Fang Zei

Ryan McAvoy said:

Going to an Indie Cinema is my preference.

They attract a better class of person than the multiplexes, people who respect the cinema, the film and their other cinema-goers. They're often cheaper, have better films, better snacks and if you're lucky some quality Ales on tap. Or on the other end of the scale, a gigantic iMax screen is often trouble free as the steep price of the ticket seems concentrate the minds of the viewers somewhat.

I shall be trying to book early for the latter where EpVII is concerned. Although funnily enough I hope my first screening of EpVII is packed to the rafters with loud cheering and boistrous fans (Some dressed in costumes and waving Lightsabers above their heads) just like there was for the SE Trilogy and EpI (EpII and EpIII just got silence). Let's face it I'm gonna go see it more than once, so I can go to a quiet screening the 2nd or 3rd or 4th or...

Ironically (or maybe not), I've found that the Saturday morning screenings - when the tickets are at their cheapest - always result in a better experience. The audience is as behaved as possible and there are zero projection problems.

You would think the people who payed more to see a movie would actually want to, y'know, put away their damn phone and enjoy the movie, but that's somehow never, ever the case. Maybe they feel like they've paid for that privilege, who knows.

Of course, you're absolutely right that skipping the multiplex and going to an indie cinema is the best solution.

Wazzles said:

CO said:

This is just a guess, but I wonder if they release the OOT on BluRay for Christmas of 2015 to coincide with the release of Episode 7?  This movie is made for the OOT generation, so what better time to release the OOT?

 I'm thinking the 40th anniversary is the most likely time. And in all likelihood, it will be a Fox release with no contribution from Disney, sort of like their way of saying "screw you" to Lucas for selling Star Wars to Disney. I also think it's likely that it will only be included in an expensive box set, possibly including the PT and the most recent cuts of the films. 

Waiting until after Episode VII to re-release IV-VI seems unlikely to me, anniversary or not. I'd think Disney would probably work out a deal with Fox to get the 3D versions in theaters September/October of 2015 before putting out a blu-ray with all versions on it in December to coincide with Episode VII.

Anchorhead said:

SilverWook said:

 Maybe the Bad Robot will be made into a droid?

 If it were done as a background droid, that would be a fun sort of cameo nod.

Maybe they could have a scene set on a planet with tall grasses in which a droid is running around, only to stop in front of a group of children who point at it and yell "bad robot!"

SilverWook said:

Even if they put music up front, nobody will be able to hear it, as the audience will be going nuts anyway. :)

There is that certain something about the way the existing six movies start. You hear the percussion of the Fox fanfare several seconds before you see anything at all. It's a signal to the audience that "the movie is about to start." It's deliciously old-fashioned.

Part of me still hopes it happens....

Bingowings said:

I hope they don't have a roll call of company logos, Disney..Bad Robot...Lucasfilm etc.

Just kick in with

and put all that stuff in the end credits.

 Scratch what I said earlier, this is the more likely scenario.

re: timdiggerm

Funny, I hadn't even thought of that, and yet it's probably exactly what they'll do. Just like how you hear Michael Giacchino's score over the red-tinted Disney logo at the beginning of John Carter. The music-less, electronic version in Tron: Legacy also comes to mind. 

Do you think they'll put the Bad Robot logo at the front of Episode VII as well?

If they were to go the "fresh start" approach, you have to wonder how they'd take into account future viewers who will have watched the first six movies. When this one is called "Episode 7," it's a little jarring to have an entirely different intro from the films that preceded it.

SilverWook said:

Probably too early to tell if Disney will let Star Wars go as dark as it needs to be. They might not even put the Disney logo on the new films.

Does the Disney logo appear on any of the recent Marvel films?

Nope.

The new Thor movie was the first completely Paramount-less Marvel Studios production, and there's only Marvel's title at the front of the picture. I feel like Disney will leave their logo off any future Star Wars films as well, perhaps just opening with the Lucasfilm logo.

It still stings that we probably won't hear the 20th Century Fox fanfare at the beginning of the movie, although I'd love to be pleasantly surprised.

I'm only just now catching up on the series thanks to the netflix deal. I saw almost all of season 1 when it aired, so I had a slight head start. I'm maybe six episodes into season 2. I'm digging the action and cinematography. It's a nice bonus to be able to watch the show in its full scope ratio, which the broadcasts did not offer.

I was convinced Lucas was gonna eventually get around to it before any of this Disney business happened. The guy reversed himself on so many other subjects. Why would the OOT be an exception?

Now that Lucasfilm is part of a larger corporate entity, I'm all the more convinced it's gonna happen. The o-neg might not be the best starting point anymore, as skyjedi pointed out. Robert A. Harris should definitely be consulted on some level.

To me, they have two options to create a Blade Runner style ultimate set:

-They do a new scan of the o-neg. Right there, you've got the '97 version. They could then use this scan to do a "final cut" equivalent for the inevitable 3D/2D theatrical re-release. The tedious part would then be using the source scan as a basis for reconstructing the OOT.

-The other option is what they did for Blade Runner, using the new o-neg scan only as a basis for the final cut, meaning: color-time it however you want, cut it however you want, "fix" whatever you want. But I would sure hope this ends up the final revision of the movie, and I would think GL would want this as well. The guy won't be around forever, and considering how many times he's changed it I would think he'd want one last go at it before he literally can't anymore.

The '97 version could be scanned off the '97 IP. Assuming they don't ruin it with DNR, you'd have a nice transfer of how the SE's looked, restored colors and all.

The OOT could then be scanned from the best available source(s), be they IP's or seps. This is where Robert Harris' advice would really be useful.

Of course, there's no guarantee Disney won't just cheap out and continue to use the decade-old Lowry master (one that was really never good for theatrical exhibition), holding it up as the best the films will ever look, a "digital negative," et cetera. I'm probably letting the fact that the Indiana Jones movies got new scans get my hopes up when it comes to Star Wars. Hell, even Willow got a brand new transfer for its blu-ray release.

Artoo and Threepio are pretty much a given since Lucas always joked "it's ultimately their story." As for Billy Dee, I can only assume he's gonna be in the movie. Abrams threw out Arndt's draft in part because he wanted to give the original characters a bigger role. Let's also not forget we've now got Lawrence Kasdan, the guy who helped write Lando in the first place.

Dancing with the stars.... which is on ABC, which is owned by Disney, which now also owns Lucasfilm....

The corporate overlords must've put out a gag order ;)

Well, if none of that really mattered in the long run....

Like I've said before, there's stuff that can be retconned/explained away and there's stuff that can't. Splinter (which I've had a copy of for years but still haven't gotten around to reading) sounds like the former while Chewie being in Episode VII would be an example of the latter.

There's a difference between ignoring something and actively contradicting it. I can understand the viewpoint that keeping continuity with the EU isn't worth Chewie's absence in Episode VII, but I also don't see why an in-continuity Episode VII necessitates people having read any EU. It really wouldn't. To be honest, this is kinda why I didn't like the news that Abrams was changing the script to focus more on Han, Luke and Leia. I wanted this new story - whatever it ends up being - to be told more from the younger generation's pov, much like Abrams' first Star Trek movie or the original Star Wars before it.

Tobar said:

Well technically there've been two for over a decade now. All of the stories deemed non-canon fall under "Infinities."

I just hope they wipe everything NJO and up.

 I just don't see why any EU needs to be jettisoned. It's not like they need to bring any of it up in the movie. You don't need to have read Splinter of the Mind's Eye to enjoy The Empire Strikes Back.

I disagree that the version of 2001 we have now isn't the "true" original version simply because the premiere (one single screening) was a different cut of the movie.

It's the version that first gets widely released to the public that should be considered the original version. That's where this argument begins and ends for me.

To further drive this point home:

When Kubrick restored 2001 in the late 90's he did exactly that - restore it. No changes were made to the movie itself AFAIK. I finally got to see one of the 70mm prints a couple years ago and it looked and sounded amazing, beat up though it was in certain sections after more than a decade of running through the projectors.

A friend of mine saw it as a teenager in '83 and told me about how people in the audience would throw their hands in the air during the "fighters, coming in" shot because it felt like you were actually flying the Millennium Falcon.

digitalfreaknyc said:

He talks about how it was an original print that was in fantastic condition.

 But .... But ..... I thought "original prints are in poor condition." ;)

DuracellEnergizer said:

SilverWook said:

Vector Prime got a lot of publicity when it was published in 1999. IIRC, it was the only EU novel to have a tv spot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOV2dGdFbGk

I find it pathetic that the first and only Star Wars novel to receive advertising on television is an entry from one of the worst Star Wars series ever.

It wasn't the first. I distinctly remember seeing commercials for The Hutt Gambit and Rebel Dawn. I don't remember seeing any after Vector Prime, though.

Minor inconsistincies can be explained/retconned away by Chee and Hidalgo, outright contradictions like Chewie being alive in an Episode VII set 40 years after RotJ cannot.

DuracellEnergizer said:

SilverWook said:

Can't the EU continue on it's merry way while the new films come out?

AFAIK, this isn't even an issue with Trek fans, and that particular EU has been around a lot longer.

Ah, but the Star Trek EU isn't canon, isn't meant to be canon, and makes no pretentions of being canon, unlike the Star Wars EU, which has had The Rod of Continuity rammed straight up its backside by elevated, anal-retentive fanboys who can never see the forest for the trees.

 It's had it rammed there by Lucasfilm. All the while, Lucas himself was saying "there is no Episode VII" and that RotJ is The End of The Story as far as he's concerned, meaning the EU stuff never really happened in his eyes....

....Except now there is an Episode VII, which means RotJ wasn't the end and, well, y'know....

Look, I've barely read anything that takes place post-Jedi. Reading wookieepedia timelines and such has been the farthest extent I've kept up with the story. Since I don't have much invested in it, it wouldn't be the biggest dissapointment if it were to be rebooted.

That said, I think it would be a bit hypocritical of Abrams to ignore Chewie's death after chaining himself to the death of Kirk in Generations as the reason for not including Shatner in the new Trek movies. It would also be kind of a dick move on the part of LFL and Disney to just go "Hey, remember how we killed off Chewie and it was a really big deal? Well, we need to maximize our profits on these new movies, so, guess what? It never happened! Sorry!"

To me, whether or not Chewie is in the movie has absolutely zero bearing on how good the movie will actually be.

As has been stated in this thread by myself and others, hopefully we'll find out soon.

timdiggerm said:

All they have to do is not include Mara Jade, and there goes another chunk of EU.

 Well, that shouldn't be too complicated because (spoiler, I guess) she was killed off in the books.

See, this is a good example (to me, anyway) of how they could take the "constrainments" of the post-RotJ EU and use it to do something interesting. I can't help but think of JJ's Star Trek. Han Solo's relationship with his nephew could be like Christopher Pike and Kirk. Luke could be the shadowy Obi-Wan/Spock character who's out there and Ben eventually bumps into him. All I'm saying is that it makes for an interesting dynamic.

I meant to comment a couple pages back re: continuity.

It's my prediction that we're not gonna see any EU reboot happening, mainly because "the big three" are still alive and well in the books. Also, Luke's son is in his 20's now, pretty much perfect timing for a young actor to step into his shoes. I can understand the potential complaints of Chewie not being around, but I think that would be coming from a place of nostalgia. If anything, it might actually force Abrams and Kasdan to get more creative with writing the story.

An EU reboot would also be a huge slap in the face to all the fans who've made the company millions of dollars by continuing to buy the books. It could result in the exact kind of backlash Lucasfilm is trying to avoid.

As for Chee and Hidalgo's new task force, I think the "canon/ not canon" dichotomy will only extend to future stories, not the existing EU.

All of this continuity speculation is exactly why I hope someone out there gets their hands on the script sometime soon so we can finally know one way or the other. The script is supposed to be done by now, right? At least a first draft from what I heard.

The store I rented the OT movies from was originally a West Coast Video that opened near my neighborhood in the early nineties. It became a Forbes and then a Potomac Video before moving next to a smaller space in an adjacent strip mall and then closing.

Potomac video had several locations around the DC area. By complete coincidence, I now live only a few blocks from the last remaining location.

The last time I saw a Star Wars movie on the big screen (RotS) was at the historic, single-screen Uptown in DC. It was the only theater in the area showing Star Wars on May 25, 1977.

They converted to digital in 2010. For 3D movies they usually alternate 2D and 3D showtimes. I'll probably end up seeing Episode VII there at the midnight opening, unless that particular screening is in 3D.

I remember seeing the clip of Sacheen Littlefeather at the '73 Oscars and thinking how Leia-like she was. George would've just been writing or about to write the first draft of the movie at that time, so I wouldn't be surprised if it had some sort of influence on him.

If there's any merit to the rumors of Abrams doing tests to try and recreate the look of the film grain from the OT, then I would hope and expect that level of fetishization to extend to all other aspects of the cinematography as well.

So, if they're to stay as close as possible to the look of the OT, we should only see a flare whenever there's an explosion. It should look unintentional, as it most likely was in the original films.

Bingowings said:

I just wish someone at Disney would activate the Farscapestarwarcrossovermattron.

Y'know, Chris Pine as Kirk in that first Trek movie always reminded me of Ben Browder as John Crichton. Abrams and Mindel's camerawork even reminded me of that show, the way we'd fly and swerve through the hallways of the Enterprise. Pretty much everything about the "Numb Tongue" scene practically screamed Farscape to me, to the point where I'd be surprised if Abrams had honestly never seen the show.

Also, just making sure:

Unless I missed something, Disney only ever bought The Muppets, not the Jim Henson company as a whole. The creation of a Farscapestarwarscrossovermattron device, as awesome as that sounds, is a pipe dream.