George Lucas Speaks on Trilogy Changes 759
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."
ironic hilarity (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Juicy and stupid quote (Score:5, Interesting)
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:Special Editions vs. regular (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Revisionist BS artist (Score:5, Interesting)
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
In fairness .... (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
I call bullshit.. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
but what happens when Han wlaks over jabbas tail? (Score:2, Interesting)
Thing is it looked unnatural and fake. I hope lucas fixes it again because IMO both the origonal and SE both didnt look right.
in 3 years from now, no more DVDs? (Score:5, Interesting)
My bold. I wonder what the MPAA's take is on this...
Who read to the bottom of the article? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Quoth George: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What a clueless assclown (Score:5, Interesting)
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!
Zahn Trilogy (Score:5, Interesting)
Too much whining (Score:5, Interesting)
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.)
"There may not be a market" (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
The real horror of this is... (Score:5, Interesting)
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:3, Interesting)
Is it really a horror?
I mean, books and stories have been altered over time for thousands of years. Why should movies be this stagnant work of art?
Maybe if you think of them as painting or statues... but still, I don't think its horrific.
Re:The Missing Question (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd had enough and decided my words were to valuable to be so butchered so I left for another profession, programmer, where I could work for hours or weeks on a project just to see it die anyway.
* Chopped, Hacked, Mangled, etc. to make writer look like damn fool.
Harrison's Opinion (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Quoth George: (Score:5, Interesting)
"The secret of great sci fi is that it isn't commenting on the future, its commenting on the present."
Re:Let me be the first to say: (Score:4, Interesting)
I might point out the petition to get the original Star Wars released in its original edition [originaltrilogy.com]. Sign, sign, sign! XDDDDD
Moll.
Re:Tolkien did the same thing (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:Extra-Special Director's Cut III (Score:2, Interesting)
Moll.
Re:Quoth George: (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Let me be the first to say: (Score:3, Interesting)
1st generation 'tweaks': story the same, with added footage, which looks like crap
2nd genertation 'tweaks': story changed slightly, more crap scenes added
continuing along this line of Lucas not being able to leave the films along:
100th generation 'tweaks': Film looks like it was originally done totally in CGI, not real actors and the the film is totally crap. People bought the last 99 iterations, so Lucas and co. thought 'new characters: even more franchise money'.
Heck, had Leonardo DaVinci had the same approach as Lucas, then the Mona Lisa would have had a moustache and other poor additions.
Please George Lucas release the orginal cut on DVD!!!
Liberals got to Lucas (Score:1, Interesting)
(Score:-5, Conservative)
Re:Quoth George: (Score:4, Interesting)
One must remember that while Star Wars was based on Hidden Fortress, the Mifune character in that case was split to create both Han and Obi Wan (the two sides of a complex character become two separate characters). I think, in turn Mifune's character in Yojimbo and Sanjuro was an influence on Both Han and Obi Wan. I would suggest this to be a very strong argument for Lucas' having Han shoot first - consider the scene we're discussing in front of Seibei's shop - a similar fairly callous approach by our hero.
Jedidiah.
I'm making the movies, so I should have it my way (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Let me be the first to say: (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, Walt Whitman was an artist, and Lucas is a fucking hack of a producer who should let his directors, editors and cinematographers do their job and make his films into more than just a perfect version of one man's ambitious imagination.
Re:Let me be the first to say: (Score:4, Interesting)
To pore over the literary shortcomings of twenty years ago, to attempt to patch a faulty work into 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 temptation to wallow in artistic remorse, I prefer to leave both well and ill alone and to think about something else.
Too bad Lucas didn't read that before engaging in the Special Edition movies.
Of course, the taste of vomit in my mouth, post Lucas abominations, has really gotten quite tolerable.
Re:Let me be the first to say: (Score:3, Interesting)
The prequel trilogy seems to be more extreme than the original. Will it really work to watch them in the supposed chronological order? (Of course, the movies will go from worse to better, that's one advantage...)