Why was the budget for The Final Frontier reduced?
- Thread starter indycar
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Oh, I'm well aware of this. No camera negatives survive, for example, for films like Dr. Strangelove, Citizen Kane, Rashomon, MASH, Seven Samurai, Stagecoach and about a third of The Godfather. And it's sad -- depressing, really -- how many silent-era films are completely lost.
It is believed that unless Fox has something in its own archives (which is entirely possible), the only surviving extant and usable print of the original Star Wars is Lucas' personal Technicolor dye print, which he had struck when the film was first released. Lucasfilm's archival prints are all badly faded to red (as is the copy deposited with the Library of Congress) and severely damaged; for the Special Editions, Lucas loaned his Technicolor print out to the restoration team for color timing reference. It's a slightly different case with Empire and Jedi, in that they were shot on different stocks and the negatives are in better shape (Jedi moreso than Empire), but there are still hurdles due to overall degradation. It's a basic rule of film restoration that if you can't go to the film negative, you'd prefer to go to, in order, the interpositive, the B&W color separations, then the internegative; prints are an absolute last resort, especially for films made prior to the late 1980s.
It's all a moot point, however, since Fox owns distribution rights to the original Star Wars in perpetuity and the other five films until 2020.
The good news is fox and Disney are already pretty close thanks to x men and spiderman.
No need for conjecture. Don't wanna derail the thread, but essential reading on the elements for Star Wars, a subject very near and dear to my heart. Very well written and sourced:
http://fd.noneinc.com/secrethistoryofstarwarscom/secrethistoryofstarwars.com/savingstarwars.html
^ This. Deals like this are made all the time in the interests of, y'know, making money and all, and Fox and Disney are far from at war. Frankly the hurdles (legal and otherwise) needed for the long-overdue release of the 1966-1968 Batman series were much, much more extensive; I'm still amazed (and overjoyed) that happened.
Absent some contractual provision (potentially dictated by Lucas himself during the Lucasfilm sale) specifically forbidding the release of the Original Unaltered Trilogy (OUT), it'll likely happen sooner rather than later. Potentially accelerating the process are some extremely impressive independent HD restorations pieced together from various sources (including surviving release prints in private hands).
Very interesting artlcle, Joe_Atari. Thanks for sharing it.
My pleasure; typing that post made me want to reread the Batman-on-video story (hadn't done so since the discs came out) for those interested:
From 2008:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Batman-Watchmen-Batman-Deal-Reported/10573
A 2014 article I hadn't read before:
http://www.wired.com/2014/11/batman-home-video-finally/
By comparison the Star Wars OUT release should be a piece of cake, with the potential to be a huge release. Personally I'd be shocked if it didn't happen by Christmas 2017 or sooner, to coincide with the theatrical or video releases of Rogue One or Episode VIII and also capitalize on the contracting physical media market.
I think V should get a cgi sfx retooling; the effects for the film wasn't up to par and it hurt the narrative. Shatner mentioned in his Movie Memories book there's footage of demon monsters shot but wasn't used because it didn't look good. Computers can solve that problem but I don't know if Viacom would want to put up cash to do it. I think they should.
Agreed. The cartoon-like SFX are disappointing, and the ending is just abyssmal.
A ship, in the middle of shakedowns, being asked to go on a mission to Nimbus 3 is a bizarre order... from an Admiral, was very hard to swallow. Captain Kirk should've been upset and questioning the Admiral's mental stability because the thought of going on a mission like that seems suicidal. I mean, at least have another ship to assist them. It's a fools mission, and its a good thing everything went alright.
As I've said in the past, a suicide mission may have been exactly what certain elements of Starfleet Command had in mind. Earth and the Federation Council might have been almost worshiping Kirk at that point, but the Admiralty (esp. those stuck on Earth or in Spacedock with hands in pockets during the Whaleprobe incident) would be nursing a grudge at Kirk bucking the system and his rank - and getting away with it - yet again. It's no coincidence that ship and crew were 'retired' after a single FYM. But I digress...
Some Rockman footage was shot, but they gave up on it.
Yow! That looks like an expensive costume. Why build it, film it but edit it out of the film? What a waste. It looks better than the watered down SFX of 'God' in the finished film.
By then all enthusiasm was gone too probably. Angels that turn to demons...gargoyles that come to life... Rock men....a single rock man...
It's a bit like that spacewalk sequence inside Vger from TMP with the attacking antibody things.
In reading ST:Movie Memories, Shatner expresses frustration and disappointment that the budget was slashed and that his vision for the film's finale was compromised.
Yeah, I listened to the audio book version, it's clear he had a decent coherent vision for the film, but it didn't go as he planned or hoped.
Well, when Shatner first broached the concept of searching for 'God', Harve Bennett tried to convince him about the futility of the idea, but we all know Shatner is a stubborn fellow.
According to Captain's Log, the Rockman suit worked fine during rehearsals but when it came time to actually shoot, it started malfunctioning -- it was supposed to blow smoke, for example.
Bran Ferren couldn't be trusted to add smoke in post, no doubt. They blew nearly every other effect. The only one they did that I liked without reservation was the size difference between the Enterprise and the BOP.
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