Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Star Wars Prequels Media Movies

George Lucas Speaks on Trilogy Changes 759

Posted by CmdrTaco from the say-what-you-will dept.
Warlock7 writes "Yahoo has posted an interview with George Lucas by the AP on the changes to the original trilogy from the new DVD box set. They also discuss the future of the franchise and the direction he intends to take it."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

George Lucas Speaks on Trilogy Changes More

George Lucas Speaks on Trilogy Changes

Comments Filter:

  • Let me be the first to say: (Score:5, Funny)

    by Seoulstriker ( 748895 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:23PM (#10277412)
    1) Han shoots first.
    2) Lucas destroyed my childhood.
    3) Lucas eats babies.

  • Quoth George: (Score:5, Funny)

    by rde ( 17364 ) * on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:25PM (#10277430)
    "Star Wars" fans is they're very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box

    Yeah, and then they buy it five times over the next few years.

    • Re:Quoth George: (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Writer ( 746272 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @03:33PM (#10279543)

      They all think outside the box

      Outside the box? These are people that don't remove collectibles from their original packaging.

  • The Missing Question (Score:5, Funny)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:25PM (#10277435) Homepage Journal
    As we all know, editors often strip out items they consider unimportant or trivial to make an artical fit, or as the saying goes, "All the news that fits, in print" Here are the missing bits:

    AP: Will there be any other surprises for viewers in these episodes? Lucas: Well, I was quoted a while back as stating the whole Star Wars story is about Anakin Skywalker, his turn to the dark side and eventual rescue by his own son, but that was only half the whole truth, you see as I said a film is only half finished which ripped out of the filmmakers hands, this is really the story of Jar Jar Binks and he has been added into key rolls in all three episodes. I like the character and don't care what anyone else thinks.

  • the direction he intends to take it ... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Bai jie ( 653604 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:25PM (#10277441)
    He intends to take it to the bank, along with everything he does.

  • Special Editions vs. regular (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wattersa ( 629338 ) <andrew@andrewwatters.com> on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:25PM (#10277443) Homepage
    AP: Why not release both the originals and special editions on DVD?

    Lucas: The special edition, that's the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it. ... I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I'm the one who has to take responsibility for it. I'm the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they're going to throw rocks at me, they're going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.

    Lucas is going to have a lot of rocks thrown at him. As someone in an earlier post stated, Lucas is a control freak and doesn't seem to grasp that his vision today differs from his vision when he made the movies. :-/

    • Re:Special Editions vs. regular (Score:5, Interesting)

      by RyuuzakiTetsuya ( 195424 ) <taiki@c o x .net> on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:30PM (#10277488)
      Big deal. It's out on VHS and laserdisc.

      I really thought that those words were brave, it seemed like he didn't mind alienating the fanbase in favor of his own artistic vision.

    • Response (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:30PM (#10277497)
      My response to Lucas is a quote from the Foreward of "Brave New World", by Aldous Huxley, in regard to "changing things" after the fact.
      Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.

      Art also has its morality, and many of the rules of this morality are the same as, or at least analogous to, the rules of ordinary ethics. Remorse, for example, is as undesirable in relation to our bad art as it is in relation to our bad behavior. The badness should be hunted out, acknowledged and, if possible, avoided in the future. To pore over the literary shortcomings of twenty years ago, to attempt to patch a faulty work into the perfection it missed at its first execution, to spend one's middle age in trying to mend the artistic sins committed and bequeathed by that different person who was oneself in youth-all this is surely vain and futile. And that is why this new Brave New World is the same as the old one. Its defects as a work of art are considerable; but in order to correct them I should have to rewrite the book-and in the process of rewriting, as an older, other person, I should probably get rid not only of some of the faults of the story, but also of such merits as it originally possessed. And so, resisting the temptation to wallow in artistic remorse, I prefer to leave both well and ill alone and to think about something else.
      Leave it alone, Lucas.

      • Re:Response (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Paolomania ( 160098 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:14PM (#10278001) Homepage
        I absolutely agree. "Star Wars" was not a success because people liked Lucas, Lucas was a success because people liked "Star Wars". Audiences responded to the actual movie that was released, not to the ideas that George had in his head. Assuming that audiences liking a movie is the ultimate measure of how good a movie is, who is George to say that his new version is "better" than the one that people actually loved. All he is doing is asserting that "better" means that HE thinks its better - which IMO is a bit self-centered and not at all a good measure to go by.

        IMO this is also where the Wachowski Bros. went wrong: they assumed that it was the creative vision behind their movie that people loved, and not the movie itself. So by that assumption, producing two movies that adhere to their creative whims will result in movies that people love - which is evidently false.

    • In fairness .... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:33PM (#10277533) Homepage
      As much as I don't really like that he's gone back in time and changed things, I can see his point of view.

      I can also see why he's not willing to spend millions of dollars and a lot of time touching up the original version. But that's because he would want to give it the whole THX treatment as well as the digital touch up.

      However, if he just did zero work on it and just put it on disk, I can't see it being too difficult to do. Not that Lucas would ever release a completely stripped down, un-fancy movie.

    • Man, George is shameless!

      I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is [the movie] I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed [film] and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I'm the one who has to take responsibility for it. I'm the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they're going to throw ro

    • Here's a clue to Lucas, from a non-SW fan... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Denyer ( 717613 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:40PM (#10277628)
      The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it. ... I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore

      ...fans of film in general don't care if the footage is refurbished. They just want a copy of the film as it was initially released in a format resistant to physical degradation.

      • The real horror of this is... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Skyshadow ( 508 ) * on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:05PM (#10277896) Homepage
        The real horror of this is that we are potentially facing an *extinction* of the real films. These "special editions" are already becoming the versions you see on TV and they're the only versions you can really buy anywhere. The original might exist someplace, but if you can't see it, it might as well not.

        Back when I was in college, I got the letterbox VHS versions (this is right before the first "special editions" were reissued) and my college ACM chapter had a fund-raiser where we showed the films on a big-screen TV with a big sound system and pizza and whatever.

        To my surprise, the main people who showed weren't students, but parents who were bringing their little kids to watch Star Wars for the first time. It was really cool to watch someone's first reaction to this stuff that a lot of us knew by heart.

        I have to wonder: Will my kids be able to see the real version of the films, or are they going to be stuck with these inferior versions? How long can my VHS versions last? I watched 'em again last month -- they're already showing wear.

        It's a cultural loss on the same level as if Wells had burned "Citizen Kane" after it got a few bad reviews. These are *the* defining movies of that generation.

        • Re:The real horror of this is... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Gulik ( 179693 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @02:05PM (#10278613)
          I have to wonder: Will my kids be able to see the real version of the films, or are they going to be stuck with these inferior versions?

          That's one of the larger complaints I have about the refurbished Star Wars movies: in some sense, they're historical documents. They were revolutionary when they came out, and spawned a whole new direction in what a science fiction movie could look like.

          I of course have my own stylistic objections to Han not shooting first, and I might even be willing to float an argument that Lucas, by receiving a copyright on the movies, has likewise agreed to allow it to pass into the public domain some day (some day long after I'm dead by the look of things, but that's a whole 'nuther argument), and he shouldn't be doing his level best to make sure that the original movies are not available to anyone ever. But further, how about historians in the future? Film and art students? Anthropologists from the year 2525? Isn't it kind of sad that they'll never be able to see the actual film that caused a revolution in filmmaking?

        • Four words. (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Speare ( 84249 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @02:23PM (#10278835) Homepage Journal

          Four words: Laser Disc Definitive Collection.

    • Lucas is no genius! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gosand ( 234100 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:47PM (#10277706)
      It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it.

      So basically what he says is, he got lucky with Star Wars. Because what he wanted to make was garbage. Look at the prequels - he had much more control over these, and comparatively they sucked. They are tripe on their own, without using the original three as a crutch.

      So the movies that people loved, and built his "empire" (so to speak) were not his true vision. We have seen his vision, and it isn't that great. So I think it is time to stop giving Lucas any credit for the first three movies. He doesn't want it, and he apparently doesn't deserve it. Actually, the more control he had, the worse the movies got. It was kind of obvious to me that he had more control with ROTJ, because of the Ewoks and some of the direction the story took. I am almost looking forward to EPIII - not to see it, but just to see how bad it is.

    • Hey, they don't exist for him anymore- that means his COPYRIGHT IS RELEASED on the originals! Time to take those old LDs and convert them to DVD on your own for fun and profit!

    • Harrison's Opinion (Score:5, Interesting)

      by uberdave ( 526529 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:34PM (#10278224) Homepage
      Lately I've been wondering what Harrison Ford's opinion on this whole Han/Greedo shoots first controversy is. Anybody know?

  • To SW fans, from Lucas. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kenja ( 541830 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:25PM (#10277444)
    "F-ck you all, I never wanted to make star wars in the first place. The special additions are as close as I can now get to what I realy wanted. I wont release the originals because the millions of fans that want to buy them wouldn't (or so the force tells me). Just buy my crap and shut the hell up."

    While the above is paraphrased, its more or less whats in the interview.

  • Article in Brief - Luca$ Direction (Score:5, Funny)

    by dbretton ( 242493 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:25PM (#10277446) Homepage
    Q: Where are you taking Star Wars?
    A: Straight to the bank!

  • ironic hilarity (Score:5, Interesting)

    by boarder ( 41071 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:27PM (#10277471) Homepage
    Here is a story on IMDb about Lucas and his thoughts on Hollywood:
    post at IMDb [imdb.com]

    Choice quote from the master of looks over substance: (Hollywood is) "making hugely inefficient movies for great amounts of money and they aren't creatively very interesting."

    I wonder if the people who say one thing and do another (like Lucas and the Douchebag of Liberty, Robert Novak) realize they are doing it or if they truly think they are special and doing the right thing.

    • Re:ironic hilarity (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MrBlackBand ( 715820 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:36PM (#10277587)
      I wonder if the people who say one thing and do another ... realize they are doing it or if they truly think they are special and doing the right thing.

      Remember, unlike in the movies no one ever thinks that they are evil. Everyone (Caesar, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Pinochet, etc.) thinks that they are doing the right thing and anyone who opposes them is evil. Not that I think George Lucas is evil, of course.

  • Juicy and stupid quote (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Gogl ( 125883 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:28PM (#10277474) Journal
    "Lucas: The special edition, that's the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it. ... I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I'm the one who has to take responsibility for it. I'm the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they're going to throw rocks at me, they're going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished."

    Yeah. Suuuure. You're an artiste, and you must complete your work! That must be it. Nevermind that to most artists, integrity means keeping their original work untainted. And nevermind how your tweaks and changes, well, are largely either stupid glitz or just plain stupid. Han shoots first, damnit.

    Please please please, don't reward Lucas's shenanigans by buying the DVDs.

    • Re:Juicy and stupid quote (Score:4, Insightful)

      by gamble ( 164436 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:00PM (#10277848)
      Don't be silly, there are plenty of famous artists who are unhappy with pieces and continue to work them over until they are happy with them. Picasso did this plenty of times, reformatting a piece painting over large sections with new work. In general, this is something that critic/historians get very excited about. It's a chance to see the artist's mind at work -- to see the thought process. Musicians do this all the time as well, most music fans would say "If it sounds the same live, then the band lacks musicianship."

      Alright, that said, movies are an artform where the artist cannot afford to sit on the project until it's finished. It would certainly seem odd if Michalangelo decided recently to amend David, saying "I never liked this hair. It's got an odd wave to it from this one particular angle."

      Anyway, I don't want Lucas directly compared to Michalangelo, it just seems unfair to blanketly define artist integrity and artist idiological desire as such.

  • Talking about others' take on the SW universe (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tebriel ( 192168 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:28PM (#10277479)
    Some of it "might be good" George?

    Some of it is DAMN good and much better than anything you'd ever come up with. Come on, George, give credit to people who've already taken your universe and made it better.

  • An artist's work is never done? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kmb ( 56194 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:30PM (#10277498)
    I don't recall any stories about Picasso sneaking into museums with a paintbrush to touch up his old work....

    • Re:An artist's work is never done? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mblase ( 200735 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:53PM (#10277770)
      I don't recall any stories about Picasso sneaking into museums with a paintbrush to touch up his old work....

      No, but I do recall an article recently about how Edvard Munch's The Scream actually exists as six or eight different, broadly identical paintings, all of which are by his hand. Or how George Seurat made changes to Sunday on the Island of La Grand Jatte, most noticably adding the pointillist frame around the canvas, long after he'd completed the actual work. Or how Renaissance painters routinely created multiple copies of their works on demand, and they were often created by students of the original artist's studio but signed by the artist himself.

      The statement "An artist's work is never done" is even more true in the world of painting than in most other media, historically speaking.

  • Oh boy, here it comes... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DroopyStonx ( 683090 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:31PM (#10277500)
    Tons of complaints about "Lucas needs a new Yacht" and "he's gonna fuck up/he has fucked up Star Wars"... ...only to have them immediately turn around and buy the damn product.

  • Revisionist BS artist (Score:5, Interesting)

    by StefanJ ( 88986 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:32PM (#10277520) Homepage Journal
    Man, I'm really coming to dispise this guy.

    Read the unauthorized bio, Sky Walking, to get an idea of the changes that _Star Wars_ went through during its conception. No, the whole thing didn't occur to him in a flash with only technology holding him back from implementing it.

    Like pretty much everybody, he made it up as he went along.

    Even more pathetic: Why hasn't he done anything elese? Speilberg, love him or hate him, has gone beyond his kiddie-film origins, branched out and done lots of different sorts of films. He's grown up. He doesn't deal in comfortable bullshit any more.

    Lucas, he's put a clothespin on his nose, settled in a bed of comfortable bullshit, and thinks he's doing us a favor by inviting us in.

    Stefan

    • Re:Revisionist BS artist (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jcenters ( 570494 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:03PM (#10277875) Homepage
      Yeah, and if you read the original drafts for "The Star Wars [starwarz.com]," you'll realize that without a ton of revision and doctoring, it would have probably been one of the worst films ever, right up there with "Manos: The Hand of Fate."

      Typical line from the early drafts: "LUKE STARKILLER slashes through the IMPERIAL BAD-GUY with his LAZER-SWORD. IMPERIAL BAD-GUY SCREAMS TO A VIOLENT DEATH."

      Well, you get the idea. But if you do read them, you'll discover why the prequels are so awful. This is George Lucas's true talent right here folks, and after seeing it, you understand why he doesn't do anything else these days.

      On a side note, Lucas can cram all that CGI right up his ass. A lot of the best special effects in the original trilogy were the simplest. Remember how everyone was wowed by Vader's force-telekinesis at the end of Empire? Yeah, a couple of guys throwing boxes at Mark Hamill, but cool on screen nonetheless.

      I think a lot of filmmakers are forgetting one of the principles of SFX: If the audience notices them, then they've failed to do their job. For instance, in the original Star Wars SE, it's pretty obvious that Jabba the Hutt is a poorly rendered CGI blob. I notice this right off the bat, and it destroys the illusion. On the other hand, if I watch RotJ, released in the dark ages of the 1980s, Jabba's merely a "primitive" puppet, but damnit he seems real.

      Lucas originally created a universe that all of felt we could visit, if we had a light-speed ship and maybe a time machine. The prequels feel more like an example of why LSD and children's breakfast cereal don't mix.

  • What a clueless assclown (Score:5, Insightful)

    by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:33PM (#10277530) Journal

    AP: Why did you change your mind and decide to put the original three movies out on DVD now?

    Lucas: Just because the market has shifted so dramatically. A lot of people are getting very worried about piracy. That has really eaten dramatically into the sales. It really just came down to, there may not be a market when I wanted to bring it out, which was like, three years from now. So rather than just sit by and watch the whole thing fall apart, better to bring it out early and get it over with.

    No, George, there may very well not be a market for this in three years. And not because of piracy. Because Star Wars is dead. 20 years ago I was into Star Wars as a kid, I bought the toys and had light saber duels in the playground with the other kids.

    20 years later, and my kids really don't give a shit about Star Wars. This time around, you lost their interest to such notable franchises as "Spy Kids".

    I'm not kidding. I tried to take my boy to Star Wars when it was re-released in theatres. He was bored, and couldn't sit through it's dated effects and cheesy dialog. I know Jar-Jar was supposed to suck the little kids into the Star Wars world, but he didn't. My kids thought him as annoying as I did.

    There will be no market for Star Wars in 3 years, simply because it's uncompelling poorly written and over-marketted crap.

    Much like Star Wars, it's original hardcore fanbase is growing up and dying off. The new stuff is not attracting new fans.

    There's no market for a sequel to Citizen Kane either.

    But of course, this idiot is inable to comprehend the writing on the wall, and follows the industry standard of blaming it all on piracy.

    Make a good movie, and I'll pay to watch it.

    • Re:What a clueless assclown (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Chordonblue ( 585047 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:49PM (#10277738) Journal
      "AP: Why did you change your mind and decide to put the original three movies out on DVD now?

      Lucas: Just because the market has shifted so dramatically. A lot of people are getting very worried about piracy. That has really eaten dramatically into the sales. "

      Oh man, my bullshit-0-meter just went off the scale. Time to use 'Lucasian' calibration...

      The first time I saw Star Wars at home was when a certain relative of mine showed his in-theatre shot Beta version of it - that was in 1980. It's not like piracy is some new phenomenon - it's been around in various forms since media became available.

      He's releasing it now because it's the perfect time to do so. With the THX-1138 remake and the 'Sith' movie around the corner, this is the ultimate 'hype' time. Well, at least until the HD versions appear...

      buy, Buy, BUY CONSUMER!

  • Lucas Interview Special Edition (Orig. rereleased) (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jakhel ( 808204 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:33PM (#10277531)
    Scenes from the original include..

    AP: Why not release both the originals and special editions on DVD?

    Lucas: The special edition, that's the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it. ... I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I'm the one who has to take responsibility for it. I'm the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they're going to throw rocks at me, they're going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.

    AP: Do you pay much attention to fan reactions to your choices?

    Lucas: Not really. The movies are what the movies are. ... The thing about science-fiction fans and "Star Wars" fans is they're very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box, but they all have very strong ideas about what should happen, and they think it should be their way. Which is fine, except I'm making the movies, so I should have it my way.

    Special edition scenes..

    AP: Why not release both the originals and special editions on DVD?

    Lucas: I'm George Lucas, bitch!

    AP: Do you pay much attention to fan reactions to your choices?

    Lucas: Yes, in fact I have a joke for the fans. What did the five fingers say to the face?

    AP: Uhh..

    Lucas smacks AP

    Lucas: SLAP!

    AP: ...

    Lucas: I'm George Lucas, bitch!

  • A Job Half-Done ?? (Score:5, Funny)

    by dbretton ( 242493 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:33PM (#10277540) Homepage
    "You know, it's too bad you need to get kind of half a job done and never get to finish it."

    George, do us all a favor:

    Envision Star Wars, exactly the way you would want it:
    Then go on a drug-induced bender of unprecedented proportions while making it.

    The end result: Half of a half-assed attempt at putting together the film in your visions, and possibly the greatest achievement of your career.

  • Lucas sucks. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by valkraider ( 611225 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:34PM (#10277550) Journal
    What an asshole. He basically said: "I know all the hard working and loyal fans want the originals but they can all go suck themselves off because I own the crap and I am god. But it's all OK because they'll bend over and take it anyway."

    And the worst part is that, based on the way he opened the interview, if we all decide to *not* buy this crap, they will blame the poor sales on PIRACY - not the fact that he is making a high priced product that people don't REALLY want (again).

  • where does the line start? (Score:4, Funny)

    by putch ( 469506 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:34PM (#10277556) Homepage
    I'm the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they're going to throw rocks at me, they're going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.

    where does the line to throw rocks at him start? do i need a ticket?

    what a pompous ass

  • I call bullshit.. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:35PM (#10277572) Homepage Journal
    on "And even most artists, most painters, even composers would want to come back and redo their work now.".

    they'd like to do NEW WORK...

    "I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore." umm. yeah sure.

    "Ultimately, I'm going to probably move it into television and let other people take it." -> "I've noticed that pokemon is a hell of a money making machine and that it's really important to get to the kids every saturday morning"

    disclaimer: the special editions aren't really that bad(they're done professionally after all and there's no yar yar..), but the reasoning the guy makes is just weak. though, for me the best stuff in the star wars universe were the games(more specifially, tie fighter) and books(the few good ones of them) - neither of which really happened in lucas's universe.

  • in 3 years from now, no more DVDs? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:41PM (#10277652)
    Lucas: Just because the market has shifted so dramatically. A lot of people are getting very worried about piracy. That has really eaten dramatically into the sales. It really just came down to, there may not be a market when I wanted to bring it out, which was like, three years from now. So rather than just sit by and watch the whole thing fall apart, better to bring it out early and get it over with.

    My bold. I wonder what the MPAA's take is on this...

  • Who read to the bottom of the article? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Wampus Aurelius ( 627669 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:43PM (#10277672)
    AP: After "Episode III," will you ever revisit "Star Wars"?

    Lucas: Ultimately, I'm going to probably move it into television and let other people take it. I'm sort of preserving the feature film part for what has happened and never go there again, but I can go off into various offshoots and things. You know, I've got offshoot novels, I've got offshoot comics. So it's very easy to say, "Well, OK, that's that genre, and I'll find a really talented person to take it and create it." Just like the comic books and the novels are somebody else's way of doing it. I don't mind that. Some of it might turn out to be pretty good. If I get the right people involved, it could be interesting.

    The Clone Wars cartoons on Cartoon Network are really good; here's hoping that more product like that comes out in the future.

  • How Lucas Respects His Fans... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cheesewhiz ( 61745 ) <ianp@nOspAM.mac.com> on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:45PM (#10277687) Homepage
    AP: "Do you pay much attention to fan reactions to your choices?"
    Lucas: "Not really."

    Boy, I just feel all warm-and-fuzzy when I think of Lucas now... and I sure am looking forward to seeing "lava surfing" in "Revenge of the Sithians from Outer Space".

  • no WMD on Death Star (Score:5, Funny)

    by SethJohnson ( 112166 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:50PM (#10277748) Homepage Journal


    If Lucas has updated the original films for timeliness, he'd have the Rebel Alliance blow up the death star and all of its inhabitants, then afterwards find out that in fact there were no weapons of mass distruction on board. Additionally, Luke would revisit Tantooine and find that his Aunt and Uncle as well as the Jawas were actually all killed by some irate sand people, with no connection to the Empire.

  • Zahn Trilogy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by niola ( 74324 ) <jon@niola.net> on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:53PM (#10277784) Homepage
    I been re-reading the Zahn trilogy and I tell you, I would LOVE to see that turned into a film with someone else directing it. Let Lucas be exec producer with Timothy Zahn, but let's get some fresh blood in to direct. Let someone like Peter Jackson try his had at it :)

  • Too much whining (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ramk13 ( 570633 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:55PM (#10277798)
    There's way too much whining in this thread. I don't like the changes, but honestly its his movie, not yours. It doesn't matter if you had some life changing experience or epiphany when you saw it. You don't own the story. If he wants to release a new version where Jar-Jar makes a cameo during the "I'm your father" scene, then so be it. You still have your movie and your moment. He can't take that away from you. Just enjoy it instead of calling him stupid (or other unoriginal insult) because you disagree with his changes.

    The fact that you can still see the original movie if you want is what takes my sympathy away from the whiners. It's not as if Leonardo was painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa. At worst it's like Leonardo using new technology to make a Mona Lisa II with a mustache and then selling it. Who cares. The original is still the original.

    If you are that desparate for DVD, find the best available source (laserdisc, old print) and pay for the transfer yourself. Why does he have to subsidize the transfer for you?

    (End rant. Willing to take a karma hit to get a clean swipe at the whiners.)

    • Re:Too much whining (Score:4, Insightful)

      by sootman ( 158191 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @02:28PM (#10278887) Homepage Journal
      Good idea. That's why I took my LD player and pre-SE copy of the trilogy, hooked it up to an analog-to-firewire converter, imported it with iMovie, dropped the iMovie files into FinalCut Pro, exported as MPEG2, and made DVDs with DVD Studip Pro.

      But you're missing the point. "Why does he have to subsidize the transfer for you?" Answer: HE DOESN'T. He would make a BLOODY FUCKING HUGE PROFIT if he would release the originals.

      90% of the people I know--geeks and nongeeks, fanboys and non-fanboys, would *rather* have the ORIGINALS. Period. The fanboys, well, we know why we want the originals. Everyone else, even if they don't know the finer points of han-shoots-first, just WANT the originals, for reasons they can't quite put their fingers on. Some thing the additions look tacky and added-on, other just, for some reason, like the IDEA that these are ORIGINAL. For the same reason some people would rather have a painting than a litho, or a *real* antique and not a repro.

      Think of it this way: there are X people who will buy Star Wars no matter what. But there are Y people that will NOT buy it because it's not the original. I suppose there are a few (we'll call them Z) who really *like* the new editions and *wouldn't* buy the originals. Do you really think that Z is greater than Y? Lucas *spent* all this money on TWO (!!!) rounds of retreads just to PISS OFF (and lose sales from) group Y.

      And remember these things: 1) the originals are ALREADY THERE. He can transfer them and clean them up a bit, THAT'S IT. He;s actually investing *more* money to change them! 2) DVD technology allows you to 'branch' as much as desired. Even Spielberg lets you see guns or walkie-talkies in ET. And no sense mentioning--3) he could release TWO WHOLE DVDs, one with the original version, and one with the new version. And there is a small group of collectors (um, group Q) that will buy both. Hell, my friend did--he has the trilogy TWICE on laserdisc--the pre-SE *and* the special editions.

      Lucas is acting like a spoiled child, that if you aren't going to play with his toys HIS WAY, you aren't goin to play with them at all. Really, it comes down to this: it would cost practically nothing to release the originals. He would make a buttload of money by doing so. Why isn't he?

  • Everyone needs to pipe down... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Zaranne ( 733967 ) <zaranne17@gmai l . c om> on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:59PM (#10277839) Homepage Journal
    They're his movies, he can do with them what he wants to.

    If Picasso decided he didn't like the finished product of one of his paintings, he can take the thing, paint over it, and hang it back up. It's his choice.

    I have never understood the "purist" standpoint that everyone else has, when everyone else didn't start this thing in the first place. Granted, it would be nice to have the original VHS movies available on DVD, but hell, even those aren't the original THEATRICAL releases.

    Anyone who thinks Lucas sucks, needs to go get a life. Start complaining about how JK Rowling messes up Harry in her next book. Sheesh...

  • "There may not be a market" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Earlybird ( 56426 ) <slashdot @ p u r e f i c t ion.net> on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:01PM (#10277854) Homepage
    • AP: Why did you change your mind and decide to put the original three movies out on DVD now?

      Lucas: Just because the market has shifted so dramatically. A lot of people are getting very worried about piracy. That has really eaten dramatically into the sales. It really just came down to, there may not be a market when I wanted to bring it out, which was like, three years from now. So rather than just sit by and watch the whole thing fall apart, better to bring it out early and get it over with.

    Does this strike anyone else as incredibly short-sighted? Never mind that he's saying right out that the reason for putting out the DVDs are purely financial. But he also suspects that nobody will be making money on publishing movies in three years' time. He clearly doesn't care about putting out a physical box set for fans to cherish on their mantelpieces, before the time comes when publishing anything physical is no longer feasible: he's talking about money.

  • Episodes 7-9 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TiggertheMad ( 556308 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:02PM (#10277871) Journal
    First off, my feeling is that there shouldn't be any episodes 7-9, simply because the story is told and finished at the end of the furry midget fest, er RTOJ. However there has been a lot of buzz about the possibility of more SW films.

    From the interview:
    Lucas: Ultimately, I'm going to probably move it into television and let other people take it. I'm sort of preserving the feature film part for what has happened and never go there again, but I can go off into various offshoots and things. You know, I've got offshoot novels, I've got offshoot comics. So it's very easy to say, "Well, OK, that's that genre, and I'll find a really talented person to take it and create it." Just like the comic books and the novels are somebody else's way of doing it. I don't mind that. Some of it might turn out to be pretty good. If I get the right people involved, it could be interesting.

    Translation: I want to be the only one who gets to make cannon (movies), but I might let others spin off side stuff. I don't think this is a bad thing, as it might delay SW becomming the steaming pile of poop that Star Trek has become.

    Here's my prediction: GL dies in another 10-20 years of a heart attack or something. GL's daughter wastes all the republic credits on fast cars and blow, and then in a effort to scrape up some more money, sells off the rights to a studio to make more films, merchandise, etc. One way or another, more SW WILL be made. It's just a question of when and by who.
  • 18 Young Hopefulls are given a chance to work with the Palpatine, at the end of Each episode one is chosen as Unworthy...at which point he is electrocuted to death, or has throat crushed by Vader.

  • Colorization hypocrisy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Writer ( 746272 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @04:04PM (#10279876)
    Ironically, it was people like George Lucas and Steven Speilberg who protested against the modification of existing classic movies when black and white movies were being colorized. In fact, they both testified before Congress [msn.com] against the practice of colorizatioin and other forms of alteration. I can vaguely recall that one of the arguments was that technology could reach a level in which people would do alterations like replace actor's faces with those of newer actors. Yet, they are the first to alter their own classics. Spielberg replaced guns with walkie-talkies in ET, and now Lucas is changing his movies as well. This is exactly the kind of alteration they testified against.

Slashdot Top Deals

Real Programmers don't eat quiche. They eat Twinkies and Szechwan food.

Close