As we heard from Seth Rogen a little while ago, George Lucas is planning for the impending 2012 apocalypse and he probably needs an extra couple of hundred million dollars to make sure he survives global extinction. Just in case anyway, he needs to build his real life Millennium Falcon so he can fly off to a galaxy far, far away and no doubt there will be plenty of gullible Star Wars fans ready to throw even more money at the franchise they must feel like they've being paying mortgage on for the past 10 years, to fund such an endeavor. We have those Blu-ray's to come in September awaiting your dosh and beginning next year, 3D theatrical releases of all six films, which you will all pay for and then piss and moan when Lucas has once again 'raped your childhood'. Can it be rape when you allow and indeed pay for it to happen? The first out of Lucas' vault and back onto the big screen then is Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, which gets its shiny and eye-gouging 3D debut on February 10th, 2012. That'll be a Wednesday and it will go right up against the 3D sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance with Nicolas Cage that opens two days later, so perhaps we might actually be thankful for having an alternative! The movie of course sucks to the high heavens with confusing, political mumbo jumbo but that three way lightsaber battle between Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Darth Maul is still a thing of beauty, scored by a wonderful John Williams operatic piece. That'll be worth seeing again...The hope is to release a 3D version of all six Star Wars films annually, ending with the release of Return of the Jedi in 2016 - but it all depends on the box office returns of this first film (which is again nice from Lucas, having to pay to sit through Episode I as a way to barter for the original trilogy!). Of course I'm as a big a Star Wars nut as everyone else and I would LOVE to see the original trilogy back on the big screen again and I think it's a great thing for young kids to experience something like Star Wars for the first time in that environment. But we don't need them in 3D to be effective, do we? Here's the press release from StarWars.com:
Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox announced today that the 3D theatrical launch of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace now has an official release date -- February 10, 2012! Set against the thrilling and exotic backdrop of a "galaxy far, far away," Star Wars is perfectly suited to the immersive 3D theatrical experience, and Episode I delivers some of the Saga's most stunning and spectacular sequences -- from the Naboo invasion to the Tatooine Podraces to the climactic lightsaber battle between Darth Maul and the Jedi. Supervised by Industrial Light & Magic, the meticulous conversion is being done with utmost respect for the source material, and with a keen eye for both technological considerations and artistic intentions.