Despite being raised on the original series, I was never a huge STAR WARS geek. While I did enjoy seeing the films as a kid and collecting the action figures they didn't have as significant an effect on my moviegoing as my peers. The follow-up trilogy I found to a depressingly plodding attempt to beat a dead horse into fast food hamburger meat. It also affirmed my belief that George Lucas had shot his creative load with the original series and hasn't returned its calls since then. However this still hasn't stopped him from again returning to the dried out well with the upcoming animated feature STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS as well as a T.V. series. Now comes word courtesy of Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg that Lucas is now looking to repurpose all six films of the series into a 3-D format.
3-D STAR WARS projects were again mentioned during the recent announcement that In-Three, the company which developed the previously mentioned ShoWest footage, would be using its proprietary "dimensionalization" technology to rework Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD into a new 3-D theatrical presentation.
A few years back test runs of the 3-D transformation of one in the episodes -- allegedly THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK -- were screened at ShowWest and were said to be "breathtaking". It should also be noted that this strong reaction may come from the fact that EMPIRE is arguably the best film of the series. However, the complete opposite reaction -- Despair, suicidal tendencies, the gnashing of teeth -- is much more likely from STAR WARS I: THE PHANTOM MENACE when you have this coming out of the screen at you . . .
February 14, 2008, 12:20:29 PM
