Saga The Official Saga 3D Thread!!!

I have a strange feeling lucas is going to finally give fans some attention with the blu-ray release of the films to be premiering some WANTED changes that are going to then be in 3D on the big screen. Like when we put the disk in to our surprise and joy we see changes like han shooting first again and a few jar-jar scenes toned down here and there and maybe the version of AOTC will be more like the IMAX version that a lot of people sed was better. Nothing too much bigger than that now, don't get me wrong, but still it would be enough to get rid of a good chunk of the more real hateful fanboys within the hardcore group as well as smoothing out the saga once and for all.

Think about it, we have gotten a lot of surprises from lucasfilm this year so another big surprise is not at all impossible it actually wouldn't even have to be that big of a surprise if they just wanted to silently make a few little fixes to the saga and slip it into the blu-ray release calling it the "official versions" of the films that would go absolutely fine too.

Its a very logical move for Lucas at this point IMHO.

 

Here are the dangers for Lucas:

1. 3D may be a passing fad that will have crested long before all six films make it through their releases.

2. Lucas's faith in the lasting box office potential of the prequels is misplaced. If Return of the Jedi wasn't a huge special edition success, will Attack of the Clones make dollar one in 3D?

3. Lucas's faith in the lasting box office potential of ANH and ESB is misplaced too. TV and DVD markets are as saturated with Star Wars as they have ever been. No one needs to go back to the theaters again for any of this.

Here is the upside.

1. Lucas may not care whether the 3D movies make a dime in theaters. He may simply be trying to stretch out the value of Star Wars merchandising for the final years of his life and for his heirs. Star Wars in theaters boosts the value of the Star Wars merchandising license. The 3D release will sell toys. It will sell videogames.

2. Lucas may be betting on the success of 3D tv, and needs titles to sell into the emerging format.

3. ANH and ESB have proven theatrical re-release value, and by the time they hit, they will have been out of theaters for going on two decades. Box office from those two titles alone may put the whole project in the black.

4. Lucas will be in his mid 70s when 3D ROTJ hits theaters. He has to be planning for succession of his company. As the sole proprietor of a closely held company, he has a few choices as he nears the end of his life. a)Sell the whole thing to Disney or something as close to Disney as possible, b) put his children in charge, c) take it public or d) break it up and sell off pieces/put the licensing business in trust for his heirs. The 3D release will give him a little leverage as a final act for his media empire. The only thing certain is that the Star Wars brand has a potential to outlive Lucas.

 

Very cogent post. I have no argument with any of it.

 

So he is starting with TPM in 2012??? AOTC in 2013, ROTS in 2014....

Call me in 2015 when things get interesting in the SW saga

 

Interesting that you mention this, DarthPoppy. Upon reading the 3D news announcement, I thought to myself, "Those experimental films are never coming."

A profound disappointment. Revenge of the Sith, IMO, was the finest Lucas effort since THX-1138. For five years, I was holding out hope that he'd finally shuffle off the Star Wars coil and enter a new phase of his artistic life. After all, some of my favorite movies were helmed by brilliant old farts (e.g., Ran, The Dead, The Prairie Home Companion, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead), but alas, another Lucas masterwork seems unlikely.

 

Well, to be fair these days it seems like 60-somethings aren't exactly "old farts" yet. Maybe an 80 year old Lucas will finally ditch the space wizards and attempt the artsy masterpiece.

 

I've been getting the same feeling. For what its worth, about a month ago, during the CV days, I had a dream that I talked to Lucas. I told him it was an honor to meet him, and that my favorite movie of his was THX and I asked if he was going to make more movies like that. And he changed the subject, started talking about movies in 3D (as if it were some big original idea on his part). I feigned wholehearted excitement at the idea to get more information, but he didn't want to go into more detail. Before he left, I asked him one more question. "Is there going to be a new Jabba the Hutt on the BluRay set?" I got an unequivocal YES.

So if both things end up being true, I'm gonna call myself a prophet.

 

That's pretty neat, Stampid. Having lived with a few mystics, I'm actually curious about the Jabba thing.

If you're right, you could serve as the site's resident psychic. Folks could seek your services; if they dream of dying loved ones, you could advise them to murder children and overthrow the government.

 

I agree with you. This is Lucas' chance to make some final tweaks that perhaps fans will be happy with. Han shooting first, tone down the Jar Jar jokes that just didn't resonate with fans (the stepping in poo, fart jokes, and unnecessary overuse of the character), having the CGI yoda in TPM as opposed to the terrible puppet (which I think is a given at this point). And as far as the changes, I think Lucas would actually be wiser to hold off revealing the changes until the 3D theatrical releases, and just release the movies as they are now on blu ray. The more reasons Lucas gives to draw folks to theatres to see the movies again, the better. I hate to say it, but one of the biggest reasons I was dying to see the special editions in theatres was because I WANTED to see what changes had been made and if in fact the deleted Biggs Darklighter scenes were going to be restored (I flipped out when I realized that one was at the end of the movie). One of the exciting things for me about seeing it in the theatre again besides the 3D would be to see what Lucas has decided to change. Is Jar Jar eating the clam and meeting Obi Wan in the swamp going to be there? Will we have the escape from the waterfall sequence? Will Ric Olie and the pilots have the extended space battle and the scene where they congratulate Anakin in the hanger after the battle? How about the scene showing Darth Maul's arrival on Naboo at the end? I think that one is crucial in terms of the logistics of the movie, rather than have Maul just magically appear there 5 minutes later..... How about having Jimmy Smits come on board to refilm the Bail Organa scene? So many exciting logical changes could be made to TPM to make it a better movie....

[image=http://www.starwarz.com/tbone/plugins/p17_image_gallery/images/283.jpg]

 

Then I guess "most people" liked Titanic better than the Prequels...

"This was after critics (rightfully) smeared the 3D efforts in the movie, which were added at tremendous cost (as much as $15,000 per minute of film)."

 

That kind of thinking is what gave us Vader going back to the Star Destroyer in TESB SE

But it is extremely unlikely that Lucas will add any deleted scenes to the movie or alter them in any significant way.

 

Hey! I have already displayed incredible Nostradamus-like powers by foreseeing the precise content of the first reply in the thread.

Well, yeah, people loved Titanic (except for nerds, who collectively and rather loudly scorned it for obscure reasons). What are you trying to say?

Thanks for the ballpark figure... I guess Lucas would probably end up spending something like 100K per minute to make it look decent? That would run up to about 12-15 million per film. Not that much, really. Even if it were double that it wouldn't break the bank for Lucasfilm.

 

I guess this was meant as a sarcastic post, right? Waste the Blu-Ray edition without changes? Not revealing changes for the 3D versions in order NOT to raise hype?

And while you're at it, why not remove Hayden from ROTJ and replace Ewoks with Wookies in 3D? Surely Lucas must be dying to finally have the approval of the fans and this is his last chance before retirement.

 

Are 3D films really making more money tho ?

I mean apart from Avatar which is unique really .

did Clash of the Titans make a lot of money ? Inception seemed to be in theaters a loong time , that was 2D only I think .

 

I have a good idea. Why doesn't everyone get their minds off of which changes are and aren't gonna happen for this release, and just get excited and ready to enjoy our favorite movie's in FREAKIN 3D!!!

 

No.

Not really bothered about the 3D so much as i am to see the movies, revisted on the large screen with changes.

 

You wanna see something really crazy? Check out comments about this news on hip entertainment industry web sites - i.e., the comments sections below the articles breaking the news. 99% of the comments are negative, most are openly angry, and a fair few are murderous.

I'm staring at a few right now in another window. There are even a number of the requisite "childhood" remarks, hilariously enough.

Why would this Star Wars 3D business make so many people angry? It's weird. You'd think that people would just say something like "that looks dumb, I won't be watching that", but no. Rage!

 

Interesting. Any chance you could post at least some of the links for articles you are refering to?

 

Exactly. Titanic was the number one grossing film of 1997 if I remember correctly. Although there had been several movies made already about the Titanic sinking, what Cameron did was considered revolutionary because he worked so hard to make the set look the way the boat did. There were a few details that got messed up--Jack living near a lake that hadn't been made yet, Rose paying Jack with a Roosevelt dime--but other than that Cameron did a good job with the authenticity. And many people did like Titanic, I saw it at least a couple of times in the theater myself. Although not as many times as I saw TPM and AOTC.

So your point is...what exactly? Is it "wrong" to like Titanic just as it's "wrong" in some circles to like the prequels? Is "most people" half a statement, the other half being "with my particular taste in films"? The latter would make sense, but again, "most people" isn't accurate.

On the other posts, I don't get the anger either. If you don't want to see Star Wars in 3D, don't go see it. No point in getting angry about it.

 

Anakin Girl, Titanic was not only the top grossing movie of 97 or 98 or whatever year it come out, it became the highest grossing movie EVER (by far) until Avatar came along.

 

Well, some people have a pseudo-irrational protestation with 3D, I guess. But others are also a bit alienated at all the releases and money-milkings the franchise has been through, especially when it comes to the prequels, which I can't really say I blame them, but to be fair I would say this is one of the few instances where it is actually about the films themselves. I have to wonder though, how much of the negativity has to do with the fact that Lucas continues to spend millions on the Special Editions? Because I have to admit, as much as I am really excited to see the films on the big screen in 3D, even the SE and even if it has all the colour and audio errors of 2004, the fact that Lucas will spend millions of dollars doing this while professing to not have enough money to restore the original versions pisses me off to no end, so much that part of me wants to boycott this damn thing because the situation is just wrong on so many levels. Lucas has alienated some of his most passionate fans to such a degree that I really can't feel too sorry for him because he brought it on himself.

 

I'd like to and almost did but some of the comments are so foul that the moderators would remove the links (they removed my links to the RedLetterMedia reviews in another thread some time ago). It was Hollywood Reporter, Rotten Tomatoes, and other sites like that. As I said, the comments are 99% negative, and many of them are pretty wild.

Edit: Note that I am talking about the comment sections below the news articles with remarks posted by readers, not the news articles themselves.

I've encountered this before in some of the "geek" circles I have moved in - it seems that among some of those circles it is considered "common knowledge/consensus" that Titanic is an awful film, which is odd considering the acclaim it received. IMHO, it's vastly weirder than assuming that everyone hates the prequels, because at least the prequels are considered bad films by quite a few critics and whatnot. I also remember there being a lot of invective directed toward Leonardo DiCaprio at the time for some reason.

The thing is, I don't get the impression that most of the people making those posts are fans with strong opinions about the matter - they're just saying "%$&#@! you Lucas!" because that is the hip thing to say (with a fair few exceptions). That of course is just my subjective impression, and I could be way off base.

I agree with you about the original originals - he should just make those available if for no other reason than to stop all the complaining. But somehow I get the feeling that even if he made the original originals available it would stop the bashing. Any of it. It's too much of a hip institution now. Hell, one can even use it as a career boost.

I just find the whole deal kind of depressing - I thought the release of the Star Wars films in 3D would be cause for celebration (well, maybe that's putting it a bit strongly, but you get the idea). Instead, angst is everywhere.

 

I actually think he should make the O-OT available in DVD or Blu-Ray format just because I don't see how it would be any skin off his nose to do so. I don't believe that it's too expensive for him, I think he just doesn't want to.

But I also don't think doing that would stop the bashing. It's a huge franchise with a huge diverse fan base and somebody will complain no matter what happens.

 

To me, an old-time fan in the theaters in 1977, the 3D releases are indeed cause for celebration. What is going through these raging fans' minds is anyone's guess.

 

I dunno about the whole "hipness" of bashing. That seems like a bit of writeoff that overlooks the actual tension between Lucas and audiences. You see so many people doing bashing because so many people feel that way. Lucas created a lot of bitterness in people over the last two decades. It's so prevalent that they even made a documentary about it!