Slashdot Mirror
Star Wars Original Trilogy Gets DVD Release Date
Angry Black Man writes "The Digital Bits is reporting that there is finally some official information from Lucasfilm regarding the release of the Star Wars OT (episodes IV, V, and VI) on DVD. The movies are coming to DVD in September of 2004. The animated series of Clone Wars shorts appearing soon on the Cartoon Network will also be released on DVD, possibly before the end of this year. The teaser campaign for Episode III will begin in January of 2005, leading up to the May theatrical release. Finally... Episode III will hit DVD in November of 2005."
I've been waiting for both this and Indy for a long time. I suppose good news comes in in waves. Or maybe it's just an apology for Episodes I and II.
The "official information" is from an anonymous source on Aint It Cool News.
I do hope that you're planning on including both the "old" and the "new" versions of the original trilogy.
Why, you ask? For one simple reason, and I'm going to type this very, very slowly to make sure you don't mess this up:
Han shoots Guido first.
Ah! No, I don't want to hear how Han isn't a bad man. Shut it, George - you made some good movies, but I don't want to hear it.
"Yes, I bet you have." BLAM! That's it - one shot. Deal with it.
And if you plan on including any new scenes, I will pound you. I don't want to see this:
Jar-Jar: No, it'sa not true! Messa is you father!
Chewbacca: Aaaarrrghhhghg!
Don't make us get the South Park kids to protect your own movies from yourself.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Have people forgotten how George Lucas works? How many VHS releases of the flipping original trilogy did we have? Keep an eye out for endless special editions and reworks until the day you die, conveniently spaced out and with enough extra materials to keep you coming back every time.
On another note, I'm glad to hear he finally buried the hatchet over that damned Laserdisc business.
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
I'm just surprised it took Lucas this long to release the original movies on DVD in the first place. It's easy money - we'd all like to get the original movies on a nice digital format. Instead they wait nearly a decade before they rerelease. With a track record for milking franchises like LucasArts has, this seems to be a rather foolish missed opportunity.
"By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth." - George Carlin
Actually, he won't even shoot at all. Greedo will instead be killed by his own shot reflecting back at him. Every time Han gets in a fire fight, or is otherwise in danger, he will escape only through dumb luck and ingenuity cleverly disguised as incompetence. It will also be revealed that he is related to Jar Jar Binks from the later triology, a scene which was unfortunately left on the cutting room floor, but was always intended to be a major part of the story. Han Solo has always been related to Jar Jar Binks; Lucas definetly did not make that up later.
This is how he was meant to be portrayed all those years ago, but the technology just wasn't there. Han was never a greedy, violent outlaw. That simply wasn't the case. The audience just mis-interpreted the character. In fact, Han's original signature costume was a pink jumpsuit with bunny ears and gumdrops affixed across the chest to create a rainbow smile, a technology that didn't exist in the 70's. Now, with CG fairies buzzing around him, singing a merry tune throughout the entire film, George Lucas will finally be able to realize his perfect vision of the Han Solo character.
It's nothing but crumpled porno and Ayn Rand.
These were listed on the Star Wars Galaxies forums, so take them as you will. The guy who posted 'em swore they were legit, but we all know how that goes.
Got this off of a site that talks about movies, 411mania.com. I kept in the post the actual site they got their info from. Sounds good...and bad......the endings of Return of the Jedi I'm sure you'll hate now. Anyways, here it is:
CREDIT: AICN news
Episode IV: A New Hope
01. The Imperial March has been added to Darth Vader's first appearance on Princess Leia's ship.
02. When Obi-Wan is talking to Luke about his father Anakin's Theme plays in the background and then it turns into the Imperial March as he talks about Vader.
03. The lightsaber effects have been redone and the frame jumps of lightsabers being turned on has been removed.
04. There's a new scene which has been shot during the filming of Episode III in which the Emperor dissolves the Senate.
05. In the Cantina, the Duros(green aliens guys) have been replaced with Neimoidians and some aliens from the prequels have been added.
06. The bleeding arm on the floor in the Cantina has been replaced with a non-bleeding arm because it's now canon that lightsabers cauterize wounds.
07. The original shooting scene between Han and Greedo has been restored.
08. Jabba the Hutt has been given a makeover and Han no longer steps on his tale.
09. In place of R2 wobbling down the stairs to the Falcon's hangar, a CG R2 navigating the stairs like he does in Attack of the Clones was added.
10. The white boxes around space ships have been removed and new CG shots have been added.
11. The scene of the Falcon being chased by the two Star Destroyers was modified. The Falcon now does spinning moves, avoiding the Star Destroyers' fire.
12. When the Death Star destroys Alderaan there's a new scene of Yoda's reaction to the disturbance in the Force that is created by all those deaths and then it cuts to Obi-Wan reacting to it as well.
13. The Dianoga has gotten a CG makeover and were are now able to see more of the creature.
14. The Death Star's paneling and computers have been slightly altered to show similar displays to those in the prequels.
15. The words "Tractor Beam" with Aurebesh lettering.
16. More stormtroopers have been added to the Death Star.
17. Temuera Morrison's voice is being recorded for use with all the stormtroopers.
18. The Obi-Wan/Vader duel has been spruced up. It is much more epic and there is much more movement. A modified version of Duel of the Fates is being considered for the scene.
19. The Death Star plans that are taken from R2 have been updated. When the Rebels are reviewing the Death Star plans they look similar to the plans we see in Attack of the Clones.
20. The Death Star battle is much more epic with more Tie Fighters and more Rebels being blown to bits. We get to see old Naboo starfighters being used by the Rebels.
21. There's a new scene(shot during Episode III) where Darth Vader goes to Coruscant and lands his ship in the same building Count Dooku does at the end of Attack of the Clones. Except now the building is all fixed up and it is now Palpatine's palace. He meets with Palpatine to ask for forgiveness for his failure and inform him of a new potential who is strong in the Force.
22. Chewbacca now gets a medal.
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
01. The taun-tauns are now CG.
02. The battle of Hoth is much more epic. We see the Imperial ships land on Hoth and release AT-ATs. The AT-ATs have been sped up a bit. There's a ground battle between the Rebel soldiers and stormtroopers featuring new ships and vehicles.
03. Temuera Morrison's voice is being recorded for the older Boba Fett and all the stormtroopers.
04. The white boxes around space ships have been removed.
05. The slug monster is CG.
06. Ian McDiarmid has refilmed scenes as the Emperor. The conversations between Vader and Palpatine is now longer and features a few connections to the prequels.
07. Yoda's face is
In the Star Wars, Han Solo kills Greedo in the Cantina while Greedo is holding a gun on him (Greedo is a bounty hunter trying to shake down Han for money he owes Jabba the Hut). Han shoots him under the table.
This is, of course, perfectly in character for a scoundrel and smuggler who has to get by in the criminal underworld -- if he didn't shoot Greedo, he'd have been killed (or worse).
During the "enhancements" that Lucas made to the movies a few years ago they added in a quick laser blast from Greedo so that he shoots first, because Han Solo is a "hero" who would never shoot someone except in self-defense.
Not only is it stupid for characterization reasons, it also looks stupid because Greedo has been holding a gun 6 inches away from Han's face for the past few minutes and then misses by about 3 feet when he pulls the trigger.
It was just a pointless change that represents in a fraction of a second of film everything stupid Lucas has done over the past 20 years to diminish the work that he was once so respected for.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
Setting aside the lameness of trying to look cool by calling Spielberg "Stevie" and referring to the Indiana Jones movies as "male-Lara (sic) Croft movies," there's still a big hole in this theory: the Indiana Jones movies were a joint project between Lucas and Spielberg, and were more Lucas's than they were Spielberg's.
All three films were written by Lucas (and others, but not Spielberg) and directed by Spielberg, with Lucas as executive producer and as an uncredited editor. If you consider the original Star Wars trilogy to be Lucas's, it's not that hard to consider the Indiana Jones series his too, since 2/3 of the original Star Wars trilogy had non-Lucas directors. As with the Star Wars movies, Lucas was the main creative force behind the Indiana Jones movies. He just used a director for the Indiana Jones movies who is more famous than Kershner and Marquand and, much as it pains me to say it, is a better director than Lucas (but is still highly overrated).
Maybe you noticed that Lucasfilm's logo appears at the beginning of the movies, but Amblin Entertainments's does not (nor does that of Dreamworks SKG). That's because the Indiana Jones movies were Lucasfilm productions and Spielberg was only involved as the director. That's why George Lucas had the rights to make The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (released on VHS as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones) without Spielberg. It's also why Lucasfilm made a deal with Disney to develop the "Indiana Jones Adventure" attraction (and "Star Tours--" I believe it was a single deal for developing attractions based on both the Star Wars movies and the Indiana Jones movies) without Spielberg being involved.
Anyway, getting back to the point, it seems to me the decision about the release of the Indiana Jones movies would be at least as much Lucas's as Spielberg's, and probably a lot more. So that kinda blows away the theory that Spielberg was holding off the release of "his" Indiana Jones movies on DVD because of a large investment in a rival compact videodisc standard.
Did I just fall for a troll? I hope not.
--Mark
"It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too." --Eugene Wigner