I imagine if Lucas said "I want these out on HD DVD", Fox would do it. They probably don't have the home video license forever, and what's the use of giving Lucas a reason to take them to Paramount or Universal? (Also: Annoying a multi-billionaire who owns a huge share of the industry's top FX house and recording/mixing stage is probably also not a good idea)
Lucasfilm has the clout to dictate what formats these films will be released on no matter who is releasing them. They could tell fox to release on both formats and it would happen. Obviously they are dictating NO high def format at this point.
There was talk before the first prequels were released that Lucas might take them to another studio because the Fox contract was up. I don't know how seriously he considered that if at all.
He doesn't just own a part of ILM and Skywalker Sound, he owns them out right. They are not publicly traded companies.
I thought as much, but I didn't want to be called wrong if they had minority investors that I didn't know about. The point stands - there's no good that can come of getting on George Lucas's shit list.
This was to be exspected and I am not one bit suprised! I wonder how long Lucas will make everyone wait? Its not like Lucas is waiting to put out another 3 Star Wars films before he releases them in HD. Or is he waiting for Fox to start offering Dolby True HD? I am sure he will never offer Star Wars in DTS-HD Master Audio even though thats what Fox is supporting for the time being. You would think he would want to make as much money of HD as soon as possilbe. I guess sense Lucas has so much money the wishes of the fans mean very little to Lucas. I would not be suprised if summer of 09 rolls around and there is no sign of Star Wars in HD! :frowning:
Well all we need to do is firure out if Lucas is a MS supporter or a Sony supporter?
There is no doubt that when released the audio will be Dolby True HD and not LPCM or DTS-HD Master Audio.
I feel that Star Wars is one of the films that would help drive HD sales.
IMHO movies that would help drive sales of HD players: Star Wars Lord Of The Rings Pirates Of The Caribbean 5/22/07 Spiderman Harry Potter The Matrix 5/22/07
I wouldn't read too much into that. The question was probably asked if Star Wars would arrive on either HD format and it was answered in kind.
I don't think even Lucas could boss Fox into going format neutral. Unless he had distribution rights to 3 more Star Wars films to blackmail them with. For now, Fox has little to gain from him.
Fox only distibrutes the Star Wars movies. The movies and everything around them is owned 100% by Lucasarts. The reason that Lucas don't want to release Star Wars on HD right now is because the installbase for HD is too small, and he wants a more definite winner. And if Lucas were to release Star WArs on HD-DVD at this point or use TrueHD he could no matter what affiliation Fox has, and Fox would have released them
Actually I hope that is not the case and he is busy doing something else. Is Star Wars all Lucas has left in him? Is Lucas not capable of nothing else besides Star Wars? If Lucas can not expand beyond Star Wars then he is not the great director/story teller he has been made out to be. Granted I still love Star Wars and I grew up with it as a kid. But Lucas needs to do something different and he needs to let us eventually have Star Wars in HD.
I would love to see Star Wars released on Blu-ray using LPCM!
There will be no high def Star Wars optical media until the format war has ended, period. The numbers just won't be there for Lucas to justify a Star Wars release until well after that happens.
Lucas is a marketing genius!!! He knows to wait until the peak of the bubble before he releases his movies... He releases it now, and what.. 100,000 - 200,000 copies sold... He will wait 3-4 years until one format or the other has millions of potiential buyers...
I never thought he was that great of a director myself, but regardless - he's doing what he likes I guess. Personally, I can't imagine spending most of my life working on the same overall project. I mean it seems that Lucas eats, sleeps and breathes Star Wars in everything he does... I figured at some point he'd be sick of it.
1) Star Wars would drive sales more than any other release, save classic animated Disney films.
2) Ehhh, whatever I have no doubt it'll be years until we get these. They are on my list of wanted titles, but not near the top, so I have much bigger desires. He won't release them until one of the formats breaks out and the install base rises sharply.
Well these are the major projects that Lucasfilm is working on at the moment. I know Lucas himself is also working on some films that would be more experimental like the kinds of things he was doing in college. I don't know how wide a release something like that might get.
Yeah, I wouldn't read too much into the mention of HD DVD, either. If they had just said they had no plans to release it on Blu-Ray, there'd be all sorts of rampant speculation that he was considering taking it to HD DVD. So it's just easier to rule both out explicitly, even though logically one is probably ruled out from the get-go.