Issue #127 (February 1988) has an interview with Lucas where he briefly touches on his ideas for a prequel and sequel trilogy.
I've only met Peter Mayhew and that was at FanExpo in Toronto in 2010.
I've seen, but not met, Anthony Daniels and David Prowse who were at FanExpo in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
I got to be an extra on "K-19: The Widowmaker" in 2001, and got to spend a couple days on set and saw both Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson up close a number of times. I didn't get to meet them though.
There was a movie prop exhibit that came a local museum last summer and they had some cool props from the Star Wars films like Luke's severed hand from ESB, his lightsabre, and X-Wing pilot suit, a Stormtrooper helmet and rifle, and a Vader suit and helmet used for stunts.
Simon Pegg gives a shout out to the Despecialized Edition on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/simonpegg
Just watched Star Wars Despecialized. A less than official Blu-Ray of the original theatrical version with no additions. Glorious and pure.
Saw stuff in Star Wars Despecialized that I hadn't seen in years. Colours and characters erased by tampering. Made me feel like a kid again.
And one of the truly beautiful moments? Greedo getting it in the guts, just for being a smug bastard. #dontfuckwithmrsolo
No Jabba, no Jawas falling off fucking dinosaurs, no digital corrections. No flying robots. All crystal clear old skool glory.
I never bought Lucas had Anakin be nine-years-old because it was more "dramatic" that way, and that that was his intention all along.
It's clear that in ROTJ, when Obi-Wan says, "when I first met your father, he was already a great pilot", Lucas envisioned Anakin be older, around Luke's age, certainly not anywhere near nine. To cover up that fact he initially had no idea about Anakin being that young in TPM, he has one of the first things Anakin says be "I'm a pilot, ya know, and I'm gonna fly away from here!"
Also, if being dramatic is your goal, you wouldn't hire a kid, give him crappy dialogue to say, and probably give him no more direction than "ok kid, here's your line, ok ya said it, good, cut, print!" You'd really go out of your way to work with the kid, trying to coax a good performance out of him, which it's clear Lucas had little care for in the end.
I think the reason the models look cgi is because they were scanned into a computer, then augmented by cgi, giving it a somewhat blurry, shiny, soft look.
Kamino for instance, sure the structure is a model, but all the waves crashing around, not to mention that flying whale, or whatever, were cgi.
georgec said:
So the Old Testament is the UOT, the New Testament is the Special Edition, Lucas is the Messiah, and the Prequels are the Book of Mormon?
I prefer to think of the UOT as the Holy Bible:
Star Wars is the Old Testament.
Empire is the four gospels of The New Testament.
Return is all the other writings, like St. Paul, etc - not as relevant as the rest of the Bible, and in some cases, rather strays from the original intent, but is still part of the overall book.
The prequels and special editions are Apocrypha.
To equate restoration and cleaning with alteration, especially adding CGI to 28+ year old movies, is nothing short of insane.
I was just watching the raid on the bunker and thought it was odd that Han had two different kinds of guns. In the hallway scenes, it's more like it was in the first Star Wars film, when he gets to the control room, it's back to the way it was in Empire!
Be mindful of the living force young padawan!
Actually a lot of people, including myself, were excited about the new changes back in 1997. While I knew even then they were unnecessary and ultimately didn't integrate that well with films shot 14-20 years before, I nevertheless enjoyed many of them. Greedo firing first, Luke screaming and Vader's "bring my shuttle" being replaced and the obvious outtake from ROTJ were the only changes I didn't like.
But at the time, DVD was just being introduced into the North American market, Laserdisc was still going strong, and I had the 1995 THX LDs, which, as far a I could tell, looked great on my 20 inch TV, so not having the OUT on a state-of-the-art format wasn't an issue. And I certainly didn't think even then about Lucas being such a stubborn prick that he wouldn't release the originals on DVD, or whatever other superior home video formats would come down the line. There just simply wasn't the feeling the the "special editions" were meant to replace the originals back then.
While I do remember Cinefantisque and Sci-Fi Universe criticizing Lucas for making the changes, I think much of the press was reasonably positive for what Lucas was doing, though I didn't have consistent access to the web at that time so I don't know how the online community reacted to it.
I believe the reason why Lucas won't change the graphics for the Death Star Plans, along with the Falcon's display during the Tie Fighter scene is because they were among the first examples of computer graphics being used in a film.
SilverWook said:
I wonder how Frank Oz will feel about his performance being erased?
I'm sure a lot of people involved in Phantom Menace would love to have their work erased!
OT.com: George, the Star Wars Blu Rays are evil!
George: From my point of view practical effects and scenes that actually work are evil!
So this is what happens when my Rancor dies...thunderous applause!
generalfrevious said:
see you auntie said:
rpvee said:
I do have a guess as to why they did the "NO". Granted, it'd be a very stupid reason, but I wouldn't put it past them to care about something so trivial and not saber colors.
It's a tradition to have a dramatic "NOOO" in every Star Wars film:
TPM: Obi-Wan after Qui-Gon is stabbed.
AOTC: Obi-Wan upon Anakin's charging at Dooku.
ROTS: Anakin before attacking Mace/Vader after waking up.
SW: Luke after Obi-Wan is killed
ESB: Luke after learning the truth.
ROTJ: Some argue Luke screams "NO" after Vader threatens to turn Leia, but "officially" he says "NEVER". So as far as I can recall, there was never a "NO" in Jedi... until now.
Granted, I AM NOT SAYING THIS MAKES THE NEW "NO" REASONABLE BY ANY MEANS. It still sucks like hell. I just wanted to point out their possible motivation.
Why couldn't it be this guy instead:
"Nooo..... Noooooooooooooo!!!"
Katie Lucas said:
You're Tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker.
Haters said:
Then I'll see you in hell!
Ironically, that circus trainer was more interesting than any PT character.
Yeah, and his reaction to the Rancor's death had more emotional resonance than anything in the prequels ... combined!
rpvee said:
I do have a guess as to why they did the "NO". Granted, it'd be a very stupid reason, but I wouldn't put it past them to care about something so trivial and not saber colors.
It's a tradition to have a dramatic "NOOO" in every Star Wars film:
TPM: Obi-Wan after Qui-Gon is stabbed.
AOTC: Obi-Wan upon Anakin's charging at Dooku.
ROTS: Anakin before attacking Mace/Vader after waking up.
SW: Luke after Obi-Wan is killed
ESB: Luke after learning the truth.
ROTJ: Some argue Luke screams "NO" after Vader threatens to turn Leia, but "officially" he says "NEVER". So as far as I can recall, there was never a "NO" in Jedi... until now.
Granted, I AM NOT SAYING THIS MAKES THE NEW "NO" REASONABLE BY ANY MEANS. It still sucks like hell. I just wanted to point out their possible motivation.
It's like poetry! Repetition. I bet he hoped it would work!
I'm haunted by the kiss you should have never given me!
Wow!
generalfrevious said:
The Free Hat episode really hit the ball on the OT problem; although it makes Spielberg the villain instead of Lucas, when it is clearly the opposite.
To be fair the episode came out shortly after, and mostly in response, to the E.T. Special Edition which had some changes just as offensive and nonsensical as the Star Wars SEs.
Someone over from another forum linked to this site a few days ago and I've since downloaded and watched the Star Wars Depecialized Edition and it's amazing! Definitely how I'll be watching Star Wars for the rest of my life.
So I'm definitely looking forward to watching Empire Despecialized in HD, so I'd be grateful if you could give me the links for the HD version! Thanks!
