Salon.com > Star Wars http://www.salon.com Sun, 27 May 2012 13:20:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Trust me on this: “Star Wars” http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/trust_me_on_this_star_wars/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/trust_me_on_this_star_wars/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12925211 I saw "Star Wars" on VHS originally when I was 6. I was just captivated. I would come home every day after school, and before I would do my homework, I would pop it in and watch it, because I was largely alone. Both my parents worked. I remember the play button being green, the pause button was red, and the way the top would pop up and you'd slide the tape in and clank it down. And I remember knowing every line.

As I grew, I began to see "Star Wars" as a metaphor for so much – whether it was the natural depravity of man, or the redemption of man, or the relationship between a father and a son in Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. That relationship can be broken and redeemed over the course of the trilogy. I really related and connected with it, and it encapsulated a lot of what I want to teach my children – people make mistakes, and they can ultimately be redeemed, even if those mistakes seem egregious, you know, in Darth Vader's case. That there is a choice to be made between what side you choose in life. Our faith is a big part of our family, so the Force has special meaning for me. There's just so many things that I think my son would get, that I hope my son would get.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/trust_me_on_this_star_wars/feed/ 2 “Star Wars” like you’ve never seen it before http://www.salon.com/2012/01/25/star_wars_like_youve_never_seen_it_before/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/25/star_wars_like_youve_never_seen_it_before/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:27:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12237181 There are a few great universal truths. People love "Star Wars." People love making videos. (Just ask the Star Wars Kid.) When in 2009, Vimeo developer Casey Pugh challenged fans to "remake 'Star Wars: A New Hope' into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time," he got an outpouring of beautiful animated sequences, stop-motion extravaganzas, and a lot of people in their living rooms, wearing hoodies. So many hoodies. The final product became "Star Wars Uncut," an addictively compelling low-fi reimagining of the classic that went on to win  a 2010 Emmy for interactive media, besting websites for "Glee" and "Dexter."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/01/25/star_wars_like_youve_never_seen_it_before/feed/ 16 What Occupy can learn from the Hunger Games http://www.salon.com/2012/01/08/what_occupy_can_learn_from_the_hunger_games/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/08/what_occupy_can_learn_from_the_hunger_games/#comments Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=11870941 “YOU CAN’T EVICT AN IDEA,” proclaim the banners fronting an otherwise dull building in east London, owned by banking giant UBS but inhabited and decorated by squatters from the Occupy movement. They’ve adapted the phrase from Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s graphic novel "V for Vendetta," in which the titular terrorist explains his seeming immortality to a detective who has just shot him: “Ideas are bulletproof.” A poster of V’s trademark Guy Fawkes mask smiles eerily at all who walk into the foyer of 8 Sun Street, now dubbed “The Bank of Ideas” and used as a community center. The caption underneath reads, “We are the 99%, and so are you.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/01/08/what_occupy_can_learn_from_the_hunger_games/feed/ 16 Today’s must-see viral videos http://www.salon.com/2011/08/11/viral_videos_star_wars_porn_parody/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/11/viral_videos_star_wars_porn_parody/#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/08/11/viral_videos_star_wars_porn_parody 1. Paul Rudd is your bad marketing idea man:

Even though "My Idiot Brother" looks kind of terrible, I will watch Paul Rudd do basically anything.

Sorry America, the Rudd backlash hasn't begun in my heart quite yet.

2. Chris Crocker needs your money for a documentary:

Come on, you guys remember Chris Crocker right?  He's the "Leave Britney alone!" guy.  Anyway, here's his Kickstarter project for a feature film.

Dig deep into your wallets, folks! This man's story needs to be told!

3. George Lopez "jokes" about being canceled (clip starts at 1:30 mark):

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/11/viral_videos_star_wars_porn_parody/feed/ 4 “Star Wars” with street cred http://www.salon.com/2011/08/04/slide_show_star_wars_hip_hop/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/04/slide_show_star_wars_hip_hop/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/08/04/slide_show_star_wars_hip_hop Is there a law on the Internet that says that for every original idea, someone has probably done a "Star Wars" parody of it? There should be. For a story that's been around for over 30 years, the iconic characters of George Lucas' films always find ways to appear in the most unlikely of places: in musicals, riding bikes, even in rap music.

Nicholas Hyde is one of the many devoted "Star War" fans who have updated the iconography of his childhood. A  32-year-old artist living in Oregon, Hyde's prints give those famous "Star Wars" figures some modern street cred: Using crisp outlines and dark shadows, Hyde fashions  portraits of Yoda playing at the turntables, or Boba Fett with an old-school jukebox. It's like something Kevin Smith might have come up with if he made art instead of movies.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/04/slide_show_star_wars_hip_hop/feed/ 10 George Lucas loses Stormtrooper helmet battle http://www.salon.com/2011/07/27/george_lucas_stormtroopers/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/27/george_lucas_stormtroopers/#comments Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:28:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/07/27/george_lucas_stormtroopers (Note: I am going to try to refrain from any "Star Wars" jokes, analogies, or metaphors during this piece. Let's see if it works!)

George Lucas has held tightly to the merchandizing rights of his "Star Wars" franchise, making him both one of the savviest businessmen in sci-fi, as well as one of the most pesky. Seriously, his company Lucasfilm has no qualms over suing even the small fries for copyright infringement, setting a record for petty intellectual property cases while he's at it. Juggernaut that it is, Lucasfilm usually wins. After all, the force ... er ... law is on their side: Lucas created the characters and the world they inhabit, and anyone who uses even a likeness of Yoda without his permission is technically in violation of intellectual property rights.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/27/george_lucas_stormtroopers/feed/ 18 “The Dark Knight Rises” and the art of the teaser poster http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/teaser_trailer_dark_knight_rises/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/teaser_trailer_dark_knight_rises/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:05:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/07/12/teaser_trailer_dark_knight_rises Today the Web is buzzing about just one image. It's a pretty cool picture -- looking up at a crumbing city skyline that is falling away into the shape of a bat -- but without knowing the context of the photo, most people would be left wondering why the Internet is in an uproar over the pic.

Of course, the teaser poster for Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" (the second of its kind, after the Bane photo) is obvious to anyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the last year. Teaser posters, which often come out way ahead of the film itself, can be self-explanatory, or totally baffling. They're like puzzle pieces leading up to the movie itself, and with the hyper-aware Web culture that grabs on to every leak and spoiler, they can be used to raise a film's buzz to a near-deafening screech.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/teaser_trailer_dark_knight_rises/feed/ 13 Your guide to day one at Comic-Con http://www.salon.com/2011/07/07/guide_comic_con_panels_day_one/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/07/guide_comic_con_panels_day_one/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/07/guide_comic_con_panels_day_one San Diego's annual Comic-Con can be a very scary place for the uninitiated. With thousands of panels, screenings and artist booths, the four-day entertainment convention is perhaps the only place in the world where you can have a panic attack while staring at six versions of "Sexy Leia."

In two weeks, nerds will descend en mass to California, and in preparation, the producers of Comic-Con have posted the schedule of events for the kickoff day on July 21. (Technically there is a preview night, but who is counting?)

If you're still feeling overwhelmed, we've prepared a brief guide of the day's must-sees, as well as what programs to avoid.

Definitely catch: "Game of Thrones" panel

Author George R.R. Martin moderates a panel featuring series executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss as well as cast members Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington and Jason Momoa.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/07/guide_comic_con_panels_day_one/feed/ 10 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/06/17/pop_five_lost_true_blood/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/17/pop_five_lost_true_blood/#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2011 20:18:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/17/pop_five_lost_true_blood 1. Masturbatory comment of the day: Jason Sudeikis on how he got his technique for "Hall Pass":

"I did all my research for that scene by going on Chatroulette, that website where guys masturbate for strangers. My moves in Hall Pass are an amalgamation of, I don’t know, maybe 20,000 different dudes. I took the facial expressions from SexHog22; I took the hand motions from GrizzlyBearDong. Those guys really know what they’re doing."

2. Casting news of the day: Charlie Day ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," "Horrible Bosses") may be joining the Guillermo del Toro's monster mash "Pacific Rim." Wonder if there will be a cameo for Night Man?

3. HBO wish of the day: That "Lost's" Michael Emerson would make a cameo on "True Blood." Hey, apparently it might happen! "I'm friendly with Alan Ball ... " Emerson said at the premiere, "He'll say, 'I've gotta get you on here!' And I'll say, 'Yes, I'm ready!' "

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/17/pop_five_lost_true_blood/feed/ 8 Interview with a wookiee http://www.salon.com/2011/05/19/peter_mayhew_interview/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/19/peter_mayhew_interview/#comments Thu, 19 May 2011 17:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/david_sirota/2011/05/19/peter_mayhew_interview Out of all the icons in the vast "Star Wars" firmament, why is a mostly silent wookiee among the most famous? Think about it -- next to the name Darth Vader, Chewbacca's name is probably the most singularly recognizable of all the George Lucas characters. Say it to almost anyone, and they immediately know who you are talking about. Indeed, if Chewbacca were a presidential candidate in 2012, his name recognition alone would make him an instant contender -- especially in a Republican primary that every day is looking more and more like the gaggle at the Mos Eisley Cantina.

What made Chewy so memorable? Was it his brotherly relationship with Han Solo? Was it his reputation as a tough guy who rips people's arms out of their sockets when he loses a game of chess? These were just some of the questions I explored with Peter Mayhew on my KKZN-AM760 morning radio show during Mayhew's recent appearance at Denver Starfest. As the man who played Chewbacca, the 7-foot-3-inch Mayhew had some unique insights into the character and into the political ideology of the larger "Star Wars" world. He also weighed in on one of the most divisive new debates now roiling the original "Star Wars" generation as it moves into adulthood -- the debate over whether parents should force today's kids to watch episodes IV, V and VI before watching episodes I, II and III.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/19/peter_mayhew_interview/feed/ 30 Sartre’s “Star Wars” http://www.salon.com/2011/05/09/sartre_wars_star_wars/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/09/sartre_wars_star_wars/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 19:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/05/09/sartre_wars_star_wars Because of some international scheduling problems, I totally missed "Star Wars" Day last week. It was a very big deal, as if all of the Internet collectively found out about the holiday only this year. (If I had known how big it was going to be, I never would have taken that trip to Europe, where Star Wars Day falls at the same time as Guy Fawkes Day and gets totally overshadowed every time.)

So in order to make it up to you, here is "Existential Star Wars," or "Star Wars by Sartre," where the dialogue to a French dub of the film is subtitled with lines from the French philosopher. You're welcome.

Darth Vader can be such a bummer when he gets all mopey like this. Maybe he needs to change up his wardrobe and quit smoking. It's either that or picking up Nietzsche next, and I don't think anyone in the Empire wants to go down that road.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/09/sartre_wars_star_wars/feed/ 10 Interview with Mike Joos: Chewbacca on a bicycle http://www.salon.com/2011/04/21/mike_joos_slide_show/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/21/mike_joos_slide_show/#comments Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/04/21/mike_joos_slide_show I love "Star Wars" and I love bicycles, two things that I think can be said about most red-blooded Americans. I also really like magical horses and comic books. So let's be honest: When I found Mike Joos' Etsy.com page, "Line Draw," I had to stop myself from purchasing every one of his 5x7 prints, most of which feature some combination of the above pop culture artifacts.

Instead, I got in touch with Joos and asked him about his bike obsession, comic books and Boba Fett vs. Darth Vader on a unicorn.

Check out Mike on Twitter and bike blog, and go buy some art already! You can afford it.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/21/mike_joos_slide_show/feed/ 10 Exclusive: “Star Wars the Musical,” in its entirety! http://www.salon.com/2011/04/06/star_wars_the_musical_full/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/06/star_wars_the_musical_full/#comments Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:07:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/04/06/star_wars_the_musical_full Two weeks ago, we brought you a snapshot of "Star Wars the Musical," a 1996 production conceived and created entirely by students in California. Up until now, the entire opera -- which combined music from "Les Miserables," "Tommy" and "Godspell" (among others) -- had only been witnessed by those lucky enough to see the it during its three-night run.

We are proud to present you, for the first time ever, the entire "Star Wars" musical: conceived, written and directed by Garrin Hajeianm, Kevin Bayuk and John Zuckerman. Hitting the sweet spot of teen geekiness, "Star Wars the Musical" is a must-see for anyone who loves both George Lucas and monologues carried out entirely in song. Garrin was also kind enough to subtitle the entire play, so what the A.V. club didn't pick up, you now can.

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/06/star_wars_the_musical_full/feed/ 6 Jar Jar Binks attacked on subway http://www.salon.com/2011/04/01/jar_jar_binks_improv_everywhere/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/01/jar_jar_binks_improv_everywhere/#comments Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:41:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/04/01/jar_jar_binks_improv_everywhere Look, I love a good pantsless subway ride as much as the next gal. But as Improv Everywhere has become synonymous with corporate-funded flash mobs for "Glee" (seriously) and annoying people who are just trying to go about their daily lives, I've started to think that maybe we've been improv'd out of good ideas and should just cut our losses on this one.

The video posted on Improv Everywhere's website today just serves to prove my point. In it, a guy dressed like Jar Jar Binks from the first three "Star Wars" films attempts to bring whimsy to a nearly empty subway car before getting in an altercation with three big guys who apparently liked "Return of the Jedi" better than Lucas' later work. After beating up the semi-racist caricture, the men then turn on Darth Maul, who had tried to get on the train at the following stop.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/01/jar_jar_binks_improv_everywhere/feed/ 12 Scenes from “Star Wars the Musical” http://www.salon.com/2011/03/25/star_wars_musical_millenium_falcon/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/25/star_wars_musical_millenium_falcon/#comments Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:26:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/03/25/star_wars_musical_millenium_falcon Forget "Glee": In 1996, three high school students from California decided that they were going to do some really epic musical theater. Funded entirely out of their own pockets and with no adult supervision, 17-year-olds Garrin Hajeian, Michael Heilman, and Kevin Bayuk put on a 40-person rock opera of "Star Wars: A New Hope." Adjusting the lyrics from the tunes from "Les Miserables," "Grease," and "Godspell," the three-night production of "Star Wars the Musical" sold out every performance and ended up with a "New York Times" review and a cease-and-desist letter from George Lucas.

According to Kelvin Yu, who played Obi-Wan in the production:

We had a capacity of 300 at our performing arts center, the first night 1200 people showed up and there was a line around the block. Keep in mind; this is long before "Star Wars" was cool again.

The show's history has been chronicled in the documentary, "Star Woids," only two clips from the musical have ever hit the Internet: a scene called "Millennium Falcon" that takes place in the Mos Eisley Cantina, and an amazing rendition of the "Les Mis" song "One Day More" repurposed as "Use the Force."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/25/star_wars_musical_millenium_falcon/feed/ 6 The droids of “Star Wars” http://www.salon.com/2011/03/16/college_humor_robots_star_wars/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/16/college_humor_robots_star_wars/#comments Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:17:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/03/16/college_humor_robots_star_wars The difficult thing about making a good "Star Wars" parody isn't a lack of material...it's just all been picked dry by previous comedy routines. Now we're down to picking out some of the more esoteric characters in the Lucas Empire just to get some new jokes going (see: Stormtroopers). Luckily, British comedians and uber-nerds Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (whose British show "Spaced" was like one long, geeky, sci-fi send-up) know that sometimes the funniest characters are the ones taken for granted. Like famed droids C-3P0 and R2-D2, who started an intergalactic battle between good and evil, but couldn't manage to find their way out of a desert.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/16/college_humor_robots_star_wars/feed/ 6 The rise of the Stormtrooper http://www.salon.com/2011/03/08/stormtroopers_star_wars/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/08/stormtroopers_star_wars/#comments Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:40:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/03/08/stormtroopers_star_wars For decades, the Stormtroopers of "Star Wars" have been thought of as mindless robots, with but a few nerds remembering that the Galactic Empire's army was stocked with actual people behind the masks. But a new pop culture movement is intent on showing the more human side to the men in white.

Kevin Smith first mused on the quality of human life upon the Death Star in his 1994 film, "Clerks."

But it took another 10 years for a widespread interest in Stormtrooper foibles, when both Adult Swim's "Robot Chicken" and Fox's "Family Guy" gave Stormtroopers a previously unheard voice. Turns out they sometimes sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

They also accidentally hit Ewoks and take their daughters to work with them.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/08/stormtroopers_star_wars/feed/ 17 What “Star Wars” can teach my son about life http://www.salon.com/2011/01/03/star_wars_parenting/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/03/star_wars_parenting/#comments Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//feature/2011/01/03/star_wars_parenting Even in as chaotic and random a world as we live in now, Americans have come to rely on a few rock-solid inevitabilities during the Christmas/New Years season. We know jingle-bell muzak will fill our department stores. We know Fox News will provide breathless dispatches from the frontlines of the War on Christmas. We can bank on Dick Clark (with an assist from Ryan Seacrest) counting down the seconds as the ball drops in Times Square. And, even more so than at any other time of year, we can count on the cable rerun-o-sphere teleporting us back to the child-focused Spielberg-Lucas productions of our youth.

Yes, in this wintery season of merriment, a jaunt from SpikeTV to the USA Network, to the Turner constellation to the premium channels is all but guaranteed to take you from a mountainous Nepal to the Oregon coast to the alien-invaded California suburbs to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. In that way, Spielberg and Lucas have become our new Frank Capras -- their work is as ubiquitous this time of year as "It's a Wonderful Life."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/01/03/star_wars_parenting/feed/ 68 George Lucas’ pathetic 3-D “Star Wars” re-release http://www.salon.com/2010/09/29/lucas_3d/ http://www.salon.com/2010/09/29/lucas_3d/#comments Wed, 29 Sep 2010 22:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2010/09/29/lucas_3d

July 26, 2053. Dateline: Mumbai. To help announce the launch of Dolby's new 6-D/STB technology, which allows viewers to live portions of their lives within SlipperyPods that simulate physical bodies of their favorite movie characters, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' cryogenically defrosted cerebral cortex was uploaded via CloudNet today for an ambient press conference with GlobeGloop.

Some embloggers and speloggers contented themselves with disseminating the Founding Genius' surprisingly old-fashioned porn fantasies involving Natalie Portman as Padmé and zany bounty hunter Boba Fett (Stephen Colbert), or his "Cage aux Folles"-style reboot of the relationship between Han Solo and Lando Calrissian, now played by undead actor Barack Hussein Obama, beloved Islamic spokesbot and (according to supermarket tabloids) "president" of the United States in pre-Reconciliation times. But didn't anybody besides me feel like Lucas' heart wasn't in it? (Not that he still has one, ha ha.) Maybe it was the way he kept V-muttering, "Exterminate all the brutes." Reference to a SimDisney theme-park ride and before that a 1990s splatterpunk thriller, I realize. Just mental clutter. Still, it was kind of odd.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/09/29/lucas_3d/feed/ 50 “Star Wars” films set for re-release in 3-D http://www.salon.com/2010/09/29/star_wars_in_3d/ http://www.salon.com/2010/09/29/star_wars_in_3d/#comments Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/trending/2010/09/29/star_wars_in_3d Oh be honest, you knew this was coming. Why wouldn't George Lucas find a way to charge $18 per ticket for a movie you've seen many, many different versions of already?  

After a few years of will-they-or-won't-they, Lucas and Lucasfilm finally confirmed their plans to bring the entire "Star Wars" saga into the third dimension. Lucas was reportedly holding back because of the limited availability of 3-D screens in movie theaters. But that was before the release of a modest little movie called "Avatar." So now the Hollywood Reporter says the 3-D re-releases will start with "Episode I: The Phantom Menace" in early 2012. After that, each film will be released in episode order in consecutive years, depending on whether the filmgoing public decides a 3-D Jar Jar Binks is a sign of progress or a new cause of retinal damage. 

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