Moi Dix Mois on 18/5/2006 at 01:58
Quote Posted by demagogue
On this note, its useful to know (so Lucas has said in interviews) that the rough inspiration for the story was a Japanese movie called The Fortress ...
The
Hidden Fortress. ;)
Also, if the film bombed, Lucas had originally planned to turn the novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye into a no-budget sequel. He certainly planned more than one movie from the start, but had various plans depending on the success of EpIV.
demagogue on 18/5/2006 at 02:27
Well, if we're going to be really literal about it, it's: 隠し砦の三悪人; Kakushi toride no san akunin; literally, The Three Villains of the Hidden Fortress :)
Fafhrd on 27/5/2006 at 02:00
It looks like if you've already got bootleg laserdisc rips of the OT, you may have a BETTER version than LucasFilm is releasing in September.(
http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6337246.html) Full Article Here. Sourced from the '93 LaserDiscs, 2.0 stereo, NON ANAMORPHIC WIDE SCREEN.
My bootlegs are Anamorphic widescreen. Lucas can't be arsed. Fuck him.
Mingan on 27/5/2006 at 03:30
Quote Posted by Fringe
In the novel Luke was Blue Five instead of Red Five what's up with that?
That has to do with the blue screen techniques. It's probably the same thing that happened to the A-wing : the middle red strip was originally blue, but it didn't show up against the blue screen, so they made it red. Or it's all a reference to that. Anyways...
/nerdism
Parker'sSire on 28/5/2006 at 15:22
Just got pissed and left this message at (
http://www.lucasfilm.com/press/contact/) Lucasfilm's publicity dept. Won't mean anything, but it made me feel better.
"Regarding the upcoming release of the original trilogy on DVD and its non-anamorphic LaserDisc transfer...
Understand something. No matter what Mr. Lucas feels about the original versions of the Star Wars films, he will be long remembered for those versions, NOT the new "enhanced" versions. Mr. Lucas and Lucasfilm's arrogance, hatred of the original filns, and lack of vision and insight into the significance of the films (in a non-legal sense, he stopped "owning" them after they were released) has done nothing but make a bunch of money and position Mr. Lucas in the Bill Gates-like uncoveted position of arrogant, untrusted, rich, limited, not-particularly-talented, movie maker who got lucky 30 years ago.
No one, (I repeat for annoying emphasis), no one really cares any longer to hear about Mr. Lucas' "vision" for the original films. It has proven to be solely ego based and neither creative nor enlightening.
(In contrast, Robert Wise's director's edition of Star Trek- The Motion Picture was a labor or professionalism, love, and displayed a filmmaker's connection to the audience, not his own ego. .. as well as made it a much better film)
And no one, (again), no one buys the excuses given for Lucasfilm's creatively criminal treatment of the original versions of the films, any more than they believe what most politicians tell them. You guys in publicity are surely aware of that much.
If, by chance, Mr. Lucas cares at all about his long term reputation, never mind the films themselves, then please relay this to the powers that be...
Untasteful as it might be, right now, people are not discussing that, when Mr. Lucas is gone, there'd be the loss of a creative visionary, but rather that they might finally get proper treatment of the original, historically significant versions of the trilogy and that they might see the final 3 unmade films in the series done "right".
"Buy more. Buy more and be happy" - THX-1138
I will not buy this until the original trilogy is treated with the respect it deserves."
there... that'll teach 'em. :rolleyes:
edit: Just read that Lucasfilm's "Radioland Murders" one of the more significant, important films to be released in the past 20 years :rolleyes: will be out on DVD in anamorphic widescreen... but not the original Star Wars.
Fafhrd on 28/5/2006 at 21:33
you can fully expecting the following form letter in response:
Quote Posted by LucasFilm Publicity Department
Lynne Hale (publicity@lucasfilm.com):
I wanted you to know how much we appreciate the passion and enthusiasm you have for Star Wars, and thank you for sharing your concerns about our upcoming DVD release.
The DVDs being released in September will contain two versions of Star Wars: Episodes IV, V and VI – the Special Editions (which represent George’s vision of the movies) and the first versions, which will be included as bonus material. We hoped that releasing those “original” movies on a bonus disc would be a way to have some additional fun with the debut of the movies as individual DVDs. We certainly did not want it to become a source of concern or frustration for any of our fans.
As you may know, an enormous amount of effort was put into digitally restoring the negatives for the Special Editions. In one scene alone, nearly 1 million pieces of dirt had to be removed, and the Special Editions were created through a frame-by-frame digital restoration. The negatives of the movies were permanently altered for the creation of the Special Editions, and existing prints of the first versions are in poor condition.
So many fans have requested the original movies, we wanted to find a way to bring them to you. But since these movies do not represent George's artistic vision, we could not put the extraordinary time and resources into this project as we did with the Special Editions. The 1993 Laserdisc masters represented the best source for providing the original versions as DVD bonus material. Although these are non-anamorphic versions, they do preserve the original widescreen composition of the movies.
We want you to be aware that we have no plans – now or in the future – to restore the earlier versions.
We hope you will understand our decision and, again, want to let you know how much we appreciate your interest and enthusiasm.
Sincerely,
Lynne Hale
[email]publicity@lucasfilm.com[/email]
summed up eloquently by a person on another board to
Quote Posted by person from another board
Dear Star Wars Fans,
Here's your bone. Don't complain to us just because it's a dirty thirteen-year-old one. Now fuck off.
Sincerely,
Lucasfilm
Parker'sSire on 28/5/2006 at 23:07
Thanks Fafhrd, that's pretty much what I expect...
...If any response at all.
It's really a shame... either way you look at it.
1) If the films can't be restored, then Lucas should be professionally and financially shot for allowing something far more important than his "vision" of the films to disappear in a way that films over twice as old have not disappeared-
It means that he not only trashed the experience of the original films, but actually, literally destroyed them to create the bastardized versions that satisfy his ego and bank accounts and nothing more.
2) If they're lying again, (as many experts seem to think that they are) then he should be shot for being such a prick.
It's interesting how someone blocked Lucas' "creative vision" when he had Han Solo shoot first in Star Wars. And how they prevented Lucas from using the young Anakin at the "ghost parade" at the end of Jedi. (Geeze, howcome he didn't maintain his "creatively visionistic" continuity and replace ObiWan with the younger version to match Anakin?) :rolleyes:
Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. There's no creative vision here. Never was. I'm starting to wonder if Lucas, when he made Star Wars, wasn't the luckiest son of a bitch to ever splice film in modern cinema.
And too bad he couldn't have had the talent to create something new instead of permanently marring what he already made.
DarthMRN on 29/5/2006 at 02:46
I must admit I don't give a rat's backside about these 'unaltered' versions or what they contain, but from what I understand, all that is changed is the cleaning of the recordings, thus enhancing picture quality. Why is this a bad thing? Does it matter if they're not dirty as long as none of the FX alterations and additional content is included? Did I miss something here?
Aja on 29/5/2006 at 04:25
They want the anamorphic versions.
Fafhrd on 29/5/2006 at 05:46
Quote Posted by DarthMRN
all that is changed is the cleaning of the recordings, thus enhancing picture quality
The point is that they didn't change SHIT. They're mastering the new DVDs off of the old 1993 LaserDiscs, and they're not bothering to further clean the image from there, or even make the minute amount of effort to make the movie into anamorphic widescreen, which, as I've mentioned before, many of the
fan made LaserDisc bootlegs HAVE. What this means is that people with fancy home theatre setups (like, say, RBJ), will have a film image with black bars on all sides of the screen, and people without will STILL have a lower resolution for the actual film.
Furthermore there is the INSANE level of hypocrisy on the part of one George Lucas, who is one of the most outspoken filmmakers on the subject of the importance of film preservation, when he says that: a. the original negatives were DESTROYED by the process that they used to create the Special Editions (in and of itself a fucking TRAVESTY), and b. that none of the existing theatrical film prints are of a quality that a decent master for the DVDs can be created (which is in fact, a bald faced LIE, he just doesn't want to spend any money on the restoration).
And even more than that, what in the original press release for these editions was being touted as
Quote Posted by Original LucasFilm Press Release
...the original theatrical edition of the film. That means you'll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.
has been downgraded to
Quote Posted by Revised LucasFilm Press Release
...bonus material, the theatrical edition of the film. That means you'll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.
(Hilariously, they didn't revise the announcement to reflect that, since they're mastering off the LDs, the title crawl for Star Wars will still say "Episode IV")
All of this adds up to being a very small bone with FUCK YOU written across it being tossed to the fans, and transparently another fucking money grab on the part of Lucas.
