"Revenge of the Sith" & Atomfilms link pg2

SAN DIEGO(AP) The final "Star Wars" prequel is just "Episode III" no more. Lucasfilm announced its new title Saturday: "Revenge of the Sith."

The movie, set for release in May 2005, will link the prequels with the original "Star Wars" trilogy by showing how Luke Skywalker's father, Anakin, went from a sweet-natured slave boy to the galaxy-crushing villain Darth Vader. The Sith is the evil sect that corrupts Anakin (played by Hayden Christensen) by drawing him into the dark side of the Force, the cosmic power that balances the universe.

Lucasfilm announced the new title at the annual Comic-Con International, the annual gathering of tens of thousands of sci-fi and superhero fans.

It was a risky move _ some of the notoriously fickle "Star Wars" admirers initially bristled at previous prequel titles "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones."

"Star Wars" creator and filmmaker George Lucas did not attend the event, but sent fan relations chief Steve Sansweet in his place.

Sansweet announced the title by pulling off a baseball jersey to reveal a black T-shirt emblazoned with "Revenge of the Sith."

"For some time now, the naming of a new 'Star Wars' movie has taken on some special meaning among core fans who love to take part in guessing games and speculation before a title is announced," Sansweet told nearly 6,500 convention attendees. "And then (they) engage in debate once it is ... so let the debate begin."

Minutes later, a sampling of audience members dressed as Jedis, stormtroopers and other "Star Wars" characters showed they approved.

"I thought it was great, I loved it,' said Barren Wright, 35, a graphic designer from Modesto who was dressed as the green-armored bounty hunter Boba Fett. "This takes it back to the classic trilogy, It's a smart move by Lucasfilm to tie it all together since the logo and everything is identical to 'Return of the Jedi.'"

Wright said the symmetry between the titles reflects the story lines.

Anyone who has seen the original "Star Wars" from 1977 knows that the good guys _ that is the Jedi _ would be wiped out by Darth Vader in "Episode III" just as Vader and his evil Empire were toppled in 1983's "Return of the Jedi."

In addition to the title, Lucasfilm also sent concept artist Ryan Church to show off drawings of a Wookie tree civilization from "Episode III" and played footage of Christensen's climactic light-saber duel _ minus all the special effects _ with co-star Ewan McGregor, who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"Return of the Jedi" was originally to be titled "Revenge of the Jedi." Some advance promotional material even featured that title, but Lucas changed it later in production.

"This time, George tells us he's going to keep 'Revenge' in the title," Sansweet said.

He had one other announcement for fans: "Revenge of the Sith" T-shirts would go on sale inside Comic-Con's main hall in five minutes.

If you can't
make it to the party,
make your own.
http://www.tiki-asylum.4t.com

[ Edited by: Tiki-Toa on 2004-07-28 09:04 ]

moronic.

I would have called it something cooler than that. Just like the last one should have been called "The Clone Wars" I mean they made so many referances to it the the original ones, it would be fitting.
I honestly think Lucas wrote these while sitting on the crapper one afternoon. I would have left it with the original three. But then again I'm not money hungry.

-one man aspiring to be everyone’s favorite unkle.
http://www.unklejohn.com

[ Edited by: Unkle John on 2004-07-25 16:26 ]

Unk I am somewhat in agreement, I for the most have been highly dissapointed with the first two episodes, but if I am right Lucas also wrote these by himself where the Star Wars set he wrote with help, and that may have been the difference. Revenge of the Sith and will the question be answered, what is it they are getting revenge for?

Is it a coincidence that the acronym for Revenge of the Sith is ROTS?

Revenge of the Sith and will the question be answered, what is it they are getting revenge for?

probably pissed b/c they got cast in a lousy story line. I forsee alot of bathroom humor remarks in the future with this title.

One thing that annoys the pizz out of me is the ABUNDANCE of CGI. UGH! I loved how they did the models in the older three, that was craftmanship. They can make it as detailed as they want, but I know the difference. I'm still trying to forgive him for Jar-Jar, and the Yoda fight scene. give me a break. Atleast when he made the Ewoks they where real people in the costumes, and that made it more... personal?

-one man aspiring to be everyone’s favorite unkle.
http://www.unklejohn.com

[ Edited by: Unkle John on 2004-07-25 21:39 ]

I whole-heartedly agree that that Epsode I was SHIT and Epsiode II was only marginally better.

But I do like ROTS(!) as a title for Episode III - it forms a nice bookend with the title of Episode VI.... "Revenge of the Sith" and "Return of the Jedi" form a nice pair for trilogy-closers.

It's also an inside reference for hardcore Star Wars geeks, since Return of the Jedi was titled Revenge of the Jedi in early drafts.

So, "Sith happens"...

"One thing that annoys the pizz out of me is the ABUNDANCE of CGI. UGH! I loved how they did the models in the older three, that was craftmanship"

John another great point, to me CGI should be there to enhance a movie, and unless the whole movie is CGI (i.e. Final Fantasy) too much CGI is a bad thing and really are you saving any time or money I wonder by making and doing so much of a movie in CGI? Sadly in some ways these newer episodes have come to be nothing but a showcase for what ILM can do. And another thought I just had is,when so many of us sit down and have our marathons, how glaring is the difference going to be between 4-6 and 1-3 having used so much CGI? AGGGGHHHHHH !!! So many things to biatch about when it comes to Lucas and the fantasy world of the Jedi.

Is it a coincidence that the acronym for Revenge of the Sith is ROTS?

And Sith is an anagram for..?
But on a more mature level, Gerry Anderson was on the radio talking about the merits of cgi, and that when he made Thunderbirds( the Original), Captain Scarlet etc, he intended them to make use of the most up to date technology. If cgi had been there he would have used it, the puppets were something he never intended to use, they were the best for the job at that time.
Although he had nothing to do with T-birds the new Captain Scarlet film he is making is all Cgi and he says he can now realise his dream.
I think Cgi has produced some amazing stuff, it just has to be used a little more sparingly

I have to agree that CGI is crap...it somehow looks less real than miniatures. Speaking of too much CGI I heard that "I Robot" was a real turd...

Matt

contrasting that the current teenage audience grew up with cgi effects, we feel our growing-up memories somewhat assaulted by the inferiority of cgi to analog effects. i won't even get into the quality of lucas' writing for the new episodes. but in the same way a grenadine and orange juice mai tai will please the majority of the population but not us, we will have to grit our teeth until the cgi technology evolves to satisfy our more demanding tastes. mah 2 coconuts.

It's amazing how quickly our collective eyes have gotten "used" to CGI ... I remember when I first saw "Terminator II" the sight of the cop's bullet holes morphing closed just blew me away ... and now I (and it seems a lot of other people) just roll our eyes at these big, elaborate CGI scenes. It seems so "obvious" now -- but I can't say why. But CGI looks almost as hokey and certainly as fake as the zipper up Godzilla's back. Models seem to have more realism. Most of the exploding buildings in "Independence Day" were models and they looked great. But in that last one about global warming (I've already forgotten the name!) it was all CGI.

On 2004-07-26 07:19, Johnny Dollar wrote:
i won't even get into the quality of lucas' writing for the new episodes.

That's the crux of the issue.

If the guy could write and/or direct, the abundance of or lack of SFX wouldn't matter either way. The movies don't suck because of the CG effects, they suck in spite of them.

Case in point: arguably the best SW movie is Empire Strikes Back... Irvin Kershner directed it and Leigh Brackett wrote it. Lucas was simply overseeing the whole thing.

Is Revenge of the Sith a take on Revenge of the Sixth? (The 6th Star Wars film)

Revenge of the Shit.

WOW that was witty.

On 2004-07-26 09:56, tikibars wrote:

Case in point: arguably the best SW movie is Empire Strikes Back...

you got it JT, empire is by far the best.

http://makelove.ytmnd.com/ (safe for work)

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[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar on 2004-07-26 12:39 ]

On 2004-07-26 12:28, KOOMBYEYAH! wrote:
WOW that was witty.

I calls 'em as I sees 'em.

Just a lil riff on the review for Spinal Tap's "Shark Sandwich"

And I didn't hear anyone complaining about too much CGI in Lord of the Rings.

You do it good, it's good. You do it because you don't have any idea what your story should be, it's bad.

Revenge of the Sith sounds like he has a speech impediment.

Yawn. Extrapolating to episode IV, don't we already know everything that is going to happen with the exception of which ethnic stereotypes Lucas will use as the basis for alien cultures?

Let's see, he still hasn't insulted Hindus, Muslims, and the French.

Can we please skip to Episodes VII, VIII, IX?

Given Lucas' track record....

Episode VII: Admirals Solo and Skywalker lead the rebellion forces to victory over the Empire. Solo and Leia have a son and name him Harold (Harry) Solo.

Episode VIII: The Emperor tries to regain a physical body, and briefly takes control Han's body while the family is vacationing at Death valley (Val D'Mort). Han kills Leia and gives his son Harry a nasty scar on the forehead as he tries to do him in. At the last possible second, the spirit of Han wrests back control of his body and saves Harry's life by throwing himself into the Val D'Mort.

Episode IX: Harry Solo is spirited away to an Ewok-like place with cute little inhabitants and lush scenery - Middle Empire. He has to change his name to fit in, and his name is modified from Harold Solo to Hodo.

Hodo grows up smoking an herb that stunts his growth while on the other side of the planet the Emperor is trying to regain his physical form again, and is ammassing a great army of mutant Wookies to take over the Middle Empire.

Hodo is visited by Yoda's great uncle, Yodo, who is impressed by Hodo's forehead scar, and tells Hodo that to destroy the Emperor, he must travel to the dark side of the planet with Mer-E-D2 and C-3-P-Wise to save the Middle Empire....

Don't they all tell the same damn story?

[ Edited by: Geeky Tiki on 2004-07-26 19:20 ]

And I didn't hear anyone complaining about too much CGI in Lord of the Rings.

probably because the LOTR CGI was blended so well it's hard to distinquished which is hand built and which is computer generated.

Star Wars' CG looked thrown together. Too clean. etc.

First off, there's no arguing about it, Empire Strikes Back was the best of the lot.

Regarding CGI: While I agree that Episodes I & II were not as spiffy as they could have been due to cheezy CGI, I think people are being a little too hard on the technique. Go back and rent a few movies with pre-CGI special effects. "Ghost" for example looks laughable today. It looks like the ghosts were drawn on the film stock with a Magic Marker. By a three-year-old. Similarly, virtually every monster movie made before CGI requires a MASSIVE suspension of disbelief for the viewer to forget that it's just a guy in a rubber suit. (An obvious exception would be "Alien," which is scarily "realistic.") I liked the models in Episodes IV-VI better too, but models impose a lot of annoying limits. For instance, it's really hard to simulate fire and water at fine scales. I think the scene in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" where the Luftwaffe plane explodes through the tunnel was done with 1/6 scale models. At that ratio, you might as well just do it full size. Expensive.

I thought the CGI in "I, Robot" was pretty darn good. On the otherhand, it was laughably fakey in "Catwoman." I suppose a great deal depends on the talent of the programmers and renderers, the vision/restraint of the director and the appropriateness of the story for CGI enhancement.

Regarding "Revenge of the Sith": This had goddamn well better be a really, really dark film. Lucas was trying to deflect criticism about the last one (all well-deserved) by saying that I & II were for kids and III would be really disturbing. If it's not, and especially if I have to endure another EYE-GOUGINGLY AWFUL Hayden Christensen-Natalie Portman "love" scene, there will be problems. And a bad review.

It's a shame that the last two star wars turned out the way they did...all the problems could have been easily fixed...the story is pretty good, on both of them. Some characters are REAL interesting, like the new zealander playing Jango fett, and count Dookoo (christopher lee)

I liked qui-gon too....

the problem is in little things like the two headed sports anouncer..who does the little chris rock woo-hoo dance....why a reference to urban culture???

That's what made DUNE so great, and ALIEN as well....these creatures/characters/scenes are so wierd, so alien..it's a treat to either read or watch it....there is nothing to compare it to!! No connection to today's scene....

Lord of the rings worked for a lot of reasons, but really, because the story was so good you could not ruin it even if you tried...and the CGI was done a lot better. WETA rules!!!

I will never know why Lucas felt the need to dumb things down for kids..didn't he realize the biggest fans of these movies would be people who were 13 in the late 70's?? And who are now old??

Hands up all who WILL NOT SEE Return of the Sith.

Mine's up.

Face it, Star Wars is dead. It died about 30 minutes into Return of the Jedi.

mick's got some good points there. far too many contemporary references screwed up Episode 1 & 2 (among other things) The sports announcer was lame, (but voiced by my favorite comic, Greg Proops), the alien word for shit was "poo-doo" (weak), and the arena scene in Episode 2 was ruined by C3P0s ridiculous hokey jokes about losing his head. Right when you start to enjoy the action, the momentum gets killed. Just too much happening for you get attached to anything for too long. In episode 1, the sword fighting was incredible, but you got pulled away to two other battles throughout it, so you couldn't really get into it.

I remain naively optimistic about Episode III being dark. George owes us big time.

I also hope that this title will have a positive effect on the value of my pre-release one-sheet of "Revenge Of The Jedi".

Star Wars Kid

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video/swk.php

i agree the references need to be left out of the movies. And Yes This 3rd one better be so dark, that I leave the theater, dawn black clothes and start writing dark poetry about death and woe.

the star wars kid is funny to watch, yet it's sad at the same time.

I'm waiting for the Star Wars Kid sequel: The Star Wars Kid Strikes Back.

http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/escape_tatooine

Has anyone seen this yet? Not bad, kind of funny,at least better done than the KID.

http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/pink5_strikes

This one is pretty good too...

how about Troops (my altime favorite): http://www.theforce.net/theater/shortfilms/troops/

Am I correct in my recollection that Lucas had a cut of the first (EPIV) Star Wars that he had edited himself. He showed it to Spielberg and some others, and it was basically shit. So he threw up his hands and left it to his wife to edit it into what we've come to love.

And that this was taken even further in ESB, with him having minimal input ( but just enough to piss of the director to never work with Lucas again ). Then he gets his claws into EPIII, and it all goes to ewok shit.

The whole thing lost it in my opinion when he didn't have Anakin be the same age as Luke in the first movie. It could have been this whole cyclic epic. With enough room for some wicked permutations to have made it a solid block of movies.

I'm not holding my breath. If he writes it for 5 year olds instead of 15 year olds, its doomed.

That was what I thought worked for Star Wars. Lukes age made him identifiable with sci fi kids of his age, and made him be just old enough that the 10 and 12 year olds could wish to be him or see him as a slightly older brother figure.

But having Anakin be a 7 or 8 year old loses that completely.

Again not holding my breath.

TG
http://www.exotic-tiki-gardens.com