Back in 1997, George Lucas re-released the original Star Wars trilogy in digitally altered “special editions,” and asserted that these were the only “true” editions of the classic films. The original, unaltered versions became rare — you can find them on VHS, and they are included on a DVD release (though the transfer is poor), and there are some original 35mm prints floating around, but fans have been desperate for Lucasfilm to restore and re-release the unaltered versions on Blu-ray. While we wait for something that may never come, one anonymous group has uncovered an original 35mm print and cleaned it up.
As was widely expected, Star Wars: The Force Awakens passed Avatar as the highest grossing movie of all-time on Wednesday morning. It was a record many, including George Lucas, thought would never be broken; The Force Awakens did it in just 20 da
George Lucas recently commented about why he walked away from Star Wars and it’s all your fault. In a new video interview for Vanity Fair, the Star Wars creator voiced some of his frustrations with the past of the franchise and his hopes for the future, yielding some uncharacteristically candid soundbites.
Jurassic World recently set the record for the biggest opening weekend at the box office with $209 million. But, did you know that Return of the Jedi once held that record in 1983 with just $23 million. That’s just one of the facts packed into the latest episode of You Think You Know Movies, which looks at the finale of the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi!
When Disney bought George Lucas’ company, they got more than the buildings, computers, droids, and the ‘Star Wars’ intellectual property. They also got George Lucas’ unused ideas for future ‘Star Wars’ movies. Though Lucas had insisted for years that ‘Revenge of the Sith’ was his final ‘Star Wars’ film, that didn’t stop him from brainstorming a few other potential stories that could be set after the events of ‘Return of the Jedi’ (and, I assume, mostly involve Jar-Jar Binks wandering the universe and getting into “hilarious” misadventures).
Last month, George Lucas was asked if he had seen the ‘Star Wars: Episode 7’ trailer, and what his reaction was. He said he hadn’t watched the ‘Force Awakens’ trailer, had no plans to and was “not really” interested in the movie. We made him sad, we wrote at the time. But, maybe it wasn’t us that made him sad. While out promoting his new animated movie ‘Strange Magic’, Lucas reveals that he himself wanted to direct ‘Star Wars: Episode 7’.
Did you know that in 'Empire Strikes Back' they used potatoes to stand-in for asteroids? Or, that Sir Alec Guinness was paid millions of dollars for five hours of work as Obi-Wan Kenobi? Well, now you can test your 'Star Wars' knowledge with the latest entry in our video series "You Think You Know Movies?"
The trailer for ‘Strange Magic’ boasts that the film comes “from the mind of George Lucas.” That great big brain has dreamed up some of the greatest movies of all time. But it’s also produced its fair share of clunkers as well. (Apologies, ‘Radioland Murders’ devotees.) It’s unfair to write off a movie based on a 150-second trailer, but so far, ‘Strange Magic’ looks a lot closer to the latter than the former. Whoa, this looks insane.