Saga We need to share the hate, spread the suffering....

I wont be getting the Blu Rays, but I do appreciate that they will be coming out for the fans that want them. My question is with so much hate toward GL for repeatedly putting out new home video versions of the saga, don't the stars still get royalty checks for every dvd or blu ray sold? Are they just paid for the acting of the saga and don't get anything else? I was wondering about this, because people seem to think that GL gets 100 percent of everything he sells, but does not seem right. If all the actors, producers, John Williams, Ben Burton etc etc...if they are still getting checks, wouldn't it be in their best interest for the movies to keep coming to theaters and home video. After the 3D series does it run. What would stop GL from making a 4D version of the movie?? Would the current fans ever get tired of it?

 

Star Wars is not out on blu-ray, so it's coming out on blu-ray. I don't see the big fuss a lot of people are making about 'yet another home video release'. You don't get that kind of crap with any other film series getting a blu-ray release.

 

Lucas doesn't pocket all the profits. Spielberg gets a share too since he owns a little of Star Wars (Lucas owns a little of Close Encounters).

This notion that Lucas is in it for the money is, quite frankly, ridiculous. The man funded the prequels himself. He took the risk on those films. Sure, he has money in the bank but he's earned it and most of the profits tend to go back into the business. This is a man who shared a portion of the profits of Star Wars with the cast and crew. A man who risked everything in building the Skywalker Ranch. Let's not forget he also lost a lot of money in his divorce.

Lucas is dedicated to making his interests under the Lucasfilm name continuously successful. That's why ILM is the premiere VFX house in the world (with WETA not too far behind). Lucas invests his money back into the business, money that's used to pay the Skywalker Sound guys for doing the mix on the blu rays, money that's used to pay the ILM guys to fix the lightsabers, money that used to produce video games like Monkey Island, TV shows like Young Indy and Clone Wars, movies like Red Tails.

The whole thing about Lucas constantly bringing out "new versions" of Star Wars on Home Video is also ridiculous. Let's have a look, shall we? We've had the initial video releases. Then there were remastered releases. The laserdisc release was on a relatively new format at the time. Then there was the Special Editions which were created in part to celebrate the 20th anniversary. All seems reasonable so far. I believe they were re-issued with an added prequel preview though I could be wrong. Lucas waited for 5 years after the release of TPM to put the films on DVD. It wasn't a cash grab. In fact by all accounts the demand was so high that the DVDs were ultimately rushed. Then there was the individual films released with the original versions. This was done due to fan demand, not because Lucas wanted more money. Granted, LFL dropped the ball with the quality of the original versions but you have to take into account the cost issue involved in restoring those films if he had gone that route. And now we have Blu Ray, the next new format.

Yes, some sets have been re-issued over time with new covers etc but they weren't advertised as brand new versions of Star Wars. They were just put out there for people to buy if they wanted the new covers with the older covers being phased out over time. Then there's the dvd set of the two trilogies. It's a box set. All major franchises have box sets. Nothing new there. Not a cash grab either, just a chance for people to buy the prequels or originals together if they don't have them already.

As for royalties etc, it depends on contracts. Harrison Ford was only signed for one film initially so he may have negotiated royalties for Empire and Jedi. And Lucas did share profits from the first film with the cast as I've mentioned previously. It's not as if nobody gets paid though. People are being paid to work on the blu rays. People were paid to work on production of the films. Money that the blu rays make will go into the next Lucas project and the one after that.

 

No you sure don't I think the Rocky movies have been release quite a few times in singles and sets....never the hate SW and Lucas get. Maybe its a jealousy thing? I know it not OUT on Blu Ray right now, but it is coming, so why do people get mad about that?

 

Yeah, I never thought the SW releases were unreasonable. One VHS, a remastered VHS/LD release, the SEs, the DVDs, and now the BDs. From my perspective the worst case of double dipping was with the LOTR BDS. After years on DVD, the extended editions more or less became the definitive versions. 1)they release the theatrical versions first, doing a shoddy job in the process. 2)They don't tell fans when the extended ones will be out. 3)the extended versions end up getting a proper BD treatment. That is piss poor imo. At least the SW BDs are one complete package.

I have a feeling that we may get the unaltered OT with each 3D release on bd, if that ever ends up happening.

 

The only problem I have with the DVDs is that there was never a Saga version released, but I kinda made my own using the the prequel episodes double discs from 01,02 & 05 and the OT 4 disc set that came in 2004. Thats disc set. I also had the 5 VHS tapes that came out around 2001-2..my question is dont the cast & crew still get paid from these releases?? Doesnt Mark Hamill, Natalie Portman & Kenny Baker still get checks from all these DVDs & Blu Rays & 3D releases? If so why does GL get all the hate if former cast & crew is still getting paid.

 

...to me, this is the thread that should have been locked, not the official Blu-Ray Discussion thread.

 

If you have a problem with a post or a thread, then send me a message. The other thread is locked as, thanks to a select few, I now have to spend my morning wading through 6 pages of crap and sorting it out. I'll unlock it when I've done that