George Lucas talks about Star Wars DVDs on Dark Horizons (1 Viewer)

[AdrianOC]

Well I have a big Star Wars box set with a pile of documentaries on it that I got a few years ago. The set had the 3 films in widescreen and over 5 hours of supplemental material.
I like it and its something I will never get rid of. Even it if is vhs! :frowning:
If anybody wants to see it and what documentaries are on the tapes then just go here :
http://homepages.iol.ie/~dathomir/starwarsbox.jpg

 

[Sam Davatchi]

and over 5 hours of supplemental material.

I own that set! Why 5 hours? Where is that 5 hours of supplemental material?

 

[AdrianOC]

If you look at the running times of the features and the total running time of the cassettes (from the picture) you get 257 minutes on the 3 films and the From Star Wars to Jedi tape is about 62.

That brings the total to just over 5 hours!

Star Wars :

Film running time : 116

Total Programme time : 202

=> surplus time : 86

Empire :

Film running time : 120

Total Programme time : 215

=> surplus time : 95

Jedi :

Film running time : 126

Total Programme time : 202

=> surplus time : 76

From Star Wars To Jedi

Film running time : 62

 

[Jerry Gracia]

I have the original un-altered TRILOGY on LaserDisc...the original Definitive Box Set.

That will hold me over.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Several things...
1) That PAL set looks incredible...lucky Europeans
2) The TPM set is great...I love it! Wasn't worth the wait. I didn't buy the tape (I did buy the JPN LD though...) either.
3) John W.: George can change his mind regarding the originals. I am certain many petitions will fly his way. He might not care, but then again...
4) I don't care what he says, most SW fans will watch them 4-6, then 1-3. That's the way they were conceived and introduced. He's even used buildup from the OT to pay off in the prequels (Obi meeting Anakin - featured in the TEASER for SW, Yoda working his skillz in AOTC, and the eventual Obi-Anakin showdown in EPIII). I know he wants overall continuity and for fans to watch them 1-6, but it'll only be that way for fans born after 2005. And let's face it...there is a heck of lot more of us than there will be of them. ESPECIALLY if he dorks the OT up much more.
5) He can change them all he wants. However, few doubt the power of the OT, and it's overall thematic superiority to the SE's. All his fans ask is for both. I respect George, but he's mucking with his legacy. In the end, he could be a punchline or a parable, folks. I hope not. He made SW. WE MADE SW A PHENOMENON.
Take care,
Chuck

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

Personally, I couldn't believe that they didn't bother to digitally erase the lightsaber shadows in the special editions. I mean, c'mon! If you're going to fix visual FX, why leave something like that out? Glowing things don't leave shadows themselves, they make other objects cast shadows!

 

[Richard Kim]

Sabres cast shadows?
As stated above, the lightsabre blade is NOT 'just' light or laser, it is probably an exotic high-energy plasmoid. The glow it emits is a side effect. It is often observed that this glow only carries a short distance, you cannot easily light a room with a lightsabre. It is also known that the sabre blade is opaque to other energies such as blaster bolts.
SO, you would EXPECT that a lightsabre blade would block ordinary visible light from passing through it, creating a shadow. IN FACT the TOTALLY canonical ANH-Novel describes the blade as 'opaque'. You would further expect that the glow of the lightsabre would eliminate this shadow, but only against CLOSE surfaces. If the lightsabre is held several metres away from a surface, such as the floor, and it is lit from a behind by a bright source, then you must EXPECT to see a shadow!
There are several overhead shots in RoTJ where it can be plainly seen that Lord Vader and Luke's lightsabres cast shadows! This is usually written up as a movie blooper - after all, how can light throw shadow? Fortunately this shot was NOT modified by the Special Edition guys, if anything, the sabre shadows seem crisper and sharper!
LIGHT does NOT block light! LIGHT does NOT block high-enegy weapons. Lightsabres are NOT 'just light'.
If you have a real hang-up about the literal meaning of the name 'Lightsabre' then consider this: An alternate LITERAL reading can be: 'A sabre that EMITS light' ~ rather than: 'A sabre MADE OF light'.
UPDATE:
The lightsabres in the EPISODE 1 The Phantom Menace, trailer CLEARLY cast sharp and clear shadows. Like it or not, this phenomenon is here to stay. Sabre blades BLOCK visible light - they are NOT simple optical devices, they are NOT lasers!
Despite the terms 'turbolaser' and 'laser' used in the films and WEG materials (respectively), there is little evidence that there has EVER been any mere laser device seen in the StarWars universe. The galactic technology of STARWARS seems to revolve in part, about a firm understanding of high energy fields, 'plasmoids' and of exotic sub-atomic particles with unusual characteristics. Blasters are often thought to fire discrete 'lumps' of plasma. The destructive beams of the Death Star are able to extend out to a common focal point, pause, accumulate, and then merge to a single beam. Lasers do NOT, and cannot, do this!

EDIT: On the other hand, I hope Lucas changes Ben's fizzled out saber during the duel, and Vader and Luke's white sabers in ANH.

 

[Peter Rohlfs]

A lack of extras??

How about the luke and biggs scene on tatooine?

On the SE VHS there was a documentary on each. There is the seperate VHS tape mentioned before.

There is also the much maligned Holiday Special. I know George wants to bury this, but it would be fun to have none the less. Especially it includes the first appearence of Bobba Fett.

2 Ewok TV movies. A Droid and Ewok cartoon series.

Commericals for the toys.

How about a reproduction of the toy coupon that was sold because they didn't have the action figures done in time for Xmas?

There is no lack of extras, only a lack of will to do the DVDs.

Peter

 

[TheLongshot]

I always think these "Star Wars" threads are ironic. I mean, we tend to rail against studios releasing a bare bones DVD when a special edition is being planned for the future. Yet, this is exactly what we want Lucas to do. Personally, I give him credit for not giving us a million versions of the films, like he did on VHS (The original tapes, the remastered tapes, widescreen, special edition...)

Personally, I wouldn't buy a bare bones disc of the films. I want to buy it once, and that's all. So, I'm going to take the most definitive version I can get.

I can also wait for it. I've personally seen the film many times over the years, from its original theatrical run to the new films. While I love it, I also don't have a strong desire to have it in my collection right now. There are plenty of good to great films out there which I don't own and can't afford to buy them all. That should keep me busy in the meantime.

Jason

 

[Justin Lane]

At this point Lucasfilms only option is to release SEs of the original trilogy, when ready. If they were to put out bare bones releases now, everyone would bitch about what was the wait. As it is now, once the SEs come out, people are going to bitch anyway that the supplements were not worth the wait either.

If TPM is any indication we should be in for a treat once the originals are finally released, until then there will be plenty of oter great DVDs for me to enjoy.

J

 

[Brad Cook]

"Especially since it's almost word-for-word the same conversation Han had just had with Greedo!!! "

Actually, not quite. One line ("Even I get boarded sometimes...") was taken from the Jabba scene and placed over the close-up of Han drawing his pistol during the conversation with Greedo. But, for the SE, it was kept in both places, so he said it twice.

The SEs are full of plenty of other inconsistencies, though, like the fact that the changes to Cloud City aren't consistent, the faraway roar of the Wampa when it's now very close to Luke, and other things. I couldn't understand how Lucas and his employees could go through those films and miss such obvious things that needed to be fixed.

Someone mentioned Vader going up to his Star Destroyer in the TESB SE. I would second that: the only shot we needed was the one of Vader walking out to his shuttle. The rest of it just disrupted the flow of the climax. And that line they changed ("Bring me my ship" became "Alert my star destroyer to prepare for my arrival") not only sounds bad (I heard that they got James Earl Jones to do it, but he didn't have enough time to get into the mood he needed to be in to do the voice), but it didn't really need to be changed, when you think about it:

Vader's ship was likely in geosynchronous orbit on the other side of the planet (How else would Han and co. not see it?), so "Bring me my ship" meant "Bring my star destroyer out of geosynchronous orbit and around the planet to meet my shuttle." But, of course, like any great leader, he doesn't need to say all that, because his men know what he means. The new line is too on-the-nose now. I assume it was changed because it would have seemed inconsistent for Vader to ask for his ship and then walk out to his shuttle, but I always assumed that "my ship" is the Executor, not some random shuttle.

Anyone else think the same thing?

- Brad

PS: Oh, and lose Luke's lame scream that was inserted into the TESB SE.

 

[Angsty]

[gritted teeth]
Dear George,
I don't care about bloody extras, just release the bare bones ORINGINAL versions of eps 4-6 now!! Then, you can SE, CGI and change whatever you like for 2006, and every year after that.
[/gritted teeth]
Angela
PS - If you are going to insist on extras, I'd love to see the Star Wars Christmas Special

 

[nousername]

You know, there was once a time when MILLIONS of people snapped up copies of movies such as Star Wars which had NO special features, deleted scenes, etc. And they were perfectly content with this. Just give us the darn movie! You can sell us a special features edition later on (or even as a separate title altogether). I'm getting REALLY tired of waiting for some of my favorite titles such as Star Wars.

As for TPM: was it worth the wait? Absolutely NOT, especially wuth all the excessive edge enhancement. I would have just bought the movie alone--the special features did not add ANYTHING to my enjoyment of the movie NOR my decision to buy it.

I have many, many DVDs in my collection which I absolutley LOVE, even though they have NO special features whatsoever. They didn't cost very much, and I still enjoy them time and time again. I have yet to watch the special features on a DVD more than once.

 

[Carlo_M]

I always think these "Star Wars" threads are ironic. I mean, we tend to rail against studios releasing a bare bones DVD when a special edition is being planned for the future. Yet, this is exactly what we want Lucas to do.

I don't think this is the case now. In the earlier days, if an SE were released just after the original DVD, that might draw ire. But if the studios let us know something is coming (ala Almost Famous and Pearl Harbor) then I have absolutely no problem with that. In respect to AF, I bought the first disc and will happily be buying the second version this weekend.

Another source of anger from "SE-itis" is the charge that studios, rather than releasing yet another ULTIMATE edition of an already Special Edition (like American Pie) could be working on bringing another, perhaps CLASSIC, film on DVD.

Well this argument also wouldn't pertain to the OT because, well, what else do we want lucasfilm to release?

So I would be in favor of a bare bones (esp. pre-SE) release of the films on DVD.

But that's not going to happen, of course...

 

[Eric Paddon]

I am just happy that I got a copy of the CAV boxed set of the original versions while I still had the chance. That's just one of the reasons why I will always have a LD player no matter how many DVD's I ever own.

 

[Ned]

Personally I would have no problem with owning 3-5 different boxsets of Star Wars on DVD even if it was $100 a pop.

1. Original Theatrical barebones

2. OTR + extras

3. SE barebones

4. SE + extras

5. New SE barebones

6. New SE + extras

4. Greedo shooting first while also singing Hakuna Matata and flailing a light sabre.

We just want SW now! even if it means putting up with lots of versions.

 

[Nigel Lata-Burston]

I read somewhere (wish I could remember where!) that Lucas is going back to the rather shoddy Han and Greedo scene and completely re-doing it....this time with a computer generated Han Solo. A recipe for disaster? Mere speculation? There may be some truth in this....the scene jarred with many viewers and the stepping on Greedo's tale (a necessary evil due to Ford's original movements) looked cartoonish to say the least.
Personally, I see this attempt to revisit the movie as a final chance to sort out discrepancies. There were one or two shots in the S.E. that I was amazed were still there (including a particularly bad shot of the Death Star's surface), particularly when contrasted with the beautiful new footage.
I believe that an original version of Star Wars should be available to the fans as it's the definitive release, IMHO. There was something real and gritty about the movie. Computer effects, for all their benefits, can still grate on the nerves after a while and stand-out like a sore thumb in such a classic film.

 

[Mark-W]

Brad-

I fully agree with you. Also, "Bring my ship" had

a more pissed off/dissappointed sound to it, IMHO.

-Mark

 

[David Lambert]

I read somewhere (wish I could remember where!) that Lucas is going back to the rather shoddy Han and Greedo scene and completely re-doing it....this time with a computer generated Han Solo. A recipe for disaster? Mere speculation? There may be some truth in this....the scene jarred with many viewers and the stepping on Greedo's tale

You mean Jabba, not Greedo.

 

[Adil M]

I heard Lucas was going to use CGI to touch up Leia's breasts and give Chewy a nose-job. Lucas never liked Vader's voice either and is going to replace it w/ Gilbert Gottfried.