Lucas To Redo Star Wars In 3-D 593
Warlock7 writes "You might have thought that it was going to all be over on May 19 with the release of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Well, not so fast. It seems that George Lucas is planning to re-re-release the Star Wars films in a new 3-D format. There are also several other directors that are interested in this new technology and they are trying to get theaters to install new technology to allow the showing of their films in the new 3-D format [req free reg]."
Please Say It Ain't So (Score:5, Funny)
This guy's gone totally batshit insane. I think the best thing anyone could do for the franchise at this point is put the man in a damned straighjacket and throw him off the brooklyn bridge with a lead weight in a backpack on his back.
I can respect that some people may have liked the first two pieces (even if it wasn't my cup of tea, so to speak), and this third one might be okay, but this is a little ridiculous.
PLEASE GEORGE JUST STOP. It was a great idea the first time through with episodes 4-6, and I understand that you had to round it out with the first three parts of the series, but you're just hurting us now. Please.... please stop hurting us.
Why Stop? (Score:5, Funny)
Four words: Jar-Jar in 3D
"Oh the humanity!"
Re:Why Stop? (Score:5, Funny)
Four more: Slave Leia in 3D.
That'll show you youngsters! (Score:5, Funny)
It's like they're following me...
Re:Why Stop? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes! You may finally find out what a breast looks like!
Re:Why Stop? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why Stop? (Score:4, Funny)
thats just a problem ;)
Re:Why Stop? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:3D to 2D to 3D (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:3D to 2D to 3D (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:3, Funny)
Why does he hate freedom?
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:5, Funny)
PS- Han shot first.
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:5, Funny)
There's rumors that after Episode III is released and they do a 6-DVD extra-final director's cut. Neither Greedo nor Han shoots. Instead they settle their differences peacefully and just agree to disagree.
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:5, Funny)
PLEASE, Think Of The Domo-Kuns!
I know! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:3, Insightful)
wow, when a person redoes a film of his, and you call that "rape", either you had a very bad childhood or you are very, very weak minded. or maybe you do not understand the definition of rape. i do not think redoing a movie in a way you do not like constitutes rape.
"Please.... please stop hurting us"
if you do not watch the new releases, it won't affect you. if you stay on the meds, you will be differentiate betweem reality and fict
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:2)
and well said.
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:3, Funny)
Never mind.
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:5, Insightful)
WHEN WILL IT END??? OH GOD, WHEN WILL IT END??? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:3, Insightful)
> shitty effects. Now, I love cheesey sci-fi series,
> but how did star wars change the movie industry
> forever? What, it made sci-fi more acceptable?
Were you even ALIVE in the 70's have you ever even seen anything else besides StarWars and or it's decendants? ILM was a VAST improvement over the tech of that era. Those effects even stand up well today.
HELL, the same techniques are being used today that were pioneered for the OT. HELL, the same effe
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:5, Informative)
ILM was the first dedicated motion picture effects house. ILM invented or improved on technology as needed.
Now 2001 represents the absolute pinnacle of pre-SW effects. What George and ILM did was to set the minimum standard to that level (and higher) and enable everyone else to achieve it.
Motion control allowed an effects shot to be seamlessly composited and only limited by the tech of analog film compositing.
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, for starters, yes it did make sci-fi more acceptable. (Or rather, acceptable again.) The then-current media scene (TV and movies) was an SF wasteland, all the good (and even mediocre) shows and movies died with the death of the Apollo program.
Lucas also introduced some pretty amazing (for the time) technologies: motion-control cameras, for example. Previous levels of shot composition were done with relatively fixed, flat shots. Take a look at "2001" again and see how flat everything looks. There's no parallax shift as things move relative to each other, and the composite shots are pretty simple.
For the time, the effects were anything but "shitty", they were bleeding edge state of the art. (Well, except perhaps the detonation of Dantooine, that was lame.)
Editing (in terms of number of different scenes, cuts, etc) was also brought to a new level -- remember, back then it was still done with reels of film, a viewer, and a razor blade, none of this "digitize the whole thing and feed it into an Avid (or equiv) non-linear editing suite". (As I recall, it was Lucas' wife who did much of the editing.)
There are also indirect effects -- Lucas invested the money he made off the first "Star Wars" in, among other things, THX sound technologies and Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) FX studios. The latter made some significant contributions to the field computer graphics.
Yes, "Star Wars" (before it was ever called "A New Hope") changed the movie industry forever.
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:2)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:3, Insightful)
Unfortunately it's not the content holders that are the problem, it's the consumers that continue to buy it.
Titanic in Space (Score:2, Informative)
There's no way this would get accepted as a submission so I'm posting it here:
From the imdb.com [imdb.com]:
Here's another idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Here's another idea (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Here's another idea (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a BUSINESS (Score:2, Insightful)
Lucas was a creative guy with an idea that worked. It became a business. I think Lucas is a far better business man than he is a creative man. Judge this by the success of the franchise and merchandising compared to the quality of the written dialog.
Without a moral judgement on purity of art, etc... Lucas is simply doing what any shrewd business owner does... Market the franchise. Find ways to resell an old product in new packaging, and
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Please Say It Ain't So (Score:3, Insightful)
Star Wars Forever? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know anybody that is foolish enough to believe that this was over. As long as there is an interest and the opportunity to make some money, it isn't going to be over. Many folks thought that Star Wars would end in the 70s. It is still around decades later and still making a profit. You don't get rid of a profitable interest.
If the entertainment factor is there, I'll go see more. Will the market of 'Star Wars Enthusiasts' allow more movies to be made? Will we see different plots in the future? Will we see more 'enhanced' versions? I'd think probably. They may suck, but I would bet that we are not done with 'Star Wars' for quite a while. I hope that what comes out is good.
When are we going to get sick of it?
Re:Star Wars Forever? (Score:2, Insightful)
-
http://www.rightcoaster.com [rightcoaster.com]
Re:Star Wars Forever? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Star Wars Forever? (Score:2)
After that some 'Minnie Me' will step in and end up being able to afford another $350 million to do what ever he wants to. It ain't all Lucas's fault.
Is it Safe? (Score:4, Funny)
"Who is Redo and where is Start?"
Re:Is it Safe? (Score:3, Informative)
Here is a Peter Jackson quote from TFA.
"Forget the old days of wearing the red and blue glasses and the eyestrain. All of that is behind us now. These new active glasses that you're wearing and seeing 3-D with are a breakthro
Re:Is it Safe? (Score:3, Insightful)
I googled for Opti-grab (Score:2)
She definitely does not screw up my eyes.
Maybe this time... (Score:5, Funny)
He'll have a badly redubbed over diplomatic way out of it...
Naaah. This'll be a good thing, if Lucas doesn't mess with his own work again.
Re:Maybe this time... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Maybe this time... (Score:2)
Missa Greedo, saa.
Wee'sa here saa, to settle a bum-bum saa.
Re:Maybe this time... (Score:3, Funny)
G: Uth laynuma. Chespo kutata kreesta krenko, nyakoska!
H: Yeah, I bet you have... *frrrrrrrrt*
G:
Re:Maybe this time... (Score:5, Funny)
GREEDO: You can tell that to Jabba. He may only take your ship.
HAN: Over my dead body.
GREEDO: That's the idea. I've been looking forward to killing you for a long time.
HAN: Yes, I'll bet you have.
Greedo fires his laser, and the scene switches to Bullet Time (tm). The camera twirls with nausia-inducing speed around the laser blast as it slowly, inexorably, approaches Solo's head. Solo bursts vertically out of his seat to execute a Trinity-style crane kick, sending Greedo sailing backwards of his chair while dodging the laser blast. In mid-air, Solo draws his blaster, drains its power cell into Greedo's twirling body before he hits the ground. Return to Real Time (tm).
HAN: Sorry about the mess.
Just what we didn't need... (Score:3, Funny)
Jar-Jar in even MORE 3d.
3D Jar-Jar (Score:2, Funny)
3d Jar-Jar...
Thanks. Now I'm going to have nightmares. The bad kind.
Re:3D Jar-Jar (Score:2, Insightful)
"Your fwiends can not helwp you now!"
Dream well young bitswapper!
oh my god. (Score:2, Interesting)
They've got lots of ideas! (Score:2)
Re:oh my god. (Score:2)
You mean you havent noticed until now? Jeez, the kids today...
Penny Arcade (Score:5, Funny)
This might actually be interesting. (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, what other "brilliant re-edits" will we be subjected to for the re-re-re-release?
9 Episodes... (Score:5, Funny)
Lucas originally promised 9 episodes.
his fans are going to make sure he delivers, even if it involves necromancy.
Re:9 Episodes... (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole "Episode IV" thing didn't even come about until the theatrical re-release of Star Wars about 18 months after the initial one.
Lucas likes to pretend he's had this grand vision all along from day one, but the plot inconsistancies and herky-jerky flow of the story looks more like incoherent post-facto ramblings than it does "planned".
Re:9 Episodes... (Score:5, Insightful)
Look up the original scripts for "Star Wars", it's pretty god-awful stuff. You can see some of the "ideas" there leaked into the later movies, but Star Wars was Fox's last ditch effort. Their shareholders were unloading ownership, because Star Wars was going to be the studio's last hurrah before they folded.
But it wasn't.
Lucas is not a visionary, not a brilliant writer or storyteller. He made some interesting but amateurish films in the 70's, and then struck gold once by pilfering the work of other directors and various uncreditted sci-fi authors, and piecing together an action-adventure movie. "Space opera" indeed.
The man is so incredibly uncreative, we don't have the proverbial walls closing in on the hero, we have REAL WALLS closing in the hero. We don't have Pitfall Harry swinging over the alligator pit on a rope while he's saving the girl, that ACTUALLY happens in the film. The only thing that DOESN'T happen is that Leia isn't tied up and placed on a set of train tracks by a moustached villain.
Lucas's ideas are so pedestrian, so cliched, so utterly devoid of originality or creativity. The GOOD GUYS WEAR WHITE (Luke), and the BAD GUYS WEAR BLACK (Vader). (Yeah I know, the stormtroopers break the rule, but I'll bet you dollars to donuts that they're only white so Vader stood out on film).
The fact that, other than Star Wars, every creative act he's been involved in has been an unmitigated piece of crap sort of supports this.
I love Star Wars too and I didn't even really HATE the two new films but George Lucas is not some genius storyteller.
The only thing I really respect about the man is that he refuses to get involved in the Hollywood labor unions, because he doesn't like having to put a bunch of credits and credentials BEFORE his movie.
Re:9 Episodes... (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks for the idea, I'll go put this into Revenge of the Sith right now!
-George
Re:9 Episodes... (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean like Indiana Jones? Oh wait...
You are not making any sense (Score:4, Insightful)
You just contradict yourself and try to get out of it, but even you know you're not making any sense. Yes, the Stormtroopers were white so why are you making this stupid comment? And what's wrong with Vader having a black outfit.
Hey Luke wears black on ROTJ, and General Grievious is all white in Revenge of the Sith. What the hell are you talking about???
Re:9 Episodes... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:9 Episodes... (Score:2)
Actually, I wish somebody else would deliver them. I wonder if Lucas's agreement with the studio prohibits sequels or remakes after his death?
Re:9 Episodes... (Score:2, Funny)
3D JarJar???? (Score:2, Funny)
For the love of God, just stop (Score:5, Interesting)
I know that's a tad radical for Hollywood, but then Lucasfilm WAS a tad radical once....
Re:For the love of God, just stop (Score:3, Insightful)
Let the guy do whatever he wants to do.
Re:For the love of God, just stop (Score:2)
You know, if he could force the entire planet to destroy the original copies every week, I would like to take a hold of that tech. There is much more that I could do with those kinds of powers, forget the Star Wars.
I wonder if the technology exists? (Score:4, Funny)
*crosses fingers* (Score:2, Funny)
Re-re-re-release in Blu-ray! (Score:2)
Nooooo! (Score:5, Funny)
just like with the blu-ray vs. Hd-dvd wars...... (Score:2, Insightful)
forget SW (Score:4, Funny)
3D (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone have any information on how these 3d films are different from past attempts at 3d? Do you still wear glasses? If not, how would this look any different than a normal film?
Due to the fact that I can only see out of one eye, I'm usually let down by such presentations of 3d. They all depend on the viewer wearing a set of glasses and being able to see out of 2 eyes. I wonder if this new 3d technology can actually do anything for people like me?
Re:3D (Score:2)
Re:3D (Score:2)
Re:3D (Score:5, Informative)
Most likely, you'd still wear glasses, yes. Let's remember the two aspects to 3-D photography: 1) getting 3-D information in the first place (usually with multiple cameras), and 2) delivering that data to the eyes (usually by somehow targeting each eye with a different image).
There are a few other ways to do 2, mostly relying on odd tricks like image "jiggling" (which works, sort of, but isn't that great). Generally, 3-D relies on parallax comparisons made possible by each eye seeing a slightly different image. In order to do that, we need some way to target each eye with a unique image. Some "autostereoscopic" methods use wire or lenticular screens (you see that sometimes in 3-D movie posters). Most systems use glasses. Originally they used red/blue glasses, but that didn't scale well with color films. Then the industry moved on to polarized filters, but that required the viewer hold his head pretty close to straight (if you tilted your head too far to one side, the images would blur and then swap). Polarizing lenses with circular polarization helped minimize some of that. Current "state of the art" uses high-speed LCD shutters in glasses synchronized to the film projector or TV, which shows the right image first (with the left eye blocked by a shutter), then the left image (swapping the shutter to the right eye).
There's also "one lens" systems that rely on an odd optical trick I can't even begin to explain (been a while since college physics), but it has the effect of making objects in motion *in one direction* appear closer to the viewer, while objects at rest or moving the opposite direction appear farther away. This has been used in "3-D Roller Coaster!" videos hawked in mail-order catalogs, and I think was even used to promote a Rose Bowl parade some years back.
Anyway, that's all just the delivery problem. The tougher side is the content problem. Lucas only filmed his movies with a single lens, so there's no parallax information that can be used to provide 3-D images. If the films were *completely* computer generated (like, say, The Incredibles), then it'd just be a matter of rendering it once, then telling the computer "shift the camera left 3 inches" and render again. (has pixar actually done this? it'd be cool.
So with only one image to choose from, how do you "create" depth information? One way that I've seen in the past is to use motion and/or focus artifacts to "guess" at 3-D location in the frame. That is, if something moves in front of another thing, then it's reasonable to assume it should be shown forward in the frame. Or if something's slightly off focus (foreground or background), then you can also assume it's in a different depth plane, and shift it accordingly. I actually saw "Lost In Space" processed with something like this technology, and while it was interesting, it basically sucked.
Why? For one thing, no matter how smart, the extrapolated depth cues are always just guesses. Unless you work the film manually, scene-by-scene (and even frame-by-frame), there will be problems with consistency with the derived depth information. Also, with a two-camera system, each "eye" not only sees slightly different images, but they see images with slightly different *content*. That is, it's not enough to simply shift an X-wing left or right, but one eye needs to see a little something more where the X-Wing was moved out of. Automated processes (in the past) couldn't do this.
Now it's possible that with advances in technology, it's finally possible to consistently guess at object depths, and to fabricate reasonable hidden information. As I said, it's not worked well in the past, but in the past, it's been attempted by hucksters and snake-oil salesmen and sold to gullible third-tier theme park movie houses (I saw the aforementioned Lost in Space about two miles from Walt Disney World,
finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Horse, meet whip... (Score:5, Funny)
Medic!
cLive
Oh, the horror! (Score:2, Funny)
From the article, Jackson screened remastered portions from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy that featured a looming Gollum and battle dust that virtually fell onto the audience.
I do hope that Lucas doesn't adopt that particular idea of Peter Jackson's.
Jar Jar is bad enough when projected on a screen. I'd hate to think about how I'd feel if he were "out and about" in the audience, so to speak.
Please, Jar Jar, stay where you are. Don't come any closer.
I For One ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Cinema owners will pass this on to the consumer, and that'll suck.
And, quite frankly, Lucas is starting to seem more and more irrelevant with his one-trick pony.
DVD (Score:2, Insightful)
Besides, as far as I can tell, this new technology can't translate to DVD/any-other-form-of-consumer-owned-media, so do they really expect to make that much on theater sales alone? Lucas, of *anybody* in Hollywood, should be advocating a technology that
I'm so there !!! (Score:2)
Cool---Chewie vs R2 chess match (Score:3, Funny)
Hollywood Logic (Score:5, Funny)
Posthumous (Score:2)
I had the scan and pan tapes. The widescreen tapes in the ubercool box still grace my video collection (mostly DVD now). I even shelled out for the Special Edition
Re:Posthumous (Score:2)
Awesome! (Score:5, Funny)
In this version, Alderaan shoots first!
I know i'm not alone when i say... (Score:2)
You've taken the Star Wars franchise as far as it goes, move to something else for God's sake. If anything else, do it so atleast i won't see a SW story on Slashdot every day!
Finally, Lucas can reissue Star Wars! (Score:5, Insightful)
"It's really a beautiful system, and one of the reasons I'm promoting it today is I'm extremely anxious to reissue that old group of films I did so long ago in a galaxy far away," Lucas said.
Well, you know, it has been almost eight years since the original trilogy was rereleased in theaters, and six months since the DVDs came out. Of course Lucas is anxious to reissue the movies - the public has pretty much forgotten about them in this fast-paced world. Lucas needs to bring the movies back to the forefront of the public consciousness, because they haven't been there in months.
Seriously, though, does Lucas think he's kidding anybody anymore? It's so obvious that his vision isn't artistic, it's financial. He sees a way to keep making a mint with a minimum of effort, and every new film-oriented technology allows him to release Star Wars according to his "original vision," which was somehow compromised in every previous release.
Get ready for the return of Sensoround (Score:4, Interesting)
Talk about aggressive marketing overkill. MercuryNews is EVIL! I had to click through 12 advertising screens after finishing registering. This has to be some kind of record for the Internet (or at least a reputable news site).
That said, I will probably go and see the 3D re-releases (which has nothing to do with MercuryNews of course). Quit whining about Lucas raping your childhood. Just don't go. I didn't like Jar-Jar either. Get over it. Because it's based in space, many techie types feel they own the franchise more that Lucas and the public he is hawking it to. Last time I looked there are about 100 Star Wars novels available in bookstores. It's rapidly catching up with the Star Trek novels. To stop the movies, you would have to stop the books, which show how rabid people are for the saga to go on -- whether it meets your high standards for entertainment fair or not.
Maybe the 3-D will be good, maybe not. I have wondered why Disney/Pixar haven't re-released their films in 3-D. Some have been presented in IMAX (though not 3D IMAX as far as I know). Here you know the 3D re-rendering will be spot on. Technically it would have to me 2-orders of magnitude easier than converting 2D photographs. Disney will be Making a Toy Story 3 (alone), I'll be very surprised if it isn't Toy Story 3D.
That said, my viewing experience at home on HDTV is often better than what you see at the Cineplex (especially stuff shot directly in digital, rather than converted from film). I would gladly pay full ticket price to watch my stuff at home while in recent release if I could get it. The point is Cinemas will increasingly have to compete with a viewing experience in the home that rivals that of the theater. Just going wider (Cinamscope) like they did in '50s (and wider yet in the late '60s with Cinerama) wont cut it. People will increasingly start to wait for Movies to come out in Blu-Ray or HD-DVD if the industry doesn't do something to augment the viewing experience. Start looking for things like Sensoround to make a comeback, introduced for the 1974 disaster flick "Earthquake." Also expect several variations of motion simulation, some quite cheap like tilting chairs, and other that require individual pods with 6 degrees of freedom and everything in-between.
You know.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally speaking I think it would be interesting to see what Pixar would do with something dark and semi-serious.
Re:southpark (Score:2, Funny)
Are you refering to the the sanctimonious episode? Oh, wait, that includes all of them.
Re:Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Sith (Score:2)
That one is so funny, but I was sobered by the fact that John Candy is dead, and cannot play the part. The temptation would be too large for Lucas not to have Dr Tongue be played by Lucas' beloved digital creation with the large tongue.