George Lucas has helped to make some of the greatest movies of all time. The Star Wars Trilogy, Indiana Jones Trilogy, etc., etc. are all part of his catelog. Why won’t he release these classic movies onto the sacred form of DVD? Does anyone know why? I’ve been wondering this since I bought my DVD player about two years ago.
Thanks,
Omega007
I’m not exactly sure where I read this but it said that he wasn’t going to release any of the Star Wars movies on DVD until they are all done and then put them out as a boxed set. My guess would be to make more money. People will buy the movies on VHS and again when they are released on DVD.
That logic sounds faulty from where I sit. Significant numbers of people aren’t going to hold on to 20-year-old technology just to buy Lucas’s latest VHS releases. The DVD format is quickly looking to replace the VHS format, just like the HDTV format will replace NTSC (in this country, at least). Only quicker, because the DVD has market momentum behind it, whereas HDTV does not. (Or does it? Rural Montana isn’t the best place to take the pulse of the nation.) I guess my point is this: Unless Lucas hurries up with the rest of the hextet, he’ll have to forgo the VHS market and go whole-hog DVD just like the rest of us. After all, antique formats don’t sell well to the viewing public (how many 8mms does Blockbuster rent out?).
IIRC, Lucas was a big proponent of the ill-advised and ultimately doomed DiVX technology. He wanted (possibly as a result of the same brain damage that produced midichlorians) to release the movies exclusively on DiVX. However, even then he was saying that he wanted to wait for all of the prequels before release. How much of that was smoke-n-mirrors, I don’t know. It’s certainly no excuse for not releasing the Indiana Jones movies (though he can keep Temple of Doom as far as I’m concerned).
Nope nope nope.
Point one: It was Spielberg who was a proponent for DIVX, not Lucas. Lucas had made no claims either way.
Point two: Lucas is indeed intending on releasing the whole DVD set at the end of making his Star Wars series - but how that’s meant to make him MORE money than releasing them earlier and then re-releasing better versions later, I don’t know. The logic has never made sense to me when people cite greed as his reasoning. Wacky.
Point three: George sees DVD technology as not only a fantastic way to see the sharpest digital visuals possible, and he loves that, but he really likes all the extra features that can be added - and he’s going to really go to town with the Star Wars series; including so much additional material that it will be unprecedentedly cool - like versions of the movies without special effects added, and commentaries from multiple divisions of the crew (and cast?).
That takes a hell of a lot of time to organise - time he doesn’t have when he has the next two Episodes going flat-tack right now, and for the foreseeable future.
That’s why we have to wait.
Having said that, the Phantom Menace DVD is being fast-tracked to be released this year sometime, dates to be confirmed.
I think it’s all about money. Well, mostly about money. I have a good-sized VHS collection. When I finally got a DVD player I started replacing some of my tapes with DVD. (I recently bought To Have and Have Not on VHS and if it’s ever released on DVD I’ll buy it again.) People go nuts over Star Wars. Some people are obsessed by it. ([tangent] There was a debate over “making the Kessel run in 12 parsecs”. In the movie they were talking about how fast the “Falcon” was and in the context of the movie they were using “parsec” as a measure of time. Star Wars fanatics argued that Solo was “joking” to “fool the unsophisticated farm boy”, but that view is unsupported by the scene. I’ve heard that was addressed in one of the fan books – which obviously isn’t in the movie. Really, it’s almost like debating the Bible with fundies! [/tangent]) People bought the VHS tapes when they came out. Then they bought the boxed set. Then they bought the enhanced versions. Then they bought the boxed set of the enhanced versions. When the DVD versions are finally released, people will buy them. And then they’ll buy the boxed set.
George Lucas is a master marketeer. Remember that he took little salary for directing Star Wars, but kept the rights to marketing toys, books, etc. Now that (probably) everyone who has bought the trilogy and TPM who is likely to buy them, there seems little point in delaying their release on DVD. But from what I’ve read in this thread, maybe he wants to release all of the movies at once on DVD. It definitely increases desire among SW fans.
Will I buy the DVDs? I don’t know. I thought TPM sucked rotten eggs out of a dead chicken. Star Wars I know find rather hokey. I hate Ewoks. On the other hand, I did buy the James Bond collections – even those with Roger Moore.