Fang Zei

I recently got around to watching the first one and honestly enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a hilarious and moving look at just why this franchise matters so much to so many people all over the world.

A second movie could explore things like George's ongoing revision of the story since day one, going right back to the first draft of the script and continuing today with "there is no Episode VII." Maybe they could interview Zombie.

Also, the blu-ray was yet to be released when the first one came out, and now it's been almost three years without so much as a peep as to when (if ever) we'll see the OOT. I'm glad LFL's bs excuse for the GOUT was at least brought up in the first doc, but the layman might not really understand what the problem is. If they were to finish this new doc at 1080p (and presumably they would anyway), they could not only address the third wave of changes made to the films, they could also pretty clearly show the dramatic difference between the blu-ray and the GOUT. Maybe even point out the hilarity of how "they can't even get the SE right" (crushed-out star fields, boosted contrast, wrong colors, etc).

Other things of note since March of 2010:

-The Clone Wars (started in 2008 but I don't think it was brought up in the first one)

-Plinkett's reviews of AOTC and ROTS (The RLM guys made a brief appearance in the first one, but it was probably finished before the now legendary TPM review went up on youtube in December of '09)

-The Senator Theater screening

-TESB being added to the National Film Registry

-Lucas' comment at Celebration Europe about the OOT being too expensive to restore. Not only was it a ludicrous statement, it was also the first time he stopped using his "vision" for the I-VI saga as justification for burying the originals.

-The Phantom Menace 3D

-Red Tails finally getting made

-Spielberg's E.T. getting released on blu-ray sans the 2002 special edition, an interesting counterpoint to Star Wars' current situation.

-the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney after all this talk of George's independence from Hollywood, even though LFL had pretty much been exclusively in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones business since at least the mid-90's (Alien Chronicles and Red Tails are the only other things I can think of in that time). Once again, the "all ighty ollar" seemed to trump everything else.

-Everything that got shelved because of said buyout, like the 3D releases of the other films and, more notably, the long-in-development live action tv series.

-The EU's evolving status, from being the official continuation of the story to having "levels of canon" to now not being canon at all .... except the new stuff ($$$$$).

Baronlando said:

Fang Zei said:

One is a recent study predicting that streaming revenue will overtake sales/rentals of physical media in 2016.

 That's not hard to believe when you see all the 5 dollar blu-rays out there lately. And the people who are actually buying the discs seem mostly lame and insufferable, judging by the forums out there. (I've been lurking at bluray.com and HTF, where I see silverwook has been fighting the good OT fight even though there's always some guys ready to swoop in and douche up the Star Wars thread)

I post over at the avsforum occasionally. My sig there had a link to the new petition for a while before someone informed me it was violating the forum rules.

Wasn't being serious, but I am genuinely shocked it took this long.

Zombie probably answered this question in his book, but I'm too lazy to look it up so I'll ask it here:

Was the original plan (circa 1980) to just keep going and make 6, 7, 8, 9, etc, or was George already planning on doing the PT before the ST?

I remember seeing a tv news story on youtube from, I think, the time of Empire's production/release where they're interviewing Hamill on set and he says "I can't wait to see the earlier trilogy, the one I'm not in."

There were two interesting disc-related stories today.

One is a recent study predicting that streaming revenue will overtake sales/rentals of physical media in 2016.

The other is that Ghostbusters 2 is hitting blu-ray later this year, which means we can finally say this format has arrived.

If they wiped the post-RotJ EU clean just so they could retell a major story from said EU, it would piss off pretty much everyone. It would straight up disappoint the people who never liked those books and were hoping for something truly original. Meanwhile, it would be like adding insult to injury for the fans that were still holding on to the now "old" continuity.

That alien might look like a Vong, but as Ridley Scott said in the Prometheus making-of, every damn creature design has been done by now.

Also, is that the Vong's chin or just a finger?

As for George's ST idea, well, it'll probably have something to do with whatever got discarded before he condensed the rest into RotJ.

There's really only two main things I would emphasize.

First off, there was the major alteration of the movies through the use of technology that didn't exist when they were originally shot and released (something that, to the best of my knowledge, was unprecedented in 1997).

Going off of that, you could go into how Lucas stopped labeling the SE as the SE, first with the 2000 vhs set and then the 2004 dvd (which was technically a further altered version).

Secondly, I would bring up the release of the GOUT and all of the problems it entailed, not the least of which was George going back on his "This is it" stance regarding the SE.

imperialscum said:

So if they decide to release theatrical version in HD format, I wonder if they will release 1997 SE as well. I mean there are some of us whose favourite version is 1997 SE.

 I would kinda hope they do, but most people out there don't really distinguish between the various versions of the SE like we do.

But I've said it before and I'll say it again: Each movie warrants its own Blade Runner style set. I would be happy if they merely included all the theatrically-released versions. To me it's a given that they'll do a 3D release of the SE, hopefully from fresh scans. If that happened, disc one of each movie's blu-ray could be the newest version of its SE. Disc two could then be the '97 SE and disc three the original version.

Perhaps I should clarify my original questions.

I'm not so much talking about syncing up in terms of story, but merely in terms of looking/sounding of a whole with the OOT.

But this kind of leads me to my other question: does it really matter? Does the fact that some of the environments in the PT are cg whereas even the most fantastical locales of the OOT (like Bespin) are still "analog" actually matter?

In a world without the SE, would it matter that the PT is as cg-filled as it is?

When the OOT is restored/remastered I suspect the SE will get a fresh treatment as well (if it hasn't already by that point) and the lowry master will be retired. That way, no matter how good the OOT looks, the SE will look just as good if not better.

All of this talk of practical vs cgi in the Episode VII thread got me thinking about a question that comes to my mind every now and then.

In an alternate universe where the SE never happened, do you think the PT could've been made in a way that synced up seamlessly with the OOT?

Also, do you think it's possible to watch the actual PT in conjunction with the OOT?

Wasn't another big aspect of TPM the fact that, like, 95% of the shots in the movie involved some kind of digital effect?

Verboten said:

So what's stopping Fox from just releasing their own restoration of Star Wars and then leaving Empire and Jedi up to Disney post 2020?

I always assumed Fox never messed around with Star Wars out of courtesy to George, but he's out of the equation now.

Sure, it's not going to be the streamlined box set that most would like, but it is better than nothing and may be better than waiting on them to come to some deal.

Am I missing something?

Fox would still need Lucasfilm's permission.

Tobar said:

Kind of weird to try and recreate the original theatrical experience with the short film but then using the special edition for the feature.

That didn't stop them from throwing in the old trailers on the dvd, or the deleted scenes on the blu-ray.

I was in 8th grade when TPM came out and just a couple weeks from turning 14 (way to make me feel old, guys).

TPM was originally scheduled for May 21st (my best friend's birthday), but was bumped up two days when the second trailer hit in March.

What I still remember vividly from the morning of opening day is my French teacher starting off class by saying "Now, we all know what "sequel" means," as she wrote the word on the board. Then she asked "Qu'est-ce que c'est "prequel"?" as she wrote that word as well.

"Wow, my French teacher is bringing this up right at the start of class," I thought. That's when I realized it wasn't just a big deal to me, it was a big deal all over.

It's just dawning on me now, especially thinking back to that "The Beginning" documentary from the dvd, that she'd probably seen a story about it on the news the night before and was wondering what all this "prequel" hubbub was all about.

We explained to her that the originals were IV, V and VI and that this was I.

Later in the day, between classes, I remember overhearing some of the other kids making plans to go see it that night. On a Wednesday. Again, exemplifying just how big a deal this movie was.

I'd told myself I could wait for the weekend, but who the hell was I kidding? This movie I'd awaited fervently since November was finally in theaters and I could go see it right now. All it took was the offer of a drive to the theater from my totally awesome mom to convince me.

Getting out of the car I bumped into a friend from the neighborhood who'd just seen it and said it was pretty good. I bought a ticket for the next late-afternoon show (this was probably around 5:30), surprised it wasn't sold out. Not only was it not sold out, but by the time the movie started the theater wasn't even close to being full.

Anyway, I still remember hearing about how Lucasfilm had limited (ahah!) the number of trailers that could be attached to the movie. I remember them playing the American Pie trailer. The Austin Powers 2 trailer was probably attached to my print as well, I remember seeing it on either Access Hollywood or E.T. in any event. Then of course there was Fox's "a quick look at three films currently in development," which were Fight Club, Anna and the King and Titan A.E.

Then the lights went down and the Loews Cineplex logo played. Then that familiar Fox fanfare started and the logos and titles came up.

"Holy Shit, this is really happening."

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

STAR WARS

There it was, just as we knew it would be:

Episode I

THE PHANTOM MENACE

The crawl continued, looking exactly as it had in the originals but obviously having been accomplished digitally this time around (and for good reason), an intentionally low-fi effect in an otherwise cutting edge movie and something that was a throwback even in 1977. The only thing different was the words.

Then the crawl ended and the camera tilted down to an approaching spaceship, only to pan with the ship and follow it as it flew by.

Weird aliens, a protocol droid, Darth Sidious via hologram, then a laser blast, an explosion and HOLY SHIT, LIGHTSABERS.

I could go on and on, but lemme just say that I'd read the first hundred pages or so of the novelization, stopping right after Qui-Gon asks Obi-Wan for Anakin's midichlorian count. In that respect it was almost like seeing the pages played out on screen beat for beat, knowing what would happen but delighting in not knowing how. Obviously the rest of the movie after that was unknown, but I'd pretty much spoiled for myself stuff like Qui-Gon dying from flipping through the comic book at the store. The action and spectacle, the scope and scale, were entertaining nevertheless.

The lightsaber fight at the end had me still buzzing after the movie had ended.

I remember passing all the people lined up for the evening screening and bumping into my basketball coach (only a few years older than me), who was among them.

My initial overall reaction was "that was the greatest movie ever!" Deep down, I knew better.

Jaitea said:

SilverWook said:

Not real, but who really knows what logos we'll see at the beginning? ;)

 Ok,....this may be nonsense, but if Disney would like the Original OT released on BD before Ep 7 hits the cinemas......& I'm sure Fox would enjoy the revenue of that....there could be a deal with Fox to be included with Ep 7.......

That would be nice

J 

It's what I've been saying since the beginning, and it would be a win-win situation if they did it. Disney can put whatever logos they want on the "spinoff" movies as far as I'm concerned, but VII, VIII and IX need to open with that fanfare.

Oh, and I hope they leave off the Bad Robot logo.

The IB Technicolor prints can only be used for a color reference and not a source scan.

Can someone please post the relevant quote from Roger Christian regarding this "digital" release of the movies in November?

towne32 said:

PS: Off topic, but does anyone know *why* blurays end up with funky color grading? It's not a result of the transfer, is it? Is it just an attempt to make things look more "modern"?

The modern color-timing trend is teal and orange, so a lot of old movies remastered within the last several years exhibit this trait. It has nothing to do with the transfer process itself. If you go back and look at early blu-rays (from like 2006 to 2009) that were using the same hd masters used to make the dvd just several years earlier, there's no difference in color-timing.

I was convinced George would eventually get around to it (yes, before any of this Disney buy-out stuff happened). Now that it's in the hands of a corporation that has no ego to bruise, it's inevitable.

The completionist side of me actually wants the theatrical cuts of all six films and the '97 versions of the OT as well. Individual releases of the movies on blu-ray are yet to happen, so this would be a perfect excuse to make each individual episode its own "ultimate collector's edition," kinda like Warner did with Harry Potter.

Then again, I could also see Disney swinging the other way and maybe just doing a 3-disc set of the remastered OOT.

I posted it mainly because Badass Digest picked it up and they are definitely reliable. But even they said "Wait, but wouldn't we have heard about Disney paying to get Ep4?"

Then again, maybe Disney and Fox agreed to do it quietly, without any press, and that's why no one heard about it.

Finally, something:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/05/15/new-star-wars-rumors-include-original-trilogy-re-release-on-blu-rayvod-and-more/

msycamore,

Yes, it's still up to Disney/Lucasfilm. Without their permission there can't be any remasters/restorations/re-releases, aside from simple repackaging of the existing transfers like the bd/dvd PT and OT combo packs Fox put out this past Fall. Disney could do an OOT restoration and a better SE and let Fox distribute, sure, but as Mr. Cobb so eloquently put it, they didn't pay a whopping $4 Billion just so some other company could get distribution. No, they want it all.

To me, when you're releasing a movie called Episode VII and five out of the previous six movies in the series were financed by the company you just purchased to make it, wouldn't you want to proudly roll out those other movies again?

This isn't like when they intentionally held off on a blu-ray release of the original Tron (even pulling unsold dvd's from the shelves) because they were afraid of people seeing it and not wanting to buy tickets to Tron: Legacy. This is Star Wars we're talking about here. The new movie is banking on people's nostalgia. If not an OOT release, I would think they'd at least want to do a 3D theatrical release of the SE prior to Episode 7's arrival.

I still like my idea of Disney just giving Fox theatrical distribution on VII-IX (plus a little extra) in exchange for getting all of this taken care of right now.

skyjedi2005 said:

Hopefully the cinematographers style is tamed a bit.  I like Mindel's stuff but the lens flares and frenzied fast shaky cam is kind of not my cup of tea.

Less like Amazing Spider-man 2 or Star Trek Into Darkness.  More like the first three star wars made in the seventies and eighties.

I think that was more Webb and Abrams than anyone else. Savages and John Carter, shot by Mindel for other directors, have none of those attributes.

Anyway, it looks like Dennis Lawson isn't coming back:

http://badassdigest.com/2014/05/12/wedge-antilles-to-star-wars-episode-vii-drop-dead/