Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Science Fiction Discussion => Topic started by: Heradel on January 28, 2010, 11:05:14 PM
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Not the Fairy movie bit. Slightly more acceptable if it's the original theatrical prints.
It's been an interesting period for George Lucas watchers. First came the Star Wars creator's admission that it might be time to trot out his space opera series on the big screen once again - this time in 3D - in the wake of Avatar's spectacular box office take. Then, earlier this week, bloggers began to pick up on a new project which looks likely to be the next to emerge from LucasFilm, a CGI fantasy about fairies.
Not too many details have yet emerged of the latter movie, which has gone into preproduction at Skywalker ranch in California, with Lucas taking an executive producer's role. Kevin Monroe of TMNT (the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated reboot) is directing from a script by David Berenbaum of Elf and The Spiderwick Chronicles fame. As a LucasFilm project, it's likely that Lucas came up with the original idea: If so, the movie would mark a rare foray outside the Star Wars and Indiana Jones universes for the film-maker.
While the fairies project is still firmly under wraps, Lucas did speak to Access Hollywood earlier this month to talk how Avatar's spectacular success has reignited a long-held desire to bring all six Star Wars movies - and yes, that does mean the Phantom Menace et al - back to cinemas in stereoscopic vision.
"I liked it," Lucas said, in reference to James Cameron's megalith. "I'm happy it's so successful, and worked very well in 3D. Haven't been a big fan of 3D, but that movie definitely improves in the field of 3D.
"We've been looking for years and years and years of trying to take Star Wars and put it in 3D," he added. "But the technology hasn't been there. We've been struggling with it, but I think this will be a new impetus to make that happen."
Of course, Star Wars has already been back on the big screen once before, in the mid 90s, when Lucas delivered new versions of the wonderful original trilogy with - in most cases - utterly superfluous and often hugely jarring CGI additions. One can only hope that Lucas swallows his pride this time around and gets his minions at Industrial Light and Magic (who also helped out on Avatar) to produce special effects work which actually blends into the style of the original films. Let's lose the appalling scene in which Han Solo meets a CGI Jabba in Star Wars (I refuse to call it A New Hope), the horrendously irritating digitised band in Return of the Jedi, not to mention the completely unnecessary addition of a beak and tentacles to the Sarlacc, which was always far more terrifying as simply a gap-toothed maw in the desert.
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Oh. My. Deity.
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So...now we might get the Really Special Editions?
Ugh. I'm ready for George to hire someone else to write and direct new SW films. After he gives them a three page plot outline for each or whatever.
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He should have been put out to pasture at least ten years ago. Now it's time to just shoot him.
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He should have been put out to pasture at least ten years ago. Now it's time to just shoot him.
Do I hear a volunteer?
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To channel the Fountainhead here, the fruits of a person's labor and creativity belong to them and not to society. Let Old George do what he wants. If you don't think you like it, don't see it.
Though yes, I do get that it's all just in good fun and lighthearted SF conversation. But I thought I'd add my two cents anyway.
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To channel the Fountainhead here, the fruits of a person's labor and creativity belong to them and not to society. Let Old George do what he wants. If you don't think you like it, don't see it.
Though yes, I do get that it's all just in good fun and lighthearted SF conversation. But I thought I'd add my two cents anyway.
Ok, it's his creative work, but it's our childhoods. Han shoots first. It was nice to watch in theaters, but the extended editions did not actually make them better.
And Rand was wrong — the fruits of everyone's labour either return to dust or go into the public domain. Or at least they should (http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/29/secret-copyright-tre-4.html).
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So what's the threshold at which point someone's own individual intellectual property is culturally important enough to become the property of society as a whole?
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One more "special edition" and I'll be in court pointing out where on the doll George touched my childhood memories.
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One more "special edition" and I'll be in court pointing out where on the doll George touched my childhood memories.
LOL. Literally.
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So what's the threshold at which point someone's own individual intellectual property is culturally important enough to become the property of society as a whole?
Life of the Author + 70 years or 120 years. Look, I'm not advocating that we actually seize the copyrights or enjoin him from further derivative works, but I think griping about the pillaging of our communal childhoods is well within the bounds of public discourse. Nothing will be added by making it 3D, and if that includes redoing all of the miniature work in CGI then what is the point? It was an amazing bit of space opera with groundbreaking special effects (and notably, a much better plot than Avatar. Not That That Is Hard.), and things tend to get worse when you try to improve the original work. Look at the butcherings of Shakespeare that the Victorians did. The point is that he shouldn't, and that every time he tries it gets worse.
There's only one real counter example, which is Blade Runner, for which the latter Director's cut was a vast improvement from the print run (which the studio butchered). I'd even argue that the Final cut is better than the Director's cut. But Ridley Scott was just finally pulling his version of the film from the footage, not adding unnecessary footage. (He didn't have full control over the Director's Cut, and let's face it, he's a much better director than Lucas.)
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Look, I'm not advocating that we actually seize the copyrights or enjoin him from further derivative works,...
Maybe that's exactly what we should be doing. I remember my free sample issue of PC Accelerator happened to be the "Episode 1" issue, and one editorial comment went something like: "Episode 1 sucked. It sucked so bad that we considered suing George Lucas for custody of Star Wars as he is no longer a fit parent for the series." :D
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Was it an episode of Escape Pod that had the story about copyrights being threatened to extend for perpetuity? or was that Drabblecast? Drawing a blank here, just that this discussion brought it to mind.
Was an interesting story because it speculated on what indefinite copyright would do to human creativity.
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Was it an episode of Escape Pod that had the story about copyrights being threatened to extend for perpetuity? or was that Drabblecast? Drawing a blank here, just that this discussion brought it to mind.
Was an interesting story because it speculated on what indefinite copyright would do to human creativity.
I don't know about here, but Spider Robinson's "Melancholy Elephants (http://www.spiderrobinson.com/podcast.html#SOTW17)" is about exactly that. The link is to Spider's podcast page, and he reads the story himself. I love this story, and have quoted it several times as justification to keep copyrights from being overly long.
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Was it an episode of Escape Pod that had the story about copyrights being threatened to extend for perpetuity? or was that Drabblecast? Drawing a blank here, just that this discussion brought it to mind.
Was an interesting story because it speculated on what indefinite copyright would do to human creativity.
I don't know about here, but Spider Robinson's "Melancholy Elephants (http://www.spiderrobinson.com/podcast.html#SOTW17)" is about exactly that. The link is to Spider's podcast page, and he reads the story himself. I love this story, and have quoted it several times as justification to keep copyrights from being overly long.
Oh yes, thank you. that's it. I think it was on StarShipSofa a few months back
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there was an EP story about copyrights i think...
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there was an EP story about copyrights i think...
There was Patent Infringement (http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=2647.0;all) about, well, patent infringement. It's not copyrights, but it's what I thought of when I saw your post.
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The thing I always found fascinating about George Lucas was the "lightning in a bottle" aspect of his work. That despite his shortcomings as a writer and a director, he managed to create a piece of modern folklore with his Star Wars movies. It shouldn't have happened; he somehow managed to do it completely BY ACCIDENT. And as often is the case with lightning, you can't get it to strike twice. And if you actively TRY to get it strike twice, you're going to fail.
Doesn't stop him from trying, apparently...
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there was an EP story about copyrights i think...
There was Patent Infringement (http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=2647.0;all) about, well, patent infringement. It's not copyrights, but it's what I thought of when I saw your post.
yeah. that one. :P
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Was it an episode of Escape Pod that had the story about copyrights being threatened to extend for perpetuity? or was that Drabblecast? Drawing a blank here, just that this discussion brought it to mind.
Was an interesting story because it speculated on what indefinite copyright would do to human creativity.
I think I heard the same one...on starship sofa, I believe.
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Was it an episode of Escape Pod that had the story about copyrights being threatened to extend for perpetuity? or was that Drabblecast? Drawing a blank here, just that this discussion brought it to mind.
Was an interesting story because it speculated on what indefinite copyright would do to human creativity.
I think I heard the same one...on starship sofa, I believe.
THANK YOU. Quite correct. I've only ever heard two episodes of SS, and this happened to be on one of them.
Spider Robinson story actually.
http://www.spiderrobinson.com/melancholyelephants.html
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wow that's really funny.
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off subject but, would Howard the Duck be better in 3D, or worse?
Could it be worse?
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off subject but, would Howard the Duck be better in 3D, or worse?
Could it be worse?
3D would neither add to nor detract from the Howard the Duck movie. It would suck just the same as it ever did.
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Someone shoot this redacted for politeness idiot now!
I am all for introducing Sci-Fi to a younger generation, but why does everyone think that means you have to dumb things down.
http://io9.com/5496171/george-lucas-wants-to-make-jedi-babies-tv-series (http://io9.com/5496171/george-lucas-wants-to-make-jedi-babies-tv-series)
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http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/laugh-it-up-fuzzball-lucas-plans-star-wars-comedy-series/?src=tptw
If you know the scene in “Star Wars” where a storm trooper accidentally bonks his head on a Death Star doorway, or you stuck around with the franchise through Hayden Christensen’s performances in the last two prequels, you have probably laughed at George Lucas’s movies for reasons he never intended. Now you have his permission to find the “Star Wars” universe funny.
On Monday, Lucasfilm Animation said that it was preparing a new series that will offer a comedic perspective on “Star Wars,” with help from Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, who have frequently satirized that science-fiction franchise on their Adult Swim animated show “Robot Chicken.” (Without them, our lives would be sadly lacking this fake commercial for Admiral Ackbar cereal.)
The new series, for which a title and a broadcaster have not yet been announced, will be produced by Jennifer Hill (“The Backyardigans”) and directed by Todd Grimes (“Back at the Barnyard”). Brendan Hay, who has written for “The Simpsons” and produced for “The Daily Show,” will also be a writer for this series, Lucasfilm said.
In a statement, Mr. Green said: “The ‘Star Wars’ universe is so dense and rich; it’s crazy to think that there aren’t normal, mundane everyday problems in a world so well-defined. And it’s even crazier to think of what those problems might be, since it’s all set in a galaxy far, far away. What do these characters do when they’re not overthrowing Empires?”
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^ I'm actually kinda down to check that out. If Seth Green is helping it shouldn't be too terrible. Might actually be funny.
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<Evil Welsh Accent>
Your faith in Seth Green will be your undoing, my young apprentice.
</Evil Welsh Accent>
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The man is unstoppable! Check out his latest attempt at "originality":
http://gizmodo.com/5707079/george-lucas-plans-to-resuscitate-dead-movie-stars
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If I get a penny for everytime I need to say to SF outsiders "STAR WARS IS NOT SCIENCE FICTION"....
I'll have my own seaside resort by now.