Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Lucas

[Dream]

Blu-ray.com was in attendance for the 30th Anniversary screening of Steven Spielberg's adventure classic, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Audience members were not only treated to a digitally restored print of the film (which looked pristine), but also witnessed a Q&A session with Spielberg and surprise guest, Harrison Ford. The event was hosted by The Los Angeles Times and moderated by Hero Complex columnist Geoff Boucher.

The big question leading up to the night was if the director would divulge any information regarding the Blu-ray release of the first three Indiana Jones films. Spielberg answered this question with a succinct, "We don't know", but elaborated by saying he hopes they will be available soon. Here are his exact words:

"We don't know. Soon but we don't know when soon is. Soon in my world would be about 6 months but soon in George's world is later than six months but I don't know. He's coming out with Star Wars first and then after that he's going to position Raiders. We're just not sure if its going to be Raiders, Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade one, two, three separately or if all three will be together. They haven't decided yet."

When questioned on the controversial topic of going back to digitally enhance past films, Spielberg revealed that Universal is working on a Blu-ray for E.T. but gave no release date. While expressing his regret for digitally altering the film, he asked the audience if they would object to Universal leaving out the 2002 version, which was answered with a resounding "No!". Here's the quote:

"What I'd like to ask is this. We'll do a little poll here. I know we're coming out with the Blu-ray of E.T. If I came out with just one E.T. on Blu-ray, the 1982 one, would anybody object to that ? (Audience shouts 'No!') Ok, so be it."

Furthermore, Spielberg and Harrison Ford both expressed a willingness to make a fifth Indiana Jones film if they were presented with a script. At the question, Ford joked, "As long as they don't send me to Mars!".

If Spielberg Considers Revisting His Work

Spielberg: That's a little hot topic isn't it? (laughs). Let me put it this way, George does what he does because there's only one George Lucas, and thank god for that. He's the greatest person I've ever worked with as a filmmaker collaborator and he's a conceptual genius. He puts together these amazing stories and he's great at what he does. My feeling is that he can do anything he wants with his movies because they're his movies and we wouldn't have been raised with Star Wars or Indiana Jones had it not been for George.

Speaking for myself, I tried this once and I learned to regret it. Not because of fan outrage, but simply because I was a little disappointed in myself. I got very kind of overly sensitive to some of the criticism E.T. had gotten from parent groups when it was first released in '82. Having to do with Elliot saying penis breath or the guns with the CIA. And also there were some rough around the edges close-ups of E.T. that I had always thought if technology ever evolves to the point where I can do some facial enhancements with E.T. I would like to. So I did an E.T. pass for the third release of the movie and it was okay for a while then I realized that what I had done was I had robbed people who loved E.T. of their memories of E.T. My only contrition that I could possibly do because I feel bad about that, the only contrition that I really performed was when E.T. came out on DVD for the first time. I told Universal, we're going to do this or we're not going to put E.T. on DVD. You have to put two movies in the box and one movie will be the 1982 version and the other will be the digitally enhanced version. What I'd like to ask is this. We'll do a little poll here. I know we're coming out with the Blu-ray of E.T. If I came out with just one E.T. on Blu-ray, the 1982 one, would anybody object to that? (Audience shouts 'No!') Ok, so be it.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=7323

Awesome. I can't wait for the ET and Indiana Jones Blu-Rays! I have very little doubt that Spielberg will kept the movies unaltered as well. Lucas probably thinks of the Indiana Jones trilogy as Spielberg's baby.

 

[RAMA]

Re: Spielberg talks ET and Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray news

I liked the FX changes in ET

 

[RoJoHen]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

I never saw the newer version of ET, but the changes I read about seemed pretty lame. I'm glad the original version will be on the Blu-Ray.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Does he also mention why Lucas has yet to move on from the Star Wars or to a lesser extent Indiana Jones franchises?

 

[Broccoli]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

I can understand Spielberg's desire in swapping the guns for radios. In the grand scheme of things, that is really a small switch and something that doesn't really change anything going on in the film and something that most probably wouldn't even notice was changed. It is not as if he inserted a large musical number with a CGI dancing ET that stops the movie dead.

Does he also mention why Lucas has yet to move on from the Star Wars or to a lesser extent Indiana Jones franchises?

Besides all the stuff he produced during the 80s and 90s, there is this...

 

[RoJoHen]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Does he also mention why Lucas has yet to move on from the Star Wars or to a lesser extent Indiana Jones franchises?

Wow, yeah, I just checked him out on IMDB. He's got a new movie coming out next year called "Red Tail," other than that, he really hasn't done anything non-Star Wars or Indiana Jones since "The Land Before Time!"

 

[Broccoli]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Does he also mention why Lucas has yet to move on from the Star Wars or to a lesser extent Indiana Jones franchises?

Wow, yeah, I just checked him out on IMDB. He's got a new movie coming out next year called "Red Tail," other than that, he really hasn't done anything non-Star Wars or Indiana Jones since "The Land Before Time!"

Radioland Murders - 1994

About a year or so before he began work on TPM.

 

[RoJoHen]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Okay, so he did one other thing 17 years ago that I've never heard of.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Is he directing Red Tail too? Ehh, I'll look it up.

 

[RoJoHen]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Is he directing Red Tail too? Ehh, I'll look it up.

Looks like he's just producing it.

 

[Reverend]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

I never saw the newer version of ET, but the changes I read about seemed pretty lame. I'm glad the original version will be on the Blu-Ray.

It really wasn't that bad and nowhere near as extensive as what Lucas did to Star Wars but it was just totally unnecessary.

I like how Spielberg's statement about Lucas can be taken either way. I know they're friends but Spielberg is way too good a film-maker not to see the kinds of mistakes Lucas has been making over the years. I think I speak for a lot of fans when I say I really hope he'd give George some honest advice and not just be the kind friend giving a moderated opinion.

On the other hand, (not that I want to dump on Spielberg) but a lot of his films of late seem to have lost their edge.

 

[Dream]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Does he also mention why Lucas has yet to move on from the Star Wars or to a lesser extent Indiana Jones franchises?

Lucas is more of a businessman/producer than director these days. I'm sure running ILM keeps him busy.

Lucasfilm mostly worked on the PT in the 2000s, took nearly a decade. Reminds me of the massive amount of time it took to make the OT. They also did Indiana Jones 4.

 

[Broccoli]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Okay, so he did one other thing 17 years ago that I've never heard of.

If you're going to bitch, bitch correctly!

Does he also mention why Lucas has yet to move on from the Star Wars or to a lesser extent Indiana Jones franchises?

Lucas is more of a businessman/producer than director these days. I'm sure running ILM keeps him busy.

Lucasfilm mostly worked on the PT in the 2000s, took nearly a decade. Reminds me of the massive amount of time it took to make the OT. They also did Indiana Jones 4.

Yup. The prequels were the first things he directed since the original Star Wars. I'm sure that ate up much of his time and prevented him from pursuing other projects full-time.

 

[RoJoHen]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Okay, so he did one other thing 17 years ago that I've never heard of.

If you're going to bitch, bitch correctly!

I'll work on it for next time.

 

[JarodRussell]

Re: Spielberg talks ET and Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray news

I liked the FX changes in ET

You liked the Walkie Talkies?

 

[RoJoHen]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

I fucking love Walkie Talkies!!!1

 

[Whofan]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

If you look at the Star Wars to Jedi VHS (Never released on DVD, possibly because Lucas says stuff in it that's contradictory to Lucas now.) Lucas seems to want to retire completely from Star Wars. It's been a while, but he stated something akin to "It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there".


One thing I've noticed is that Spielberg seems more sensitive to criticism. He tends to agree with critics of his work (Such as TEMPLE OF DOOM, HOOK and THE LOST WORLD) while Lucas is always very egotistical and defensive. In a Salon interview he even claimed critics have no education!


I think it was a combination of factors that led to the revival of the prequel project which I believe was formerly announced in '94 (Initially for a 97 release of Episode I). One was the revival of Star Wars merchandising in the early 90s, with stuff such as Zahn's trilogy, Dark Empire, the Kenner/Hasbro figures being relaunched and so on. The other of course was Jurassic Park and T2 revolutionizing CG.

 

[Dream]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Some more details.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

Just a quick early update for you this morning with some very big and cool news...

At last night's L.A. Times/Hero Complex screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark in Los Angeles, director Steven Spielberg confirmed that the Indiana Jones films are "coming soon" to Blu-ray, but only when producer George Lucas is ready. Spielberg would apparently like that to be within 6 months, while Lucas is apparently on more of a 12-month schedule. [Editor's Note: Our industry sources continue to tell us to look for the release in the 2nd half of 2012, as part of Paramount's 100th studio anniversary celebration.] The print that was shown last night was the digital restoration that will be used for the Blu-ray, and it apparently looks terrific. Spielberg reportedly made a point of noting that nothing has been tampered with in the film and there's no added dialogue, which drew some laughs from the crowd for obvious reasons. It's not yet decided if the set will include all four films in the series or just the unreleased trilogy. Star Harrison Ford was also on hand at the event as a guest and said he'd be up for doing a 5th Indy film as long as his character "isn't going to Mars" (which drew more laughs as you can imagine).

 

[Kirkman1987]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Steven Spielberg is an absolute class act, always has been. He pretty clearly makes his stand on altering his past works, but shows due respect to his friend and partner. We should all be so lucky as to have such friends.

The E.T. Special edition always bothered me. The E.T. creature effects stuns me to this day, and I find the touched up version loses some of the charm and doesn't feel right. The walkie talkie thing was even worse. Taking out the close up on the shotgun in particular was unwise, as it messed up the music, pacing, and tension of the climax.

I am one of Crystal Skulls biggest supporters. It wasn't perfect but I thought it was much more in spirit with the originals whan the Wars prequels. I would love to see Indy Return again (Why not an Old Indy trilogy?)

 

[stonester1]

Re: Spielberg speaks about ET, Indiana Jones Trilogy Blu-Ray, and Luca

Yeah, those changes struck me as pandering. Well meaning pandering, but...and Spielberg admits it, was troubled by it and has no problem acknowledging and submitting a retraction.

George? Attend...