SilverWook

There's a lot of seedy darker stuff beneath the surface. As a kid, I didn't stop to think what "spice" was, and why Han was in so much trouble for dumping a shipment to avoid being caught, but it's pretty obvious it's drugs of some kind.

Watching Jedi as an adult, it really seems to me Jabba is stoned out of his mind most of the time, as are most of his minions. (That doesn't make them any less of a threat though.) The palace throne room has elements of an opium den to it, not to mention it's suited for other sordid goings on.

Even the Ewoks have a dark element that's underplayed. They were going to cook everyone to appease their new golden god! A pile of discarded Biker scout armor in a corner would have been funny and dark, but Lucas didn't want to go there.

As Carrie has said the metal bikini was George's idea, what else came straight out of his twisted mind? ;)

Anybody who thinks Carrie can't play twisted and evil has never seen The Blues Brothers. ;)

It's unlikely it's a broadcast print, (except for the third reel) as even partial nudity was not going to be shown on broadcast tv.

You are going to restore the original WB/Kinney logo myscamore has worked on to match the LD?

Random thought. Since you already have the Blues Brothers, you could put Jake and Elwood performing in the Cantina somehow? It would also be a nice homage to an early classic PC game...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgafneIReP4

Sorry about that. Try this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MIo6KmdtPM

I sometimes lament I never got together with a friend to make a Bigfoot video that would have driven people on youtube nuts. ;)

I have a Vaio, so I concur. :)

msycamore said:

I only find the whole timeframe and the messy way Lucas handled the "replacement" interesting due to the fact we're seeing Kurtz still heavily involved during the entire post production, promotion and release. Interesting stuff.

Skimming through my yellowed copy of Once Upon a Galaxy, the only mention of Kurtz in the post production phase is in the November 2nd 1979 entry.

Author Alan Arnold went to Kurtz's Sausalito home with Irvin Kershner to pilfer records to use as a temp track for the ESB score. Kurtz was out of town at the time.

Post production is the most brief part of the book though.

imperialscum said:

Looking at the thing from a practical (realistic) perspective, Kurtz definitely earned his replacement. This was a self-financed film by Lucas. The shooting time and the budget doubled. This is something even a major studio would be extremely worried about. Well one could argue to Kurtz's defence that Kershner worked extremely slowly, but it is producer's job to ensure things progress as intended (either in a nice or rough manner).

The massive box office receipts, because the movie turned out to be really good, and the tons of toys sold, because the movie turned out to be really good, apparently don't mean much to George. Isn't the end result what really matters?

If Empire had tanked, there would have been no saga. Star Wars would have likely been forever written off as an unrepeatable box office fluke. We'd probably have a nicely restored Criterion Blu Ray of it now though.

I thought it was one hell of an allergic reaction. Mace was wearing pretty strong aftershave that dark day. ;)

Seriously though, when I first saw Palpy in '83, I thought that was what being on the dark side does to you. It's like a cancer of evil. (His advisers look kind of pale and ghastly too.) The Empire being so human centric, I felt he couldn't be some sort of humanoid alien.

Lucas had to go and muck that up in ROTS, of course.

Palpy claims he's scarred, but is that the official explanation? It seemed more like an illusion melting away he couldn't maintain any longer. He certainly doesn't seem too upset about being stuck with that mug. Does Force lightning really cause instant tooth decay?

DuracellEnergizer said:

Comic book adaptations are almost aways weak. With the sole exception of the Army of Darkness adaptation, I can't think of a single one that didn't have lacklustre art and/or a lack of dynamism and/or glaring omissions.

Most of the Marvel ones I recall reading as a kid were pretty good. Star Wars was just another movie license for them at the time. Can't recall DC doing any in the 70's though.

In the old days, they were almost always done without benefit of seeing the finished film, so that they reached newsstands close to the release date. I have no idea what the lead time is like now.

TMP had an almost Phantom Menace level of merchandising, which didn't sell well, and there was very little TWOK stuff as a result. That might explain why there wasn't a comic adaptation in '82.

When movies are now in our grubby little hands mere months after release, I'm not sure comic versions have the same impact they once did.

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/bigfoot-evidence-screened-expert-claims-proof-existence-170135552--abc-news-tech.html?vp=1

Don't use a Chewbacca mask for your lame fake Bigfoot video. Mind you, I used a Chewie mask for just such a purpose back in college, but I had the sense not to shoot it in closeup! :P

Weird thing is, I saw Sam Jones promoting the movie on Nickelodeon's teen oriented talk show LiveWire at the time, and I didn't pick up on any vocal disparity with the clip they ran. (I think it was the football with Ming's men scene.) When I saw him decades later on the SciFi channel series, his real voice being different was obvious.

It was really funny when an audience member got the movie mixed up with Flesh Gordon.  Wish there was clip on youtube!

I'm in the market for a new PC monitor. Costco has some nice Samsungs. The HDTV set is a bit cheaper than the PC monitor. Aside from the fact one has a tuner and speaker, (and more inputs) they seem fairly identical looking, at least cosmetically. Stated resolutions are the same.

Any compelling reason to buy the monitor over the tv? I've used my big Samsung flat panel a PC monitor before and was pretty happy with it.

Excellent!

And you have to use the Blues Brothers theme again when Steve disembarks his ship on Utapau. Maybe the Obi Wan lizard chase scene too?

Gaffer Tape said:

Hmm.  Don't think the art is that bad, but McCoy saying "it's" instead of "its" and referring to "Admiral" Kirk as "Captain" seems pretty lazy.

Marvel did a better job adapting Star Wars without the luxury of being able to see the movie, what excuse do these guys have? ;)

Ah, I forgot about that stoner surfer dude turtle. Thought it was from some incarnation of TMNT for a moment. At least I almost had the species right. ;)

Are there any more Crush lines from Finding Nemo you could use when all the Nemoidians are fleeing the bridge?

ATMachine said:

Making of ROTJ reveals that Kurtz was indeed replaced during post-production on ESB (in late 1979). According to Howard Kazanjian's recollection, Kurtz showed up one day and Kazanjian had to tell him that he was no longer allowed to work on George's movie.

Which came as a total surprise to Kurtz, apparently. Kazanjian had expected that Lucas would have told Kurtz he was being let go, but apparently Lucas preferred to let Kazanjian do his dirty work for him. (Later, when asked by Kazanjian, Lucas would deny that he had failed to inform Kurtz of his impending dismissal.)

Kurtz accordingly sent in his letter of resignation to Lucasfilm on December 11, 1979.

The purge started a lot earlier than I thought. Lucas' loss, but Jim Henson's gain.

I'm amazed we're getting such an unvarnished look at what must have been a more tumultuous production than even ESB was.

ATMachine said:

One bit in the Making of ROTJ that's pretty enlightening as to Lucas' overall priorities is the story of Dermot Crowley, who played General Madine.

Crowley showed up to wardrobe fittings and was repeatedly urged to wear a fake beard. Essentially, he was told he must wear this beard. So he agreed, but he wondered why the costumers were so insistent. Later he found out that a "General Madine" action figure had already been molded by Kenner--and the figure sculpt was bearded.

(I'm sure this anecdote has been told before, but I would hardly have expected it to make it into an official LFL book!)

Guess that finally explains the hairdo! ;)

Scary that the beard still exists...

The AG-1980 was firmly in the "prosumer" category. (As was most S-VHS gear.) All the industrial decks I ever used didn't have internal TBC's, as the typical studio setup would likely have an external unit. How such a feature laden deck with such good specs came out at the original price point is a mystery to me. (The decks I used in college probably cost three times more.) I used mine as a home editing system for years.

The 1980 has a lesser known cousin, the AG-5710, which has the same specs except for the addition of an RS-232 port on the back. It can sometimes be found for less.

LOL! Where did you get that voice from?

imperialscum said:

ATMachine said:

Kasdan on the other hand challenges Lucas all the time

Well these conversations prove that the notion that prequels failed because no one challenged Lucas is wrong. It is pretty clear to me now that he always had it his way. Luckily in OT he had relatively great ideas as opposed to the prequels.

Except he didn't always get his way on Empire. Which might be why he sought out someone like Marquand for the next film. And notice Gary Kurtz didn't stick around for Jedi.

The lack of any real official news is becoming boring. Even the prequels gave us a tiny tidbit or two early on.

Keeping my fingers crossed for Peter Mayhew to return. He's recovering from surgery intended to help him walk again.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/09/23/original-wookiee-peter-mayhew-intends-to-keep-the-role-of-chewbacca-for-episode-vii/

http://www.fandango.com/moviephotos/thecoolestmoviespacesuitsinhistory_spock%E2%80%99ssuitinistartrekii:thewrathofkhani_623_3

So many errors...

Ronster said:

Has anyone seen the CGI Dragon Smaug for part 2 of the hobbit?

Terrible CGI... Like a real bad art direction being taken on the creature effects... Calling for this person to be sacked immediately and repair this franchise.

It's written in stone... Fundamentally flawed on a visual effects level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLgnkRxlKCg

Coming to think of it any camera that you use where you have to change the colur of everything so it looks normal when filmed is a bad direction to undertake...

This is a real mess with a significant price tag to go with it.

Really hard to say from a shadowy ten second glimpse, don't you think?

Colors of objects, costumes and people have been altered to photograph a certain way since the golden age of Hollywood. Nothing new about that.

Tasjo, what is your price range for an AG-1980? It's getting harder to find one that hasn't been run into the ground as time goes by. And believe me, you don't want to end up with someone else's tape eater.

I can recommend the ebay seller I bought my last one from, and they service what they sell.