(Oh god, no. Please make him stop.)
Meh. Lucas has been talking about this for years. If he does it, who cares? And if he doesn’t, again, who cares?
Not just talking about it, there is some footage that has been shown as proof-of-concept of the software that’s in development to do this sort of thing.
It’s a really neat process, if they can get all the kinks out of it.
Converting a 2D image into stereo is an interesting exercise – you’re producing an image of how a scene would look if viewed from a couple of inches further left or right. (Parallax shift.) I like to do this with still photos. Trying to find an example accessible from work, all I can find is an incomplete version of the first photo of my daughter from when she was still covered in goo. (The finished version looks much better, of course.)
The most challenging thing about doing this is reproducing information that is not there – parts of the background obscured by objects in the foreground.
My impression is that the software has a similar interface as Rotoshop, and objects are isolated and given depth information from which to do the parallax shift for the second image. It must also automate the filling in of background bits algorithmically from adjacent frames. Smart.
If it’s economically (and practically) feasible to do this, it’d make a great BluRay special feature, once stereo-capable sets are relatively common at home. I don’t see myself going to the theatre for it, though.
If there’s one thing Lucas can do well, it’s pushing the boundaries of special effects processing.
Milk that cow! Drain her dry!
I think it’d be fun to watch. But, then again, I’m the guy who likes colorization as long as it looks like the film wasn’t originally black-and-white. But, since stereographic conversion is new, it may look as bad as those early colorizations.
Will Han shoot first(only, really) this time?
I think Lucas should let some other director (Spielberg perhaps) do some Star Wars movies set in another time that the extended universe crap has not yet covered.
2-D to 3-D conversion worked well with The Nightmare Before Christmas. Since I never liked Star Wars much in the first place, I’m not going to get the vapors about “tampering”.
I loved Star Wars, and I can’t see any reason to bitch about the fact that the guy who created it and owns the rights to it is considering making a 3D version.
Note that for all the moaning that purists do about Lucas’ past revisions, the original version is still commercially available, so it’s not like anything has been lost.
That’s the thing, though. It’s not. Lucas re-did the original trilogy once already (the Special Editions in the 90s), and changed/added a number of scenes that, while not major, are still very aggravating and make them worse films.
And then he released the Special Editions on DVD, and not the originals. And when fanboys whined and complained enough, he finally came out saying that the masters for the originals were now lost, and when they whined more, he finally kinda-sorta acquiesced and put a crappy, non-widescreen transfer of the laserdisc version of the original in as a special feature on the Special Edition DVD. The only way to see not-sucky versions of the actual, unaltered, original trilogy now is to watch them on VHS or, shudder, Laserdisc.
So, while I guess the 3-D thing would be interesting to see, my personal worry is that George will follow it up by claiming that 3-D was how he “originally intended” the trilogy, and proceed to discontinue even the slightly altered Special Edition DVDs and make only the 3-D version available. And then, I dunno, track down and kill everybody who saw the originals.
It’s very annoying.
:D:D:D
Most people know this but he had other directors for episodes 5 and 6.
Of course now someone will come along and tell me that doesn’t matter since he told those guys what to do. 
While watching Avatar, it crossed my mind many times that it would be really cool to see Star Wars (Original Trilogy) in 3D – if it’s as good as the 3D ILM did for Avatar.
So, I’m for it, but only if George doesn’t go tweaking story lines…
New Zealand’s WETA (of Lord of the Rings fame) was principally responsible for the CGI in Avatar. ILM came in near the end to help with a few scenes.
How can it be as good - Avatar was filmed specifically to work in 3D and to take full advantage of it - the composition, camera angle and movement, set design, etc was all carefully planned.
The Star Wars footage will have none of these advantages - I think that means that either the 3D effect won’t feel very compelling, or that they’ll have to digitally recompose a lot - and I think that will hurt.
I’m just casting my mind back to that scene they re-jigged where Han talks to Jabba the Hut - I know technology has moved on a lot since that was done, but it isn’t so much the technology that lets it down (well, it does, but that’s not all) - it’s that the effects were brute-forced into footage that doesn’t comfortably accommodate them - Despite whatever care may have been taken with that example, it just all feels wrong - Han doesn’t seem to be looking at Jabba when he addresses him.
Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, but I think however much 3D effect Lucas manages to slap onto the thing, and regardless of the technical excellence with which it is applied, it’s going to create a less compelling viewing experience.
I know! Let’s totally REMAKE Star Wars with a new cast, as a 3D movie!!!
Then watch them cast entirely the wrong people for the wrong reasons and complete the mission of driving a stake through the heart of every SW fan.
Hmm. You must have seen a leaked copy of Lucasfilm’s longterm business plan.
I was thinking along similar lines:
Every now and then, Turner Classic Movies (or is it American Movie Classic?) puts out a short documentary explaining the difference between “wide screen/letterbox” and “Pan & Scan” formats.
Pan & scan is where they have to lop off the right and left ends of a film to get it to fit on a TV screen.
In that documentary, there are interviews with folks who are obviously avid lovers of the art of film making, and they were mostly negative about the “Pan & Scan” method, discussing how it interferes with the atmosphere of a particular scene, and how it may change the look and message a director was aiming for.
I’m sure there are Star Wars purists who won’t like the results of whatever compromises had to be made during the conversion process.
Many of the action scenes in Star Wars would be amazing in 3D if they find a way of making it work. Plus I would love to watch the OT on the big screen in any form. So overall I am kind of excited about this.