Official Star Wars Thread

[EricJ]

And I know it's SD (but then, so is the vintage "Making"), but anything without Empire of Dreams is incomplete.
Impossible to top--for just about any movie's series retrospective--but complete means Complete, with or without the 501st.

Good thing I held on to it (and the '06 Unaltered-edition SW) when I donated my old set.

[GeorgeC]

I have The Making of Star Wars and SPFX: The Empire Strikes Back on Laserdisc .. but the last time I watched 'em, I noticed early signs of 'laser rot' .. so, I'm glad to see both (along with Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi) included on this BD set.

Here's hoping decent-quality 'original cuts' of the classic films will make their way back onto home video, eventually. Their absence seems more due to 'spite' with each new release.

Blame it on Lucas, Droo. Blame it Lucas.

The man is surrounded by yes-men and seems to believe most of the press (nowadays) that has declared him a genius.

He got lucky --- sez I and a bunch of other people who have read about him and followed his career. Nothing particularly brilliant about Lucas, himself. His film designers (character, story, vehicle creation, audio AND visual FX) on the other hand are the true unsung heroes of Star Wars.

*******

As for LD's, if they're not too far gone, it's worth preserving some things in digital format. I swear as soon as I get a video stabilizer, all the VHS tapes I've held onto for precisely the reason that nobody is re-releasing them on DVD (let alone BD!) are getting recorded onto HD on my DVD-Recorder. They will NEVER be HD but given how screwed up HD has been handled that might not be such a bad thing, either! I'm also doing this with a few LD's -- including unreleased or censored-in-the-US Disney stuff.

There aren't enough people yelling about extras and deleted scenes to the home video companies.

It may also be that the same companies DO NOT want to port over all the same old stuff to force people to buy new editions of DVD's and Blu rays. It's all about $$$ and I wouldn't put anything past them at this point in time.

Note that I DON'T consider the original versions of the "Trio" (the real Star Wars, not this warmed-over Clone Wars junk) extras despite what Emperor Lucas wants the general public (born after 1990) to think . This will continue to be a simmering point with a lot of us until he drops dead, I think. Ben's confirmed that the originals still exist in the LFL vaults. I've never seen someone so stingy and oblivious to how bad a single issue makes him look...

I know the South Park guys do meaner parodies of Spielberg but of the two men Spielberg is far more clued into the general film public and has been smart to keep the theatrical cuts of all his films in circulation with each generation of new media.

**********

As things stand, with the recent problems of PSN and other online services, the home video divisions of the studios might want to think twice about phasing out physical home video altogether and going to a streaming format. As much as there are complaints about shipping, distributors, and people stealing and copying optical discs all the time, I'd say the chances for thievery have never been better than with streaming and streaming-to-download. Cry me a river, but you knows the hackers out there will find ways to infiltrate those server systems to copy and distribute movies galore. That has to be home video's worst nightmare... they should be thinking about these things right now!

[Ben]

More changes for the SW BDs...

It should come as no surprise, but now a digital Yoda replaces the Muppet in The Phantom Menace:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-v ... blu-227975

They should have kept his hand movements in, and at least one blink, but otherwise it does fit in more with the CG prequel aesthetic.

At least Lucas isn't tinkering with Yoda in Empire and Jedi. That'll come with the 3D reissues, I wouldn't imagine!

[Ben]

Wowsers!

With all the recent Star Wars developments I can't believe we haven't had much talk here on the forums about it!

It seems that Disney's theme parks (most likely Orlando) is about to get a Force-themed expansion:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/0 ... 53067.html

[Buzz Bumble]

Increasing / adding to the Star Wars parts of the Disney's parks was announced / rumoured quite a while back, but much of it has been put on temporary hold due to too much other work going on.

[ShyViolet]

It should come as no surprise, but now a digital Yoda replaces the Muppet in The Phantom Menace:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-v ... blu-227975

They should have kept his hand movements in, and at least one blink, but otherwise it does fit in more with the CG prequel aesthetic.

At least Lucas isn't tinkering with Yoda in Empire and Jedi. That'll come with the 3D reissues, I wouldn't imagine!

Wonder how Frank Oz feels about this? I'd be pretty upset if I was him!

[Dan]

I remember watching the Making of featurette they had on the original Phantom DVD and Frank was shown footage of how Watto was coming together, he was in awe. "You don't need me!" he jokingly cried.

[Buzz Bumble]

Kenny Baker is credited as R2-D2 in the Prequel Trilogy, but I don't think he was ever actually in the robot - it's all remote control and CGI.

[Dan]

There are moments where Kenny and the bot are clearly on set. There's even a spot in the bloopers for Phantom where he falls over.

[droosan]

Rules of thumb for the Original Trilogy:

If it's a wide shot of Artoo just rolling down a corridor or something, it's probably the 'remote control' robot.

If his central wheeled leg is deployed, it's definitely the 'RC' robot.

If Artoo is in a close-up using his 'manipulator/interface' arms, interacting with another actor, or exhibiting any 'personality', at all .. it's a good bet Kenny Baker is inside:



He was "jammed in there, real good."


In the Prequel Trilogy .. yeah, it's a toss-up as to whether Artoo is a practical 'remote control' bot or even purely CGI. Mr. Baker was still able to squeeze inside the suit .. but VFX had advanced enough by that point that Lucas didn't need him to do so, as often.

But he was in there, occasionally:

[Buzz Bumble]

He was in the suit less and less for each of the Prequel Trilogy movies. For Episode III Kenny Baker was either never on-screen or only on-screen for one scene (depending on who you believe).

[Ben]

Lucas likes his good-luck charms, like shooting at least one scene for all the prequels at the same Elstree Studios the original trilogy was shot at, and I'd bet that he had Kenny (and Tony Daniels, although he was also needed for the voice, natch) there more as a good-luck charm and to have the old family back together again more than anything else. I do know that Kenny was actually on set whenever there was an R2 moment, so that he could advise on movement or jump in for a shot if needed, so he was there and he did contribute to most of the character's shots in the final films, even Episode III.

[Buzz Bumble]

Same for the new Episode VII too - Kenny Baker, Antony Daniels, and Peter Mayhew are all back again, as well as the Original Trilogy's Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford. Again, it's unlikely Kenny Baker will actually be on-screen for many of the R2 scenes (JJ Abrams may do a couple simply for nostalgia's sake more than anything else).

Antony Daniels has been in the vast proportion of the Star Wars material - movies, TV shows, radio plays, games.

[Ben]

Yeah, I think EpVII is a given. Again, Kenny will be around more to express character movement and CG markers, etc, rather than trying to shift around in the R2 casing at his age.

[Dan]

There might be a chance Disney will release the original trilogy in their unaltered, original versions on blu ray before Episode VII hits theaters.

Source: http://comicbook.com/blog/2014/08/16/ex ... o-be-rele/