Indy still shot first

[J. Walter Weatherman]

He'll just be a lot bigger this time.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-to-receive-imax-re-release/

It's the kind of revelation that would melt the face of any die-hard Indiana Jones fan (this time, with joy): "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the 1981 adventure film that introduced that globe-trotting archaeologist, will receive a one-week Imax release next month, Lucasfilm said on Tuesday.

"For me, it's always been the bigger the screen, the better," Steven Spielberg, who directed "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and the three subsequent "Indiana Jones" sequels, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "It's the only marked contrast we have to the generations that are seeing our movies on phones and hand-held platforms. It's a complete relief to be able to see a film that many people have just experienced on a palm-sized platform technology, suddenly hurled at that them on an Imax-sized screen."

Lucasfilm, the studio of the "Indiana Jones" executive producer George Lucas, said the Imax version of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" will receive a one-week theatrical release beginning on Sept. 7, in advance of the Blu-ray release of the Indiana Jones movies, which will go on sale Sept. 18. A list of theaters that will be showing the film can be found online at Imax.com.

Mr. Spielberg, who with the sound designer Ben Burtt supervised the conversion of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to Imax, said that no special effects or other visual elements of the film were changed. The audio, he said, had been enhanced for surround sound: "When the boulder is rolling, chasing Indy through the cave, you really feel the boulder in your stomach, the way you do when a marching band passes by, and you're standing right next to it."

But Mr. Spielberg — who is also in the process of converting his movie "Jurassic Park" to 3-D for an anniversary rerelease next year — said he had "no plans" to do Imax conversions of his other films, whether earlier efforts like "Jaws" or "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," or any of the "Indiana Jones" sequels.

"'Raiders' is a movie of my own, that I can actually stand to watch from beginning to end," Mr. Spielberg said. "In that sense, it has a special place in my heart. I don't rewrite it in my mind; I'm not kicking myself for what I didn't do. I'm just going along for the ride like everybody else. It's one of the few films that I've directed that I can sit back objectively and observe and enjoy with my family or whoever I'm with, or even alone. Most of my other films, I'm hypercritical of them."

...

Q. As with the Imax release of "Raiders," the Blu-ray releases of the Indy films are just upgrades in presentation – there are no other changes to the movies?

A. No, there's no aesthetic changes to the films. I'm not going back and doing to any of my movies that are now coming out on Blu-ray what I did when "E.T." was reissued for the third time and I made some digital changes in the picture. I'm not doing that any more. I've resigned myself to accepting that what the film was at the time of its creation is what it always should be for future generations. I'm no longer a digital revisionist.

Q. That's something you learned from your experience with "E.T."?

A. I learned from the fans. And now of course, we have the other group of fans who only know the other "E.T." with the digital augmentation and that has become their standard for receiving that story. The only thing I think we can do is continue to manufacture and put out both versions. But it's too complicated to that with any of my other movies – I'm pretty much going to release those films the way they were originally made.

Q. Your friend and partner on the Indy movies, George Lucas, feels differently, and has made changes to his "Star Wars" movies as they've been released in new formats. Is that O.K.?

A. It is. It's a director's prerogative, and a director needs to decide that for him or herself. George has decided that he can make digital changes to upgrade the special effects to 21st-century standards and that's fine. But I've just decided not to do that, and since I have control of the "Raiders" movies, and by the way, to George's credit, he never once called me and suggested that I do any digital enhancements. He was not knocking on my door, saying, "Steve, you've got to do this, you've got to do this." He never said a word.

Get fucked, Lucas.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Also:

Q. As long as we're talking about the Indy movies: with your longtime producing partner Kathleen Kennedy now a co-chair at Lucasfilm, is this the time to start thinking about "Indiana Jones 5"?

A. I'm afraid to think about it. Because if I think about it, I'm really going to want to do it. But it's not up to me – it's up to George. So the person who needs to be thinking about it is George, not me. And I've given George my pledge that if he wants to write a fifth Indiana Jones movie, I'm his man to direct it. But it's all up to him, and I don't put any pressure on him. And if he decides that another one is warranted, I'll be happy to direct it.

Seriously, Lucas...

[CBStew]

Also:

Q. As long as we're talking about the Indy movies: with your longtime producing partner Kathleen Kennedy now a co-chair at Lucasfilm, is this the time to start thinking about "Indiana Jones 5"?

A. I'm afraid to think about it. Because if I think about it, I'm really going to want to do it. But it's not up to me – it's up to George. So the person who needs to be thinking about it is George, not me. And I've given George my pledge that if he wants to write a fifth Indiana Jones movie, I'm his man to direct it. But it's all up to him, and I don't put any pressure on him. And if he decides that another one is warranted, I'll be happy to direct it.

Seriously, Lucas...

I can see it now.  Indiana Jones, being chased downhill by a rolling boulder, collides with the villain from behind.  The bad guy falls onto Indy, who shouts, "Get off my wheelchair".

[Chuck to Chuck]

Also:

Q. As long as we're talking about the Indy movies: with your longtime producing partner Kathleen Kennedy now a co-chair at Lucasfilm, is this the time to start thinking about "Indiana Jones 5"?

A. I'm afraid to think about it. Because if I think about it, I'm really going to want to do it. But it's not up to me – it's up to George. So the person who needs to be thinking about it is George, not me. And I've given George my pledge that if he wants to write a fifth Indiana Jones movie, I'm his man to direct it. But it's all up to him, and I don't put any pressure on him. And if he decides that another one is warranted, I'll be happy to direct it.

Seriously, Lucas...

I can see it now.  Indiana Jones, being chased downhill by a rolling boulder, collides with the villain from behind.  The bad guy falls onto Indy, who shouts, "Get off my wheelchair".

Cane, not wheelchair

[Bort]

Also:

Q. As long as we're talking about the Indy movies: with your longtime producing partner Kathleen Kennedy now a co-chair at Lucasfilm, is this the time to start thinking about "Indiana Jones 5"?

A. I'm afraid to think about it. Because if I think about it, I'm really going to want to do it. But it's not up to me – it's up to George. So the person who needs to be thinking about it is George, not me. And I've given George my pledge that if he wants to write a fifth Indiana Jones movie, I'm his man to direct it. But it's all up to him, and I don't put any pressure on him. And if he decides that another one is warranted, I'll be happy to direct it.

Seriously, Lucas...

I can see it now.  Indiana Jones, being chased downhill by a rolling boulder, collides with the villain from behind.  The bad guy falls onto Indy, who shouts, "Get off my wheelchair".

Cane, not wheelchair

I heard they cut him out on the video version.

[Wheezer]

I've just sat through most of Jurassic Park, and it reminds me of nothing so much as Spielberg's having bought the rights to Hogan's Heroes.