Harry here.... So the headline grabbed ya, here's what it is all about...
Hey Harry, a friend of mine told me tonight that he saw an interview with
Jimmy Smits tonight on Fox News. Now according to my friend (who I have seen
wrong only about four times) he said that Lucas had filmed some ADDITIONAL
footage for SW: A New Hope. Appearently they filmed some scenes of Smits as
Organa just before the Alderran is destroyed. Or something like that. You
know what it's like having to hear news from "a friend of a friend."
Anyways, thought this might be something you might want to look into.
Then WizardX sent in the following
Just got the latest Maxim in the mail today, and they interviewed Lucas. I still remember the article a year or two back where the ILM guy claimed to be working on an ultra-special edition of the original trilogy. The answer that Lucas gives when asked about this rumor is fascinating in its extreme dodginess.
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Maxim: There's another rumor that you're planning an additional release of the original trilogy with even more new material than the Special Editions. Why are you endlessly tinkering with your own films?
Lucas: Again, I see these as one 12-hour movie, so I'm still trying to get it finished. The Special Edition was done because those films were not finished. I never really got to do what I wanted because of lack of funds or lack of time. By rereleasing them, I was able to fix a lot of the things that had been bothering me ever since I made them. If the films are ever released again -- and I'm not sure they're going to be -- it'll purely be to put them out there for a new audience.
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I guess Maxim was feeling nice, since even Baba Wawa would notice Lucas in no way gave a straight answer.
As an interesting little addition, there's this exchange between Maxim and Jimmy Smits. It's quite possible he's 100% joking, but it's interesting that *Smits* sort of touches on the topic on his own.
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Maxim: Is it a bummer knowing your character will one day be destroyed, along with an entire planet, by the Death Star?
Smits: You just know it'll be horrific! George actually told me, "I'm trying to figure out if I can add a little shot of you [in the original Star Wars] going, 'Aaaaaaaaaah! It's the Death Star! Aaaaaaah! Alderaan's gone!'"
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Anyway, thought you might find this interesting if no one else has sent it in.
WizardX
Harry here again... I am just hoping and praying that Lucas will be considerate enough of Star Wars loyalists to put out the original editions, with the original sound mixes and none of the clean up. Ya know... I prefer them. It is the reason I collect 16mm film prints... I like film. I like the scratches and the optical sound. And most of all I like that only time changes it. To think that people that have come about in the DVD age won't be able to see the original STAR WARS, before it said Episode IV: A NEW HOPE. When those effects geniuses were banging their heads against the walls trying to reinvent how effects were made. Those mistakes are important. It would be like the boating industry trying to erase the TITANIC, that mistake, that tragedy... That's the reason why things changed. If you look at Harryhausen's earliest work, and you learn why he went to England to make the jump to color... Well... That helps to possibly innovate future developments, but by erasing the best efforts of past filmmakers, the future filmmakers may never see how films evolved at all.
Now, never mind how utterly fucked up beyond belief reaction shots of the dying people on that planet would be. Right there in CARRIE FISHER's face was the terror, the tragedy and the loss... Obi-Wan feeling millions of lives lost light years away... That is the power of the loss. And if you introduce the planet in the next film, then it will add the weight necessary to further the impact in watching the series sequentially. Frankly, I don't think any of us can stop Lucas once he sets his mind on fucking with STAR WARS further, but I just hope he will listen to fans and put the ORIGINAL RELEASE VERSIONS on some DVD at Some Point SOON!
