Post by Ragingblues on Aug 16, 2010 18:56:38 GMT -5
Deleted Scene Leads A Slew of Good News for "Star Wars" Fans
movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-deleted-scene-leads-a-slew-of-good-news-for-star-wars-fans.html
Amid the hordes of fans dressed in Boba Fett and Darth Maul costumes, there were two big surprises unveiled at the annual Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, Florida this past weekend: All six "Star Wars" films will be released on Blu-ray in the fall of 2011 and, most exciting, a never-before-seen clip of "Return of the Jedi" was screened for fans in attendance.
Nothing, not even three full-length prequels, can motivate joy from "Star Wars" fans quite like any news that concerns the original trilogy of films, and deleted scenes are the Holy Grail. The much-anticipated scene was revealed over the weekend by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas himself during an interview with Jon Stewart. The scene was originally intended to be the segue between the opening scene of "Jedi," which has Darth Vader on the new Death Star, and Luke's rescue mission of Han Solo on Tatooine. The scene features Vader trying to communicate with his son, Luke, through the Force, as Luke ignites his light saber for the first time. Now that this scene has been rescued from the cutting-room floor, we know for sure that Luke had to build his new light saber himself and not just pick one up at a galactic general store.
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas, in an interview with the New York Times, explained why he waited so long to do the Blu-ray release: "We've been wanting to do it as soon as we possibly could, but we just wanted to do it when enough people would be able to buy it and see it. We came out with 'Star Wars' right at the beginning of VHS and we sold [only] 300,000 copies." The decision, according to Lucas, was less a cruel deprivation tactic and more a practice of good old-fashioned capitalism: "We learned from that experience that if you're too early in the marketplace, there's just not enough demand for it." (A prime example of Lucas' hesitation: The original "Star Wars" was not released on DVD until 2004.)
George Lucas has become a master of repackaging his original three films ("Star Wars: A New Hope," "The Empire Strikes Back," and "Return of the Jedi") for resale. When the Blu-rays are released in 2011, between home-video format changes, digital remastering, and Special Editions, this will mark the sixth time many fans (including this one) have purchased the same films.
The big selling point this time around -- aside from the obvious upgrade to high-definition Blu-ray -- are the additional deleted scenes. Lucas knows that fans desperately want to see these very well-known (at least among "Star Wars" fanatics) additional scenes from the first three films, and he has been tight-fisted about releasing them. In the past, Lucas has created buzz reinserting and enhancing scenes into the 1997 Special Editions, including the famous Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt meeting from the first "Star Wars." That same year, Lucas included an early "Star Wars" scene of Luke and his friend Biggs on a 1997 CD-ROM.
Fans who will be lining up for the new Blu-rays can only hope that, in addition to this just-released light saber scene, the Blu-rays also include the infamous sandstorm scene from "Return of the Jedi," the Wampa attack on Echo Base from "The Empire Strikes Back," and, yes, the kind-of-creepy passionate kiss Luke and Leia share in "Empire" (seen here at the 55-second point).
Ken
movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-deleted-scene-leads-a-slew-of-good-news-for-star-wars-fans.html
Amid the hordes of fans dressed in Boba Fett and Darth Maul costumes, there were two big surprises unveiled at the annual Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, Florida this past weekend: All six "Star Wars" films will be released on Blu-ray in the fall of 2011 and, most exciting, a never-before-seen clip of "Return of the Jedi" was screened for fans in attendance.
Nothing, not even three full-length prequels, can motivate joy from "Star Wars" fans quite like any news that concerns the original trilogy of films, and deleted scenes are the Holy Grail. The much-anticipated scene was revealed over the weekend by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas himself during an interview with Jon Stewart. The scene was originally intended to be the segue between the opening scene of "Jedi," which has Darth Vader on the new Death Star, and Luke's rescue mission of Han Solo on Tatooine. The scene features Vader trying to communicate with his son, Luke, through the Force, as Luke ignites his light saber for the first time. Now that this scene has been rescued from the cutting-room floor, we know for sure that Luke had to build his new light saber himself and not just pick one up at a galactic general store.
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas, in an interview with the New York Times, explained why he waited so long to do the Blu-ray release: "We've been wanting to do it as soon as we possibly could, but we just wanted to do it when enough people would be able to buy it and see it. We came out with 'Star Wars' right at the beginning of VHS and we sold [only] 300,000 copies." The decision, according to Lucas, was less a cruel deprivation tactic and more a practice of good old-fashioned capitalism: "We learned from that experience that if you're too early in the marketplace, there's just not enough demand for it." (A prime example of Lucas' hesitation: The original "Star Wars" was not released on DVD until 2004.)
George Lucas has become a master of repackaging his original three films ("Star Wars: A New Hope," "The Empire Strikes Back," and "Return of the Jedi") for resale. When the Blu-rays are released in 2011, between home-video format changes, digital remastering, and Special Editions, this will mark the sixth time many fans (including this one) have purchased the same films.
The big selling point this time around -- aside from the obvious upgrade to high-definition Blu-ray -- are the additional deleted scenes. Lucas knows that fans desperately want to see these very well-known (at least among "Star Wars" fanatics) additional scenes from the first three films, and he has been tight-fisted about releasing them. In the past, Lucas has created buzz reinserting and enhancing scenes into the 1997 Special Editions, including the famous Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt meeting from the first "Star Wars." That same year, Lucas included an early "Star Wars" scene of Luke and his friend Biggs on a 1997 CD-ROM.
Fans who will be lining up for the new Blu-rays can only hope that, in addition to this just-released light saber scene, the Blu-rays also include the infamous sandstorm scene from "Return of the Jedi," the Wampa attack on Echo Base from "The Empire Strikes Back," and, yes, the kind-of-creepy passionate kiss Luke and Leia share in "Empire" (seen here at the 55-second point).
Ken
