Star Wars on Blu-Ray

[billybob476]

Yes! He uses his money to create new acronyms for us to use such as THX and ILM :)

[Bryancd]

Yes! He uses his money to create new acronyms for us to use such as THX and ILM :)

And soon Lucas3D! The man single handedly created digital filming. I keep saying it, he's a technocrat not an artiste.

[Ktrek]

Ktrek, sure it is. If people continually say he's greedy, his writing is not good, he's evil because he wants to make money, sure that's bashing. What would your definition of bashing be then, if not this? And really, you can't blame the guy if people are obviously attracted to his work. How can you? You can't blame him if people, of their own free will, continue to contribute to his retirement fund, can you? If I'm a sucker and keep buying his product, even though I openly voice my distaste for it, can't blame him for my stupidity, can you?  I'm 100% positive that there are a great many people out there that would say the very same thing about Gene Roddenberry. Truthfully (and although I LOVE Star Trek) you HAVE to admit that a lot of the dialogue in the Star Trek Universe is quite bad, corny and goofy. In all the series and movies.
If you don't like Lucas cool. If you want to complain about him cool. Let's just call it what it is and move on. Bashing :)

I think bashing implies ill intent and I have no ill intent toward Lucas. If I state the truth, for example, that Mr. O'bama is too "inexperienced" to lead this country is not bashing him but stating what it true regarding him and can be proven from his record and past actions. To state that Lucas is "greedy" is only stating the obvious. Just because greed is a negative trait and recognized to be so by most people, is not bashing someone by stating the obvious and true.

As to whether Lucas is a good writer my vote would be more moderate in that I would say he has a good imagination and was fortunate enough to bring it to life with the help of so many other talented people, but the dialogue in all the films is at times quite cringe worthy and could have been better.

Kevin

[Bryancd]

In reference to my explanation, how can this be considered greed? If you feel that way that's fine, but I don't see anything "greedy" about the way Lucas manages his company or the motivations behind it.

[X]

In reference to my explanation, how can this be considered greed? If you feel that way that's fine, but I don't see anything "greedy" about the way Lucas manages his company or the motivations behind it.

I get what you're saying, but I think that constantly milking the same thing for more and more can come off as a bit greedy. I also understand what you're saying about financing other projects, but if the other project is a retooling of your previous project in a new format, you can't tell me that you need to do that to fund the project when it can fund itself. It's also not like THX and ILM are not bringing in money by working on other projects to fund what he wants to work on.

To me, he's gotten enough of my money and I can't justify doing the same old thing again. I don't fault people that do, but the money I spend on Star Wars has been 100% on new content for a while now. I support the books, the comics, and bought my wife a saddle bag that was Star Wars. I just can't get hyped for this new release. I also don't know what he's doing. I'm not in his head. It could be some master plan to fund his next project, or it could be greed. I don't see why it's needed to fund his project, Cameron is funding his own projects for the most part and hasn't had to go back to the well to release the Titanic Special Edition to fund his next projects. He did do a director's cut of Avatar, but I expected one of those when I saw it because there is only so much time that people are willing to sit for a movie.

Basically, I don't know if it can or can't be considered greed, but from the outside looking in, it looks like it.

[billybob476]

To me greed is profiting at the expense of others. No one has a gun to anyone's head forcing them to buy Star Wars. Clearly the market sees value in re-releasing the movies or no one would buy them.  If an individual does not see value in them, they will speak with their wallets and not buy them.

[X]

To me greed is profiting at the expense of others. No one has a gun to anyone's head forcing them to buy Star Wars. Clearly the market sees value in re-releasing the movies or no one would buy them.  If an individual does not see value in them, they will speak with their wallets and not buy them.

Solid points and clearly not greed by how you define it.

[QuadShot]

He's a great writer, but he is a bad screenwriter.

..and arguably and not so great director. Besides story, he excels at editing. But I think all of you are missing the point and what motivates Lucas. It's not greed, he's wealthy beyond imagination and I really don't feel he is motivated by the accumulation of additional wealth. Lucas uses releases of old product in new formats like this to help fund the projects he is really passionate about, which are the technical advancement of the film industry. THAT IS HIS PASSION. Everything else he's doing, Blu-Ray releases, games, books, licencing, are alldesigned to provide seed capital to new projects. That's it. It's not greed, he's manging a growing company.

Good point Bryan...well said.

[Bryancd]

I also understand what you're saying about financing other projects, but if the other project is a retooling of your previous project in a new format, you can't tell me that you need to do that to fund the project when it can fund itself. It's also not like THX and ILM are not bringing in money by working on other projects to fund what he wants to work on.

But now we are making assumptions we understand the internal financing needs of all of LucasFilm, how those revenues are generated, who they effect the corporations earning, ect. You can't say STAR WARS projects should be able to pay for themselves or that ancillary projects revenues can be shared across individual corporations. They likely can not be, ILM and THX are separate corporations from LucasFilm. They are distinct and unique and don't revenue share. LucasFilm is the owner of STAR WARS, so STAR WARS profits go to LucasFilm from which Lucas can choose to form or fund new technical advancements which may eventually become spin off corporations just like ILM and THX. And I don't think the Cameron analogy is germane as "TITANIC" isn't even remotely the same kind of franchise STAR WARS is. There's no market for a special release of TITANIC whereas there is for STAR WARS.

Again, Lucas is not ILM or THX. He's LucasFilm. That's where he can generate revenue to advnavce new projects. Calling Lucas greedy would be like calling Steve Job greedy because they released the iPad2.

[X]

Again, Lucas is not ILM or THX. He's LucasFilm. That's where he can generate revenue to advnavce new projects. Calling Lucas greedy would be like calling Steve Job greedy because they released the iPad2.

To things: Doesn't he own the same amount of ILM and THX as he does in LucasFilm? And I think I did call Jobs greedy for the price point to specs ratio.

Edit:
Just did a check. ILM is owned by LucasFilm and THX was an intellectual property of LucasFilms, so both do put the money in his pocket.

[QuadShot]

[quote author=X link=topic=7775.msg111626#msg111626
Edit:
Just did a check. ILM is owned by LucasFilm and THX was an intellectual property of LucasFilms, so both do put the money in his pocket.
[/quote]
Unless of course, George is wearing a Kilt, in which case the money would go in his sporran!  :)

[Bryancd]

Only in so far he has a private ownership interest in both companies, but they are seperate corporations spun off from LucasFilm. You can't say "they put money in his pocket" and then conclude anything he does with STAR WARS to generate more revenue isn't warranted. Owning APPLE stock puts unrealized capital gain my my clients accounts, but that doesn't mean they take that money to pay the bills. It's an investment. Lucas retains an investment in THX and ILM, whch are both private companies. The success of either will increase the unrealized value of Lucas ownership interest, but it's not like they are sending him cash. Lucas drives the cash to develop new personal project from LucasFilm which owns STAR WARS. That's their corpoare 'widget" they make and sell.

[Bryancd]

New clip from the Blu-Ray release featuring Ewan!

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1406163010025&oid=7456886002

[stonut]

Well all said and done with the marketing, who owns what and so on. At the end of the day if people want it they will buy it,supply and demand.
The die hard fans will buy it for sure. i mean look at all them Jedi weddings

[Bryancd]

Damn this footage looks AMAZING!!!

http://apps.facebook.com/starwars-tm/