Slashdot Mirror
Star Wars: TPM NOT on DVD in 2000
FlyveHest writes "The rumour posted yesterday about Star Wars : The Phantom Menace being launched on DVD sometime early next year has been retracted by Newsaskew, the same people that posted the rumour the first time around. Someone obviously did a little too much Sherlock Holmes work, and drew some conclusions based on LucasFilm changing VHS distributors from a company that doesn't produce DVDs to one that does."
OK, this is getting ridiculous.
Aspects of the tragic human tendancy to continually return to an abusive mate are beginning to show up here--a (now retracted) headline story about how maybe, possibly, somehow George Lucas's Audience might actually be granted an ever-so-precious DVD home release of Star Wars, The Phantom Menace, within a year of the original theatrical debut(ooh!).
Oh! My word! He's so great! What a wonderful, selfless, giving man, always willing to take that extra step*BZZZZ* Youch! Damn Pizza Hut chick with a blaster...
C'mon, people. Being jerked around is being jerked around. Lucas is more of an audiophile than most of us combined--for crying out loud, THX. He knows who his fans are. He knows why he's able to fund the entire production of his movies(flicks?) based on the licensing of toy rights alone.
If any film studio was treating its customer base the way Lucas was, the Slashdot community would be up in arms. As is, we truly cannot comprehend how the film industry's ultimate indepedent, a shining symbol of individuality in a land of second guesses and conditional green lighting, could behave in ways more exactingly greedy than the biggest, most cynical corporate mogul could ever imagine. Consumers have purchased--often redundantly--millions of Episodes, Trilogies, and Special Editions, yet we're left in such baited breath that Slashdot posts two stories in three days about how "Oh, we might get DVD...oh wait, who knows if we'll ever get it. Oh fooey!"
Mr. Lucas, this is not the way you respect your customers. This is the way you alienate them. But that's fine, because you know what? This summer, I watched a movie that engaged me technically, that appealed to my philisophical intelligence, that asked questions that were left unanswered. At the end of the movie, not only did I remember each of the character's names but I cared about who they were and why they were. The effects blew me away, both in their originality and in their execution. And you know what the best part was?
No bullshit. No games. Just the top selling DVD thus far. The Matrix has all the magic that George Lucas once tried to honestly sell. Maybe he can do a turnaround--I've made mistakes in my life, publically admitting here the tragedy I see in the fall of Lucas may end up being one of them. Redemption's a good thing. But it's not the end of the world if he doesn't find it. While Lucas was out complaining about all the fans, the Wachowski brothers were hard at work updating www.whatisthematrix.com.
You want to know what the future of engaging your audience looks like? Ask the Wachowski Brothers. They understand.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
and I would have gotten away with it, too - if it hadn't been for you kids, and your dog...
oh wait... that's Scooby Doo... not Sherlock.
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
Screw Lucas. Go spend the money on 'Dune', or 'Apocalypse Now', ' Night Of The Living Dead' or even 'Roman Holiday'. They're all better films than PM. Why everyone is so worked up about a 'delayed' release date for The Phantom Menace is beyond me. Now, the delay on the Trilogy is inexcusable. They are truly masterpieces, and I am honored to own them on cap-disc.
.sig: Now legally binding!