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George Lucas May Be Completely Evil

Posted by chrisd on from the historical-revisionism-stinks dept.

gabec writes "Sci-fi Wire is reporting a couple rumors about the changes being made to the original Star Wars trilogy for its next release. That being that Natalie Portman may be being inserted into Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and that universally reviled Jar Jar Binks may be being inserted into Episode IV: A New Hope. May The Force forbid." Mind you this is reported as rumor, but it's so unsurprisingly possible...

10 of 971 comments (clear)

  1. But why??? by RayChuang · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not sure if this is even a good idea.

    It might work for continuity purposes (in George Lucas' mind), but frankly, most Star Wars fans prefer Episodes IV-VI to be as unchanged as possible even after Episode III is released. Lucas will be accused to overtinkering with the first Star Wars trilogy, and that won't win him friends among old-time Star Wars fandom, that's to be sure.

    --
    Raymond in Mountain View, CA
    1. Re:But why??? by _ph1ux_ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      as much as I love star wars - I cant stand lucas... basically I see him as someone who's whole career is riding on the one good success he had - A new Hope, ep IV....

      He is *not* the genius visionary that all his buddies and hollywood ass kissers like to tell him he is - he just had one really good idea - but now he is just a greedy flipping bastard without imagination and vision. The star wars universe has been built up and expanded upon by the great fans that have loved the original seed that lucas planted and nurtured it into a mature and full concept - the only thing lucas does for the sar wars universe these days is capitalize on it.

      he is not a good director, he is just someone who stumbled onto something that became great - regardless of him. but he keeps his imperial grip on the concept and makes himself more and more into the palpatine we despise....

      /rant

    2. Re:But why??? by ajs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "[George Lucas] is *not* the genius visionary that all his buddies and hollywood ass kissers like to tell him he is"

      Heh, I always love to hear this kind of uninformed sillyness. It's what keeps me going.

      First off, as for directing, Lucas is good. He directs well, and his visual sense is utterly amazing. He's terrible at some things, and I would never rank him with someone like Kubrik or Hitchcock. There are, however, only a handful of people who can make a movie as physically engaging as episodes IV, V and II. Technically he does a good job.

      But no one sings Lucas' praises solely for his directorial work. The reason that he's refered to as a giant in the industry is the sheer number of times he's changed the way Hollywood works! You may have heard of the names Skywalker Sound, Lucasfilm, Lucas Arts, Pixar, ILM? These are all Lucas companies that have contributed hugely to the modernization of the movie-making industry. Having created any *one* of them would have been an achivement worthy of comment in Hollywood. Having created all of them is frankly stunning.

      There are also less... wholesome things that I credit the man with genius and visionary status for. He forsook pay on episode IV in return for merchandizing rights. He was frankly laughed at for asking for this, but the studio happily gave away the "worthless" merchandizing rights. No studio will ever be able to take that decision lightly again because it was George Lucas who showed Hollywood what those rights were really worth. That money paid to turn ILM and Lucasfilm into forces to be reckoned with in Hollywood and in turn founded Skywalker Sound, Pixar, and lots of other little companies as spinnoffs (can anyone remember the name of the medical imaging company that Pixar spun off?)

      You may or may not like or respect Lucas, and that call is all yours, but I think genius visionary is a title that can be safely awarded to anyone who slaps Hollywood to its senses and ushers in the age of digital effects and later digital film making.

  2. Isn't this the exact same crowd... by stubear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...that wants to eliminate copyrights so ANYONE can make changes like this on a whim?

    Yeah, count my vote on that one.

  3. May not be that bad. by Papa+Legba · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First I want to say that any lengthy insert would be a disaster. I think their is no argument at all on that subject.

    I can , however, see where a small insert would be helpfull to the story line. Something like a shot of jar jar watching luke meet obiwan and saying "the circle starts again" or something similar IANASW( I am not a script writer). A small item to help tie the first three with the next three. With the way that these movies were filmed, in reverse order, Something like this may be necesary to make them feel as a whole series again.

    The other possibility is that he needs to add elements to tie the last three to the middle three. For an example having queen amadala show in return to say that she was never gone but hiding out and once the emporer is defeated we need to go do this. He may have excluded these parts in the original filming becuase it would have created a cliff hanger in the movie that would not be resolved for 30 to 40 years. Now he can add it and start the work, striving for a completed nine movies over three sets of three.

    The point is a little dash of extra may not be so bad, have to see it to judge. Let's just hope this is not done as some marketting stunt to get us all buy the movies AGAIN.

    --
    Papa Legba come and open the gate
    1. Re:May not be that bad. by doorbot.com · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He may have excluded these parts in the original filming becuase it would have created a cliff hanger in the movie that would not be resolved for 30 to 40 years. Now he can add it and start the work, striving for a completed nine movies over three sets of three.

      My understanding was that the trilogies were supposed to be separate. Yes, there is a background story which flows between the nine, but each trilogy is (I guess) about a different generation. But hasn't Lucas said he wasn't going to make the third trilogy.

      Which brings me to my argument. I have yet to see any convincing evidence that there ever was a trilogy of trilogies. It seems to me that Lucas is just winging it, knowing Star Wars fanatics will blindly follow where their messiah takes them (call it fundamentalism if you want). He may have had the original trilogy in mind when he made the Ep IV (debatable) but I find it extremely hard to believe he had the entire series of nine in mind. Now, however, he's in a position to claim he had the whole thing in mind the whole time, and who is really going to question him? SW zealots take his word as Truth, and nobody else really cares.

      I'm actually planning on seeing AOTC tonight, so we'll see if Lucas manages to impress. I have the advantage of having no hopes that it will... so perhaps this movie will be rated on its own merit and not the merit of the supposed "universe" which "Lucas created." Newsflash: Lucas didn't do a hell of a lot... writers like Timothy Zahn did the great work extending the SW universe. Lucas just gets the credit.

      I'm a former SW fan (fanatic, perhaps, but only a bit beyond the "fan" level). Maybe that makes me a bit disgruntled and angry of how Lucas has fleshed out the plot to "his" movies -- that's fine if they're his movies, but you'd think he'd have the self-interest to make sure the new ones didn't suck. Episode I was just another example of Lucas's complete lack of talent.

      As Han says, "I call it luck."
      To which Obi-Wan answers, "In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."

      Well... who do you like more? I always liked Han.

  4. What about the originals? by rob_from_ca · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Personally, I don't care what he does to his movie. The sad part for me is that all the work done on restoring footage and reworking original soundtracks is all thrown into these modified special editions. The _original_ films now only exist as worn VHS tapes. The first special editions were different; not necessarily better, but different. Any further rounds of modification will be different still.

    It's sad that the original films have become lost to consumers, and presumably will stay lost. How about if he releases the original, restored (but unaltered) movies on DVD first. Then he's free to add Jar Jar, Natalie Portman, Samuel Jackson, Matt LeBlanc or whoever the hell else he wants to Episodes IV-VI.

  5. Re:No need for hysteria by Cheeko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Except that Luke and Leia are twins. My guess is that in Episode 3, Obi-Wan takes Luke and Amadala takes Leia and they hide them, raise them etc. Likely Leia remembers her real mother cause she lived with her for a short time before her mother dies.

  6. Re:Who gives a damn? by jcoleman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He owes you a good movie? Listen to yourself.

    The "true fans." This is the problem with the movie industry. Everyone is so busy catering to the "true fans" that people forget about making good films. "Oooo, the Tolkien fans won't like it if we take something out of the book." "Oooo, the Star Wars fans won't like it if we put Jar Jar in the next movie."

    The fans' opinion does not matter. If you are truly concerned with artists making good films, then quit expecting them to cater to your every whim. It is not your film. Even if you have every single Star Wars figure, book, bedspread, drinking glass, etc., you still have no say in what an artist puts into his art. You don't hear art collectors saying "I like Starry Night, but I wish Van Gogh had put some more red in it. He owed it to us to paint a picture that we'd like."

    If you don't like what the artist has to say, how his story is told, or what accent his characters speak with then don't buy his work. No one is forcing you.

    You are truly the epitomy of a consumer.

  7. You're just who Lucas is looking for by Wind_Walker · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I do not mean to offend you, but you're exactly the kind of Star Wars fan that Lucas wants. You'll take any shit that he puts on celluloid and eat it right up. Since you say "...I'll eat it up" I assume that means you'll buy the new version of his movies. Wow, another couple billion in his pocket. And if it sucks, then you'll still rent the video and see how bad it sucks; only about 200 million in his pocket.

    Oh, and calling Star Wars one of the most epic stories ever written is pathetic. Read some books for God's sake. Ever heard of The Illiad? The Odyssey? The Maha-Barata? Fucking BEOWULF, for God's sake! Get out more!