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Updated: Phantom Menace DVD Release
LTB writes "Regarding your story about the Phantom Menace DVD release - an update has been posted at aintitcool with news to the contrary. Sorry guys, If it's too good to be true... "
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Jesus Christ on Popsicle sticks.
Apologies for the inflammatory subject line, but how many times has a rumor like this been floating around before? Star Wars DVD rumors are a dime a dozen, and each one is "more legitimate" than the one before. And then, a couple of days ago, Slashdot reports that the rumor is floating around again! Of course, this time, the rumor is true! (Really, it is!) Then, a few days later, Slashdot is forced to print (hold on to your hats, folks) a retraction, because the initial story was (again, hold on to your hats, folks) wrong.
Look, I like Slashdot as much as the next guy, and I think that all of these troll idiots who post nothing but "SLASHDOT REALLY SUCKS NOW" and related junk are severely without lives. But I think we can all agree that when Slashdot tosses journalistic integrity to the wind and prints sensationalistic stories like this that have not one single shred of evidence to back them up, it makes Slashdot look bad. Amateurish, you know?
Rob and company, I love your site
That is all.
The roller coaster will only stop when large numbers of hard core fans tell George Lucas to go screw himself and take their money elsewhere. The only chance of this happening in the near future is if Episode 2 is as poor as TPM. I would certainly consider myself a Star Wars "Fan", and I hope that Episode 2 is the greatest film of all time, but after TPM, my money is staying in my pocket until he shows me a good movie.
This "No DVD until the box set" thing is rediculous. Lucas obviously wants millions of his most loyal fans to purchase two copies of an identical movie, and nobody seems to be calling him on it. Just because he made some brilliant movies a while ago and wears flannel shirts, doesn't mean he isn't as greedy as the Armani suit wearing CEOs we all love to hate.
Don't play his game, don't give him more money until he stops screwing us around.
-B
I thought the movie was OK, but I really want a DVD so I can watch the two most interesting parts - the pod race and final darth maul fight - without having to wade through the annoying parts of the movie.
Even if video tape didn't degrade the way it does, I'd still like a DVD just for the easy random access.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The Digital Bits, which is a DVD news site (and therefore IMHO a more likely source for DVD news than AICN), claims to have actual Lucasfilm inside information (rather than just a "we don't have a release date" comment from an un-named source). These guys are part of the "Star Wars on DVD" campaign and have managed to get contacts with LFL as part of that.
In particular, their Rumor Mill page says that there won't be any Star Wars DVDs in 2000; they're currently hearing 1Q 2001 for Phantom Menace and "very tentative plans" for the original trilogy for the 2001 holiday season.
You will note that this doesn't actually conflict with AICN's latest--there's no real release date yet--though it certainly conflicts with what "some guy at Suncoast" said in the original AICN article.
(As for his credibility, if a mall store employee told me the sun would be rising in the east tomorrow, I'd be checking the other horizon. :-)
slashdot is beginning to sound like a 5 year old on a long car trip: "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"...
Mike Roberto (roberto@soul.apk.net) - AOL IM: MicroBerto
Berto
Who in their right mind uses "Ain't It Cool" news as a primary source? Shouldn't the title of the site and the lack of writing skills on the boards be a dead giveaway that it's mostly bogus?
Let's put it this way - rumor-mongers though they might be, at least TheSmokingGun has verifiable documentation of all the stuff they claim, unlike the 'news' at 'Ain't It Cool'. At least that makes it smell a little more like journalism.
Always, always verify your sources, and don't always believe what's on the Web... I had thought Slashdot was a little better about picking-and-choosing source material, even on slow news days. Tsk, tsk, tsk!
Best regards,
LConover
"Hope clouds observation." (Frank Herbert, Dune.)
How can Lucas say that DVD is an untested medium, while he also is pushing theatres to upgrade to all digital projection of movies? So DVD's, which have been around awhile and are a household name, are untested, but theatres receiving their movies from digital satellites or digital copies from mail or web is tested (and must be secure)--Riiiiiight. It seems that Lucas's definition of untested technology is something that takes power and control out of his hands.
1) "George Lucas is a flaming greedy capitalist whore, boycott his movies!!!!"
Three words: get a grip. Do you know George Lucas personally? I don't. I'm sure you don't either. Making petty personal attacks is the #1 reason no one outside of the geek community takes the geek community seriously. It smacks of both penis envy and I'm-Sixteen-And-Pissed-Off-At-The-World Syndrome, and it's also defacing a quiet, unassuming geek himself who's a decent family man. If you don't buy Lucas' reasoning that he wants to be able to do something artistically special for the DVD, that's fine. Keep your name-calling to yourself.
2) "Phantom Menace/ROTJ/the series sucks balls compared to Matrix/Dune/Cube/whatever!!!"
Lucas set out to create a movie to capture the magic of both the Saturday cartoon serial and movies that he remembers fondly from his childhood. The reason most of you thought the original trilogy kicked ass and Episode I blew isn't because of any large qualitative difference, it's because you watched them twenty years apart. I was born in 1978, so the first time I saw Star Wars was on videotape, and it had exactly the effect Lucas wanted. I went into Episode I knowing it was a movie aimed at a 10 year old, and I enjoyed it for what it was. Are The Matrix and Pokemon aimed at the same audience? Would you compare the two? So quit making lame analogies that don't fit. Oh yeah, and I hereby predict that after Matrix 3 (or whatever it'll be called) everyone and their mother on Slashdot will be rushing to be "cool" as the people who call the creators "sellouts" and "profitmongers", as they were disappointed that Matrix 3 didn't have the same "magic" as the first. Well, no shit. There's only a first time for everything. Wouldn't you think after 3 movies, or 6, that they won't have at least some feel of "been there, done that?"
3) "Lucas should stop letting down his fans with all this hype and give us the DVD/3 sequels/free movies/adult themes that we want!!!"
I'm sorry, is this art by committee? Lucas is the rare artist (extremely rare) who has enough power and influence to do things exactly how he wants, and you people flame him for not pandering to the masses?? Jesus Christ!! Go back to listening to Third Eye Blind or watching cheesy summer action flicks. I'd rather see the rare something that was uncut and unprostituted to make everyone happy, warts and all.
The bottom line is, if you don't like the series or the movie, don't contribute money to Lucas. He doesn't want it anyway - he's already one of the richest men alive, and the only reason he needs any more is so he can create more movies, which is what he loves. Don't say "well, I think the movie, but I'll buy it anyway." Just don't buy it, don't whine about it, and for God's sake don't spend your time making up mud to sling at Lucas.
I'm going a step farther to say I'm disappointed in how mindless and drone-like Slashdot is appearing in non-issues like this subject. For every post that actually has something interesting or insightful to say, there are 20 more that fit into one of the categories above marked "Score 5: Insightful". Pass the barf bag.
telnet://bbs.ufies.org
Trade Wars Lives
Light a fire for a man and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Don't you DARE complain.
I predicted this roller coaster. While all this hype over a possible DVD is brewing, it's keeping interest in TPM alive. So people throw out a rumor here....a rebuttal there. The main point is: Nobody Cares! Okay, so if a DVD comes out all you Star Wars fanatics can roll in delight, and talk about how Great it is. If no DVD comes out, you can roll in despair and talk about how great it would have been. Then you can fall back on VHS.
George Lucas is laughing his ass off. He knows what's going on, and he knows it means one thing: MORE MONEY. For every statement that denies that a DVD will come out, X amount of people say "Screw it, I'll just buy the tape." Then another article comes out, and another rebutes THAT one. Then X MORE people buy the tape. the process repeats about 20 or so times, and then the hype dies down. When the hype dies down, there would be only one thing left to do:
Release the standard DVD.
Then, he'll start the whole process over again with the promise of a "Special Edition" DVD. (Or hell, maybe he'll release a "Special Edition" VHS, ride the hype coaster one more time, THEN release the "Special Edition" DVD.)
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
The so-called update (above) is from SUNDAY, ie BEFORE yesterdays statements.
Not only is this NOT an update, it renders this entire discussion moot, since Lucas claimed that on Monday or Tuesday that he's going to release.
I hereby call for slashdot to NEVER get their stories from AICN ever again.
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
"Much like the Star Wars discussions on its lack of DVD, this is another one that always gets a chuckle in my mind. How many other products do you have where the customer is practically throwing their money at the company and the company doesn't release the product. Only the video industry..."
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
So now the rumor is rumored not to be true.
MPAA couldn't possibly stop us: how would it look in court? "Yes, your honor, we're suing these guys for taking it off a DVD, and we're suing these guys for putting it onto a DVD. We hate everybody."