Official Star Wars Thread

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Buzz Bumble

Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Buzz Bumble » August 19th, 2014, 5:29 pm

EricJ wrote:(Would be worth ruining the corny third-rate joke to publicly geek-expose myself by nitpicking that Ackbar wasn't in Episode V?
Nah. Best to keep my mouth shut, and let the lame ba-dum-chinger get his fifteen seconds.)
That's why I purposely used Ackbar. :roll:

It's a bit like one of the Lego Star Wars episodes where minifig Vader keeps interrupting the scenes he's not meant to be in.


Ben wrote:Twentieth Century Fox produced and paid totally for the first Star Wars film in 1977, granting Lucas rights to all sequels and merchandise because they thought it would bomb (the film was only made because Alan Ladd Jr believed in Lucas).
Yes, and George Lucas later bought back all the ownership rights.
  • "After the first Star Wars film, A New Hope, was released in 1977 and became the highest-grossing movie of all time, Lucas personally financed the sequel and bought back the rights to the original film from its financier and distributor, 20th Century Fox."
Fox now only has the distribution rights for the two currently existing Trilogies. Disney (or whichever sub-company they use) will only have distribution rights for the new Trilogy and Rebels TV series.

The Lucasfilm company owns the entire Star Wars franchise - absolutely everything.

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Randall » August 19th, 2014, 11:43 pm

We're talking about two different things here, each of which pertain to the murky concept of "ownership": distribution rights and copyright. Lucasfilm has the copyright for all the films (as seen on the packaging for the Blu-ray set); but Fox has distribution rights for the films. I think we all agree on this. The argument, then, comes down to semantics, in terms of what it means to "own" an intellectual property... often a nebulous concept.

In practical terms, if Disney/Lucasfilm don't have distribution rights, then they don't own "everything." Owning the copyright is nice, but Disney/Lucasfilm can't do anything with the films themselves without Fox's permission. And as any creator will tell you, if you can't distribute your own material without someone else's permission, then you don't truly fully own it.

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Buzz Bumble » August 20th, 2014, 3:08 am

Whatever you want to believe. I really can't be bothered going around and around teh same circle. :roll:

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Ben » August 20th, 2014, 7:04 am

Or even spell words correctly...got you pretty riled there, haven't we? ;)

Okay...as *someone who has been involved with LucasFilm* (!), I will say again that Fox own the neg, the copyright and the distribution rights to the original 1977 edition of Star Wars. This is irrefutable. They made it, they paid for it, it is one of their films as much as The Sound Of Music and Die Hard are. George Lucas was practically a nobody when SW was made and although he got good terms, he was just a filmmaker for hire on a studio produced film.

He got the rights to make sequels, prequels, mid-quels, side-quels, TV shows, TV movies, merchandise...the whole shebang, to which he often (but not always) gave Fox first refusal on distribution rights. This is again irrefutable.

When the 1997 Special Editions came along, Fox were falling over themselves to get the distribution rights to them (even accepting an unfavorable cut to do so), and granted Lucas the *control* to the 1997 Special Edition version of Star Wars: A New Hope. It is this bastardized negative (in which the new special effects were placed) that Lucas has much more say over. Even here, since Fox financed the original film on which this edition is based, they get a bigger cut of any proceeds over the other films, since Star Wars 77 was and remains *their movie*.

What Disney want to do is reissue the original 1977 Star Wars, which is Fox's film. They can, with Fox's co-operation, put out the SE editions of Star Wars: A New Hope and any of the other films, but they can not - even after 2020 - put out the original, untouched, 1977 Star Wars...BECAUSE FOX OWNS IT.

Now...*I* can't put things any more simpler than that. If you want to believe what you've read online as opposed to someone who actually knows and understands, then fine...but more fool you. Whatever the fanboys want to think so they can fantasize about their perfect boxsets is great, because it puts the rumors out there and then the studios can work to try and make those a reality.

But...and it's as simple as this...if Disney want to put out ANY 1977-2006 SW film before 2020 then they have to talk to Fox, who have distribution rights. If Disney want to put out any 1980-2006 SW film AFTER 2020, then they can...but if they want to do ANYTHING with the 1977 original Star Wars
release, then they need to talk to Fox, even after 2020.

No doubt both studios know money can be made from having Disney buy SW outright (as per the other arrangements I have mentioned in previous posts), but it's still a deal that needs to happen. Pure and simple: Fox owns the 1977 Star Wars and has *never* sold or given off any rights to it. They only gave Lucas sequel, etc, rights because they thought the film wouldn't ever lead to that: that it did is a continual kick to them knowing that they could have owned it all outright and even fired Lucas off further films as they could have brought anyone in that they wanted to make more of them (as Disney is doing now).

If you can prove that George Lucas bought the SW rights back from Fox at any point, then I'd love to see that...other than a paragraph from some fansite...

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Buzz Bumble » August 20th, 2014, 9:36 pm

Whatever you want to believe. :roll:

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Ben » August 21st, 2014, 6:44 am

Okay...well...same for you then. :lol:

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by LotsoA113 » October 7th, 2014, 8:41 am

John Williams starts composing the score for Episode VII in two weeks!! The idea of new John Williams Star Wars material just makes me giddy.
I love all things cinema, from silent movies to world cinema to animated cinema to big blockbusters to documentaries and everything in between!

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Ben » October 7th, 2014, 9:36 am

You know what this means!?

It means that, somewhere, there's a rough cut version of Episode VII in existence! At least a few people in the world have already seen the next Star Wars film!

They must be bursting...!

I hope that Williams can pull some of that old magic back out of the hat again. I have his scores to the prequels and they just don't measure up, frankly, to his golden period scores for the original trilogy. Some hope is that he'll be able to play on the old themes (especially Star Wars for Luke, as it was supposed to be, and Leia and Han) for those characters, so there will be a better chance of hearing classic material, but as what is undoubtedly a last hurrah on this trilogy, I'm praying he can invent some huge new orchestral material to sit alongside those and not just "good underscore" as I would call Episodes I, II and III.

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Bill1978 » October 7th, 2014, 3:51 pm

I'm still hurting that Williams didn't use the Luke & Leia theme during the birthing scene in Episode III. Instead he wrote some Harry Potter like jingle.

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Dan » November 24th, 2014, 11:13 pm

A few movie theaters in the US will be showing the first teaser trailer for Episode VII: The Force Awakens this Friday (88 seconds according to JJ Abrams). Here's the list according to StarWars.com:

AZ —PHOENIX —HARKINS TEMPE MARKETPLACE

CA—LOS ANGELES —AMC CENTURY CITY

CA—LOS ANGELES—Indep EL CAPITAN

CA —IRVINE —REGAL SPECTRUM IRVINE 21

CA —SAN FRANCISCO —AMC METREON 16

CA —SAN JOSE —CINEMARK OAKRIDGE 20

CA —SAN DIEGO— REGAL MIRA MESA 18

CAN— TORONTO —CPX YOUNGE & DUNDAS

CAN— VANCOUVER—CPX RIVERPORT

CO— DENVER —AMC WESTMINSTER 24

DC— WASH D.C —AMC TYSONS CORNER 16

FL—MIAMI— CARMIKE PARISIAN 20

GA —ATLANTA— REGAL ATLANTIC STATION

IL—CHICAGO— REGAL CITY NORTH

MA— BOSTON— AMC BOSTON COMMONS 19

MI —DETROIT— CINEMARK SHOWCASE 20

MN— MINNEAPOLIS— AMC SOUTHDALE

MO— KANSAS CITY— AMC STUDIO 30

NY— NEW YORK— AMC LINCOLN SQUARE 12

NY— NEW YORK— REGAL UNION SQAURE

OH— CLEVELAND— CINEMARK CINEMARK 24

PA— PHILADELPHIA —REGAL WARRINGTON 22

TN— NASHVILLE— CARMIKE THOROUGHBRED 20

TN— KNOXVILLE— REGAL PINNACLE

TX— DALLAS— CINEMARK PLANO 20

TX— HOUSTON— REGAL MARQ*E STADIUM 23

TX— AUSTIN— ALAMO ALAMO S LAMAR

UT— SALT LAKE CITY— CINEMARK CINEMARK 24 WJ

WA— SEATTLE— REGAL THORNTON PLACE 14

WI— MILWAUKEE— MARCUS BROOKFIELD 16

Those is bold marked the first nine that were announced by Regal this morning before Disney and LucasFilm released the others later in the day. Regal says the trailer will play before all movies all day.

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by James » November 24th, 2014, 11:54 pm

Lord Akiyama wrote:...TN— KNOXVILLE— REGAL PINNACLE...
Nice living in the hometown of Regal Cinemas! The Pinnacle is a great theatre, Regal's "flagship".

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Ben » November 25th, 2014, 2:45 am

They should have put this out with Strange Magic in January next year. That film is doomed and its a shame Disney isn't doing better to try and make a bit of money on it. I mean, seriously, they didn't have to pay for it,miss a "free" movie for them, and they could turn that into at least a Planes style return of a couple of hundred million if they put a bit of effort in.

But...no...it will come out and die at less than $50m, when the SW teaser - which is only a teaser for the first trailer, like the Jurassic World one we just got - and LucasFilm connection could have provided more reasons for people to go see it.

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Dan » November 25th, 2014, 9:43 am

Perhaps they're saving the full trailer for that? *shrugs*

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Randall » November 25th, 2014, 12:36 pm

Could be. There may be a mid-size trailer in-between the teaser and the full one.

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Re: Official Star Wars Thread

Post by Ben » November 25th, 2014, 1:12 pm

I know I should start a new thread but the Jurassic World trailer is out and it's a doozy...just what we want from this film. I might have to drop the other shoe and go see this in Imax 3D!

http://youtu.be/RFinNxS5KN4 :)

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