Lucas OKs Star Wars mash-ups
Star Wars creator George Lucas has finally relented to the demands of fans who want to 'mash-up' (remix or recut) footage from his films. Old Wookie Face, who betrayed the childhood memories of 30-something males throughout the Western world with his hash of prequels, has long been known as Lucas The Litigator for his attempts to clamp down on illegal mash-ups -- chief among them a rebel edit of The Phantom Menace that cut every scene involving Jar Jar Binks.
Meanwhile, many true Star Wars fans have seen Lucas himself as the worst vandal for his revisionist special effects "enhancements" of the original trilogy, which many hold should be sacred and untouchable.
Now, Lucas has announced that 250 clips, drawn from the original trilogy plus all three disasters in the show pony prequel series, will be placed on starwars.com. "User-friendly" editing software from Eyespot will be availabe through the site for DIY edits.
Why the change of heart? There are now close to 100,000 Star Wars mash-ups floating around YouTube, MySpace and other corners of the net. The number has become simply too large for any Death Star to target. By legitimising mash-ups (you have to pay $US14.95 for premium access to starwars.com), Lucas at least gets to make a buck out of it.
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Comments
Well someone has to be the uber geek here, perhaps someone should ask George Lucas if he will put the Star Was holiday Special up for editing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Wars_Holiday_Special
[And don't forget Ewoks: The Battle for Endor - CK]
Posted by: Nigel | May 25, 2007 8:27 PM
Intersting article. While I think the prequels were not as good as the original, I still like them and though Revenge of the Sith very good; better the ROTJ infact.
Posted by: Chris Stocker | May 25, 2007 1:32 PM