Fang Zei

The circle is now complete. Star Wars has become a show based on a toy line based on a movie.

TheBoost said:

CO said:

See I don't have a problem if they are honest about the target audience.  If they want to cater to the kiddies, then cater to kiddies only, and don't try to mass appeal it like the Prequels.  The Prequels have Jar Jar Binks who appeals to 5 year olds and Anakin burning up on a Volcano planet for teenagers and adults, as Lucas can't have it both ways.

"Star Wars" has adorable beeping R2D2 and Luke's Aunt and Uncle's burning corpse.

"Empire" has more R2 cuteness, Ugnaut football games, giggling backpack Yoda, and Han being tortured and Luke getting his hand chopped off.

"Jedi" has cute lil Ewoks and Luke being electrocuted.

Lucas obviously CAN have it both ways.  

You forgot Slave Leia.

The Holiday Special.

The film is having its world premiere right now ( ~ 6:30-8:00 PM Central Time) at the South by Southwest (aka SXSW) Music and Film Festival in Austin.

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/5208

Can't wait to hear the responses.

Yup.

If any potential buyer has a computer with internet access with which to go on ebay, they have a little thing called google video search!

I knew I forgot something:

John Mollo designed the costumes for Star Wars, Alien and Empire.

Oh, and I remembered that Jodorowsky quote as something more along the lines of "Star Wars ripped off our designs." Reading it again now, though it could be inferred from his statement I'm not so sure he's saying that. He may simply be pointing out it "resembles the style." His version would've been way too bizarre and had little to do with the book. I'm surprised it even got as far as it did before the plug was pulled, but imagining what it could've been like (especially when we got Star Wars just a few years later) is fascinating. The guy may be crazy, but check out El Topo if you haven't, one of the best movies I've ever seen.

It should be noted that Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov and other SF writers were pissed that GL was reaping so much success over ideas that were basically lifted from their novels. But that's a discussion for another thread.

Ridley was working on Dino's Dune film when Empire came out, and he says in the Blade Runner making-of that it "would have been a step very much in the direction of Star Wars." Maybe that's why he's writing the intro for the book.

I love the David Lynch film because it makes you feel the same way as when you read the book. Paramount is trying to turn it into a film once more, with the guys who made the two mini-series serving as producers and Pierre Morel (as of right now) attached to direct.

I actually have the original 1986 pan n' scan vhs of Jedi (saw it on sale back in May of '05 at my local potomac video and absolutely had to have it). Which mix did they use for that one?

I wonder if I would be able to find the original vhs releases of Star Wars and Empire anywhere at this point.

What JediTemple said.

The 50-gig capacity of dual-layered blu-ray discs would allow them to include all of the sound mixes.

here's an interesting breakdown of the differences in the sound mixes:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases#Theatrical_Releases

I'm assuming there were no differences for ROTJ since it's not listed. It was, after all, the first THX-certified theatrical release.

Heh, totally forgot this was (originally) about to come out. Ridley Scott doing the intro had really piqued my interest. I didn't know Roger Christian worked on Alien until just now, none. Brian Johnson, one of Alien's sfx people, co-supervised the vfx of Empire with Richard Edlund (he brings it up in the dvd making-of).

This is what makes the OT such an interesting trilogy:

Star Wars

-Written and Directed by GL, Produced by Gary Kurtz, Shot by Gil Taylor

Empire Strikes Back

-Directed by Irvin Kershner, Produced by Gary Kurtz, Screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, Shot by Peter Suschitzky

Return of the Jedi

-Directed by Richard Marquand, Produced by Howard Kazanjian, Screenplay by Kasdan and Lucas, Shot by Alan Hume and Alec Mills

Compare that to the PT, which was entirely shot by David Tattersall and entirely written and directed by Lucas with help on AOTC's screenplay from Jonathan Hales.

..... Well, the first thing that came to my mind was that TPM does need to be restored by Lowry if the master used for the 2001 dvd is indeed the best LFL's got. There are all kinds of defects in the picture, from gate weave to scratches to color timing issues. AOTC and ROTS, being completely digital, don't have any of these problems.

In response to Sky's OP:

Yup.

Lucas makes that little comment at the beginning of "The Beginning" (heh, "the beginning of the the beginning") documentary on the TPM dvd when he's doing the Leslie Stahl interview back in '99.

The Prequels are all him, the OT isn't.

re: what sky said,

That's why it would be nice for each of the three films to get a 3-disc blu-ray. If Lucas releases his most recent version of the trilogy in theaters (and c'mon you know he eventually will, the 3D craze would certainly give him an excuse), that could be what ends up on the first disc. The second disc could be the '97 version (mastered from the '97 IP's) and the third disc would be the original version. This would be a nice historical preservation of the three theatrically released versions of the movies.

There are 3-disc blu-ray cases that some of the studios use that don't even take up any more space than the ones that hold 2-discs or even 1-discs, so Lucas doesn't have much of an excuse there.

And guys, lemme just say it:

At this point, there's no question in my mind that when the OT hits blu-ray he'll AT LEAST throw in the remastered original versions. Each set will be at least two discs, mark my words. He KNOWS the money he'd be losing by not including it. Think of how many people will go out and buy blu-ray players just for this!

Yeah, maybe we won't get '97 Jabba, Luke's Cloud City scream and a "Galactic Celebration" sans Naboo and JarJar, but the originals will be there.

Oh, and 2012 would make the most sense at this point. It's the 35th, and blu-ray will have been on the market for just about as long as dvd was back in '04.

What's annoying is seeing so many movies, both new releases and catalog titles, being given such nice treatment on blu-ray while Lucas - a guy on Scorsese's film preservation board - keeps burying the original versions of his own material. I'm sure we'll see the original version of the OT nicely remastered for the blu-ray (if he can stamp out two-dvd9 sets for the '06 release, he can stamp out two-bd50 sets for the blu-ray), I've stopped worrying about that as it's an inevitably in my mind at this point, but it would really be nice to see the originals of Graffiti and THX nicely preserved on blu-ray. I wouldn't even care if the best existing prints aren't in great condition, just being able to watch them in hi-def would be a treat.

Oh, and I really hope that cgi shot from the Raiders HD broadcast doesn't end up on the blu-ray, but I'm not getting my hopes up because why would they have put it there if that's not what they were intending to eventually do? I guess if they know how much backlash there is against it they'll change their mind. Seriously, wtf was up with that? Whose idea was it, Lucas or Spielberg? Guess we'll never know.

Vaderisnothayden said:

Indiana Jones got more than just wires erased. There's that cgi shot added to Raiders. I wish he'd just leave it the fuck alone.

Which made its debut in an HD broadcast of all places!

Actually, in all these years I still haven't seen a breakdown of the erasures for the dvd release. All I've ever read was that they got rid of the reflection in the snake pit and erased something that was visible in the "bowling ball" shot. I've google searched it once or twice and come up with nothing. Maybe I'm just not using the right words. Does anyone know where I can find screenshot comparisons?

I honestly doubt that the movies won't be available individually when they hit blu-ray. Despite what George and Rick have been saying since '99, they and the rest of LFL know all too well how people feel about the movies and they're not gonna be stupid about how to make money off this release. Sure, there will probably be a saga boxset you can get, but they won't limit the options to that or even just two trilogy boxsets. My prediction is that the movies will be available individually and in a six-film set.

pjvader said:

2 words

3D blu-ray (or is that 3 words) i bet there is no star wars release until the 3D versions are completed then shown theatrically for the 35th anniversary then there will be the blu release by then 3D will either be passe or the norm (in terms of unavoidable when buying a new tv or blu-ray player) star wars only comes out on new formats when saturation has been proved unfortunately

What I really wouldn't be surprised to see happen (and, at the same time, have no idea how they would financially pull off) is what you're saying right here.

Someone wrote an article not too long ago about how Star Wars is the second highest grossing movie of all time in terms of domestic box office if you adjust for inflation (Gone with the Wind being the highest). All GL needs is to re-release it one last time and he's got his world title.

Avatar's massive box office success has probably made a 3D conversion of Star Wars an inevitability, honestly. The blu-ray spec was updated to allow 3D content to be stored on the discs, and the players are rolling out this year. The new spec requires that the discs be backward-compatible for the players that can't do 3D.

LFL, if you're reading this (and you're most likely not), I would be willing to spend between 30-40 dollars per movie for a blu-ray that has the following:

-Disc 1: Final / Most recent version

-Disc 2: '97 version

-Disc 3: original

In all honesty, and this is just my opinion, but I think that's a big part of the disappointment with the prequels. The people in their late 20's/early 30's in '99 had sooooo much more invested in it than people like me who were almost 14 at the time.

I agree with Pittrek. The PT should be watched first or not at all.

The Phantom Menace

Attack of the Clones

The first disc of Genndy's Clone Wars (Clone Wars Volume 1)

The First Chapter of Clone Wars Volume 2

All of the CGI Clone Wars stuff so far. The Movie would not come first chronologically, as there is at least one episode (The Hidden Enemy) set earlier.

The rest of Clone Wars Volume 2

Revenge of the Sith

Droids

A New Hope

The Holiday Special

Empire

The Two Ewok movies

Ewoks

Jedi

And no, I don't think you missed anything.

Megan Fox would probably get the medal for "doesn't do it for me." I saw Die Hard 4 and Transformers (in that order) on the same day (Transformers' opening day here in the States, actually) in theaters with a bunch of my friends. John McLane's daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) definitely did it for me more than Megan Fox. Granted, it helped that I'd seen her as a cheerleader several months earlier in Grindhouse.

Actually, the time between the PT and the OT is gonna be covered by the live-action series .... if that ever happens. I'm sure it eventually will happen, LFL has to keep the franchise going somehow.

I really hope we get the original versions of THX and Graffiti on blu some day. Unless there's some sort of agreement with Lucas we don't know about, he has no control over those movies. THX is Warner's and Graffiti is Uni's. THX is such a short movie that WB could very easily include both versions on a single, dual-layered blu-ray disc (with either version on its own layer) and still have enough room leftover for all of the extras from the 2-disc dvd. Universal could just use seamless branching for a nice, all-inclusive blu-ray of Graffiti.

Why of course, good sir. I'm simply saying that from a mass-production standpoint, if they could stamp out two-disc sets (each disc dual-layered), they can do the same thing with blu-ray.

I guess my main point is that there's no excuse for them not to do that. They can come to a reasonable msrp for the sku's if it's just a two-disc set.

Lucasfilm could very easily give us a three-disc blu-ray for each film of the original trilogy. Remember, the Blade Runner set was only five discs because they were putting it out on both blu-ray and hddvd.

It went:

Disc 1: hi-def presentation of the final cut

disc 2: standard dvd containing the Dangerous Days documentary

Disc 3: hi-def presentation of the theatrical, international and director's cuts of the film, all seamlessly branched onto the same disc.

disc 4: standard dvd containing various bonus material

Disc 5: hi-def presentation of the workprint.

The VC-1 encodes on the hi-def discs were identical for both hddvd and blu-ray, and they couldn't be more than 30gb since that's the limit for hddvd. So, on the blu-ray version, 20gb is completely wasted on the hi-def discs, 20gb that could've been used to house the 9gb standard dvd files.

Aside from deleted scenes (which they can and should present in full high definition), the blu-ray can use bd-live to give the fans access to plenty of extras without the need to even use up any disc space. That means they have all the space they need (50gb) to give the films' video and audio the fullest quality available on home video.

But guess what, we're not even asking for all that.

ALL we are asking for is the original version on blu-ray.

Just one measly 50gb disc for each film.

I'm not naive enough to think that we won't at least have to buy a two-disc set that has the 20xx version on the first and the doubleoriginal on the second, but still, can Lucasfilm not even give us a two-disc set?

They gave us two-disc dvd's, I say they can do it again for blu-ray.

Make it happen, George.

It would be cool if we got another Star Wars trilogy every decade-and-a-half. Hell, go all the way up to Episode XV. The PT was George's "I can do whatever I want" project. An ST can be more in the style of the OOT.

I sold off my THX-1138 two-disc dvd some months back after hearing early word of a 2010 release date for the blu-ray. Looks like that date is somewhat more official now.

Sucks how WB can give us a Terminator Salvation blu-ray with each cut on a separate disc and not do the same thing for THX.