Saga The Official Saga 3D Thread!!!

Maybe I'm missing the original press release, but I wonder if there will be any intention of releasing the movies on non-3D screens. I'm fine with seeing them in 3-D, but I can imagine that becoming the new predictable talking point for "childhood rape" community.

EDIT: the downside of this news is the 11-year old prequel complaints coming from the unemployed hipsters in my Facebook news feed.

It's going to be a long decade.

 

Can we give this stupid catchphrase a rest already? At this point you're the one keeping it alive.

 

So am I.

I don't know about the Clone Wars series fans having a "short attention span" though. Just based on my 5-year-old and his friends--yes, they love the Clone Wars, but they love the movies as well, PT and OT, and I don't really see them deciding a few years from now that they don't like Star Wars. Star Wars fandom is timeless. We may have different aspects that we like more than others, but fandom itself has already transcended three generations--my generation who saw the OT in theaters as kids, my parents' generation who saw it in theaters as adults, and the generation that grew up on the PT and CW series.

As far as TPM being released in theaters first, Lucas has enough money that he can do whatever the **** he wants and not have to worry about how much money he's going to rake in.

 

3D? A shame. I'd gladly fork over money to see any SW film that didn't have ?Clones? or ?Jedi? in the title, but not at the risk of inducing a migraine.

(Remember Anakin's groans, when Palpatine finally got to his burning husk? That's what the usher would be hearing, as he dragged me out of the theater.)

 

Did you really think this was going to be the final release ever? Ever???

Maybe just on blu-ray.

But so what if they release it the next year with updates?

People have been buying multiple versions of these movies for years.

I have 2 sets of these films on DVD that I purchased and 2 other fan edits that I did not.

People love these movies and will pay for them.

And seeing them on blu-ray is much different than in the theater.

 

ATM--I agree that this is a creative decision in a major way. This is how Lucas wants the films to be seen, right? Disappointing perhaps, but not unsurprising.

However, I will also agree with others--its a business decision as well. This is the method of making the most amount of money. The reasoning being, people will be so stoked to see a Star Wars film on the big screen and in 3D that they will pay to see Phantom Menace, possibly more than once, and it will make a lot of money. Business will drop for AOTC, but then probably rise a bit for ROTS. And then things will fire off with Star Wars in probably double the revenue, start descending a bit from the astronomical levels with Empire and then wane with ROTJ.

But consider the alternate. Star Wars comes out in 2012. Every moviegoer sees it, two, three times, just like in 1997. Empire comes out, the fan favourite, and it does good business too, but not as much as the original. ROTJ comes out, most like it the least of the three, and it lags way behind the other two. Probably you just see it once. If TPM and AOTC then followed...do you really think that many people would see it, let alone more than once? The films will do generally well, of course, but the buisiness will not be what it would be if these were offered up front.

Consider the 1997 release. ROTJ made less than half of Star Wars. Why? Well, number one, it was the least liked. But number two, it came last. People were burnt out from seeing the other two, so only the real fans saw it, and not very many times. But what would have happened if ROTJ was released in January? The first Star Wars film back in theatres in 15 years! People would have seen it three times, and it would have made double the money.

The truth is that both fans and general audiences like the general idea of seeing Star Wars film in theatres and in 3D so much that they will go see Jar Jar Binks in 3D. Whereas if you offer it after Star Wars, after Empire and after Jedi...people might go, you know, I was never crazy about those newer films, I think I got my SW fill from the 12 screenings of the OT I had over the last three years. Or, they might just see it once, instead of twice or more. This will also tend to "even out" the financial earnings of the films more would otherwise be apparent, because people will see TPM out of excitement more than they would otherwise, while the OT will have some of its heat stolen from burnout, which was channelled into the PT. You have to take the context of everything into account.

So, I would say Episodic order makes the most sense financially. You want to dangle the carrot of the OT as long as possible so people get excited enough to see the less popular films. Its been the modus operandi of Lucasfilm since 1999. So I guess in a way the release structure here was inevitable.

 

Sure some of the viewers will become die hard fans, no doubt. But not most of them, it will be like any other popular animated show. I was 8 when I saw ROTJ with all of my friends, we all liked it and watched it several times, played with the toys, etc. But most of them "moved on" and are not fans.

 

Very good points. I hadn't really thought about it like that. I suppose the business and creative sides of Lucas's thinking came together on this one.

 

Count me the hell in!

My son will be 9 years old when Return of the Jedi 3D is released...if they release the films one year at a time. Either way, I want to experience this on the big screen one more time...even if the Blu Rays hit in the Fall of 2011.

 

Blu Ray is already a dead format though. Don't be wasting your money on it. While the HDDVD war was going on, digital download flanked them. In three years, no one is going to be buying or renting disks of anything in any format.

 

Just how many times do you think people go to see a single movie in theatres? Where im from people don't have the money to just go see movies multiple times in theatres.

 

Wow, really? Avatar gave me no headache whatsoever...I even forgot that I was wearing the glasses.

I have over 5 hundred HD movies....some BR, some HDDVD, some HDTV on two 2TB drives hooked up to a media player on my plasma tv. No menus, no FBI warnings (ironic, lol). Just movies (and many of the HDTV films are not currently available on BR - Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Alien tetrology, Star Wars, Arachnophobia....)

So much better than replacing all my DVDs...

 

Hey cute terminology aside, I think I have a good point. If the movies are ONLY released in 3-D, it's going to be a big talking point, and one that will induce dozens of pages of debate on this forum. Especially from the "Rapers."

EDIT: Mind you, I think its totally valid to not like 3-D.

 

I think what he was saying was that it's rather uncivil of you to reduce an important--if sometimes overwrought--argument within SW fandom to an unflattering caricature of a nickname.

 

I think the key word in that sentence is "caricature." As in "joke."

Again, its going to be a long decade.

 

I'm curious to see whether the administration will reopen the original (Phantom Menace, AOTC, ROTS) boards and if we'll get new boards for the other original movies as well, since the movies will be released well apart from each other. We are revisiting these films again, complete I'm sure with a gaggle of new changes. It would bring back a lot of nostalgia to have The Phantom Menace board reopen as it gets closer to the film's rerelease, as there is bound to be a lot of new discussion on a film by film basis as the movies are released.

 

QFT

Seeing Alice in Wonderland in 3-D actually ruined what might have been an interesting movie (although it wasn't very good anyway). This current 3-D fad is just that - a fad. What I don't understand is how people forget so quickly that it's been around for decades, pops up every so often & then fades away because it's really not much of an enhancement to a film & causes headaches. For the most part, the images don't look three-dimensional anyway, it's more like cardboard cutouts in a three-dimensional space, or a pop-up book.
As for applying the process to a film that was never shot with the format in mind, give me a break.

I honestly can't say whether I'll bother going to see these. Probably ANH, just out of curiosity.

 

The last few times that 3D became fads, it was exactly that - a passing fad. If this time is not fundamentally different, then Lucas may actually have missed the boat.

But I don't think it's a passing fad this time. The movie industry has latched onto something that gives them an excuse for additional price differentiation. They can charge a little bit more and sell less tickets, and for the really big summer hits, 3D may become de rigeur. Inception is the one recent film to really buck the trend.

Also, this time, there's the promise of selling a 3D tv format, so now's the time to start building a 3D archive to sell into the format. Personally, I'm not sure people really want to sit around their living room wearing glasses, but that's just me.

And knowing Lucas the way we know him, we always knew he was going to try to take advantage of an opportunity to milk a little more money out of the franchise. We love it. We always have. Star Wars is our drug. Hey, I like your beard, George.

 

I LOVE that idea! We really should reopen the original individual movie boards here again. I think it will make things more exciting around here like back in the good old days.

 

I've been thinking more about this. It's true that 3D is the current rage for movies, but what about a few years down the road? To spend millions (probably) converting all the movies to 3D is a risky venture, IMO. What if half way through Lucas decides that nobody cares about 3D and scraps the OT coming back to theaters? I can see it happening. I think George should just leave well enough alone. Like someone else said, even Blu-Ray is in risk of being phased out with down-loadable HD content. I would sit tight at the moment.

 

About time

 

The first thing my husband said when he heard about this was, "We are not buying a 3-D TV!" I had already told him that we have a year to get a Blu-Ray player. I also think the 3-D format is hanging around this time, I don't think it's a passing trend. I don't think it will take over theater movies, but I don't think it's going away either.

I also think it's fine not to like 3-D, and again, Lucas has enough money that he doesn't have to count on X amount of profit--although he wouldn't be doing this if he didn't expect to make some profit, unless he's just bored, but as several have mentioned already, people will go see these films in the theater if for no other reason than "Star Wars is on the big screen again." He'll make money off of this; I plan to pay him my share. Maybe several times as I actually like 3-D.

 

I don't know if this has been discussed elsewhere, but why now? Doesn't it seem odd that just a couple of weeks after CV we're getting this announcement? It would have been a huge hit during some of those panels.

 

I was actually thinking that too LawJedi. I do think it odd it was not announced at CV.

On another note, I firmly believe we are in for additional changes to the films either on the blu ray or 3D release. Looking at the lucasfilm employment page recently, I've seen a lot of feature film production jobs open up (and not in the animation division, although a few were), hiring post production folks like editors, assistant editors, post production assistants...and since the saga is already finished, this leaves me to believe that they will be making further changes and edits to the movies in post production for the next wave of releases.....either that or they are getting a crew together for Indiana Jones 5.....