No Star Wars TPM on DVD

Troed pointed us to final, official word that Lucas has opted not to release TPM on DVD. This is a poor move for many reasons: SW fans are gonna often be techies with DVD players. Besides that, nearly every movie released these days comes out on DVD and VHS. I can think of only 2 reasons: He might be afraid of piracy, but lets be honest, but I think he really is doing this so he can wait a year and release the DVD and sell it all again. I have stopped by VHS, and I'm pretty bummed: I would have bought this DVD the day it was released. I feel like I'm being extorted: I've been a pretty loyal fan both in terms of time, and buying SW Stuff (I even have a Darth Maul Lightsaber!) but this really hurts.

Comments

$$$ is all Star Wars is About now....

[drudd]

I have always loved the first three Star Wars movies. They will always be classics in my mind. Great story, simple, yet effective plot and exciting action.

TPM lost the magic that was in the first 3. Not only was it over hyped and poorly written, but I was quite put off by the amount of sheer marketing put into it. This was simply a moneymaking venture by Lucas, nothing more. I went to see TPM the first day... no matter how good the next one is, I refuse to see it the first day, my confidence in Lucas as a filmmaker has been irrevocably shattered.

Because of this, I doubt I will EVER buy TPM on VHS -or- DVD, simply because that will only encourage Lucas to make more terrible movies. The man has far too much money as it is, without subsidizing his toy market.

Before TPM came out, I remarked to a friend that Lucas would be insane not to release the first three on DVD. I would go out and buy a player simply to watch those movies! I would also be willing to spend well more for those three than I would for any other DVDs.

Besides... DVD is the perfect format for Lucas, who has championed superior graphics and sound in movies.

I know I'm jumping all over the place with this post, so I will summarize.

We in the geek community have showed intense loyalty and devotion to Lucas and his creations. He stabbed us in the back and showed himself to be more interested in money rather than in art. My only response can be to use what little power I have, the power of the almighty-$ in order to demonstrate my disapproval. I hope others will follow my example.

Doug

Lucas' responsibility

[lrund]

A couple of points on why Lucas is in a different position than most Hollywood movie-moguls:

• Every major studio is a public entity (i.e. their stock is publically traded), and they have the legal duty to their stockholders to maximize their profits. If they don't, they can be sued by their stockholders.

  Except George Lucas. LucasFilm Limited is privately-held. It's accountable to George Lucas and nobody else.

  This is important because it means he can pursue "non-standard" ways of doing things, right or wrong, profitable or otherwise. When you've got your billions, you get to indulge your Messaihanic ideas. When I get my billions, I know I will!

• There is a traditional big-big surge in video sales just before Christmas every year (how many of you gave or received movies as a gift?. Lucas knows this. What are the odds he will "change his mind" and TPM will be available around 1 December 2000?

• Lucas is by no means the first to have a rigidly-controlled home video release schedule. Disney is the "best" example... they periodically pull their videos from the market for years at a time, then rekindle interest with a "limited time release" (look at what they're doing with DVDs, now that DIVX (which they co-founded) is dead. 60 days only on each DVD Disney animated film. If you're a Disney fan, you've only got a few weeks left to get the first batch... can you say "feeding frenzy"?). So, while Lucas is taking the "dark side" on this, he is certainly not the first.

It certainly sucks, but Lucas well within his rights, and isn't answerable to anyone except you, when you decide whether to reach for your wallet.

Re:He wants to wait and do the collection...

[belgin]

It seems to me that I read an interview with Lucas a while back in which he stated that he wouldn't do any DVD until all 6 movies were released. At that point he wanted to put out the ultimate Star Wars DVD collection...

I read the same interview as I was paging through some archives about two weeks ago. What he said was actually more complicated and should make any serious fan happy in the long run.

Lucas said that he would not release any of the six films that are finished or in the works until he finished making Episode Three. The reason for this is that he will only put them on DVD if the proper time is taken and it can really be an amazing product. He intends to package "making of" for each movie with the DVD of that movie and just about every extra and special bit of info available. He intends the DVDs to be THE format for the movies, but he doesn't have time to do them right now. He explained to the reporter that doing the DVDs properly will be almost as much work as making a movie. He balanced it out and decided that fans would be happier if the DVDs were delayed than if Episodes 2 and 3 were delayed a couple of years...

This is a paraphrase of what he said, because I could not find the exact link again after 5 minutes of looking. The interview should be on any serious Star Wars info center in their archives for sometime between July and November. (I reviewed a lot of articles...)

B. Elgin