Fang Zei

Well, that was a random spam bump, but this is something I've been wanting to comment on anyway so here goes:

Now that Disney's set a December 2015 release date for Episode 7, anyone else wanna bet they put out a remastered OOT on blu-ray that September?? It makes too much sense for them not to. At the very least, I would bet we're gonna start hearing rumblings and rumors very soon of how Disney plans to handle an OOT release. There is of course the matter of Fox still owning the distribution rights, but that can be worked out. If George signed away everything on his end, that's all that really matters.

How and when Disney chooses to release it is up to them.

My ultimate point is that it's not so much about "if" as it is about "when" and, more importantly, "how." While we all seem to have our own, individual ideas of what we'd want to see included, we can all agree that the OOT should be given the most thorough restoration possible. I've read so many stories, articles and anecdotes over the years that it's become hard for me to separate fact from fiction regarding the OT film materials.

This seemed as good a thread as any to post in, since I think our focus now should be in making sure Disney does right by the films.

I was hoping - perhaps naively - that Ep7 would be made at the same pace as the original film, which started shooting in March of '76 and was in theaters just fourteen months later.

Abrams started shooting Into Darkness just sixteen months before its release, but we keep hearing about a Spring start date for production, so maybe fourteen months was a stretch.

I think if we had it our way, Abrams and Kasdan would continue to work on the script for one more year, principal photography wouldn't start until March of '15, and Disney would release it in theaters May of 2016.

Oh, and they'd let 20th Century Fox release it in theaters purely for nostalgia ;)

Honestly, the December release is probably due more to lack of competition at the Box Office than anything else. Summer of 2015 will be a much different beast than 1999. The World of Warcraft movie is also scheduled for December 18, but Universal will probably push it back to March now that they'd be going up against Star Wars.

It's important to remember that Disney didn't just buy Lucasfilm so they could make money. They did it so they could make a whole shit-ton of money. Putting it out in a December landscape where they could clean up at the box office well into the winter months always made more sense than competing in a summer arena filled with the other studios' prized fighters. That's already gonna be a bloodbath without throwing Ep7 into the fray. 

Considering the budget on this thing will probably be big (200 million just seems to be the expected norm these days for a movie like this), and that Bob Iger has been promising a 2015 release over and over again, a summer 2016 release was probably never gonna happen.

Hey, we're looking at a roughly year-and-a-half schedule from the start of production to release. That's still a signifigantly tighter schedule than on the prequels, which filmed two whole years ahead of release since every shot was gonna have some kind of visual effect. Also, Episode VIII will probably be a summer release since I'm pretty sure the Avatar sequels are squatting December for the next three years after that.

http://badassdigest.com/2013/10/18/look-at-all-my-sith-darth-vader-tv-specials

Adywan started a thread about this already, but I thought it was worth posting here also.

According to this, it appears Disney is still planning a Memorial Day release for Ep7. They're yet to say anything official in terms of an actual date, but I think it's worth noting that none of the other studios have set anything big for that weekend either.

Ah, so the Darth Vader specials would be all the stuff we wanted to see in Ep3? I hadn't considered that. Something about the word "specials" just made me scratch my head and I never would've considered they might've actually meant "made-for-tv movies." I guess we'll find out soon enough.

DuracellEnergizer said:

 

imperialscum said:

Well I don't mind seeing some stuff introduced in the prequels (planets, double-bladed lightsabre etc.)

This is a tangent, but I'd just like to clarify that the double-bladed lightsaber is an EU invention, not a PT one. Lucas just lifted it for his own purposes.

 

One of my friends told me about how pissed he was in the theater when Maul turned out to have a double-bladed lightsaber. Even after I told him that Terry Brooks' novelization makes it clear Maul got the idea from reading about Exar Kun, my friend only took it as Lucas saying to the fans "Oh, yeah, I've got your expanded universe right here" (motions towards crotch). He was also disappointed not to have any mention of spaarti cylinders or Jorus C'Boath in the PT.

That TPM novelization was the beginning of the EU bending over backwards to reconcile the fans' expectations with George's vision. I think it was Cloak of Deception where C'Boath shows up at the Jedi temple. One of the clone wars comics (from '02-'05) explained that it was a crashed Trade Federation ship carrying toxic chemicals that ruined Honoghr. Zahn himself even wrote a clone wars short story around that same time.

Regarding the whole "explanation of the force in the PT and the OT," I don't see how Qui-Gon's midichlorian story to Anakin in TPM contradicts Yoda's talk to Luke in ESB. Qui-Gon simply said "without the midichlorians, life could not exist and we would have no knowledge of the force," meaning they are the conduit through which the force connects with the living world

imperialscum said:

I don't care too much about EU books and some of them should most definitely be ignored (like Dark Empire for example). But on the other hand, I couldn't care less if Chewie is not in the new films.

+1

They can (and should) "ignore" what's happened in the EU over the 40 or so in-universe years since RotJ. By this I mean they don't need to bring any of it up. If they came up with a good story with original characters and make it in the spirit of the original '77 film, it's doable. In that film we were seeing this universe through the eyes of the characters, discovering it as they did (something Abrams took to heart in Trek '09). Have Chewie's kid(s) take over his role. Boom, problem solved. I, for one, wouldn't mind a passing line ala Indy looking at a photo of his dad in Crystal Skull. I really don't see why Chewbacca himself simply must be in the movie.

But what I don't want them to do is suddenly "pretend it never happened" (i.e. a hard reboot of the EU), unless they pull a TCW and sandwich the entire ST somewhere into the years before Vector Prime. I wouldn't want them to do either of these things (reboot or sandwiching), but then again I honestly don't see them doing it anyway.

In response to SilverWook's question, it was TCW (the cgi series) that threw a big huge wrench into the continuity works of the entire existing clone wars canon at the time. This was, I believe, the first time LFL's "different levels of canonicity" excuse was used so blatantly, although I could be wrong.

I could see an EU reboot seriously pissing off a lot of fans. Lucasfilm always said the books were canon, even if they were a lower level of canon. There've been serious shakeups to the continuity, but Lucasfilm has always been able to retcon it away.

If Chewie being in the movie is that damned important to everyone, the only way I see it working is by setting the movie (hell, the whole ST) prior to the events of the NJO. They could probably pull it off, with the help of some digital de-aging on the big three.

What I would much rather prefer they do is simply set the movie whenever they are now in the books.

On the subject of levels in Star Wars games so difficult you have a nervous breakdown, playing as the Imperials on the Kashyyyk - Islands map in Battlefront (for PS2, if it matters) is damn near impossible to win. The Rebels have a huge advantage, I'm guessing because of the Wookiee reinforcements. I've played it countless times in Instant Action and the best scenario is that I play as a pilot, take one of the Rebel's command posts, then jump back into the TIE, clear a path to the Rebel's main command post's entrance before landing (it's inside a Wookiee house) manage to take said command post (which takes much longer than the other posts) and distract/kill enough Rebel units who try to get inside and kill me. Then, by the time I'm inevitably killed, the Imperials hopefully still have a base with vehicles so I can fly around, pick off some Rebels from the air and keep making sure I've got a base so the Rebels can't win.

In any scenario, there's at least 40 Imperials left by the time all my dudes are killed. If there are any more it's usually impossible for me to win, since they can get enough units to all of the bases to kill me or just spawn right in as I'm in the middle of trying to take their base. I've ended the match with 50-60 kills and no deaths and still lost. I think I might've beat it one time the old-fashioned way by just having an insanely good ground game as a soldier, but air superiority seems the only real way to go.

Interesting to read such a ringing endorsement of the Corellian Trilogy. I might have to check that out at some point.

Indeed.

It reminds me of that mind-boggling story of how all those canisters of film from Blade Runner were sitting on a pallet waiting to be junked and were saved only because the actual order to junk them was never given.

I also heard Universal threw out a lot of their archived film material in the 60's just so they could make more room.

Episode VII: The Forgiveness of Blood

Episode VIII: Lucky Number Slevin

Episode IX: Gigli

Whatever they go with will need to be vague-sounding just as the first installment of the PT and the retconned title of the '77 film were. It's episodes 8 and 9 when the title can actually give something about the plot away.

Hmmmm, things just got a little more interesting on the release date front....

Disney just moved Pirates of the Caribbean 5 out of 2015 altogether. I'd completely forgotten about it. It was to have hit on July 10th, but with Ant-Man now hitting on July 31st they'd basically be competing with themselves. Also, small detail: there's no script for the movie yet.

So, where does this leave Episode 7?

Disney's Pixar movie Inside Out hits June 19th, and they've got a Marvel movie a month and a half away on either side. Things are nicely spaced out for them now, and they've got enough competition as it is. Universal just set a June 12th date for Jurassic Park IV.

Finding Dory comes out November 25th. Disney doesn't have any serious competition in December to worry about, just animated flicks and oscar bait. Putting out Episode VII December 23rd would see it going up against Kung Fu Panda 3, but that's counterprogramming anyway.

Anything could happen, and I'm not completely ruling out the traditional late-May release, but this December business is looking more and more likely.

Disney just moved Ant-Man up from its original planned release of November 2015 to July 31st, meaning it will now hit only three months after The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Seeing as how they've only got Finding Dory still slated for the year's end, the likelyhood of a December release for Episode VII now seems even higher.

CO said:

SilverWook said:

And before anyone starts kvetching about J.J. hiring people he's worked with before, remember George kept hiring that Harrison Ford guy long after American Graffiti.

Actually, Tom Selleck was their first choice for Indiana Jones, but he was contractually obligated to Magnum PI at the time. 

And Christopher Walken was Lucas's first choice for Han Solo, as he would have been a much darker character then the more sarcastic that Ford ended up playing him. 

 

I'd heard about Walken auditioning for Han Solo (the Kevin Spacey snl skit has made it infamous), but this is the first I've read of him being Lucas' first choice. Fascinating. I wonder who overruled him (or got him to change his mind).

Anyway, I'm a little surprised no one here mentioned the casting rumors from last week about Alex Pettyfer and Rachel Hurd-Wood. The overwhelming response to the Pettyfer rumor was "Oh, Please God, NO," but Hurd-Wood looks like she'd do nicely. I haven't seen any of her movies, only know of her as the girl from that Peter Pan movie from a decade ago, but she's a talented actress by all accounts. Her imdb photo screams Star Wars imo.

Since the production is filming in the U.K., they're obviously trying to cast locally. The casting rumor from last week teased a "big rumor" for this week, and now we know it's Cumberbatch. That makes two Abrams alums whose names have been floated (the other being Jonathen Rhys-Meyers).

I think it's a foregone conclusion Simon Pegg will get his friend J.J. to cast him in this. To me it just seems too obvious to not happen.

So, aside from Ryan Gosling and Zack Effron, any other casting rumors I'm forgetting?

RAH's letter begs the question: just how good/bad would the '85 IP have looked if it'd been re-scanned in 2006?

Didn't Taylor and Lucas disagree over how the movie should be shot?

Ahhh, the days before the Yes Men.

Forgot that he shot Dr. Strangelove (which featured James Earl Jones as one of the bomber pilots). Never considered the parallels between the war room and the Death Star interiors.

A big reason Lucas hired him was because of his work on The Dam Busters, the climactic sequence of which George modeled the trench run after.

I figured Mindel would get the job. Between John Carter and the Star Trek rebootquels, he's gotten more practice for a theoretical Star Wars movie than probably any other cinematographer out there. He and Abrams probably have a good repore by now after M:I-3 and the two Star Treks.

Do we yet know who the production designer is?

Disney wouldn't bother getting the rights to the Fox fanfare if they were releasing the movie themselves.

What I could see happening is Disney giving Fox theatrical distribution on the ST in exchange for getting full distribution on I-VI right now. Fox gets to make money they otherwise wouldn't have, Disney gets the existing movies, and we get our fanfare. Everyone wins! The situation for Disney would be no different than it was for Lucas on the prequels.

Of course, Fox will probably ask for some additional upfront payment before they completely let go of I-VI, but the two companies would be foolish to not at least consider this idea.

Perhaps it's best to say that Indy IV was more dissapointing as an Indy movie than the prequels were as Star Wars movies, but I would certainly argue the prequels were more dissapointing as movies than Indy IV was as a movie. Spielberg's worst is still better than Lucas.' I wish Steven had directed TPM.

Word on the street is that Disney's planning to release this thing in December of 2015. Way less competition at the box office and more time to finish the movie.

I guess it's too late for them to push it back to May of 2016 (which the traditionalists in all of us would prefer) after spouting a date of 2015 in every single proclamation since the Disney deal was announced back in October. Also, yeah, I guess they like money a lot. Even if May of 2016 is still an empty playing field, it'll fill up fast. December of '15, on the other hand, isn't likely to be crowded with anything other than oscar-bait.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the original film not start shooting until March of '76??? I realize they still need to iron out the script, but whatever happened to all this talk of making it "the old-fashioned way?"

As for box office competition, I would've thought they'd like the idea of releasing Avengers 2 and Ep7 at opposite ends of May, guaranteeing first place for well over a month. I guess spreading things out makes a little more sense, though.

Anyway, nothing official yet, just a rumor.

True story:

I was in 8th grade when the TPM teaser hit in November of '98. The morning after it aired on Entertainment Tonight, I remember this one guy in my class thinking Samuel L. Jackson's character was supposed to be a younger version of Lando.

To be fair, the problems with Into Darkness stem from the script and not from Abrams' direction. That's why I hope this rumor of Orci/Kurtzman and maybe even Lindelof working on the Ep7 script aren't true. These people have already been involved in just about every other big genre property of the last several years. Adding Star Wars to the list because their friend happened to get the directing gig would just be greedy.

ETA: SilverWook beat me to it.

Also,

Ryan McAvoy, that's exactly what I've been thinking for years now! Someone finally said it!

I don't think that's the case.

You might be getting this mixed up with something else RAH said.

I'm pretty sure the new pieces of negative were inserted directly into the o-neg. Most of those new pieces were replacements for original pieces, which were hopefully put into storage.