Merrick here...
THE PHANTOM MENACE 3D conversion hits theaters today, and, accordingly, The Hollywood Reporter has a chat with George Lucas about many things STAR WARS. 'Tis an interesting insight into Lucas and his thought process, which I strongly encourage fans to read - for better worse.
Choice Lucas quotelets include:
The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom.
I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down.
[EDIT]
If you look at Blade Runner, it’s been cut sixteen ways from Sunday and there are all kinds of different versions of it. Star Wars, there’s basically one version — it just keeps getting improved a little bit as we move forward. …
I take exception to the BLADE RUNNER comparisons - the political situation/history behind that film is extremely different from the revisionism in which Lucas dabbles. You can find the entire THR piece HERE.
With that, I'm now out the door to see TPM 3D. I can't help it. I just can't help it. I feel like a dirty whore whose beatings await...
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