas was with what had connected the audience to the original film.

We went from this;

Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents,
Princess Leia races home aboard her
starship, custodian of the stolen plans
that can save her people and restore
freedom to the galaxy....

To this;

Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic.
The taxation of trade routes to outlying
star systems is in dispute. 
Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade...

To me, after having read a myriad of interviews with Lucas and the people involved with the original film, it seems as though he never really understood why the first film was such a phenomenon.    Looking at the crawls, it seems he still didn't understand it twenty-two years later. 

We started with a princess trying to save the galaxy in her starship to a dispute over republic taxation?  Yeah, that's an adventure.

I don't remember details from Phantom, but I can tell you I knew fairly quickly that it wasn't the droid I was looking for. I was just watching it go by on the screen. It looked like a movie inspired by Star Wars, not a movie connected to it.

Darth Id said:

  Are foreigners so incredibly averse to reading that they'd rather suffer that kind of cacophonous aural abuse?

And by "reading," I guess I mean either subtitles or just reading a book instead of watching a movie because....

 I'd hate to think that's how I was treated after joining a board and asking an honest question.  Might want to consider reeling in the tone.

I'm really hoping we end up with zero pictures\flashbacks\homages\etc to Vader.  Star Wars can easily exist without him. 

If Daisy, John, Oscar, and Adam are as good as they're rumored to be (and it appears they are), the film and story are in good hands. 

George has been trotting out that tired old "I'm going back to my roots as a film maker" story for thirty years.  

Merged.

Bingowings said:

And they will catch you speeding.

 They did.  ;-)

TV's Frink said:

Anchorhead said:

It looked about like an original 8mm. 

One more from my course today.

 I think you missed that one.  The Force surrounds us all.

Is that the voice of a  20-MPH scofflaw speaking?

It looked about like an original 8mm. 

One more from my course today.

These days it's easy to lose sight of just how big a deal Star Wars really was in 1977 and how indelible it truly is (in spite of George's decades-long attempt to erase it).

This weekend, I'm doing an online Defensive Driving course.  Apparently, I was "speeding" not too long ago.  Personally, I don't see 82 in a 70 as speeding, but Travis county says otherwise.  ;-)  But I digress..

If you're unfamiliar, the online course is a required 6 hours of instructional videos, public service announcements, informational reading, mid-chapter quizzes, and a total of 7 longer tests.  All in all, not too painful and even occasionally interesting.

One of the PSAs jumped out at me as not only a trip back to the 70s, but as a reminder of just how big a deal Star Wars was.  It was a slight re-do of the cantina scene.  Muftak has a little too much to drink and needs a ride home.  It was clearly filmed around the same time as Star Wars, most likely the same set and costumes.  It finishes with this shot of the Falcon.  38 years later, the cultural impact of the original film is still being used in some fashion.  I screen-grabbed it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have three more hours of becoming a safer driver.  ;-)

*edit*

For the record, I really don't take speeding lightly.  I knew I was and I graciously accepted the ticket (not kidding).  In my defense, I was trying to quickly get around an 18-wheeler.  Just replaced my windshield a few months ago and didn't want to take that $1,200.00 hit again.  The cost of this ticket\course is a trade-off I'll gladly make.

Tobar said:

Alright....which one of you is Patton? Fess up! =P

 He really does have a funny and true insight into our world.  I've seen him at Caroline's in Manhattan.  Hilarious.

here's another clip.  There are more than a handful of folks around here (and other boards) who could benefit from his insight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA6jqXsCWhc

Was this ever posted here before?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/16/millennium-falcon-look-alike-_n_1428749.html

Funny that they claim it's a coincidence.

Didn't walk out on the only prequel I've seen, Phantom.  Didn't like the film, but not enough to leave.  Not sure why.  I thought it was pointless, directionless, terribly written, and terribly acted.  I suppose it was just shock at how bad it was.  Sort of like looking at a train wreck and trying to make sense of it.

I was actually closer to walking out on Return Of The Jedi, but didn't.  It was also shockingly stupid and poorly written, but at least it had Luke.  The rest was just a marketing tie-in and rehash of Star Wars.  Lucas already had the writer's block he was about to unsuccessfully spend twenty years trying to overcome.  ROTJ is where I said goodbye to the franchise.

I've only ever walked out on two movies.  Rambo and Back To The Future II.

Tobar said:

 How's this?

Oscar Isaac, aka ace X-wing pilot Poe Dameron featured in The Force Awakens teaser trailer, provided the following brief comments on a few TFA subjects via this article posted on Yahoo Movies.

On getting his hands on the script ahead of time and the secrecy surrounding it:

"They won’t even do that," Isaac, who stars in JC Chandor’s forthcoming crime drama A Most Violent Year, told Yahoo Movies. “You go to the place, and they have a room with cameras and you sit there and read the script. They’re incredibly protective, because nowadays, with however many hundreds of blogs and this and that, people are just ravenous for content. So because of that, there has to be such tight security around it. And it gets in the way of the process a bit, but it’s understandable.”

On the concept of creating plot theories based on leaked images and what was shown in the official teaser trailer:

"I can’t speak for the cast and crew, I can just speak for myself, but for me I thought, Don’t you want to wait so you can get the real thing?" Isaac said. "But it creates excitement for it. I don’t think these little leaks necessarily ruined watching the trailer. And also, the [plot theories] that get that formulated based on these things — they couldn’t be more far off-base."

Source

 I consider it an omen then that below is my result from this Buzzfeed quiz;

http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/which-star-wars-force-awakens-character-are-you#.vt6od8Qlz

However, I disagree with him on my thoughts after seeing the teaser;  It's still very nice to see my boyhood hero again after 35 years (Luke), and Daisy is gorgeous.

;-)

Nice read, by the way.  May until the trailer?  Damn.

Fang Zei said:

They wouldn't bother releasing it on bd3d unless they had the OT-SE to release on the same day. I wouldn't be surprised if this new 4k restoration was done primarily to have a high-quality starting point for the 3D conversion.

The big question is whether Disney/LFL/Fox will do a '97 style theatrical re-release of all six films, keep it to just the OT or skip it entirely and just do all-day marathons on December 17.

 LFL doing a 97 4K OT SE & BD3D on the same day?

I don't think so.

;-)

It's been quiet over the holidays.  I need a fix.  Some leaked images, behind the scenes stuff, a teaser, a card with a character - something. 

unamochilla2 said:

moviefreakedmind said:

The TFN community is kind of delusional I think. Not that I'm not also delusional, but I don't really understand how someone could honestly think that there's a reason to let the original versions of Star Wars rot away into nonexistence (which I know one specific TFNer has said before)

I believe some have said that if Disney acknowledges and releases the OOT, then it will "interfere" will the saga AKA George's vision.  Even when the OOT is released on Blu-ray, I'm guessing the 2011 versions (or newer versions) will still remain as official.

Which, by the way, I'm completely ok with.  I have zero interest in governing what others can or can't watch & own.  I'm interested solely in having the film I sat in the theaters and watched in 1977.

The only place I ever really hear the "no one wants the originals" mantra is from the TFN community.  It's more of their bubble environment.  Just like their belief of the Original Vision lie or how they're convinced The Force Awakens is a Lucas story and that he's an advisor guiding the film. They're more than welcome to their beliefs, but reality seems to indicate otherwise.

By all indications, there are plenty of people who want the original fims. Even away from our hyper-focused community, people are aware of the changes and suppression. Theres no shortage of film and pop culture sites that discuss it. Particularly now that Lucas is no longer part of Star Wars.  

Disney has gone to great lengths to make sure people are aware of the connection this film has with the originals.  They're aware of the desire.  I suspect they'll act on it, sooner rather than later. 

If there's a point to the last two pages, please feel free to come to it.