Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
A second The Force Awakens Blu-Ray set is on tap for fall, this time in 3D. The Force Awakens 3D Collector’s Edition features a few new extras, most notably an audio commentary from director J.J. Abrams.
The release, which contains a Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, Digital HD, and DVD, will begin rolling out on October 31 and arrive in the U.S. and Canada on November 15.
No word yet on that rumored prequel 3D set, though.
All three prequel films will be screened in 3D at Celebration Anaheim, we hear from the Star Wars Insider via Yakface.
Although The Phantom Menace 3D went into wide release in February 2012, the remaining 3D releases were “postponed” in early 2013, not long after the Disney sale/Episode VII announcement. Attack of the Clones 3D was shown at Celebration Europe in July of that year, but this will be the first chance for the public to see Revenge.
The original trilogy screenings at Celebration Anaheim will be in standard 2D.
Rumors. Jedi News continues their chat with Jedi Master SQL, this time addressing 3-D and the state of rumormongering.
Whatever. I’m not even sure where this originated, but apparently there are rumors that they may be ‘de-aging’ folks for Episode VII? Sounds more like something born out of speculation – and the early hopes for a Heir to the Empire adaption – than anything truly serious. I wouldn’t put use of digital de-aging techniques totally out of the equation (flashbacks/dreams/visions?) but I don’t put any stock in a whole movie full of it.
Big no. Yes, there are rumors, but no one has yet leaked pictures of the Episode VII Millennium Falcon. Like the one on our earlier post, the ‘leaked’ construction pictures are from The Empire Strikes Back. I mean, come on now. At least try, folks.
A Dutch fansite (in English) noticed that there’s a December 31 date for the 3D Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith at a movie theater chain in the Netherlands. Are these indeed new dates – the rereleases were “postponed” almost a year ago – or just leftover listings from before the plug got pulled? I’m not counting on anything…
David Collins has the ‘ground report’ from Essen, above, as Celebration Europe officially kicks into gear. Of course our news of the day was in regards to The Clone Wars S5 on Blu-ray. The panel itself was recapped by the folks over at Star Wars Underworld.
The folks at StarWars.com recapped Doug Chiang and Iain McCaig. (No, no sequel art! Hey, it was a long shot.) They also live-blogged Anthony Daniels and International Fan Clubs. And the highlights of the Ian McDiarmid event.
Meanwhile, Bleeding Cool’s Craig Skinner was not particularly impressed with Attack of the Clones 3D – though apparently the room was less than optimal.
(You’re following @jamesjawa, right? Other Twitter fan MVPs include @TGP73 and @TheSWU. #StarWarsCelebration is the tag to watch!)
Newswatch! Saturday is the big one, with Lucasfilm president and Episode VII producer Kathleen Kennedy! Her panel begins at 10:30 a.m. CEST (4:30 a.m. EDT. Yes, I will try to be up. On a Saturday. We are born to suffer.) But if we’re going to get any movie news this weekend, it’s probably going to come from her first.
The rest of the day’s not so bad, either. At 12:30 p.m. CEST (6:30 p.m. EDT) Leland Chee will join Pablo Hidalgo for a look at the Holocron. It’s probably the closest Germany is going to get to an EU panel. Of course, it happens to be running against fan’s first look at Rebels – also 12:30 p.m. CEST – with Dave Filoni, our second most likely panel to produce big news. Which one will StarWars.com liveblog? MYSTERY.
There’s a Doug Chiang panel at 3:30 p.m. CEST (9 a.m. CEST,) a Master’s level trivia challenge with Filoni, Hidalgo and Chee at 5:30 p.m. (11 a.m. EDT) and then the night wraps up with Carrie Fisher at 6:00 p.m. CEST (Noon EDT.)
It may not be coming to a theater near you anytime soon, but Attack of the Clones 3D will be heading to Germany for Celebration Europe II in July. Reed today announced that exclusive screenings of the converted film will be shown for ” an extremely limited engagement.”
They’ve also revealed the art show prints, which are now up for pre-order.
Other recent CEII news: Ashley Eckstein will be attending, and there will be a limited edition Her Universe dress and tee avaliable, as well as 200 of the Return of the Jedi necklaces.
StarWars.com has confirmed that the 3-D releases of Episodes II and III have been “postponed.” The entire statement is:
Lucasfilm has decided to postpone this fall’s scheduled release of Star Wars Episodes II and III in 3D. Given the recent development that we are moving forward with a new Star Wars trilogy, we will now focus 100 percent of our efforts on Star Wars: Episode VII in order to ensure the best possible experience for our fans. We will post further information about our 3D release plans at a later date.
While fans saw some of the scenes from Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith in 3D at Celebration VI, so far no work on converting the original trilogy to 3D had been announced. Will the focus on the sequel trilogy mean that plans for their 3D release are also “postponed” or do they factor into the hype for the sequels?
The story was first broken by Nikki Finke at Deadline.
I’d have a hard time getting worked up about this one. Sure, the scenes from AOTC at Celebration were neat, but just as a curiosity. I certainly would have liked to see the Original Trilogy in 3D next year, but perhaps Lucasfilm being cautious about flooding the market – and with a new movie in the pipeline, there’ll be more than enough press and interest in the franchise to go around.
Or, in other words: Congratulations, Spike TV! You enjoy the rights to those movies as long as Lucasfilm (and/or 20th Century Fox?) is contractually obligated to let you have them.
Revenge of the Sith 3D has a new release date, 20th Century Fox announced this week. Attack of the Clones is still set for its original date of September 20, 2013, but Revenge of the Sith has been moved up from October 11 to October 4, putting only two weeks between the rereleases.
AOTC will have some sisterly competition from The Little Mermaid 3D, which comes out only a week before, while ROTS will be facing Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and the Harrison Ford thriller Paranoia.
Literally just announced at the Closing Ceremonies here at Celebration VI: Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith in 3D will be released mere weeks apart next year, and the second Celebration Europe will be held in Germany, also next year.
Attack of the Clones 3D will come out on September 20, 2013, followed by Revenge of the Sith 3D on October 11, 2013! Fans in the Closing Ceremonies got to see clips of both films.
Also announced is the second Celebration in Europe: It’ll be July 26-28, 2013 at the Messe Essen in Essen, Germany. I bet the Belgian modelmakers are relieved!
Ewan McGregor spoke to /Film about his latest movie, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, his Oscar-winning Beginners co-star Christopher Plummer, the upcoming Jack the Giant Killer and, of course, the prequels:
Well I like them. I mean I saw them when they came out and I haven’t seen them since, but I was happy to be in them. I felt that it was great to be part of that huge legend of STAR WARS and you know I never involve myself in the discussion about it or the criticism of them or not. They are what they are and fortunately to the moment they’ve re-released the first one and there’s a whole generation of kids now who weren’t around when we released them before. Children love them, regardless of what the die hard STAR WARS fans from the 70’s think, kids love them to bits and I’ve always really enjoyed that with my discussions with them, you know when people’s kids who I haven’t met before come up and they see Obi Wan Kenobi. They’ve always got nice questions to ask and stuff.
He hasn’t seen The Phantom Menace 3D due to filming on The Corrections, but he hopes to go soon – and “take my kids along.”
