Haarspalter

‘… a unique opportunity to present the film to audiences in exactly the same form as they would have watched it in 1977.’

Wow, Disney should take that sentence and use it as a marketing slogan to release the theatrical cuts. Is there any chance Disney could change their attitude (aka goodwill towards GL) once Kathleen Kennedy leaves Lucasfilm? I mean she is the last staff in a leading position with former personal connections to Lucas.

oojason said:

‘Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Returns to Theaters’ (at the official Star Wars website):-

Episode III will play in select cinemas for a limited time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film’s debut.
 

a snippet…

'Anakin Skywalker is about to bring peace, freedom, justice, and security to his new Empire on the big screen.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, the final film in the prequel trilogy, Episode III will be re-released in theaters on April 25, 2025, running in select U.S. theaters and international territories for one week only. Screenings will be available in several formats, including, for the first time, 4DX. From the exhilarating battles over the planet of Coruscant to the fiery volcanic high grounds of Mustafar, relive this pivotal chapter in the Skywalker saga; the 4DX experience features high-tech motion chairs that sync with over 21 effects, all designed to complement the narrative of the film.’

 

This isn’t too surprising considering they’ve done this for the previous 2 Prequel films (I think? Maybe nobody bothered with AOTC? TPM definitely did get a limited theatrical re-release) - and also shown the 2011SE / 2019SE cuts of the OT for the 40th anniversaries. Though good news for the ROTS fans among us.

Personally, I was hoping Andor season 2 was somehow going to be shown on the big screen - even if it did mean going to the cinema every week for four weeks - a bit like the old days when cinemas had an assortment of new, good and intriguing films to show.
 

I thought about rewatching ROTS in the theatre, so i checked the bookings of my local theatres. I was stunned: almost every screening is already 80% sold out with very few seats (mostly the forward ones) left to reserve. I was disappointed at first, because i missed my chance to get a proper seat. But then i thought … 20 years ago i saw that movie already five times (!) in the theatre. I rewatched it on DVD. I rewatched the pivotal scenes on YT. Watching it again in the theatre would serve only one reason: giving George Lucas another attempt to convince me, that ROTS is a worthy relative of the OT … but no. I tried this so many times in the past 20 years. So, it’s okay for me not see it again on the big screen.

That guy with no name said:

Mocata said:

It felt more like he was throwing OOT fans his scraps, since it was such a low quality version and a “bonus feature” but I guess this is old news. Of course now time has passed and you have strange people that believe this laserdisc rip represents the quality of that theatrical cuts.

This might have been his intention, to confine the memory of the original cuts to that inferior quality.

Lucas basically ‘confirmed’ that intention during the Cannes 2024 interview:

https://youtu.be/AHXLsHOdPiw?si=sUS8sW1F_aEkUfed&t=3190

Got this book for christmas from my parents. Still getting Star Wars christmas gifts after all those years 😉 A great read so far and an interesting time travel through the ROTJ pre & post production years.

oojason said:

Haarspalter said:

• 'Gary Kurtz - on the Star Wars Special Edition’ youtube video, - by gordongecko1975
• 'Gary Kurtz - on Return of the Jedi’ youtube video, - by gordongecko1975

Now i feel honored that my youtube uploads contributed to this awesome thread. 😃 A truly intricate collection of sources oojason! Great work.

^ Ha! Brilliant mate 😃 I’d no idea of that - though am really pleased to find more of the sources used for this are from members of our own community ❤️
 

And many thanks everyone for all the kind words - they are very much appreciated ✊

 

In the past few days my youtube uploads recieved an unusual high number of new comments coming in. Does anyone know, if both videos got newly linked or mentioned somewhere in a Star Wars discussion board or a recent movie podcast?

The Book of Boba Fett … that dim-witted scooter chase

The director of the recent Dune movies, Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival revealed in a podcast, why he has no interest directing a Star Wars movie:

“I was the target audience. I was 10 years old. It went to my brain like a silver bullet. I became obsessed with Star Wars. I mean, The Empire Strikes Back is the movie that I anticipated the most in my life. I saw the movie a billion times onscreen. […] I adore Star Wars. The problem is that it all derailed in 1983 with Return of the Jedi. […] I was 15 years old, and my best friend and I wanted to take a cab and go to L.A. and talk to George Lucas — we were so angry! Still today, the Ewoks. It turned out to be a comedy for kids. Star Wars became crystallized in its own mythology, very dogmatic, it seemed like a recipe, no more surprises. So I’m not dreaming to do a Star Wars because it feels like code is very codified.”

Source: https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/1885431-denis-villeneueve-star-wars-movie

RIP

His legacy will live on …

Hal 9000 said:

Why make this available only for a limited time?

Maybe he wants to pay homage to the 2006 GOUT DVD advertising? 😉

Awesome work Laserschwert! 🙂 Great to see you keep the “KRIEG DER STERNE”-Trilogie up to modern standards.

The complete Cannes interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHXLsHOdPiw

Fast forward to timecode 53:08 … the interviewer asks Lucas a question from a fan, if he will release the original versions in the future. Lucas drops the “it looks terrible” quote a few seconds later.

That interview confirms one more time that the GOUT 2006 DVD was Lucas’ deliberate middlefinger in the face of the OT fans. And his stupid argument that it looked bad and that is why his numerous Special Edition iterations are better … what a terrible & dumb justification.

Also worth noting as he mentions ‘the director, or the writer or the filmmaker’ … he basically justifys his ‘clean-ups’ on EMPIRE and JEDI since he was not the director. As i remember in earlier interviews he always referred to the directors right.

I would do it in a way like in the ending of the pc game “Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCR6eMv97FQ

Watch at time code 3:42.

1. Crusade
2. Raiders
3. Doom
4. Skull
5. Dial

I saw DoD last week. Harrison Ford is way too old to play Indiana Jones. He looked like an old grampa dressing as Indiana Jones. IMO the train scene prologue proved that the Indiana Jones character works the best, when he is in his late 30s/mid 40s. That scene was entertaining as long as the De-Aging effect on his face wasn’t too distracting. The final scene of DoD almost felt like an elderly person drama - depressing and not very fitting.

This scene was/is/will be the perfect ending for Indiana Jones:

StarkillerAG said:

Basically, as someone else on here (I don’t remember who) once said, “Star Wars is a buffet. Enjoy the stuff you like, and leave the rest.” […]

SilverWook said that 😉

UNPOPULAR OPINION

Every single added Darth Anybody, Sith Inquisitor, Sith Witch, Sith whatever – the Emperor excluded – made Darth Vader less and less unique during the decades.

StarkillerAG said:

It’s one thing to complain about getting stomach flu from a restaurant, it’s a whole other thing to keep going back to that restaurant even after getting stomach flu there numerous times.

I just love that analogy in context to Star Wars 😃

Channel72 said:

Spartacus01 said:

I can’t imagine Vader saying “Liar!! You’re with him! You brought him here to kill me!”

No, he just said: “You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor! Take her away!”

Prequel Anakin would have said something like “Traitor!! You’re with the Rebels! You’ve turned against us!! I will not let you get away with this!” or whatever.

Someone should do a fanedit of the OT with Vaders dialogue rewritten in a Prequel Anakin-esque fashion with James Earl Jones voice recreated by AI. Here are some suggestions:

When Vader interrogates Captain Antilles he could say:

“I’m haunted by the plans that you are hiding from me.” […] “Where are they? Tell us. TELL US NOW!”

The “Bring-my-shuttle” scene in Empire:

“This is outrageous! How can he lose a hand and not join me!? It’s unfair!”

A new fan project called the THE FORCE ENGINE lets you play DARK FORCES (1995) on modern PCs.

https://theforceengine.github.io/

This is a completely revamped source port by programmer luciusDXL who abandoned his former version DarkXL a few years ago.

I read mainly (and still do from time to time) the sections about the prequel trilogy. They contain very insightful and plausible conclusions by Kaminski about Lucas’ creative decision making. For example adding the chosen one prophecy and the midichlorians was a mere ‘script crowbar’ so that Anakin’s importance in TPM could be measured by the numbers basically. Anakin has a high midichlorian count? So he must be important! Do you understand that audience?

Or how Lucas’ kind of hijacked the Naboo art design from James Gurneys Dinotopia book series. According to Kaminski, Lucas even called Gurney around the time of the TPM release asking him, if he ‘might be concerned’.

I can really recommend the book to anyone who is interested in behind-the-scenes stuff about the OT and the PT - especially since it is not one of those Lucas-approved books.

LexX said:

[…] but basically most good stuff surrounding the OT without any PT or Disney tarnishing.

I like your mindset. Actually that’s the one i’m trying to follow too. The one thing that lets me coming back to the Prequels from time to time is the behind-the-scenes drama (e.g. the documentaries, web-docs, etc.).

Now, it is an out-of-control monstrosity…

How about killing in ROTJ while he is still frozen in carbonite?

Leia (disguised as Boushh) approaches ‘Carbo-Han’, but just before she is able to initiate the thawing process … someone shots Han right from behind in the heart. Leia turns around … and there is Boba Fett. Of course Leia whould have to kill Boba Fett during the Sarlacc battle.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Episodes 1-4 - re:View [Red Letter Media]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFIpmRoRAGU