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Star Wars Prequels Media Movies Technology

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]."
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Lucas To Redo Star Wars In 3-D

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  • by the_mad_poster ( 640772 ) <shattoc@adelphia.com> on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:13PM (#11978183) Homepage Journal
    What does Lucas do anyway, just wake up every now and then and think "in what new ways can I rape the fond memories of a younger generation"?

    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)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:16PM (#11978223) Homepage Journal
      PLEASE GEORGE JUST STOP

      Four words: Jar-Jar in 3D

      "Oh the humanity!"

    • by The Amazing Fish Boy ( 863897 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:18PM (#11978253) Homepage Journal
      What does Lucas do anyway, just wake up every now and then and think "in what new ways can I rape the fond memories of a younger generation"?

      ... and then he said 3D animation was Jesus Juice and that Jesus would've liked 3D animation if it had've existed and then I went to sleep on his bed and....
    • Please stop hurting America!
    • by pens ( 184563 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:19PM (#11978276) Homepage
      I have an idea... DONT WATCH IT. Nobody's forcing you to watch his latest movie.
    • Every time George Lucas re-releases a Star Wars movie, god kills a domo-kun.

      PLEASE, Think Of The Domo-Kuns!

    • I know! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by marika ( 572224 )
      Why doesn't he try to do something new instead of working on milking us for the 43 different version of the star wars serie, he could try to milk us for other versions of new series. I am truely a genius!
    • "in what new ways can I rape the fond memories of a younger generation"

      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
    • by DurendalMac ( 736637 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:23PM (#11978342)
      Jesus H. Christ on a grilled cheese sandwich, give it up, George! You've raped Star Wars repeatedly in the ass with a razor-coated cock sheath while beating it over the head with a broken bottle and biting it in the neck! It's dead, you fucking necrophiliac! You've killed it, and yet you STILL want more? Burn in hell, Lucas.
    • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:24PM (#11978350)
      Yeah like when they cleaned up and enhanced the OT for the DVD release. Boy I sure hate the way those movies look fresh and vibrant and actually don't look dated almost 30 years later! Damn you Lucas! Perhaps after you see how beautifully ROTS ties everything together, you'll stop complaining and realize George owns. BTW, when was the last time you completely changed the entire movie industry forever? Just curious.
    • Lucas waited too many years to remake the 3 more episodes of his star wars series. I would like to see skywalker, solo, and others but ohh well.
    • If nothing else, you would think that the number of fan films and stories being created would be a testament to the fertile playground available to create new works in. Why would you want to continue to rehash the same 30 year old story rather than expanding on it?

      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)

      by Anonymous Coward

      There's no way this would get accepted as a submission so I'm posting it here:

      From the imdb.com [imdb.com]:

      George Lucas has described his final Star Wars movie, Episode III -- The Revenge of the Sith, as "Titanic in space." Speaking to the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas, Lucas said that the new film was "not like the old Star Wars ... This one's a little bit more emotional." Later, Lucas was asked by the Associated Press whether fans would accept a film so different from the old Star Wars. "I feel that I've made t

    • by serutan ( 259622 ) <snoopdougNO@SPAMgeekazon.com> on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:31PM (#11978434) Homepage
      Hire a production crew who grew up during the original Star Wars era. Get a director like Peter Jackson, who has shown that he understands how to use great effects, tell a story on a grand scale, stay faithful to the original spirit and respect the fans. Have this production company make episodes 7,8 and 9 that were planned long ago. Now that might kick ass.
    • It's a BUSINESS (Score:2, Insightful)

      Do we love or hate capitalism here this week - I can never tell?

      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

    • Did he have to do the first three parts? I think it would have been done better in pure book format, since he completely trashed the first part with horrible SFX. The third one looks good, based on the trailer. Like the games, though, I think it is just a plot to make horrid amounts of money. Will it stop? Probably not, after this he can make movies out of the books (and he's probably thinking of Shadows of the Empire too, since that gives a clearer picture of what happens during Eps 5 and 6).
    • I would be content for him to remake the teddy-bear fest that was Return of the Jedi. Imagine that after the Wookies are enslaved in Episode 3, what a triumph it would be for them, not the Ewoks, to be a big part of the Empire's downfall. Not to mention the dialog just plain SUCKS!!! Please Uncle George, retell that story.
  • Star Wars Forever? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lecithin ( 745575 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:13PM (#11978190)
    "You might have thought that it was going to all be over on May 15 with the release of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith."

    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?
    • There's no way it will be over on May 15th, not when the movie gets released on the 19th nationwide.

      -
      http://www.rightcoaster.com [rightcoaster.com]
    • by mark-t ( 151149 )
      I remember Apple once had the slogan "Apple // Forever". This was just before they came out with the 'GS' model, and only a couple years later, they ceased production of that model entirely and concentrated exclusively on the Mac, and I remember asking an Apple rep at the time what happened to their "Apple // Forever" slogan. He offered me the explanation that the Mac's were still computers made by Apple, and that the Mac _did_ have a "2" in its name (being called a Mac II). I never bought that excuse p
  • Is it Safe? (Score:4, Funny)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:14PM (#11978197) Homepage Journal
    I remember this crushing migraines those blue/red 3D glasses left me with. However this works, I hope they've really tested it. It's all good clean fun, until you realize it screws up your eyes like the Opti-Grab and people sue Lucas, Cameron and the theaters for all they've got.

    "Who is Redo and where is Start?"

    • Re:Is it Safe? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Jaguar777 ( 189036 ) *
      I remember this crushing migraines those blue/red 3D glasses left me with. However this works, I hope they've really tested it. It's all good clean fun, until you realize it screws up your eyes like the Opti-Grab and people sue Lucas, Cameron and the theaters for all they've got.

      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)

        by andrew_0812 ( 592089 )
        I have to wonder though. How good could this be, taking flat 2D film and trying to turn it 3d. To have effective 3D, wouldn't it have to be filmed with 3D cameras to begin with? Seems like he has a lot of work ahead of him.
    • And all I found was a pleasing-to-the-eyes blonde chick.
      She definitely does not screw up my eyes.
  • by rekenner ( 849871 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:14PM (#11978205) Homepage
    Solo won't shoot at all.
    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.
    • Actually, this time the audience shoots first;-)
    • Missa Han-Solo, saa;
      Missa Greedo, saa.
      Wee'sa here saa, to settle a bum-bum saa.
    • Or maybe he'll just be a very gassy Han Solo..

      G: Uth laynuma. Chespo kutata kreesta krenko, nyakoska!

      H: Yeah, I bet you have... *frrrrrrrrt*

      G:

    • by Winterblink ( 575267 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:49PM (#11978653) Homepage
      This is Lucas we're talking about here. He grasps at new ways to rape this classic film like a drowning man for a glass of water. Thus I predict the new 3D enhanced scene will play out thusly:

      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.
  • by ShadeEagle ( 153172 ) * <tehshingen@ g m a i l . c om> on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:15PM (#11978207) Journal
    Oh yay.

    Jar-Jar in even MORE 3d.
  • 3D Jar-Jar (Score:2, Funny)

    by bitswapper ( 805265 ) *


    3d Jar-Jar...

    Thanks. Now I'm going to have nightmares. The bad kind.

    • Re:3D Jar-Jar (Score:2, Insightful)

      by AndroidCat ( 229562 )
      Just you wait. In Revenge of the Sith, it turns out that Jar-Jar turns to the dark side and kills Palaptine and takes his place. Click-click, edit, click, and will always have been his long nose sticking out of the emperor's cowl.

      "Your fwiends can not helwp you now!"

      Dream well young bitswapper!

  • oh my god. (Score:2, Interesting)

    yippie. fuckin. kai. aye. what is really the point? if he must muddle in the SW universe, why not expand it? why the remake? is hollywood that empty of ideas?
  • by Anonymous Crowhead ( 577505 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:15PM (#11978221)
    This DVD set will be called "Star Wars: The Expensive Edition".
  • by theparanoidcynic ( 705438 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:16PM (#11978225)
    Purely from a technological, eye-candy standpoint I'd like to see this.

    Of course, what other "brilliant re-edits" will we be subjected to for the re-re-re-release?
  • by argent ( 18001 ) <(peter) (at) (slashdot.2006.taronga.com)> on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:16PM (#11978226) Homepage Journal
    You might have thought that it was going to all be over on May 15 with the release of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

    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)

      by RapmasterT ( 787426 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:25PM (#11978365)
      Those of us old enough to actually remember will tell you Lucas originally promised both Jack and Shit.

      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)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 18, 2005 @03:10PM (#11978904)
        Not to mension Lucas didn't write the screenplays for Episodes 5 and 6, which are, by any reasonable standard, the crown jewels of the franchise.

        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.
        • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 18, 2005 @03:27PM (#11979112)
          "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."

          Thanks for the idea, I'll go put this into Revenge of the Sith right now!

          -George
        • Re:9 Episodes... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by xgamer04 ( 248962 ) <(moc.oohay) (ta) (40remagx)> on Friday March 18, 2005 @03:30PM (#11979134)
          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.

          You mean like Indiana Jones? Oh wait...
        • by Augusto ( 12068 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @03:32PM (#11979156) Homepage
          > 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).

          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)

          by m_balla ( 868945 )
          So if the screenplays suck, and the ideas are pedestrian, and Lucas is definitely NOT a genius... then why does everyone watch the films? It isn't because people are really dumb. Lucas has made it clear many times that he's trying to retell old stories and mythologies in a new way. It isn't that he can't think up other ways to save the girl or have his hero walled in... these stagings are INTENTIONALLY literal. The characters are represented in "black and white" because they are meant to be manifestati
    • "his fans are going to make sure he delivers, even if it involves necromancy."

      Actually, I wish somebody else would deliver them. I wonder if Lucas's agreement with the studio prohibits sequels or remakes after his death?
  • Isn't a 2D JarJar torture enough?
  • by ajs ( 35943 ) <ajs@ajs . c om> on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:17PM (#11978232) Homepage Journal
    If anyone at Lucasfilm reads this, please, please convey my hopes that we can put Star Wars (the original three movies) away and, if we MUST perpetuate the franchise, do so by releasing new films by up-and-coming directors and writers who have interesting stories to tell.

    I know that's a tad radical for Hollywood, but then Lucasfilm WAS a tad radical once....
    • Why do you care if he releases another movie. It's his money, what's your problem? Does he put handcuffs on you and force you to sit there with your eye-lids taped to your forehead watching the movie?

      Let the guy do whatever he wants to do.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:17PM (#11978237)
    Could he possibly add a third dimension to the characters as well?
  • Deep Throat next, perhaps?
  • Another format, another payday, eh, George?
  • Nooooo! (Score:5, Funny)

    by CrazyTalk ( 662055 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:18PM (#11978248)
    Its like a million voices all cried out in agony, and were suddenly silenced. Surely this is some cruel early April fools day joke? How much more craptacular can he make those movies? And how many ways can he find to ruin them again and again?
  • its the pr0nography industry that'll have the final say........ and let's hope they go for it!
  • forget SW (Score:4, Funny)

    by justforaday ( 560408 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:18PM (#11978252)
    Forget Star Wars, I'm more excited about "The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3-D." I mean, c'mon, with a title like that you know it's gotta be good!
  • 3D (Score:5, Interesting)

    by M.C. Hampster ( 541262 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {retspmaHehT.C.M}> on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:18PM (#11978260) Journal

    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?

    • Excuse me for asking, but how do you see 3D now with only vision in one eye? To truly see 3D you need stereoscopic vision.

      • No you do not. Just as two eyes twitch to increase their effective resolution so do each individual eye's distance focusing muscles twitch which provides a significant amount of depth detail when viewing a scene with just one eye. I imagine this behaviour would be increased in a person with just one eye. Normal depth perception is simply the brain doing a little bit of trig on the angles of your two eyes, depth perception for a one eyed person is an even simpler, if less accurate, mapping of lens focus t
    • Re:3D (Score:5, Informative)

      by dschuetz ( 10924 ) <davidNO@SPAMdasnet.org> on Friday March 18, 2005 @03:08PM (#11978878)
      Anyone have any information on how these 3d films are different from past attempts at 3d? Do you still wear glasses?

      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)

    by darthpenguin ( 206566 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:19PM (#11978268) Homepage
    I fully support George Lucas in his endeavors to make the Star Wars films fit his original vision [penny-arcade.com].
  • by cliveholloway ( 132299 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:19PM (#11978269) Homepage Journal
    Horse, meet whip. Horse? Are you OK Horse?

    Medic!

    cLive ;-)

  • 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)

    by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:22PM (#11978334) Homepage
    Am not willing to pay a higher ticket price at the theater because Lucas wants the opportunity to re-re-re-release the Start Wars series in 3D this time.

    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)

    by klugerama ( 823835 )
    So if they are all gung-ho about this new technology, how do they expect it to match sales long-term? 3-D has been tried before, several times, and is only appealing for a little while, until the novelty wears off and people realize it's a fucking gimmick.

    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
  • Natalie Portman..... 3D hot flying grits everywhere. What is there not to like?
  • by FerretFrottage ( 714136 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:29PM (#11978404)
    So we'll be able to see the holographic "chess" match as it was intended...finally....of course too many releases of Star Wars are prone to make original fans want to pull Lucas' arms from his sockets.

  • by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:29PM (#11978406) Homepage Journal
    When you've got a 1D story, make a 3D picture!
  • I'm not buying any more versions of Star Wars until Lucas is dead. Preferably for 10 years. Maybe more. After all, Tupac released a posthumous album. Douglas Adams had a collected unfinished works released. Even The Beatles managed a reunion of sorts, what, 15 or 20 years after Lennon was murdered. Maybe I just won't ever buy them again.

    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

  • Awesome! (Score:5, Funny)

    by geeveees ( 690232 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:29PM (#11978415) Homepage Journal

    In this version, Alderaan shoots first!

  • ...Lucas, give it a rest already.

    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!
  • by ALeavitt ( 636946 ) <aleavitt@gmail . c om> on Friday March 18, 2005 @02:33PM (#11978465)
    From TFA:
    "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.
  • Over 14 screens to get to the http://www.mercurynews.com article

    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)

    by Dutchmaan ( 442553 ) on Friday March 18, 2005 @03:43PM (#11979270) Homepage
    Lucas should ask Pixar to make the next Star Wars film..?

    Personally speaking I think it would be interesting to see what Pixar would do with something dark and semi-serious.

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