Lucas & Spielberg

[airwedge1]

George Lucas needs to announce star wars exclusively on blu ray as a retaliation to the paramount announcement. Then you will really see things get interesting.

[GreenMotion]

Wow, what a day this has been. For once I wasn't able to check blu-ray.com during the day (due to work commitments) and when I got to it, I read all the news about Paramount.

The funny thing is that a handful of people could really swing this around. All that is needed is for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to go exclusively blu-ray.

I know Lucas wanted to stay out of all of this, but let's hope he changes his mind and makes a surprise announcement sometime soon.

[Irrob]

No, he doesn't. The tide of the "war" has not turned. It merely got interesting. Fox's announcement was enough to counter Paramounts bombshell. Let's not fall sleep on how impressive the Fox/MGM library is.

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

If Lucas and Spielberg were to turn to blu-ray permanently, HD-DVD will most definitely without a doubt lose sales and eventually go bankrupt

[nhaase]

Originally Posted by Irrob

No, he doesn't. The tide of the "war" has not turned. It merely got interesting. Fox's announcement was enough to counter Paramounts bombshell. Let's not fall sleep on how impressive the Fox/MGM library is.

We all knew Fox was going to come back, and with them rushing out today's news to counter Paramount, you can tell they are pissed, and it seems like they will be taking no prisoners now. The last thing they want is HD DVD and it's lack of copy protection, so now they've got to just be catching their breath like Ace Ventura after his reciting the history of Ray Finkle.

Hopefully they'll recruit the other studios to go on the warpath with them, like getting Disney to make an earlier venture into their classic animations vault. My mom gets those movies, and when I told her about Sleeping Beauty coming out next year, she got excited, as she's seen BD and knows that it's the highest quality she can get.

[radagast]

Originally Posted by Blu-ray Fanatic

If Lucas and Spielberg were to turn to blu-ray permanently, HD-DVD will most definitely without a doubt lose sales and eventually go bankrupt

Spielberg seems to already be there. Maybe while they are working on Indy Jones 4 together, he can talk Lucas into it. SW is already with Fox, so if Lucas can realize Blu is worthy of his throwing his weight behind it, it could turn out to be big news for Blu.

[akadkins]

Originally Posted by Irrob

No, he doesn't. The tide of the "war" has not turned. It merely got interesting. Fox's announcement was enough to counter Paramounts bombshell. Let's not fall sleep on how impressive the Fox/MGM library is.

No it wasn't - big deal, it is releasing title we already expected to come out on Blu-Ray. Only a bombshell deal that Warner is going exclusive Blu-Ray would counter the news.

The real question - how long of a contract did Paramount sign to go HD-DVD only? 5 years? Lifetime?

[CJ P]

LOL, star wars? Not going to happen. He wants there to be dozens of millions of players out there before he releases it meaning it likely won't come at all until one format his won. He's not going to toss Star Wars out there to sell 300,000 copies just to help a format war.

[victorvondoom88]

I believe the paramount deal didn't include any spielberg titles

Also note that Steven Spielberg is still fence-sitting (although this fall Sony will release in Blu-ray its catalogue title Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, the first of Spielberg's pictures to do so in either format)

[kjacobs03]

Originally Posted by akadkins

The real question - how long of a contract did Paramount sign to go HD-DVD only? 5 years? Lifetime?

It would be kind of funny if Paramount entered into a lifetime HDDVD contract. After HDDVD id dead, they still would not be able to release on blu-ray and could never enter the HD market again. Losing out on hundreds of millions.

Hopefully only a year. I pray only 6 months.

[CJ P]

OMG are you serious. The didn't sign a contract with Blu-Ray to never release on Blu-Ray. If an entity you contracted with ceases to exist, the contract is null. Man, not wonder its hard to take these threads about Parmount seriously.

[Dotpattern]

Originally Posted by CJ P

LOL, star wars? Not going to happen. He wants there to be dozens of millions of players out there before he releases it meaning it likely won't come at all until one format his won. He's not going to toss Star Wars out there to sell 300,000 copies just to help a format war.

CJ P, that stings like a son of a b !tch but unfortunately it's the truth.

[CJ P]

That's largely what he did with DVD even. He waited until there were MILLIONS and MILLIONS of players sold. Someone commented earlier on perhaps AVS when this Paramount thing was jsut a rumor and people thought it was going to be just catalog titles going exclusive to HD-DVD that you need to seel a DVD right when it comes out. If people can't buy it because they don't own that format, they'll have moved on to bigger and better things by the time they finally get that player. May not apply to something star wars, but they still need a critical mass. Lucas would consider it a failure in sales figures if EVERY SINGLE person with a BD playback device bought Star Wars. They sold more than that in pre-orders in the first hour when it came out on DVD.

[Irrob]

Originally Posted by akadkins

No it wasn't - big deal, it is releasing title we already expected to come out on Blu-Ray. Only a bombshell deal that Warner is going exclusive Blu-Ray would counter the news.

And you apparently fell asleep on the scope of Fox/MGM's library. Don't think short-term. Now that Fox has ended their silence, they put to rest all the speculation and doubt. Let the floodgates open in 2008 and beyond. For me, this is far greater news than Paramount going HD DVD.

[darkpoet25]

All the Paramount movies Spielberg directed will still be available on Blu, which is great news. I will be getting my copy of Close Encounters. I just hope that when it does come out, he'll invite Lucas over to his place and show him how great Blu really is, and he will surprise us all with a be all end of all version of Star Wars. Just wishful thinking on my part.

[GreenMotion]

You guys seem to forget that Lucas is a perfectionist and was *still* editing his movies .. 20 years after their initial release. I believe that played a big part in him not wanting to release them to DVD.

Lucas is extremely intelligent and always wanting the best for his movies. So why would he choose HD-DVD over Blu Ray? Also, If I am not mistaking, he released Star Wars to laser disc. I could be wrong but I don't think there were hundreds of millions laser discs on the market!

I truely think he wants whats best for his movies and his vision. So I truely hope he steps in and makes some killer announcements.

[WickyWoo]

I believe that played a big part in him not wanting to release them to DVD.

No, it was simply he was convinced that we'd be into high def media by 2002 at the latest, and wanted to bypass the SD middleman

[zombieking]

Originally Posted by CJ P

LOL, star wars? Not going to happen. He wants there to be dozens of millions of players out there before he releases it meaning it likely won't come at all until one format his won. He's not going to toss Star Wars out there to sell 300,000 copies just to help a format war.

Those movies would help sway new consumers. People would by players just to see them, as well as us early supporters. Prices of players would be even cheaper by the time SW would be available.
I'm just saying titles like this would sell more than a million copies, because you'd have a lot of new supporters

Bring these and LOTR out anytime, people would be saying PARA---who?

[gvortex7]

Just remember people, Indiana Jones is not affected by the exclusivity deal. So, really the only title that I personally will miss is Braveheart.