Star Wars Episode II DVD Release on Nov. 12

Nerftoe writes "The DVD and home video of hit movie "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" will land on retail shelves on Nov. 12, the movie's backers at Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox said on Thursday. Lucasfilm and Fox have put together a two-disc DVD set that features six hours of additional material including a documentary about the movie made by Lucas and the movie's other filmmakers and eight scenes that never made it into the movie."

Comments

Re:And he thought he could hold out on us

[NanoGator]

The only way he can prevent the DVD from being pirated to death is if it includes tons and tons and tons of stuff on it. There's still value in buying the disc if it has extras that people don't pirate. (Take notes, MPAA)

I think he wants to be able to provide all that with Eps 4-6. It'd take time, and he's focused (well in a PHB sorta way) on Eps 1-3.

50 versions

[RangerSpeedBumpp]

I saw a talk by John Knoll a month ago at the Visual Effects Society in Marin. He pointed out that ILM continued to work on EP2 even after the movie was out in theaters. George continued to send new cuts out the door as new prints were being made. At the time there were 45-50 versions of Star Wars in theaters. Undoubtedly, the version that you get on DVD will be different than those versions. I don't see any major changes, but they'll probably add later versions of shots and some slightly different timing.

This isn't actually a new thing. Kubrick showed a different cut of 2001 in New York than he did in LA when the movie premiered. And of course George continues to revise episodes 4/5/6. The scary thing is that George is considering usign all-digital cinema to dist 'patches' to films. After the film has been running in theaters for several weeks, he can remotely add new sequences and then announce 'all new footage' so that Star Wars fans will have to come back for another viewing.

One feature I wish was included..

[Uncle Ira]

Would be an isolted score/sound effects track. Lucas says he made the Star Wars films in the style of silent movies where the score and the visuals worked together. I was surprised (and a little disappointed) that the DVD for TPM did not include an isolated score. I would have preferred that to a 2ch dolby pro-logic audio track.?

And if you're going to have an isolated score, may as well follow the example of the folks at Pixar and make it a combination score/soundFX track. The two really do work together so well that it would be nice to have them highlighted with their own audio track.

Oh well. Maybe in 2006 on the Super Special Deluxe edition box set rerelease...

Re:And he thought he could hold out on us

[Dr.Dubious DDQ]

The only way he can prevent the DVD from being pirated to death is if it includes tons and tons and tons of stuff on it.

And/Or charge a reasonable price for it. I'm thinking some of the DVD distributors are starting to clue into this - I've been seeing a few (obviously less famous [They put "Caveman" out on DVD????]) DVD's showingup for $7.99-$9.99 at the local superhypermegamart. That's NEW, not "previously viewed". Heck, that price range seemed just fine for "previously viewed" VHS's a few years ago...

When the price of a typical DVD (new) has dropped down to ~$10 or so (currently seems to be $15-20US for most of them right now) the only people who'll be left pirating will be unemployed small children abusing their parents' broadband connection.

Combined with your point, I'd say that what little real "piracy" there is of DVD's right now (far less than the MPAA claims, I suspect) will dwindle to near nothing in the next couple of years.

Unless, of course, cheap set-top "DivX;)" (or Ogg-Theora?) boxes with TV-out start showing up on the market...and maybe even then.

Starwars.com's Official Link has more stuff.

[antdude]

http://starwars.com/episode-ii/news/2002/08/news20 020801.html. It has pictures of both DVD and VHS boxes.

Re:And he thought he could hold out on us

[inkswamp]

There are times when I think I'm one of the only Star Wars fans out there who isn't stuck in permanent bitch mode.

He's probably waiting until Episode 3 is done so that digitally correct the inconsistencies he's creating in 4-6.

Hmm... you must have the finished script for episode III, so you're absolutely certain that what we view as "inconsistencies" are in fact that. I've seen lists of so-called inconsistencies on the web and very few seem like things that can't be plausibly explained in the length of one more film and certainly nothing that will destroy the whole series.

And anyway, if we're going to lynch George Lucas for it, let's make sure we save enough rope for Tolkien. We'll have to dig him up to do it of course, but remember, he backtracked and fixed problems with his stories too (stories that are being cited as examples of perfection in this very discussion), including a well known revision to The Hobbit to make the Golem scenes work with his later plans.

Artists do these kinds of things. At the very least, reserve your judgment until you've seen all three of the new films.

Re:And he thought he could hold out on us

[foobar104]

I've had a pet theory for a while, and I'm surprised that nobody else has mentioned it.

I think Lucas is waiting for HD-DVD.

I, for one, would love to see the original trilogy become the reference standard HD-DVDs in 2006 or so. Originals, special editions, I couldn't care less as long as it's 1080/24p with 6-channel sound.

Lucas can't direct himself out of a paper bag.

[slonlow]

The real question is who gives a crap about Lucases' hamhanded "prequels". They both are terrible movies and are case studies of how little computer generated effects add to shabby plotting, storytelling and characterizations. Really, of the three originals, only the second has any interest or artistic merit outside of the aging geek world and nostalgic loyalties. The first seems almost 50's naive (and poorly acted) in its black and white archetypes. The third degenerates with farting and burping jokes and culminates in a teddy bear rumpus.

Let's be clear about the two prequals: CGI is never a replacement for a real plot, or real acting or well designed and shot action. Lucas seems to have an uncanny ability in being able to turn the best actors into foam-core cutouts with lines that convince me that Lucas is autistic and or tone deaf.

I think Anthony Lane (funny dude) of the New Yorker had it right in his review of Titanic a couple of years ago. To paraphrase, he said that CGI used in Titanic was humanized, secondary to the script, characters, relations and plot. I had the same feeling coming out of "Minority Report". The special effects were being driven by a solid and brain twisting whodunit framework. Two years ago, I exhilarated was by the paradigm shifting Matrix, which beats the pants off anything Lucas has directed. The Matrix changed the way geeks and movie buffs expected to experience Sci-fi, much as Blade Runner and further back, Metropolis, did before it.

Lucases' movies and this DVD are just joyless corporate exercises in brand extension and cash flow.