I do watch the star wars saga in order and it is 3 films.
Star Wars 1977
The Empire Strikes Back 1980
Return of the Jedi 1983.
I don't really like any of the changes. But it makes Lucas seem like a genius to get fox to pay for free research and development for the prequels which is what the cgi on the 1997 special edition really was for.
That and seeing if the public still was interested in star wars the 20th anniversary was a test for the prequels in that regard as well. If the special edition bombed maybe the prequels would not have been made, and maybe the originals would still be available and the special edition the new coke.
Can't find any more than that he never was upset over the changes made in the SE. But even Kasdan defended George's right to change the films and now he wrote the next film in the series.
Wasn't there some bad rotoscope on Luke's saber originally when he is fighting on the sand skiff. I think they had someone outside ILM do it or something.
George had a right to change star wars whether we like it or not is another thing.
What i would challenge him on had i the chance to do so is re-editing someone else's film. Now on empire even though he gave Kersh final cut he redid empire in 1997 and onward, but since Kersh allowed that i will let that slide. But Marquand was dead and he had also been given final cut by Lucas but had his film changed posthumously by the director of the first film also known as star wars.
I got his sig on something for a lot less and probably paid too much. Its of him signing a 10th anniversary starlog star wars issue. George i mean.
It came from the magazines associate editor and i have pics of Lucas signing it somewhere lol.
Since then he no longer signs stuff so they charged way too much for that frames book, thankfully Lucas donated the proceeds to charity.
Glad The Ladd documentary is being made.
There will be little to nothing to post. This film will be even more tightly controlled than the last star trek film.
I would be surprised if they even post pictures of the cast in costume. Like they did of Ford on Crystal Skull.
I doubt the plot will ever be known up until release day.
Since return of the jedi even if there is lets say a novelization or comic book adaptation it won't come out in advance of the film like they did on star wars or empire.
Any social media whether tweets or facebook will probably be false leads from the studio. The modern day Blue Harvest.
Was nice of George Lucas to donate his time to sign two copies of the trilogies even if it is the blu ray versions and not the real original trilogy.
I hope ever paid the 1,500 knows they are not the real deal. As no HD version or even DVD quality version of star wars from 1977 that Alan Ladd Jr. greenlit exists.
I wonder if the reason he got fired is because he is George Lucas friend. I mean he and George became friends outside of it being a a business.
The studio wanted someone who was more like a company man and mean to george? And maybe got Fox a better deal?
Although is is true that the four making of documentaries were released in the 1990's in japan on laserdisc remastered And laserdisc is an analog format i do believe they made new digital tape masters. And they of course had digital audio.
Really does not matter if they were on d1 or d2 format however as they would never even be beyond SD quality.
Sure Lucasfilm could have tracked down 16mm prints or even tried to find the negatives and scan in HD but using existing digital tape masters was much more useful in terms of cost. Why they did not include the fourth making of film is hard to make heads or tails of.
I don't believe the conspiracy angle either. About it showing Lucas being too candid about story over effects or that he changed his mind about things when making the prequels or when it comes to the story of darth vader.
I believe the making of masters of the blu rays is the same master as the last one used in japan minus the subtitles. Unless Lucasfilm went to an earlier non remasters not digital source like the US vhs tape master and digitized it which would cost more money and make zero sense.
Yeah Anakin as portrayed by Hayden was horrible.
Imagine if Lucas hired a decent writer, director, and actor it might have been compelling. Instead Episodes II and III were a disgrace.
Lucas says they are supposed to be badly written directed and acted because he was doing a flash gordon serial.
darklordoftech said:
Empire's End. Palpatine deserves a far better ending.
He was supposed to have some big role and probably even bigger super weapons but they cancelled dark empire III.
Now that Fox and WB sorted this out what are the odds Fox and Disney sort things out over the original star wars trilogy, probably not good.
Anyway the tv show airs on some standard def channel and cut to fit commercials. The same channel that claims it runs the original star trek, but shows the remastered in spectacular standard def with bad cgi replacing the models. And not uncut the episodes are cut for time. MEtv Boston laughable station.
Surprised i don't have to track down a crt tv and rabbit ears.
There was going to be a restoration undertaken by Mr Robert Harris unfortunately the studio did not want to do the project.
They are more than happy with the chopped up version.
The laserdisc sells for insane money or i would have seen this cut years ago.
Some of the deleted scenes were finished with cheap outsourced cgi not ILM.
Not all, some of the scenes on Sith were left unfinished.
None of the blu ray scenes were ever finished. Including the original trilogy.
Except for Luke's lightsaber in Return of the Jedi being built. The only scene i know of that was actually in along with finished sound effects dialog and music. Then removed. And not in the premiere but finished.
Hopefully the cinematographers style is tamed a bit. I like Mindel's stuff but the lens flares and frenzied fast shaky cam is kind of not my cup of tea.
Less like Amazing Spider-man 2 or Star Trek Into Darkness. More like the first three star wars made in the seventies and eighties.
I also hope Williams is inspired to write a good score. Not a bad pastiche of the originals. The same romantic style of music but not bored phoned in stuff.
Hopefully the movie makes more than Crystal Skull or at least close to what that film earned.
and Hopefully a return to greatness unlike that film.
Only Harrison Ford looked too old in 2008 so how old will Han Solo be?
Will they use the actors age in the plot but not make it a bad joke. I wonder.
Other than that one time a beautiful LPP print was on Ebay in 16mm i cannot think of any other time a print has been available.
Some one bought it and took the print with them.
I think i even remember asking the chap who won it if he would consider selling it for just a little more than he paid.
No dice its for a private collection and then he disappears into the night,lol.
Then again back 8 or 9 years ago no one would have had the ability to afford to scan a 16mm print in HD. And outdo the Japanese laserdisc.
If one can best the editdroid version have a go. I am happy with what i have but a nice 1080P version by Lucasfilm would have been nice.
The other 3 making of documentaries come clearly from the last digital tape masters used in japan and yet there are no burnt in subtitles.
So they must have had fswtj they just did not include it or the making of fluff piece that was on the 2004 bonus disc either.
The very first version of star wars has never been on home video. However the second version with a new hope has never gotten a new transfer after 1993.
Empire and Jedi also are stuck at 1993 4:3 SD letterbox.
They spliced on a nice clean version of the original crawl in 2006 to make the Star Wars DVD original but it still was the same Definitive edition transfer afterwards.
The 2004 cut is no way better than the blu ray. And at least the blu ray is not zoomed in like the spike TV version.
Has some fixes but also worse new cgi alterations and Vader yelling noooo in return of the jedi.
Basically the blu ray is a lazy tweaked 2004 from the same 1080P locked master.
Would have been nice to get newly transferred versions of the films of all versions for a master set or just the original theatrical versions for the folks who don't want anything else.
Denning sort of continues the thought through to his latest book though. Its only abandoned by the other authors.
Though it all comes apart with the literal luminous beings and mortis.
Would Lucas have gotten someone else to be Darth? I doubt he would have bothered to have Christensen back in the role just to be in the suit.
As for trusting George on knowing the characterization of Vader he got it all wrong in episode III so why should he be trusted.
The Emperor went from being a politician who had a corrupted former Jedi as his blunt instrument to being a force user himself.
The average filmgoer would not have known Vader was a sith lord without having read the script or novelization.
I loved Harrison's jokeyness in the film as a kid. As an adult it seems to me he did not want to do the film and is phoning in his performance.
Kotor II just does not obey the rules of how the force works in any of the films or any other material for that matter. It does not feel like star wars. While Kotor gets star wars tone perfectly, even if its a clone of star wars motifs.
KOTOR III would have ironed out the wrinkles and made the trilogy fit as a whole. BUT II is a game that feels completely rushed and only 40% done and multitudes of glitches.
I have not seen anything so poor since except for maybe dragon age II by bioware. Obsidian though has a reputation for putting out unfinished godawful,buggy games.
Other than the obviously cut content and the fact that the game feels like its on the rails and not very explorable. The lack of an actual ending is its worst fault.
Having Kreia tell you the futures of your party is no ending. Its laughable and the game as is should have never been released in its current state on the Xbox.
I won't get into TOR and how it basically retconned all of KOTOR I and II. Its no way near what the originally story for III would have been.
Even the Revan novel is no placeholder for a non-existing game.
Looks like the live action tv series will remain a lost chapter in the history of the star wars saga.
With the sale to Disney, Lucas transformation of Lucasfilm from theatrical films to arena of live action television now won't happen.
The tv series was going to have Vader in in it and Ronald Moore who revived Galatica worked on it.
Not really one to resurrect threads but Disney returning Lucasfilm to primary a film entity when Lucas wanted to move to tv is interesting. With Lucas in charge we would have gotten more prequel material and no sequels set after Jedi.
We would not even have to have a discussion over preferred versions were they all released on blu ray in similar quality.
Sadly even the released version which fixed some of the 2004 mistakes left others untouched or made more mistakes.
Only some frames of the lightsabers have the colors corrected, selective color correction. Selective fixes to the audio rather than including the original mixes, but how could that be included its not the original movie.
Really a patched version of the 2004. I mean on the 2011 blu ray. With additional cgi and incredibly stupid noooooooooooooo! added to return of the jedi along with sebulba in jabba's palace and a new stupid cgi door and ewoks eyes blinking. And of course the new rocks artoo hides behind in star wars.
That art is ridiculous because Perry King is Han Solo not Harrison Ford. Ann Sachs is Leia.