Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by thebard

^ I agree.
I can also see Abrams eschewing some of the "expected" Star Wars film conventions, to set these movies apart and basically tell the audience "this I not your grandpa's Star Wars". It's not really his filming style, for example, to jump right to an opening crawl, or use prominent wipes, etc.

You're correct that it's not his style, but I would find it really hard to believe that he would eliminate the opening crawl. If he wanted to stray that far from what's come before, he would have created an entirely new story that didn't include any of the significant prior characters with an entirely new cast.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Nobody is expecting them to be removed from canon. We're simply talking about no direct references to the prequels, which seems like an easy and even probably thing to do.

There wouldn't be any direct references even if the PT was loved by everyone. How could there be? None of the characters (except for C3PO and R2D2) know anything about what happened in the prequels. Unless the characters came across some history of that time or unless they found old copies of "The Jedi Daily News" or there's some Jedi survivor of that time who was hiding in a closet when the Jedi Council met with Anakin, there's no one who knows that history who would be alive in the new film and even if there was, they would only know small parts of it. Even Luke doesn't know what happened (unless he has a conversation about that history with Force Ghost Obi-Wan or new Force Ghost Padmé).

I'd like to see the conversation between Luke and all the other Force Ghosts when he tells them, "you know, you were all a bunch of liars and fkups".

[thebard]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

You're correct that it's not his style, but I would find it really hard to believe that he would eliminate the opening crawl. If he wanted to stray that far from what's come before, he would have created an entirely new story that didn't include any of the significant prior characters with an entirely new cast.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...ostcount=46513

[bevins2016]

If I were fox I would just pump out a new box set each year and produce steelbooks and milk the cow for all its worth so when Disney gets the rights its worthless. Kind of like they are doing with their x-men rights

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by bevins2016

If I were fox I would just pump out a new box set each year and produce steelbooks and milk the cow for all its worth so when Disney gets the rights its worthless. Kind of like they are doing with their x-men rights

They can't do that. They have the right to distribute the films when LucasFilm wants to release them. That's it. It's like signing an agreement with your local body shop for exclusive rights to have your oil changed. They can't force you to bring the car in, can't come change your oil any time they want...but when you do decide to have your oil changed, they get to do it.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

They can't do that. They have the right to distribute the films when LucasFilm wants to release them. That's it. It's like signing an agreement with your local body shop for exclusive rights to have your oil changed. They can't force you to bring the car in, can't come change your oil any time they want...but when you do decide to have your oil changed, they get to do it.

Exactly.
Fox is in a great situation right now, as they are going to get paid, one way or another. Either by distributing the originals again, or being bought out of the deal by Disney.
So Fox is just waiting by the phone, doing this:

If, and that's a big IF, Disney does plan to buy out Fox, I would love to be a fly on that wall. The clock is ticking to 2020 when Fox would lose the rights on all but EpisodeIV. So I would have to think Fox would, if they were considering a deal, want to do one sooner rather than later. Obviously since Episode VII will be hitting home video by mid 2016(May the 4th anyone?)...and as each year goes by, one would have to think the total dollar amount would go down? Kind of like an aging professional athlete playing out his/her final contract.
It's almost as exciting as waiting for the film.

[HermanTurnip]

Originally Posted by rickah88

What frame is that? Like Ernest said, the "R2 floating through space" is widely known. Are there any pics of this frame? I'd like to see it.

Here, let me Google that for you...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=r2d2+star+trek

[obidawsn]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

As for the new trilogy, Lucas had the outline for the next three films created before the merger, and Iger refused to bite until he saw what he was purchasing. Lucas initially balked, then agreed, allowing three people from Disney to see what LucasFilm had up their sleeve for the new movies. Iger was satisfied, the acquisition went through.

I'm pretty sure Lucas was never reluctant to hand over his outline. In fact, when he was considering selling his company he knew he needed something to help sell it so he came up with his outline to help sell it. It may have been Kathleen Kennedy or Bob Iger's idea, but Lucas agreed to it before he even approached Disney with it officially.

Originally Posted by Scorpion Soldier

Didn't they get numbered after Episode 1 was released? I thought the whole Episode numberings weren't a thing before The Phantom Menace.

As mentioned before, the Episode numbers began with ESB. I remember in the early to mid 90s when there were the first rumors that Lucas was looking at making the prequels and it was mentioned that the original trilogy was always considered IV, V, & VI. I remember that article because I hadn't been into Star Wars as much before that, so it was interesting to me. As much as people like to say Lucas was lying about having ideas for 9 films from the beginning, I believe he, at least, knew he wanted the 6. The reason he didn't put Episode IV on A New Hope to begin with was because he wasn't sure it would be successful enough to make more. In fact, he even had someone write a different sequel that would cost less to make just in case. That's where SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE came from. I always wondered how that book got released, but I recently found an article explaining how it was Lucas' idea for a cheaper sequel in case he didn't have enough for what he wanted to do. But that article also revealed that Lucas hadn't come up with the Luke/Leia brother/sister relationship until he was making ESB and came up with Vader being Luke's father. So that wasn't always planned.

Originally Posted by whbinder

Unfortunately, Fox retains the distribution rights to IV, V and VI for a couple more years and IV long after that. So Disney won't have a chance to release thoe even if they wanted to.

Originally Posted by bevins2016

If I were fox I would just pump out a new box set each year and produce steelbooks and milk the cow for all its worth so when Disney gets the rights its worthless. Kind of like they are doing with their x-men rights

They only own the rights to distribute them, but only if Lucasfilm (now Disney) wants to. They only have rights, not control. Disney proved that when they canceled the 3D releases of Episode II & III. Granted, they may have not been finished, but I'm pretty sure they were or, at least, nearly were complete. It's no different than their deal with the Marvel movies. Paramount had distribution rights to Iron Man, Iron Man 2 & Thor, but it was Marvel who had the control of when they would be released. I think now, even, Disney got the distribution rights to those movies. Whether Fox will be willing to sell their rights to Star Wars is another question. But I'd they aren't, they definitely wouldn't be stupid enough to pass up the money that would come from it.

I just wonder how that will make the new Star Wars movies. It was always iconic that the Star Wars movies started with the Fox fanfare. In fact, there was a bit of history to it as Star Wars brought it back after they had stopped using it. Even the first note of the Star Wars opening credits is the same as the final note of the fanfare, and the fanfare has been included in the soundtracks because they were so connected. That will definitely be missed, especially if Disney gets the distribution rights back for the originals. I would have to assume that the movies will only have the Lucasfilm logo at the beginning just like the Marvel movies only have the Marvel logo. Though Marvel now has their own fanfare whereas Lucasfilm never did. It would be interesting if they had Williams create one.

[Brian81]

If the originals were released, you'd see a flood of the special editions on eBay...

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by obidawsn

I'm pretty sure Lucas was never reluctant to hand over his outline. In fact, when he was considering selling his company he knew he needed something to help sell it so he came up with his outline to help sell it. It may have been Kathleen Kennedy or Bob Iger's idea, but Lucas agreed to it before he even approached Disney with it officially.

The reality of giving up control weighed on [Lucas], though. At the end of every week before she flew home to Los Angeles, Kennedy says, she asked Lucas how he was feeling. Sometimes he seemed at peace. Other times, not. “I’m sure he paused periodically to question whether he was really ready to walk away,” she says.

At first Lucas wouldn’t even turn over his rough sketches of the next three Star Wars films. When Disney executives asked to see them, he assured them they would be great and said they should just trust him. “Ultimately you have to say, ‘Look, I know what I’m doing. Buying my stories is part of what the deal is.’ I’ve worked at this for 40 years, and I’ve been pretty successful,” Lucas says. “I mean, I could have said, ‘Fine, well, I’ll just sell the company to somebody else.’ ”

Once Lucas got assurances from Disney in writing about the broad outlines of the deal, he agreed to turn over the treatments—but insisted they could only be read by Iger, Horn, and Kevin Mayer, Disney’s executive vice president for corporate strategy. “We promised,” says Iger. “We had to sign an agreement.”

When Iger finally got a look at the treatments, he was elated. “We thought from a storytelling perspective they had a lot of potential,” he says.

At the end of October, Iger arranged for Lucas to fly down to Disney’s Burbank headquarters and sign the papers. He thought Lucas seemed melancholy. “When he put that pen to the piece of paper, I didn’t detect a hesitation,” Iger says. “But I did detect there was a lot of emotion. He was saying goodbye.”

-- BusinessWeek

http://www.businessweek.com/articles...r-star-wars#p1

I've had to quote that article so many times over the last 15 months, I might as well just have it constantly open as a tab in my browser.

[thegoat]

Originally Posted by Rambaldi47

In a perfect world, Disney actually would remove the prequels from canon and remake them. If only...

One of the things that worked against the prequels was the lack of dramatic tensions. We knew what was going to happen to every major character before the first film ever came out. There weren't very many twists and turns that we could take. Would you want to watch another full trilogy based on that same, decided storyline?

[chip75]

Just in case this hasn't been posted.

Star Wars: Force for Change - A Message from J.J. Abrams - YouTube

Star Wars fans, movie lovers, and dreamers, this is it. The return of the most beloved franchise of all time, and we're excited to share it with you in the biggest way possible: by giving you the chance to be immortalized as a member of the Star Wars universe. You and one lucky friend will be flown out to London, where you’ll go behind-the-scenes on the closed set of Star Wars: Episode VII as our VIP guests. You'll watch the filming and meet the newest members of the cast, but that's not all. You'll also be in the movie! You will be transformed by our makeup and costume teams into a Star Wars character to be filmed for an actual scene in Episode VII.

[Dotpattern]

Originally Posted by thegoat

One of the things that worked against the prequels was the lack of dramatic tensions. We knew what was going to happen to every major character before the first film ever came out. There weren't very many twists and turns that we could take. Would you want to watch another full trilogy based on that same, decided storyline?

I think it's still possible to tell an engrossing story even when you know what the final outcome is going to be. X-Men First Class, Apollo 13 and Titanic are good examples of that.

[BenjaminG]

Originally Posted by obidawsn

Disney proved that when they canceled the 3D releases of Episode II & III. Granted, they may have not been finished, but I'm pretty sure they were or, at least, nearly were complete.

Episode II was finished, and it was shown in, I believe Germany at a Star Wars convention. I understand that Episode III was started, but to be honest I'd be very surprised to confirm that they didn't finish the job.

[Falaskan]

Ep1 in 3D sucked. Disney probably wants to do this right.

[Gold Ranger]

Why do people keep saying that JJ is doing all 3 new episodes? The original announcement was for Episode 7 only. And that each Episode would have different directors like the original trilogy.

[stvn1974]

If they do have different directors for each episode then I hope David Lynch does the last one since the world missed out on him doing Return Of The Jedi.

[Thomas Guycott]

Originally Posted by stvn1974

If they do have different directors for each episode then I hope David Lynch does the last one since the world missed out on him doing Return Of The Jedi.

I know he would have kept the weirdness reigned in, but that still would have been amazing to see.

[stvn1974]

Originally Posted by Thomas Guycott

I know he would have kept the weirdness reigned in, but that still would have been amazing to see.

Instead of Luke and Leia being brother and sister we would find out that they were actually the same person. Plus just imagine the Ewok carnage in the battle on Endor.

[thegoat]

Originally Posted by Dotpattern

I think it's still possible to tell an engrossing story even when you know what the final outcome is going to be. X-Men First Class, Apollo 13 and Titanic are good examples of that.

I agree that it could be fun if the prequel remakes were approached with a totally blank page, but I fear that at this point it would just take the many parts of the prequels do work and just change the characters around a bit to fit better with the OT. For example, we might still have Qui-gon and Dooku, but Obi-wan would be trained by Yoda. Anakin would be a little bit older in Ep I and have his Clone Wars personality.