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Lucasfilm Explains Lack Of TPM DVD
DanteKy writes "Hollywood.com has another article on the release of the VHS release of The Phantom Menace. Also, Lynne Hale, a spokeswoman for Lucasfilm 'explains' why there is no DVD just yet. The article also mentions that in some Asian locations, TPM will be released on VCD. I know it isn't DVD, but at least it is a start." I'm still waiting for Episodes IV, V and VI on DVD, as well. I'm beginning to wonder if we're going to have to wait until they're all finished before we see them at all.
The real reason Lucas snubbed DVD is that DVD didn't use his precious THX standard and instead went to Dolby's new AC3 sound standard. He's had a hissy fit about that since day one of DVD. Lucas Films is currently one of the last (if not THE last) film companies to start producing DVD's. If this was just about the Star Wars movies and money making, then where's the Indiana Jones movies? After Last Crusade there were no more plans to make any more...so why not release them?
He's just being a baby about his sound standard now being obsolete.
Phoenix
BTW: Wasn't THX just Dolby Pro Logic with Lucas's stamp of aproval on everything...including the smegging cables?
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
I remember seeing an interview with Lucas shortly after TPM came out. I distinctly remember him stating that we wouldn't see DVDs of the movies until after Episode 3 hit the market.
George is still working on each of the already released eps to "perfect" them. Once all 6 movies are released, THEN he was going to release them on whatever the current standard for digital media would be at that time (so some time after Episode 3 hits the stores as a VHS release, 2006 or something like that...).
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Well, it was supposed to be all of those things, but instead it turned out to be the most diappointing movie of all time.
Who cares about whether it was a crappy movie? That's hardly relevant - after all, by that same measuring stick, the original trilogy was just about as crappy!
Hardly. Even the wost of the earlier films, Return of the Jedi, was many times better than TPM.
Wrong on two counts.
(i) Return of the Jedi wasn't the weakest film, The Empire Strikes Back was the weakest. ROTJ rocks.
(ii) The Phantom Menace didn't suck, Jar-Jar notwithstanding. In fact Jar-Jar wasn't even the most annoying thing in the film, it was the patronising arrogant boob version of Obi-Wan played by Ewan MacGregor.
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
Hilarious! And miles better than the ASCII-mation version.
Now go and do the *rest* of the film. I'm waiting...
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
I've seen *worse* one-man shows in London. And the interpretation is everything. Better that you film it and put the MPEG on the net though. You'd get top billing on Slashdot!
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
The Star Wars DVD saga is really bothering me, not because I keep reading about it but because Lucas doesn't see fit to release the freakin things on DVD. I think they would look really pretty if they were set up similar to Star Wars: Behind the Magic; good interface, some littles goodies that make it worthwhile, and a little bit of behind the scenes stuff. I would settle for the SEs released on DVD, they would make enough money for him to make four TPMs. I understand him wanting to make them look good but we've been waiting for years to get just the original trilogy on DVD.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Is this for real???
______________________________________
um, sigs should be heard and not seen?
rooooar
I hate the slashdot mentality. Just because you can get something for free doesn't mean that's what you should do.
:)
There is a small but vocal minority on Slashdot who believe intellectual property is wrong, and that all forms of media should be freely copyable. I feel you are being unfair in generallizing their behavior to cover the entire Slashdot readership. I certainly agree with your assertion that no charge != better.
Near as I can tell, most (not all) of these people are trying to justify their pirate copies of Quake II and The Matrix after the fact. I guess they must have a pretty guilty conscience, since they seem to need to keep justifying it, over and over and over again.
The rest have a legitimate belief that IP is wrong. They are entitled to their opinion, but personally, I think their logic is flawed. In any event, they are not the ones who post comments like "Heh, heh, I've had it on CD since it came out. I'm so 1337!"
but you'll settle for it anyways, because of the percieved value of the dollar.
Well, in many cases, you have to look beyond just price or just performance to the price-performance ratio. True, brand XYZ may be twice as fast as brand ABC, but if XYZ costs three times as much, you are often better off buying two of ABC for less then one XYZ will cost. Not that this really has anything to do with pirate video.
That's the entire reason I disagree with opensource... NOt creating anything new, just reinventing the old for cheaper.
Hmmmm. Seems like an obvious troll, but since I'm already here: "reinventing the old for cheaper" is hardly what Open Source Software is about.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Yeah, he's rich, so he's cool for risking more money than the not-rich can.
Ummm. Okay.
If I have $5k, and risk $2k on something, does that make me as cool as Lucas? I mean, that's about the ratio. He just has a lot more to start with.
And it's not like TPM could have failed, from a cash POV. It did fail, imho, as a decent SW movie, but he still made shitloads. Moronic SW fans watched back to back for 24h, to prove some stupid point, like that they could give Lucas a lot of money.
So wow, he spent maybe a third of his own money on a sure investment, that makes him so cool.
Wow! I just paid the phone bill, *out of my own pocket*, wow, I'm an investment genius.
In The Netherlands the license fee is about to be scrapped. In future public broadcasting will be paid for by the taxpayer directly. I suspect this is because according to the European Treaty on Civil and Political Rights (or something like that) there is a 'freedom to transmit and receive signals'.
So a license fee is really a no-no. Also license fees for receivers smack just a bit too much like the licenses one required from the Nazi German occupier's government in 1940-1945.. Only Nazi sympathizers, who could be trusted not to listen to allied propaganda, were allowed to own radios..
Ow BTW, the BBC also has a few digital channels in the UK, BBC Choice and BBC News 24 are two I can think of right now. On the competing side there's a national Channel 5, and I think Rupert Murdoch's BskyB and ITV are also in the digital TV game.. (digital TV != HDTV alas)
Also the BBC's output has declined in quality ENORMOUSLY in recent years. Almost their entire output exists of Interior Decorating, Antiques Roadshow and Fly On The Wall Documentaries. No wonder people start wondering WTF they're paying for..
--
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
Nonsense- this whole "time" issue is ridiculous- Lucas had more than enough "time" to spend on tons of other promotional projects- and the DVD release need not even be done by Lucas himself, nor need it include tons fo extra media. They're just covering their asses, plain and simple.
Why would you boycott DVD's in the first place?
The DVD industry obviously thinks that the people who use Linux are a bunch of pirates, because they're the ones that created DeCSS.
What you should do is after buying a DVD -- and I'm dead serious about this -- is write a nice little letter to the movie company that released it saying something to the effect of...
"Hello, my name is XXXX, and I'm a Linux user. As such, I have been unable to play DVDs on my computer system, so I have not purchased any DVDs until now. Now that DeCSS is released and in the general public, I can finally play DVD movies, and have purchased your movie "...". I plan on watching this on my Linux computer system using DeCSS. I understand your worries about DVD pirating, but you must realize that our intentions are to allow us to view your movies, and in effect to be your customers, to put food on your dinner table. I thank you for your concern with our movement, but feel it is misguided, and you do not realize our true intentions, creating something which the DVD industry has overlooked -- DVD players on "non-mainstream" operating systems. I thank you for your time, and for your movie."
Do this for every movie you purchase. It's a protest, it's a public declaration that you're using a product they fear and wish to abolish, but at the same time, it's a letter telling them that you're supporting their product ONLY because someone filled the gap they created -- the lack of linux DVD players. It's definately worth a shot.
OK, so Lucas has an excuse -- but what about Straczynski? His CBS deal with Chris Carter is off, so maybe he can persuade WB to cut a deal for those anamorphic Dolby 5.1 DVD versions of the episodes of Babylon 5 we're still waiting for.... thanks for listening!
--
Paul Gillingwater
Paul Gillingwater
MBA, CISSP, CISM
I don't buy the idea that making a DVD version requires all that much time. It seems like he would want to focus on "Special Features" on the DVD.
But who ever uses those things?
If it came down to DVD titles being released simaltaneous with VHS and without special features or DVD with special features a few months (in this case YEARS) late, I would take a DVD w/o special features 90% of the time!
I've NEVER looked at "cast & crew" info for my DVD movies, and only a few times have I seen the "making of" parts, and I still would have bought the DVD without those features. To me, a DVD means a movie that won't degrade over time with awesome picture and sound. Case in point: Saving Private Ryan, DTS edition. Every DVD should be made this way. Emphasis on quality, the menus are simply and well-desgined. If Lucas is going to spend his time making stupid animated menus, forget it.
Unless the DVD Control Association suddenly becomes clueful and opens up the technology, I have no intention of lining their pockets in any way by purchasing a DVD player. I just have a thing about buying things from people who sue open source developers ;) -V
Hosting for Creators: http://rpg-works.net
Fox has and always had a long term plan to drip feed Star Wars releases and DVD is no different. Fans don't come into this except as the saps who are regularly milked to boost the revenues by the latest release.
They have no intention of sitting on a gold mine. No, they will to build up demand by denying that the DVDs will appear anytime soon and then suddenly release them for a limited time so that purchasers frantically snap them up for fear "they'll be gone forever", to quote from a previous marketing campaign. Probably this will be tied in with Episode 2 in some way, such as appearing a few months beforehand to drum up interest in the new movie. Of course, they won't admit this was their original intention - when it happens they'll pretend they caved-in to demand from "the fans".
Expect to see DVD releases in standard, collectors and special edition formats ad nauseum. The "standard" edition will the first - be a pricey DVD with near-zero extras followed by collector's editions with an even bigger pricetag later.
Lucas might try to worm out from his earlier lies by saying the DVD format is now too mainstream to ignore, or that he's listened to the fans and has changed his mind. This is all bollocks of course.
I might be completely wrong in all this, but if no DVD appears in five years, then I'll be happy to retract my opinions.
I'm not sure if you are being sarcastic...
Boycotts just don't work like this.
Do you really think you are lining their pockets? What fraction of the cost of the player do you think they are getting?
I really don't think it is as high as 10$ a player, possibly as little as 1$ or lower. This is just guessing, but licencing costs for technology aren't as high as you think.
The present version of DVD will be supersceded in a couple years anyhow, this is well known now that blue lasers can be made with good reliability. DVDs presently still use higher frequency red lasers AFAIK. Then there's digital VHS available NOW that can record HDTV bit for bit with no loss, the present DVD standard can't display at the higher resolutions without obvious artifacts, and the recordable DVD cant record any better.
There you have it. Now I hope you people stop whining and get off the man's back. He is not trying to milk you for an extra buck. The man is a billionaire. He doesn't need an extra buck. He fancies himself as an artist, and whether you agree with his assessment, Star Wars is his baby and he wants to show it in the best light possible. DVD allows for such creative license so let him exercise it.
I hope we are through with these TPM DVD stories for a while.
Hates people who have stupid little sigs
Why release ep1 on vcd ? I've had ep1 on vcd(illegal) since about a week after it hit theatres, and its a damn good copy. i even copied it to VHS for a friend. So why the hell would i shell out 15-20 bucks on something ive had for free for months ?
/.ers and SW fans in general.
Any kid with a decent connection, some time, and a cd burner already has this or can get it if he/she/chooses.
Now if it were coming out on DVD with all sorts of bonuses and commentary and so on, i would happily fork over 15, 20, even 30 bucks for it, and so would alot of other
Lucas fucked up in '99 with Jar Jar
Now he's topping himself in 2000
by charging us for something we got for free 9 months ago
Does this article really give us any more information about why the DVD isn't being released, or is it really just a load of horse poopoo?
Personally, what does Lucas have to do with the Phantom Menace to release it on DVD? Does it need some fancy interface that he needs to be personally involved in? Does he have to do yet another cheesy interview with Leonard Maltin (yes, I realize that the videos may have needed something more humorous, but honestly, I can only laugh at the fakeness of the interviews for so long)? Does he need to add more footage to it (how so?). Does something need to be done to make it fully digital? Hell, it was already filmed digitally. They released digital copies in the theatres. You can push that straight to DVD. Slap some nice GUI on it that Lucas' companies have been producing for years in their games.
Slashdotters are suckers if they think that Lucas doesn't have the time to devote to a DVD. He doesn't need to. And if, for some reason he has something really special in mind, well hell, release a regular DVD, and then release a Special Edition DVD a few years later when you get some free time. It worked once before, and I personally won't mind paying some more for it. I'm stupid like that. I'm a consumer.
Lucas doesn't need time to make a DVD, and neither does LucasFilm. This article does nothing except give us another worthless quote and absolutely no answers at all.
/* not flamebait, just an observation */
When Episode 1 was released, the VAST majority of Slashdot thought it was a horrible movie. Everything from Jar Jar sucks, Anakin had a big melon head, Darth Maul didn't have enough screne time, etc. I've personally haven't watched it, so I don't have an opinion one way or another.
So why the big deal about no DVD? If the majority of Slashdot didn't reall care for the movie, why go out in droves to buy a Slashdot-proclaimed bad movie? Is it JUST because it's Star Wars?
I know if I went and saw a movie, ANY movie, and thought it was bad, I wouldn't run out and get it on DVD. Is it to play the "Jar Jar Drinking Game" at home? The one where everytime Jar jar is annoying you take a shot? I would think that most wouldn't really care, considering they wouldn't have bought it anyways. That is, unless they make a habit of buying moives they don't like.
a hidden room deep within the labyrinth of lucasfilm...
lucasfilm stooge #1: the star wars fans will continue to gain support in the marketing division...
lucasfilm stooge #2: the marketing division will no longer be of any concern to us. i've just received word that mr. lucas has dissolved the department permanently. the last remnants of the old lucasfilm have been swept away!
lucasfilm stooge #1: what?! that's impossible! how will lucas maintain a presence in retail outlets?
lucasfilm stooge #2: mr. lucas himself now has direct control over the retail outlets. fear will keep the merchants in line. fear of this studio!
lucasfilm stooge #1: and what of the open source pirates? if they've obtained illegal copies of tpm, it is possible, however unlikely that they may find a distributor... and exploit it!
open source man: the copies you refer to will soon be back in our hands!
homosexual lucasfilm stooge: any attack against this studio would be a useless gesture, no matter what illegal copies they've obtained! this studio is now the ultimate power in hollywood! i suggest we use it!
open source man: don't be too proud of this merchandising terror you've constructed! the ability to addict children to film merchandising is insignificant next to the alluring power of natalie portman!
homosexual lucasfilm stooge: don't try to frighten us with your lustful heterosexual ways, open source man! your sad devotion to that young actress has not helped you conjure up the illegal tpm copies, nor given you clairvoyance enough to find....
open source man holds up a picture of natalie portman to the homosexual stooge.
open source man: i find your lack of heterosexuality disturbing!
lucasfilm stooge #2: enough of this! open source, release him! this bickering is pointless! now open source man will provide us with the pirate sites! we will then crush the hackers with one swift stroke!
thank you.
the fat-time online serial!! feel the power of this force!!
George Lucas is working hard on Episode II: Jar Jar's Revenge. He's taking extra special care this time to make sure an otherwise cool movie would be ruined by one annoying computer generated character that he can sell toys of to little kids.
In the mean time, Lucasfilms is working on the special DVD release to be released with Generation Pi DVD players. It will feature a special THX(TM) Anti-Gungan Feature that will allow you to eliminate Jar Jar entirely from Episode 1 each time you watch it on your Home DVD Generation Pi with DIVX Enhanced Features Player. To do this you have to insert a five dollar bill each time you watch the film, or else Jar Jar returns to annoy you.
So go easy on Lucas, okay? He's only trying to make a buck.
"You ever have that feeling where you're not sure if you're dreaming or awake?"
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah