George Lucas Speaks on Trilogy Changes

Warlock7 writes "Yahoo has posted an interview with George Lucas by the AP on the changes to the original trilogy from the new DVD box set. They also discuss the future of the franchise and the direction he intends to take it."

Comments

direction he intends to take it...

[selderrr]

/me is shocked !

you mean that, no only this thing is going somewhere, it also has a direction ????

Stop the presses !

oh comeon please. Lucas a had one original idea a long time ago (in a galaxy far away probably) and milked it like no one has ever milked an idea before. I wishi everyone would just stop talking about him, then maybe he'd be forced to poop another idea instead of trampling in previous poop.

Re:direction he intends to take it...

[phyruxus]

I don't need Lucas to tell me where he's taking Star Wars, I know a handbasket when I see one. :)

Re:direction he intends to take it...

[B1ackD0g]

It's easy to slam him because he's being a butthead today, and I hate to be a troll or anything, but what have you or any of us created that has had the impact of Star Wars on society in general?

The original release of this somewhat original movie (really just a western in space, written many times by then in book form) made SF widely acceptable in the mainstream. I'd have to say that it was stunning at the time. I remember that we all rode home in silence after that flick. The effects of those movies are still felt today. I wish I had one idea that would have this type of positive effect on the world.

Alas, I only read slashdot.

the direction he intends to take it ...

[Bai jie]

He intends to take it to the bank, along with everything he does.

Special Editions vs. regular

[wattersa]

AP: Why not release both the originals and special editions on DVD?

Lucas: The special edition, that's the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it. ... I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I'm the one who has to take responsibility for it. I'm the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they're going to throw rocks at me, they're going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.

Lucas is going to have a lot of rocks thrown at him. As someone in an earlier post stated, Lucas is a control freak and doesn't seem to grasp that his vision today differs from his vision when he made the movies. :-/

Re:Special Editions vs. regular

[milkman_matt]

Ugh, I had respect for the guy .. well, some, but it's been steadily declining, and quickly.

First, OK, so the technology wasn't available to make the movies he wanted to make. I'll buy that, the DS explosion was a lot cooler.. The fact that you can't see through the ships now is cool. He says he wants Han to talk to Jabba at the begining of EP I, OK, I'll buy that too, albeit poorly done. Is he saying that he didn't have the technology to allow greedo to fire first when he made the original EP IV? That's BS, he's rewriting it now as a 'big hollywood name' as opposed to creating a vision and running with it as he did in the first making of the movie.

Also, What the hell is this "It's my movie, It's going to be how I want it, if you guys want the original it's on VHS!" attitude? He's like a spoiled kid, only he's 'rich and powerful' so he's even worse. Don't alienate the people who got you to where you are, it's poor business practice. VHS copies of Star Wars (original edition) are about 10+ years old now and probably don't even play well. Not many people (as said before) are going to buy a LD player in order to play the LD editions, and lucas knows it. He can do what he wants I guess, but it could have been said a lot better. He basically told everybody who wants the original versions of SW to f'off. He's trying to drown the original out of existence, and force people to buy the new versions even though there's a major demand for the originals. They're what made him. Now that I think about it, it surprises me that with his greed (releasing and rereleasing the same thing in a different box to make a buck) that he won't release the originals, people are asking for it, he'd make a mint off of slashdot alone ;) and he refuses to do it..

F' him, I wouldn't buy the trilogy now even if he DID include the originals because he's already butchered it to a point where you don't know WHAT point he's trying to get across. Is it the original? second edition? third? tenth!? Seriously, this movie has been released and edited and rerelased so many f'ing times it's ridiculous. Make up your f'ing mind, take a stance and stand by it.

I swear to god it reminds me of Spielberg's role in Goldmember...

Austin: "That being said I do have a few suggestions"
Lucas (pointing at his emmy): "Really? My friend here thinks it's fine just the way it is."

Lucas has gotten too big and cocky, and his attitude is terrible. He changes these movies to make everything more of what people want (making Han a good guy from the start instead of growing a scoundrel into one through heroism) while telling people he's not going to give them what they want (an original version for the sentamentalists and hardcore fans).... Pick a friggin' side.

-matt

Re:Special Editions vs. regular

[DA_MAN_DA_MYTH]

Lucas (pointing at his emmy):

It's an Oscar or Academy Award, emmy's are for television. Next, really I think it's bullshit every single one of you. If it's not one person selling out, it's another thing of neglecting the fanbase.

Look Star Wars maybe all of ours, but it's not, it's George Lucas's, he's the artist with the vision. After awhile creating the special edition is what he wanted the original edition to be but was limited to 1970's technology. This was the work he wanted to finish. His work, not yours.

The only parallel I can picture:

It's like me screaming at someone's open source project after them adding or changing an API, I can't believe you made that change, you suck. Leave Lucas alone, if you don't like it, it is your right as a consumer and don't buy it.

(By the way Han shooting first sucked, but I'm still buying the SE's on DVD)

Re:Special Editions vs. regular

[sg3000]

> The fact that you can't see through the ships now is cool. He
> says he wants Han to talk to Jabba at the begining of EP I, OK,
> I'll buy that too, albeit poorly done.

That footage was left on the cutting room floor for the simple reason that it didn't look the way he wanted. I'd hardly say that the rubber Jabba is intrinsically better than the CG Jabba. They both look fake. Luckily, Lucas is fixing this in the DVD version.

> Is he saying that he didn't
> have the technology to allow greedo to fire first when he made
> the original EP IV? That's BS, he's rewriting it now as a 'big
> hollywood name' as opposed to creating a vision and running
> with it as he did in the first making of the movie.

Greedo sounds like a make-or-break situation. The fact that people actually care about this is shows that Lucas had to make this a change.

Lucas intended to show Han actually being threatened by Greedo. Lucas probably thought that this would be obvious by the fact that Greedo had his gun drawn and was making threatening statements. In Lucas's mind, this was self-defense, although Han's cavalier attitude towards the killing ("Sorry 'bout the mess") still fit into his pragmatic, mercenary attitude (both you and Leia seem to like a scoundrel).

However, many people took this scene to mean that Han offed a guy who wasn't an imminent threat to him. Those people probably liked the idea, and thus they think that Lucas somehow changed Han's character by clarifying the scene.

Lucas realized that this was clearly ambiguous to the audience. Sometimes you want ambiguity: Why did Obi Wan allow himself to be struck down? What did Shmi really mean when she said Anakin had no father? Why did Darth Vader stop Boba Fett from shooting Chewie? Why were the Ewoks so fucking ANNOYING?? ...ahem. Anyway ...

In this case, Lucas did not want this ambiguity. He did not want people to think that Han was a murderer. So Lucas made a change to remove the ambiguity.

The fact that so many people think that Lucas changed Han's character proves that Lucas had to make the change because people did not understand what was going on.

Fine, if you now hate the movie and Lucas and the world because Lucas never intended Han to be a sociopath, that's fine. There are plenty of copies of Starship Troopers for you to purchase and enjoy.

> you don't know WHAT point he's trying to get across

Lucas hasn't made any fundamental changes to his movies. Better special effects, better music, some character clarification all go towards making his movies today what he wanted them to be back then. In fact, with Episodes I-III (presumably), he's actually clarified his message for his movies -- i.e. you can't be a serial killer and then convert on your deathbed. He says fundamentally good people can make horrible decisions, but eventually make a choice to be good again.

But maybe his real message is, "Chill, pal. It's just a movie."

Re:Special Editions vs. regular

[sphealey]

However, many people took this scene to mean that Han offed a guy who wasn't an imminent threat to him. Those people probably liked the idea, and thus they think that Lucas somehow changed Han's character by clarifying the scene.

Lucas realized that this was clearly ambiguous to the audience. Sometimes you want ambiguity: Why did Obi Wan allow himself to be struck down? What did Shmi really mean when she said Anakin had no father? Why did Darth Vader stop Boba Fett from shooting Chewie? Why were the Ewoks so fucking ANNOYING?? ...ahem. Anyway ...

In this case, Lucas did not want this ambiguity. He did not want people to think that Han was a murderer. So Lucas made a change to remove the ambiguity.

Sigh. Except that changing Hans' character to remove the ambiguity also removes the relief and excitment when Han and Chewbacca return at the last minute to cover Luke's back in the run on the Death Star. Even though the audience should have been able to foresee that coming over 20,000 years of human dramatic art, I still remember the roar of excitment and approval when I saw it the first time.

Now? Han is an unambigious good guy. Big whip.

sPh

Re:Special Editions vs. regular

[Viking Coder]

So, the phrase "the customer is always right" has no meaning?

And on the open source project, that's when projects fork. When the creator and the users disagree so much.

It's like the DRM being added to Windows. In the mind of Bill Gates, it's fixing a flaw in Windows. To you, me, and the other guy (some AC, probably), that really cuts back on the legitimate uses of Windows. But since there's no real alternative (for most of us), we'll all just use it and complain.

There's no alternative. I can't buy a DVD of the originals. Lucas' claim that it would "cost millions" is nuts. First, because he couldn't have produced the special editions, without cleaning up the originals first. Second, because he knows that he would more than earn back any investment.

He's being a selfish child. It'd be like if Monet went back and painted a cow taking a giant turd on every one of his masterpieces, and then lectured us about how this was his vision all along.

No. The originals were one piece of art, and you can argue that the special editions are a different piece of art. The fact that he won't sell the old ones on DVD merely goes to show that he doesn't care what other people think - which, admitedly, is his right. That doesn't make it suck any less.

Any privately owned company can decide to stop selling their product at any point, no matter how much harm is caused. Think about it, if Microsoft were private, they could literally just stop selling Windows tomorrow, and there would be nothing we could do to stop them.

Now, sure, Star Wars isn't a OS that millions of people depend on, but I would just like to highlight the importance of things losing their copyright in a timely manner. =)

Re:Special Editions vs. regular

[dasmegabyte]

I think the problem is striking a compromise between what you, the artist, wants, and what the fans want. If you can't deal with that compromise, you're gonna have to deal with a loss: either of your integrity, or of the fan's respect and trust.

Lucas keeps claiming that he's making the movie he wanted to make originally. What he's actually doing is erasing the work of the other artists who worked on Star Wars (the directors, editors, cinematographers and effects technicians) in order to make it more his. And the result is something fans don't like. Furthermore, as the copyright holder on the material, he's electing not to allow the old version to be reproduced. This is why we're upset...not because he's doing something artistic that we don't like (he maintained our respect after Howard the Friggin' Duck), but because he's doing so at the expense of the continued viability of a medium we remember. You cannot buy a legal, modern edition of the original trilogy anymore. And that's artistic genocide.

To SW fans, from Lucas.

[Kenja]

"F-ck you all, I never wanted to make star wars in the first place. The special additions are as close as I can now get to what I realy wanted. I wont release the originals because the millions of fans that want to buy them wouldn't (or so the force tells me). Just buy my crap and shut the hell up."

While the above is paraphrased, its more or less whats in the interview.

Re:To SW fans, from Lucas.

[deathcloset]

there is no formula for success, but there is one for failure: try to please everyone.

Re:To SW fans, from Lucas.

[darien]

I wont release the originals because the millions of fans that want to buy them wouldn't (or so the force tells me).

That's not what he says at all. He says he won't release the originals because "I'm not going to spend the ... money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it."

I have to say, "half a completed film" is a rather misleading way of describing Star Wars - the film was perfectly complete as it stood, and the later additions are mostly pretty brief and insignificant. But still, he's not saying people wouldn't buy the original versions - he's saying almost the opposite. He won't release them because people would buy them in preference to his preferred versions.

Re:To SW fans, from Lucas.

[Trigun]

To me it looks like George isn't trying to please everyone, he is merely pleasuring himself. Repeatedly and furiously

The fact that the original Star Wars fans feel fucked is inconsequential.

Re:Mirrors modern society?

[Monsieur Canard]

No no.

It mirrors modern society in that if there's a way to milk a cash cow, someone will be standing there with a bucket.

Talking about others' take on the SW universe

[Tebriel]

Some of it "might be good" George?

Some of it is DAMN good and much better than anything you'd ever come up with. Come on, George, give credit to people who've already taken your universe and made it better.

Re:Talking about others' take on the SW universe

[irhtfp]

Yes, I agree. Much better. The Zahn books in particular are quite good IMO. Maybe Lucas ought to turn over the franchise to him and let him make some feature films. (Yes, I know, icicles on Beelzebub's nose and all that.)

Screw the final three episodes that Lucas imagined. Let a new writer (an actual sci-fi writer) give us some offshoot films. It's a huge universe. It's a cool universe.

There's a million stories in the naked streets of Coruscant...

Response

[Anonymous Coward]

My response to Lucas is a quote from the Foreward of "Brave New World", by Aldous Huxley, in regard to "changing things" after the fact.

Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.

Art also has its morality, and many of the rules of this morality are the same as, or at least analogous to, the rules of ordinary ethics. Remorse, for example, is as undesirable in relation to our bad art as it is in relation to our bad behavior. The badness should be hunted out, acknowledged and, if possible, avoided in the future. To pore over the literary shortcomings of twenty years ago, to attempt to patch a faulty work into the perfection it missed at its first execution, to spend one's middle age in trying to mend the artistic sins committed and bequeathed by that different person who was oneself in youth-all this is surely vain and futile. And that is why this new Brave New World is the same as the old one. Its defects as a work of art are considerable; but in order to correct them I should have to rewrite the book-and in the process of rewriting, as an older, other person, I should probably get rid not only of some of the faults of the story, but also of such merits as it originally possessed. And so, resisting the temptation to wallow in artistic remorse, I prefer to leave both well and ill alone and to think about something else.

Leave it alone, Lucas.

Re:Response

[Paolomania]

I absolutely agree. "Star Wars" was not a success because people liked Lucas, Lucas was a success because people liked "Star Wars". Audiences responded to the actual movie that was released, not to the ideas that George had in his head. Assuming that audiences liking a movie is the ultimate measure of how good a movie is, who is George to say that his new version is "better" than the one that people actually loved. All he is doing is asserting that "better" means that HE thinks its better - which IMO is a bit self-centered and not at all a good measure to go by.

IMO this is also where the Wachowski Bros. went wrong: they assumed that it was the creative vision behind their movie that people loved, and not the movie itself. So by that assumption, producing two movies that adhere to their creative whims will result in movies that people love - which is evidently false.

An artist's work is never done?

[kmb]

I don't recall any stories about Picasso sneaking into museums with a paintbrush to touch up his old work....

Re:An artist's work is never done?

[mblase]

I don't recall any stories about Picasso sneaking into museums with a paintbrush to touch up his old work....

No, but I do recall an article recently about how Edvard Munch's The Scream actually exists as six or eight different, broadly identical paintings, all of which are by his hand. Or how George Seurat made changes to Sunday on the Island of La Grand Jatte, most noticably adding the pointillist frame around the canvas, long after he'd completed the actual work. Or how Renaissance painters routinely created multiple copies of their works on demand, and they were often created by students of the original artist's studio but signed by the artist himself.

The statement "An artist's work is never done" is even more true in the world of painting than in most other media, historically speaking.

Oh boy, here it comes...

[DroopyStonx]

Tons of complaints about "Lucas needs a new Yacht" and "he's gonna fuck up/he has fucked up Star Wars"... ...only to have them immediately turn around and buy the damn product.

What a clueless assclown

[stratjakt]

AP: Why did you change your mind and decide to put the original three movies out on DVD now?

Lucas: Just because the market has shifted so dramatically. A lot of people are getting very worried about piracy. That has really eaten dramatically into the sales. It really just came down to, there may not be a market when I wanted to bring it out, which was like, three years from now. So rather than just sit by and watch the whole thing fall apart, better to bring it out early and get it over with.

No, George, there may very well not be a market for this in three years. And not because of piracy. Because Star Wars is dead. 20 years ago I was into Star Wars as a kid, I bought the toys and had light saber duels in the playground with the other kids.

20 years later, and my kids really don't give a shit about Star Wars. This time around, you lost their interest to such notable franchises as "Spy Kids".

I'm not kidding. I tried to take my boy to Star Wars when it was re-released in theatres. He was bored, and couldn't sit through it's dated effects and cheesy dialog. I know Jar-Jar was supposed to suck the little kids into the Star Wars world, but he didn't. My kids thought him as annoying as I did.

There will be no market for Star Wars in 3 years, simply because it's uncompelling poorly written and over-marketted crap.

Much like Star Wars, it's original hardcore fanbase is growing up and dying off. The new stuff is not attracting new fans.

There's no market for a sequel to Citizen Kane either.

But of course, this idiot is inable to comprehend the writing on the wall, and follows the industry standard of blaming it all on piracy.

Make a good movie, and I'll pay to watch it.

Re:What a clueless assclown

[sgant]

I agree, I have an 11 year old and he isn't interested in Star Wars at all. Know what he likes (over and over and over and over)...the Pixar movies and Shrek. Oh, and Harry Potter too. Throw in some Simpsons and Futurama and Spongebob and he's as sound as a pound.

But Star Wars? He's like "Meh..."

Lucas sucks.

[valkraider]

What an asshole. He basically said: "I know all the hard working and loyal fans want the originals but they can all go suck themselves off because I own the crap and I am god. But it's all OK because they'll bend over and take it anyway."

And the worst part is that, based on the way he opened the interview, if we all decide to *not* buy this crap, they will blame the poor sales on PIRACY - not the fact that he is making a high priced product that people don't REALLY want (again).

Re:Lucas sucks.

[Steamhead]

> they will blame the poor sales on PIRACY

Well I did download the original laser disk rips, so they are right, not releasing the original forced me to download the original!

Enjoy:
http://catsdorule.torpedobird.com/download/

Re:ironic hilarity

[MrBlackBand]

I wonder if the people who say one thing and do another ... realize they are doing it or if they truly think they are special and doing the right thing.

Remember, unlike in the movies no one ever thinks that they are evil. Everyone (Caesar, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Pinochet, etc.) thinks that they are doing the right thing and anyone who opposes them is evil. Not that I think George Lucas is evil, of course.

No, there is another...

[jaredbpd]

I want this prediction put down for future reference. This attitude we see Lucas taking here, this "it's my work and the fans can go pound sand and watch my sucky rediting and uninspired dialog"... We've been treated to a prequel of what Kevin Smith in 20 years. Hell, he's well on his way already.
---

Re:In fairness ....

[wattersa]

Good points-- my biggest problem with the special editions was the new effects being unnecessary or integrating poorly with the originals. The Jabba the Hutt in the first special edition was really poorly done, he looked all blurry and was a different shade of color than the Jedi Jabba the Hutt. I admit that the sand pit in Jedi did look way too much like a really nasty vagina until Lucas put in the appendage with the beak, so that's fixed.

Here's a clue to Lucas, from a non-SW fan...

[Denyer]

The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it. ... I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore

...fans of film in general don't care if the footage is refurbished. They just want a copy of the film as it was initially released in a format resistant to physical degradation.

Re:Extra-Special Director's Cut III

[Reziac]

A little OT, but Troy surprised the hell out of me by being a very good movie that focuses on the personal interactions that caused the events depicted. And its CGI (despite taking a correctly back seat to the very well-managed plot and character development) is probably the most seamless I've seen to date. If you take it as historical fantasy, and don't expect a literal retelling of The Iliad, you'll like it. If you want The Iliad pristine and correct, read Homer. :)

That said, I want the original Star Wars back, the first release from 1977 without any mucking with the plotline, the visuals, or the soundtrack (which was pretty well fucked up by the re-release in 1978 -- if you didn't see it 1977, you've never heard the original soundtrack). I'm not interested in CGI "updates". I don't care if there's a tennis shoe and a potato floating in deep space. I'm not shocked that one of the Good Guys[tm] shoots first. But I *don't* want the flow of the movie interrupted by George's notions of how to "perfect" it.

Bah, sometimes people get things right the first time and just don't realise it. As Orson Scott Card said (and proceeds to violate regularly himself), the most important part of writing is knowing when to STOP.

Re:Extra-Special Director's Cut III

[valkraider]

It is always nice when people criticize movies they have not even seen. Kind of like people commenting on articles they have not even read.

Does he know what he is doing to Star Wars?

[jakel2k]

I honestly wonder if George really has any idea what he is doing to Star Wars. Everyone in there position should at very least read reviews from their fans. Is he really stuck in his own little world that all the changes and additions like Jar Jar are good things?

This is a bad time for Sci-Fi lovers.

• The Fall of the Matrix - (IMHO I didn't think the set was all that bad. But most people are very disappointed with Reloaded and Revolutions.)
• Star Trek Withers - Enterprise is dying a slow and painful death. I agree in Lavar Burton's suggestion and let Star Trek sit for a few years to allow a thrist for Star Trek re kindle, There was a /. post a few days ago on this.
• Star Wars Total Power Currupts Totally - George has lost, (distorted,) his vision on how the Star Wars world was great. I fear he might regrete his actions a few years down the road and apply similar drastick changes to episodes 1, 2, & 3.

I guess there is always Transformers of my childhood.... oh wait.... what is this Beast Wars, Armmoda and Energon Transofrmers about?

Arg.... where the hell is my Cherry Flavored Suicide Pill?

Lucas is no genius!

[gosand]

It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it.

So basically what he says is, he got lucky with Star Wars. Because what he wanted to make was garbage. Look at the prequels - he had much more control over these, and comparatively they sucked. They are tripe on their own, without using the original three as a crutch.

So the movies that people loved, and built his "empire" (so to speak) were not his true vision. We have seen his vision, and it isn't that great. So I think it is time to stop giving Lucas any credit for the first three movies. He doesn't want it, and he apparently doesn't deserve it. Actually, the more control he had, the worse the movies got. It was kind of obvious to me that he had more control with ROTJ, because of the Ewoks and some of the direction the story took. I am almost looking forward to EPIII - not to see it, but just to see how bad it is.

Re:Lucas is no genius!

[gosand]

While I do agree that, in the original trilogy, things were better when he had less control (Empire Strikes Back namely), he still had lots of control on the first one.

But that is my point. He had control on the first one, and it was a huge hit - one of the top movies ever - but it wasn't the movie he wanted to make. He is saying that it was only about 30% of his vision. From what I have seen, I am glad we only got 30%, because I don't think that additional 70% would have been good. The more of his vision we get, the worse it gets.

Why I've come to hate star wars

[Tyndmyr]

"AP: Do you pay much attention to fan reactions to your choices?

Lucas: Not really. The movies are what the movies are. ... The thing about science-fiction fans and "Star Wars" fans is they're very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box, but they all have very strong ideas about what should happen, and they think it should be their way. Which is fine, except I'm making the movies, so I should have it my way. "

The arrogance is apparent all throught the interview...I'm not surprised fans everywhere hate him. A question for all the fans out there. What do you think would have happened to episode 1, 2, had they been the first, if ep 4-6 had never happened? I think we all realize they would have been utter failures as movies. What changed?

"And I'll do it in that mode from the 1930s Saturday matinee serials, using kind of 1930s and '40s sensibilities, and I'll base it on sort of mythological motifs and icons. I'll just put it together in a modern form, and I'll have fun."

This is whats been lost... Mythological motifs? 30s and 40s feel? Tell me where that was in the new films, if you can. The grand tale of adventure is somehow lost in the inane squeals of Jar-jar and the rampant abuse of CGI. I'm sure I'll be burned at the stake for this, but Im getting sick of star wars.

Re:You know what?

[emtboy9]

I am probably as big or bigger a fan of Star Wars than most people, but come on now... Internal struggles of the main characters? Which version of the original trilogy did you watch? Lets not mince words, for those were definitly NOT the paragon of oscar winning performance. Perhaps the effects, which were simply amazing for late 70s on a shoe-string budget, but the acting was and is lackluster.

But thats not the point of it all... If you want character development, read the books. If you want to simply be entertained, stop whining, and get in line like the rest of us to get a box set on Tuesday morning.

It really amazes me that so many people claim ownership to someone elses work. This is and was His deal. George Lucas created it, made it, brought it to life. We are and were just along for the ride. Passengers on the train, if you will. You can always get on or off the train, but only the Engineer gets to drive, and none of us are the Engineer.

George Lucas has always considered Star Wars a work of art, and at that, one that he was never satisified with. Even in 77 when ANH was first released, he was dissatisfied with the way it turned out (even though it was a hit at the box office). So it is not like this was anything new, it just took 15-20 years to get the technology for him to rework the films to the way that he originally wanted to see it...

but then again, that and all other pertinant facts are usually very conveniently ignored when the question of Greedo and/or Han shooting first comes up...

Everyone needs to pipe down...

[Zaranne]

They're his movies, he can do with them what he wants to.

If Picasso decided he didn't like the finished product of one of his paintings, he can take the thing, paint over it, and hang it back up. It's his choice.

I have never understood the "purist" standpoint that everyone else has, when everyone else didn't start this thing in the first place. Granted, it would be nice to have the original VHS movies available on DVD, but hell, even those aren't the original THEATRICAL releases.

Anyone who thinks Lucas sucks, needs to go get a life. Start complaining about how JK Rowling messes up Harry in her next book. Sheesh...

Re:Juicy and stupid quote

[gamble]

Don't be silly, there are plenty of famous artists who are unhappy with pieces and continue to work them over until they are happy with them. Picasso did this plenty of times, reformatting a piece painting over large sections with new work. In general, this is something that critic/historians get very excited about. It's a chance to see the artist's mind at work -- to see the thought process. Musicians do this all the time as well, most music fans would say "If it sounds the same live, then the band lacks musicianship."

Alright, that said, movies are an artform where the artist cannot afford to sit on the project until it's finished. It would certainly seem odd if Michalangelo decided recently to amend David, saying "I never liked this hair. It's got an odd wave to it from this one particular angle."

Anyway, I don't want Lucas directly compared to Michalangelo, it just seems unfair to blanketly define artist integrity and artist idiological desire as such.

Episodes 7-9

[TiggertheMad]

First off, my feeling is that there shouldn't be any episodes 7-9, simply because the story is told and finished at the end of the furry midget fest, er RTOJ. However there has been a lot of buzz about the possibility of more SW films.

From the interview:
Lucas: Ultimately, I'm going to probably move it into television and let other people take it. I'm sort of preserving the feature film part for what has happened and never go there again, but I can go off into various offshoots and things. You know, I've got offshoot novels, I've got offshoot comics. So it's very easy to say, "Well, OK, that's that genre, and I'll find a really talented person to take it and create it." Just like the comic books and the novels are somebody else's way of doing it. I don't mind that. Some of it might turn out to be pretty good. If I get the right people involved, it could be interesting.

Translation: I want to be the only one who gets to make cannon (movies), but I might let others spin off side stuff. I don't think this is a bad thing, as it might delay SW becomming the steaming pile of poop that Star Trek has become.

Here's my prediction: GL dies in another 10-20 years of a heart attack or something. GL's daughter wastes all the republic credits on fast cars and blow, and then in a effort to scrape up some more money, sells off the rights to a studio to make more films, merchandise, etc. One way or another, more SW WILL be made. It's just a question of when and by who.

Re:Revisionist BS artist

[jcenters]

Yeah, and if you read the original drafts for "The Star Wars," you'll realize that without a ton of revision and doctoring, it would have probably been one of the worst films ever, right up there with "Manos: The Hand of Fate."

Typical line from the early drafts: "LUKE STARKILLER slashes through the IMPERIAL BAD-GUY with his LAZER-SWORD. IMPERIAL BAD-GUY SCREAMS TO A VIOLENT DEATH."

Well, you get the idea. But if you do read them, you'll discover why the prequels are so awful. This is George Lucas's true talent right here folks, and after seeing it, you understand why he doesn't do anything else these days.

On a side note, Lucas can cram all that CGI right up his ass. A lot of the best special effects in the original trilogy were the simplest. Remember how everyone was wowed by Vader's force-telekinesis at the end of Empire? Yeah, a couple of guys throwing boxes at Mark Hamill, but cool on screen nonetheless.

I think a lot of filmmakers are forgetting one of the principles of SFX: If the audience notices them, then they've failed to do their job. For instance, in the original Star Wars SE, it's pretty obvious that Jabba the Hutt is a poorly rendered CGI blob. I notice this right off the bat, and it destroys the illusion. On the other hand, if I watch RotJ, released in the dark ages of the 1980s, Jabba's merely a "primitive" puppet, but damnit he seems real.

Lucas originally created a universe that all of felt we could visit, if we had a light-speed ship and maybe a time machine. The prequels feel more like an example of why LSD and children's breakfast cereal don't mix.

Re:Lucas puts them on DVD early because of...PIRAC

[stratjakt]

THX1138 is being re-made/re-released right now. Sith is just around the corner. Star Wars Battlegrounds and KOTOR2 and a whole slew of video games are hitting the market.

The level of George Lucas hype is as high right now as it will ever be. In 3 years, Star Wars will be completely forgotten.

That's why they're being released now.

This guy blames everything on piracy. Last interview I read with him, he ranted about how Episode II didn't do as well as he hoped in the theatres, and of course - he blamed piracy, and threatened to completely scrap Episode III because "piracy" would just ruin it too.

I mean, it couldn't possibly have anything to do with the movie sucking so bad that I can't even recall the plot with any clarity.

All I remember is they turned Boba Fett from a really cool, cold calculating faceless bounty hunter, into a Spanish kid with a grudge against the Jedi. "My name is Inigo Montoy^H^H^H^Boba Fett! You keel my fathor! Prepare to die!" OK, I read somewhere that the actor was maori. Either way, he's just a stereotyped hot-blooded latin now.

Should have left Boba alone. I could stomach everything else he did. I could deal with Jar Jar and the pod races. Greedo can shoot first all he wants. He could pencil in little furry boners on all the Ewoks, that's just fine.

But he ruined Boba Fett. Unforgivable!

The funny thing is, I can't recall seeing Ep II on any bittorrent sites or the other usual channels. It wasn't even good enough to be pirated far and wide.

I see more episodes of Will and Grace for download on sites like suprnova than I do Star Wars stuff... That should speak volumes.

Sorry George. You turned off most of the old fans, and failed to attact any newer younger ones to replace them.

Re:but what happens when Han wlaks over jabbas tai

[HTH NE1]

in the orig han walked around a CGI jabba but if taking to be real it would seem han is walking straight THROUGH jabba the huts tail!

What are you talking about? Did they even have CGI in 1977? It was all models and latex and puppets!

The scene wasn't even in the original version, and Jabba was portrayed as a human. No tail at all, and left on the cutting room floor.

You're remembering TV specials about the restoration of Star Wars and the creation of the CGI Jabba and mistakenly ascribing it to the original version.

This is one of the problems with these revised versions: people don't remember the original accurately anymore. Enough repetition of "Han shoots first!" and people forget that originally only Han shot!

Re:You know what?

[Greyfox]

True they weren't Oscar winning performances, but he's making them worse. I'm not claiming ownership of his works and I'm off that train. Something strange I've noticed is that people often seem surprised when I tell them I'm not interested in the latest Star Wars movie. As if not seeing them simply wasn't an option.

The issue of Greedo firing first is always brought up because it's just so unbelieveable and so radically changes Han's character that it really stands out as a symbol of Lucas's arrogance and willingness to radically change something that the older fans remember as "history." And I was still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt despite him cramming that down our throats, but after TPM I just gave up on the series. I just wish I had stopped after "Return of the Jedi."

Re:Too much whining

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are that desparate for DVD, find the best available source (laserdisc, old print) and pay for the transfer yourself. Why does he have to subsidize the transfer for you?

See, this is why we should go back to the original 14-year copyright terms. At this point, these should be our movies, and we should be able to buy the DVDs without subsidy by Lucas, and also without hunting down scarce, expensive laserdiscs.

Re:Quoth George:

[Trurl's Machine]

One scene that comes to mind is where Obi Wan goes to visit an old friend who runs a diner that looks waaay too much like a typical American roadside diner.

Well, Mos Eisley canteen also looks a bit like a bikers bar somewhere along Route-66 (in the glorious days of yore). Lucas never really tried to escape from the American pop-cultural icons. Luke Skywalker's frustration on his uncle's farm reflects George's frustration in his youth in Modesto, when he was dreaming of going to study in Los Angeles, but his dad wouldn't accept that. The pod racers from "Phantom Menace" are not really far from hot-rods that Modesto youngsters were building in their garages. The Palpatines' path to power reflects that of Richard Nixon (notice: I don't judge Nixon now, just think how a young bearded liberal California filmmaker percepted Tricky Dick in early 1970's). So - yes, the galaxy Far Far Away is actually America. Hell, they even talk English! :-)

they stopped being his movies...

[rbird76]

...when he released them.

When you make a movie, you make it not only for yourself but for the people who will want to see them. People go to movies to enjoy themselves, and to take home a part of the world that the people who made it bequeathed to them. Star Wars did that and was wildly successful; many, many people have internalized the world of Star Wars, built on to it, and fitted themselves into it. That's why, even twenty years later, the movies are still popular and still worth talking about.

By changing the movies, Lucas is appropriating not only his work but that of the people who have watched and internalized his world. If you want a movie which is alterable to your changing desires, don't release it. Once it's released, the movie is no longer yours exclusively - not quite the people's who made it, not quite the people who watched and enjoyed it.

Complaints about people's complaints on the alterations is like the complaints of stars about their fame. Some of fame's consequences are ridiculous, but they knew that when they set out to get there. Lucas set out to make a popular movie - and popular movies become as much the public's as the people who made them. If he wanted a private vision, then he should have left it there. I am glad that he didn't, but I am not suprised at the backlash - when you play with people's cherished memories, you are going to make life hard for a lot of people.

Respect Lucaus for doing his own thing.

[helfon1]

I give Lucas credit for doing his own thing. Don't think any of this Lucas bashing is new he took heat for Jedi and the ewoks being too cute(think jar jar esque with less media hate).

Look at his early scripts, Luke Starkiller? What George Lucas has always written has been cheesy in the way of
"And I'll do it in that mode from the 1930s Saturday matinee serials, using kind of 1930s and '40s sensibilities, and I'll base it on sort of mythological motifs and icons"

He's been saying that as long as I've been paying attention. I think it's a safe bet that he wanted to make the first movies even cheesier except for studio executives forcing him to bring it back to the mainstream. He was young and had to do what the studio told him, not having the clout or finances to do otherwise.

I think he is re-releasing THX-1138 in part to say "The shit I did before star wars was freaking wacky and the fact that you happened to like the original trilogy was luck"

He is producing art and just because it's not the hollywood standard sun glasses cool doesn't mean it's any less as a work. These are his ideas and I respect him for not caving to popular opinion and doing it how he wants. All that being said I think Han shoots first ;)

Re:The real horror of this is...

[Gulik]

I have to wonder: Will my kids be able to see the real version of the films, or are they going to be stuck with these inferior versions?

That's one of the larger complaints I have about the refurbished Star Wars movies: in some sense, they're historical documents. They were revolutionary when they came out, and spawned a whole new direction in what a science fiction movie could look like.

I of course have my own stylistic objections to Han not shooting first, and I might even be willing to float an argument that Lucas, by receiving a copyright on the movies, has likewise agreed to allow it to pass into the public domain some day (some day long after I'm dead by the look of things, but that's a whole 'nuther argument), and he shouldn't be doing his level best to make sure that the original movies are not available to anyone ever. But further, how about historians in the future? Film and art students? Anthropologists from the year 2525? Isn't it kind of sad that they'll never be able to see the actual film that caused a revolution in filmmaking?

Re:Lucas Timeline

[inkswamp]

Return of the Jedi: How many millions did we make on action figures? Maybe we should toss some more stuff in there for the kids. Why did I ever look up to that Solo character? [...] Maybe add some Ewoks.

Christ, the cynicism from you "Star Wars fans" is just overwhelming sometimes. If I got anything out of my enjoyment of the Star Wars films, it was that being cynical doesn't get you anywhere.

Lucas explained the Ewoks and it had nothing to do with marketing to children. He stated around the time of Jedi's release that in the back story, there is a segment where Wookies outsmart the early imperial forces on their home planet and he had this great vision of them carrying out low-tech but clever attacks against these high-tech mechanized threats from the newly-forming Empire. He didn't think he'd ever get a chance to film that and thought Jedi's Endor scenes would be a good chance to introduce some characters and situations where that could happen. He wanted them to be Wookie-like so his solution was to shrink the Wookies and turn them into another race: the Ewoks.

As it turns out, we're likely going to get to see his Wookie battle against the Empire in the next film. Of course, people like you will find every reason in the world to claim that it sucks and you'll rush home to throw on something by the Cure so you can nurse your injured childhood. The rest of us whose sphincter muscles still function normally will have a blast, enjoying it the same way we enjoyed the originals, warts and all.

Re:The real horror of this is...

[jedidiah]

Star Wars was a significant cultural phenomenon. It was also a significant turning point in the history of motion pictures. For those reasons alone, the ORIGINAL needs to be preserved for future academic study. Nevermind anything else.

Culture provides the context of history.

Four words.

[Speare]

Four words: Laser Disc Definitive Collection.

Re:Too much whining

[sootman]

Good idea. That's why I took my LD player and pre-SE copy of the trilogy, hooked it up to an analog-to-firewire converter, imported it with iMovie, dropped the iMovie files into FinalCut Pro, exported as MPEG2, and made DVDs with DVD Studip Pro.

But you're missing the point. "Why does he have to subsidize the transfer for you?" Answer: HE DOESN'T. He would make a BLOODY FUCKING HUGE PROFIT if he would release the originals.

90% of the people I know--geeks and nongeeks, fanboys and non-fanboys, would *rather* have the ORIGINALS. Period. The fanboys, well, we know why we want the originals. Everyone else, even if they don't know the finer points of han-shoots-first, just WANT the originals, for reasons they can't quite put their fingers on. Some thing the additions look tacky and added-on, other just, for some reason, like the IDEA that these are ORIGINAL. For the same reason some people would rather have a painting than a litho, or a *real* antique and not a repro.

Think of it this way: there are X people who will buy Star Wars no matter what. But there are Y people that will NOT buy it because it's not the original. I suppose there are a few (we'll call them Z) who really *like* the new editions and *wouldn't* buy the originals. Do you really think that Z is greater than Y? Lucas *spent* all this money on TWO (!!!) rounds of retreads just to PISS OFF (and lose sales from) group Y.

And remember these things: 1) the originals are ALREADY THERE. He can transfer them and clean them up a bit, THAT'S IT. He;s actually investing *more* money to change them! 2) DVD technology allows you to 'branch' as much as desired. Even Spielberg lets you see guns or walkie-talkies in ET. And no sense mentioning--3) he could release TWO WHOLE DVDs, one with the original version, and one with the new version. And there is a small group of collectors (um, group Q) that will buy both. Hell, my friend did--he has the trilogy TWICE on laserdisc--the pre-SE *and* the special editions.

Lucas is acting like a spoiled child, that if you aren't going to play with his toys HIS WAY, you aren't goin to play with them at all. Really, it comes down to this: it would cost practically nothing to release the originals. He would make a buttload of money by doing so. Why isn't he?

Re:Mirrors modern society?

[NymblZ]

The best part is when they asked "Do you ever listen to your fans' opinions about this?" And he says "No."
It's a pity that we feel this compulsion to shove money down Lucas's throat.

Well, that was a double-edged question, really.
Had he said yes, then he might be construed by some as a sellout with no real vision of his own, who packages his art for maximum market value.
His answer struck me as a little cocky too at first, but when he finished his answer I felt I could respect his perspective.
For example, how many decent bands mold themselves to what their fans want ?
Hey Aerosmith, play more songs in A# minor !"
The good ones follow their artistic instincts. Those who like it follow, those who don't, follow somebody else (or make their own).

Re:What Does "Han Shoots First" Mean?

[Wandering Wombat]

If you had RTFP, you'd know you missed the point.

He couldnt do what he wanted? How could he POSSIBLY not have the tools to add three seconds where Greedo gets a shot off, given what he had done for the rest of the movie?

Re:The Missing Question

[Graff]

I wrote for a paper once, my columns were regularly 'edited'* to fit the available page space. Read some the pedant should read some newspaper articles some time and wonder why certain things are repeated and restated in different words, the answer is because the writer has no idea what will eventually end up in print, after so many inches it's usually drivel.

A good newspaper journalist writes in an "inverted pyramid", the most important facts first and then the trivial details later on. The idea is that if an editor wants to trim the story he can just start trimming at the end of the story and then he doesn't have to pick through the article to essentially re-write it. The best article will answer all of the 5 most important questions (who, what, where, why, and how) in the first paragraph. An article that has an introductory sentence which doesn't get a start on the 5 questions is probably written by a non-professional journalist.

There are a lot of newspaper writers who obviously never took a journalism course and so they don't write in an "inverted pyramid", it's those writers who repeat and restate things because they have no clue what will get cut out. An editor going through their articles would simply have to cut the stuff that seems least important, at times just randomly cutting stuff because he's in a hurry and doesn't have the time to carefully re-do the article.

Re:Harrison's Opinion

[Thud457]

Yeah, I saw him speak at our college commencement. His comment was : "It's just a movie. Get a life!"

Re:Too much whining

[AeroIllini]

Actually, I heard that the original masters of Star Wars (circa 1977) were used up due to the unprecedented demand. So it would actually be a huge job to clean up a second or even third generation, overused copy to transferit to DVD.

Even if this were true (and the other two masters would be circa 1981 and 1984), it still would not be hard. Consider this: the SE editions are already cleaned up and digitized. The original footage from the scenes that have been changed must also be digitized, since they needed to integrate the new SFX into those scenes, and thus they are already cleaned up.

So George takes the scenes that were unchanged from the originals to the SE and throws them on a DVD, along with the remastered original footage that archived at ILM somewhere from when they added more CGI. Then he takes the THXified SE soundtrack, modifies it slightly to take out the new music, and viola! the originals are ready for transfer to DVD. The whole process might take ILM a week.

Recipe for Star Wars Box Set Brilliance:
- Take original and SE versions of Episodes IV, V and VI, and bake together on three discs (switchable through the menu).
- Fold in the prequel discs once Episode III: Revenge of the Bad Title is available on DVD and stir.
- Sprinkle 20 Clone Wars shorts on a disc.
- Add four or five discs of special features (to taste).
- Wrap each disc in a matching, sleekly designed plastic case.
- Pour entire mixture into an elegant wood box.
- Charge $200 for the whole set.

Colorization hypocrisy

[Anonymous Writer]

Ironically, it was people like George Lucas and Steven Speilberg who protested against the modification of existing classic movies when black and white movies were being colorized. In fact, they both testified before Congress against the practice of colorizatioin and other forms of alteration. I can vaguely recall that one of the arguments was that technology could reach a level in which people would do alterations like replace actor's faces with those of newer actors. Yet, they are the first to alter their own classics. Spielberg replaced guns with walkie-talkies in ET, and now Lucas is changing his movies as well. This is exactly the kind of alteration they testified against.

Hey, Look Everyone!

[Stickerboy]

It's a dead horse!

...let's beat it!

(/facetiousness)

Honestly, people, I know karma whoring is a virtual sport now, but if you don't have anything new or interesting to say that couldn't be cut and pasted from the LAST Star Wars /. commentary (or the last fifty, for that matter), then please, shut the barn door. The collective IQ is dropping.

For everyone else that's been reading this site for more than, oh, a week, every post that's simply rehashing (A) "Lucas is a money grubbing hack!", (B) "Lucas raped my childhood!" or even (C) "Lucas owns the movies, not you!" grates the nerves until I just want to proverbially shoot every last one of you, just to end your supposed misery.

No, making long-winded stream-of-consciousness variants of (A), (B), or (C) that you have to "Click to read the rest of the comment..." does not count as interesting or new.

No, using Boston Brahmin to expound and elaborate on (A), (B), or (C) does not count as being interesting or new.

And no, relating your latest pet analogy that you ripped off from a poster in another story to George Lucas and (A), (B), or (C) is not interesting or new, either.

(/soapbox)

Re:Liberals got to Lucas

[kalidasa]

I dunno. I don't remember any scenes of Chewbacca getting killed by a bunch of Jawas with a rocket propelled grenade launcher while helping Han search the deserts outside Mos Eiseley for Greedo's blaster.

No, seriously

[Chmcginn]

You've complaining about improper grammar when somebody is using Yoda-speak. I mean, come on...