Fang Zei

Akwat, are you by any chance referring to the stuff that contradicts certain stuff we find out in X-Men 3??? 'Cause Bryan Singer had nothing to do with that movie and he's the guy who produced First Class and is now directing the sequel. There are even rumors that the time travel shenanigans in the sequel could very well write x3 out of the continuity.

Anyway, thought I'd also drop the news in this thread as well:

"Furthermore, Arndt’s treatment will be looked over by several top directors including Brad Bird, Steven Spielberg, and J.J. Abrams, though none are confirmed to be involved at this time."

http://www.slashfilm.com/toy-story-3-scribe-michael-arndt-likely-to-pen-star-wars-vii/#more-147400

Latest unconfirmed rumor from "inside sources" has Michael Arndt attached as one of the writers. He's apparently written a 40-page treatment.

Arndt won the best original screenplay oscar several years ago for Little Miss Sunshine and wrote the screenplay for Toy Story 3.

http://www.slashfilm.com/toy-story-3-scribe-michael-arndt-likely-to-pen-star-wars-vii/

Again, this is all unconfirmed rumor.

Well, here's the thing:

It's been thirty years now - in real life - since Hamill, Ford and Fisher shot Return of the Jedi in 1982 (for an '83 release date).

In the EU, they're now up to 40 years after the events of ROTJ, but there's also a big gap of time between 26 and 31 years after ROTJ (the period of rebuilding after the Yuuzhan Vong War). They could easily set the new trilogy in that timeframe.

Either do that, or they could set it after the 40 year mark, age up the big three with makeup and let the EU authors know the premise of Episode VII so they can "build up" to it over the next couple years. That would be the smartest strategy, honestly.

It's also a question of what this new trilogy is gonna be about. They could make it have nothing to do with anything we've seen before if they wanted to. The possibility's are endless. I hope they don't box themselves in with the story just because they feel like they have to make certain "connections" to the other movies.

Bingowings said:

It would be nice to have an Asian lead character in there seeing as so much of the inspiration for the series came from the Orient. 

This, to me, has been one of the supreme ironies of Star Wars for quite a while now.

I don't think there's even a single Asian extra in the OT, and I can count on one finger the number of Asian characters in the prequels (Bultar Swan).

On the Latin side of things, I think George always intended Alderaan to be the Mexico of that Galaxy Far, Far Away. From Wookieepedia:

George Lucas commented the hairstyle in Time magazine: "In the 1977 film, I was working very hard to create something different that wasn't fashion, so I went with a kind of Southwestern Pancho Villa woman revolutionary look, which is what that is. The buns are basically from turn-of-the-century Mexico."^[124]

Also, let's not forget that when George was making the original '77 film, he may very well have intended Leia to be Bail Organa's biological daughter and not his adopted daughter. It could just be a coincidence that Carrie Fisher has dark hair and dark eyes, but who knows?

Once we get to Clones and Sith, we've got Jimmy Smits playing Bail Organa. One of his senatorial aides was also hispanic, but I can't remember the character or actress' name.

Tyrphanax said:

Ford could be interested.

I was just telling people the other day that "if the money was right..."

 

Be interesting to see more as it develops.

He probably saw the headlines reading "Disney buys Lucasfilm, Episode VII in 2015" and thought "no paycheck is too big," continued reading, saw "Lucas will not be writing or directing" and thought "I'm in!"

Haha

Anyway, this is my first post in this thread since the news broke just over a week ago. Here are my thoughts:

As several people have noted, we're looking at (potentially) the first live-action Star Wars (one with EPISODE in the title, even) to not have the 20th Century Fox fanfare. I guess it's not THAT big of a deal, but I must admit, against my better judgement, the nostalgic part of my brain just does not like that prospect.

I could almost see Disney doing the following:

Bartering with Fox to get home video distribution rights on the six existing films (TPM 3D hasn't even hit blu-ray yet!). Fox would probably ask a pretty penny for those rights, so to sweeten the deal, Disney gives them theatrical distribution rights for the upcoming sequels. Disney would hold on to distribution rights for Blu-ray/dvd/download/television etc which is where the REAL money is anyway. Also, let's not forget, Fox would only be getting a small cut of the gross. The bulk of the box office would go to LFL and therefore to Disney.

Still, it would give Fox the pride of continuing to release this legendary franchise in theaters, and nostalgic nerds like me will get to hear Alfred Newman's music when the lights go down.

Y'know what would also be nice?

Given what we've been told over the past week, it's not entirely unreasonable to think that George is no longer in a position to dictate terms of the OOT's release. Fox wants to make money, Disney wants to make money. You would certainly hope that 4.05 billion was enough to convince George not to be such a control freak. Seriously, if he included some ironclad clause about the older versions never again seeing the light of day that's just sad.

So here's what would be nice:

Whether it's from Disney or Fox, I'd like to see Ultimate Edition blu-rays of the six movies. Perhaps put them out one by one following their theatrical 3D releases. Starting with Episode I, an all-out set with the newest version and the original theatrical version. Same with Episodes II and III. For the OT, I would absolutely love it if we got all three theatrically-released versions of the three films, all in HD ala the Blade Runner set. Disc One would be whatever version ends up in theaters in a couple years, Disc Two would be the '97 version and Disc Three would be the original.

Are you listening, Disney (and/or Fox)?????

I will settle for nothing less!!!!

I'll save my thoughts on Episode VII for that thread.

How about we simply focus on getting more signatures for the existing one?

The current number is abysmally low, only 5,000 or so compared to the 30,000 the original petition got back in the dvd era.

Ah, somehow I'd forgotten completely about the changes done for the blu-ray release in 2011.

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if LFL decides to do an ultra-thorough, frame-by-frame 3D conversion from fresh 4K scans. Look at what happened with Titanic. From what I've heard, that conversion was so thorough that it looked as if it could've been shot in 3D. Granted, Cameron's only ever used spherical lenses to shoot his movies, so that's one huge advantage the anamorphic OT doesn't have (Clones and Sith will benefit immensely from their spherical origins, whereas TPM was shot with anamorphic lenses just like the OT). But if Lucas really wants to wow us, he'll do a Titanic-level conversion and blow people away with a 3D trailer for Star Wars "like you've never seen it before."

It makes me wonder how they're gonna handle the originals.

I kinda wouldn't be surprised if they decide to wait until the big 4-0 in 2017 and just spread them out over a few weeks like they did in '97.

On the other hand, the only reason I care even the slightest bit about these 3D re-releases is quite simple:

The chance exists that Lucas will do fresh 4K scans for the OT.

Honestly, I can't see it going any other way.

For TPM, they had the 2K files to go back to. Presumably it will be the same for Clones and Sith (yes, the cameras were only 1920:1080, but the movies' visual effects and final mastering were "finished" at 2K rez).

The originals were scanned at 2K almost a decade ago for the dvd, but lowry's restoration was only done at 1080p (1920 horizontal resolution, scaled down slightly from 2048). I don't know what source LFL used for that 3D "test" of the ANH footage they did years ago, but the Lowry-restored stuff is stuck at hdtv resolution, not cinema resolution. That means they either go back to the 2K scans and have Lowry (or some other company) re-do the restoration at full 2K this time, or they do the smart thing and just start all over from scratch at 4K.

If they were to do that, I find it very likely they would also see fit to finally restore the original versions as well. THAT'S the only reason I care about all this 3D post-conversion bidniss.

AOTC 3D will be released September 20, 2013. ROTS will follow just three weeks later on October 11.

http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-episodes-ii-and-iii-to-get-back-to-back-2013-3d-re-releases/

captainsolo said:

"just as the rod removed for the boulder has been confirmed as gone."

Thank you for finally illuminating for me just what was done to that shot!

Heck, I only just saw a youtube comparison of the snake pit reflection a few months ago, and that was after hearing about it for all these years!

I've just spent the last several minutes searching google for a visual comparison - in any form - of the digital alterations made to the boulder shot, but I haven't been able to find anything.

Could someone help me out????

I'm too young (27 years and a month) to have seen the original versions on the big screen in one of their official releases, but the theater where I saw the SE's in '97 and TPM on May 19th of '99 (and twice more in the following weeks .... no, I'm not proud) is now a GYM.

Oh, the irony.

Back in September of '04, I distinctly remember my roommate and I catching something on vh1 called "When Star Wars Ruled the World." As you might've guessed from the timing, it was all an excuse to (albeit quickly) pimp the dvd set in the last moments (Ben Burtt says something like "oh, I'm looking forward to the dvd release, just because of the quality").

Anyway, another thing they bring up in the last moments is, of course, the prequels. Now, remember this was a vh1 documentary and, as such, had very quick back-and-forth sound bridge editing, but Mark Hamill definitely says (and I'll try and type this the way it sounded) "I saw the new movies, aaaaaaand, they're not Star Wars."

I wish I could just find the clip somewhere to show you guys so you could actually hear how he says it. He doesn't have a harsh tone in his voice or anything, quite the opposite. There's that very cautious way he says "aaaaaaand" like he's thinking "oh, I don't want to piss anyone off with what I'm about to say." The way he says "they're not Star Wars" is as gentle as can be.

Like I said, all of this goes by in like two seconds, but afterwards you process what you heard and you're like "...... MARK HAMILL said the prequels AREN'T STAR WARS." Obviously they're weren't any hard feelings from George. I mean, the guy invited him to Celebration V. In fact, I might just be reading too much into Mark's comment.

And who knows what he thought of ROTS!?

There is always the dilemma of "If we sell them the good stuff right now, what are we supposed to sell them later???" You can't deny that's definitely part of why we haven't seen the OOT restored and put out on blu-ray. "Nah, just slip in the deleted scenes that should've been on the dvd seven years ago. That's how we get the fans who weren't planning on buying the blu-ray because they hate the SE!!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!1" Pad it out with an extra commentary track and some BTS stuff, and voila, you've successfully milked the franchise for that much longer.

Hell, even George himself said this time around that "it would be too expensive" to properly restore and remaster the OOT. I think he knows the excuse that the originals "don't exist anymore" died the moment he put out the GOUT. Not that "it's expensive" is any kind of excuse either, but at least he's not kidding us anymore: it's about money.

In regards to Phantom Menace 3D, the realistic side of George had to have realized the returns were never gonna be great on that one. He even laughed at himself on The Colbert Report when Stephen asked him if he owned all the Star Wars movies on dvd and replied "I think so, I'm not sure about Episode I." All I have to say is that I saw the ROTS blu-ray on my uncle's huge projection screen and WOW, that movie is practically 3-dimensional already! So I think George was ready to take the hit for TPM 3D's inevitably shitty box office just so he could get to Clones and Sith. As we've all said before, the OT will do well because it's the OT.

As for when we'll finally see a restored OOT, who knows, but I think it will happen eventually. I'm sure they'll release the movies individually on blu-ray at some point, and that's yet another potential opportunity for them to throw in the original versions.

Speaking of which (and I've said this before), here's what I think is so good of a plan it would be idiotic for LFL not to do this:

We still haven't heard anything about a 3d blu-ray of TPM, but if LFL were smart, they would include the theatrical cut in the package. Do the same thing with AOTC in 2013 and ROTS in 2014. Then, when we get to ANH in 2015, they could go all out and throw in not only the original version, but the '97 version as well. Maybe spread out some cool extra features over all the leftover space on those several discs. Make it an elaborate collector's set just like we've seen in the past few years for stuff like Wizard of Oz, Ben-Hur, etc, and make this the only way you can get the original version on blu-ray. Repeat for Empire in 2016 and repeat again for Jedi in 2017. Yeah, it would mean we'd have to wait a while to get the entire OOT, but I think the fans would eat it up. If LFL were smart, they'd realize the business opportunity they've got here.

However they end up doing it, I think we'll see the OOT eventually. They won't be able to pull the blu-ray equivalent of the GOUT on us either. The old laserdisc masters + the fact that not as many people had widescreen tv's back in '06 meant easy money for LFL, but it's not like they've got 2K or even 480p transfers of the OOT just sitting around waiting to be dumped on blu-ray. They would actually have to put in some effort this time.

1990ocu, I would accept nothing less than what you listed. I won't even touch the prequels unless the theatrical cuts are included. Yes, that means all three versions of AOTC.

The big questions I would have for Rinzler would be:

Was David Peoples in any way involved with the script?

and (I doubt they'd bring this up)

What's the story behind DP Alan Hume's "falling out" with the production?

Just wanted to bump this thread to add:

I saw the second half of the RotS blu-ray at my uncle's place a couple weeks back and there is no way Lucas is gonna pass up converting the other two prequels into 3D because this movie is pretty three-dimensional already!

What's funny about reading this is how I can remember a discussion on these very forums from several years ago on the subject of the materials at the LoC. I came away from it thinking, "hmmm, I guess it's nice to know they have actual 35mm prints of the movies, but they'd be so faded by now and not really useful for any kind of restoration."

It's getting news like this that makes me happy I live in Northern Virginia.

It's too bad this didn't get an IMAX release (Journey 2 had that staked out). That way, for 18 bucks, the people who saw this could've been guaranteed a great audio/visual experience. Instead, it sounds like a lot of people are paying 16 bucks and getting swindled. Even if everyone is seeing this in real-d and not one of the offbrand 3d techniques like dolby or xpand, there's still a lot of variables like the type of projector being used. With IMAX, a lot of those variables are taken out of the equation.

Then again, it may simply be that moviegoers have different expectations for their 3D presentations. What's crap quality to one person might be amazing to another.

I would actually buy the theatrical cuts of the prequels (in state-of-the-art quality, as ThiefCobbler said), if for no other reason than historical preservation. TPM had the second highest U.S. box office of the 90's if I'm not mistaken. How appropriate that both it and the highest U.S. box office of the 90's are now getting 3D re-releases ....

Wow, I finally saw the edit in AOTC that everyone's been talking about since September. Some guy recorded it off his camera while it was playing on his tv and put it up on youtube, I couldn't find a better version.

Anyway, what a terrible change!

Yoda's sighing in defeat and Dooku's ship is still right there next to him. Slice the damn thing open with your lightsaber! And don't gimme that whole excuse of "Yoda was exhausted from the fight" or something /plinkettvoice.

Seriously, what a stupid alteration to make. Lucas once again in his "I'm gonna paint it Jar-Jar" mode.

Pretty ironic how the first two prequels have now been even further removed from their theatrical cuts and yet we now have ROTS exactly as it was (probably because the wipe was removed for the hdtv/dvd transfer without actually touching the source files and then they just forgot when they went back for the new transfer, but that's just my guess).

The only big problem with the proliferation of digital projection is the phenomenon of theater chains projecting 2D movies through 3D setups.

Let me explain.

The Sony 4K projector that is being used on a lot of screens right now is apparently quite complicated to calibrate for seperate 2D and 3D uses. As a result, theaters will usually just leave it in its 3D configuration when showing 2D movies because, apparently, 12 bucks a ticket still isn't enough to justify the trouble they would need to go through in order to properly set it up for 2D. Seriously, the fucking real-d polarizers are still on there and everything.

Now, I should note that it's not necessarily a huge problem. I saw Warrior projected through a 3D setup and the only drawback was a slight dimming of the picture. On the other hand, I saw J. Edgar the same way and ..... wow was that a shitty presentation. Not only was it dim, there was a weird strobe effect plaguing the picture. I should've asked for my money back.

The Christie projectors are apparently able to switch between 2D and 3D modes at the push of a button. I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes at the midnight opening back in August and noticed the real-d screen was still in front of the lens. I told one of the employees about it and they fixed it before the movie started.

AMC has said they will be completely digital by the end of this year.

Digital projection for new movies isn't a bad thing, imo. Just about every new movie that gets made today goes through digital intermediate, so it's mastered in digital before it's even filmed back out onto a 35mm print for distribution. You're actually one more step removed from the master when you see it in 35mm instead of digital.

The problem is the mess that this Sony projector has created, as I described above.

Harmy,

If you watch the Hobbit trailer, you can see what it looks like at 24 frames per second. There's no "Saving Private Ryan" choppiness. It looks just as it would had it been shot at 24 fps. Remember, they need this to look good on what will still be many 35mm projectors. That's the whole reason they're shooting at 48 and not 60, they still need to make 24-frame-per-second versions for 35mm, blu-ray, etc.

The Avatar sequels, meanwhile, might take even longer to reach the screen. Cameron and 20th Century Fox had originally said 2014/15, but Cameron's producer Jon Landau recently said "four years from now," which would put it in the 2015/2016 time frame. By that point, there may very well be enough digital projectors deployed in movie theaters that eliminating 35mm prints from the equation might not be a big problem and Cameron can just shoot at 60fps.

Actually I think there's some confusion, guys.

If you watch the trailer in 1080p at the Apple site, you don't see the DNR that's on the BD. This makes me think LFL only DNR'd the blu-ray master but left the actual 2K master alone.

Baronlando said:

Seeing the 2D version sounds kind of depressing. That movie was such an event the first time,  this time you can basically go watch the blu-ray with 6 other guys in dinky Theater 14.

Take away the DNR and bump up the resolution slightly, and yeah, pretty much.

If Lucas were smart, he'd include the theatrical cut of TPM with next year's blu-ray 3D release, do the same for AOTC when that hits. It would be a sign of goodwill toward the fans. Then he could finally include the theatrical cut of ANH in 2015 and charge a hefty price tag for it. Then he could do that with Empire the next year and finally with Jedi the year after that.

Mark my words, people. Lucas is crazy but he ain't dumb. Eventually he'll see the $$$$$ and give us what we want.