FILMS BY RECENTLY DECEASED DIRECTORS SELECTED FOR POSTERITY

Less than a month after the deaths of directors Irvin Kershner and Blake Edwards, two of their films, Kershner’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, produced by George Lucas, and Edwards’s The Pink Panther, produced by Martin Jurow, have been selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in its National Film Registry. The two [...]

UNIVERSAL’S NEW STAGE MAY HALT “RUNAWAY PRODUCTION”

Universal Studios has unveiled a $4.5-million “virtual stage” that includes a 40×80 green screen that effectively will allow actors to perform “on location” without having to leave the studio. The huge screen allows actors to appear against background footage that is inserted digitally. In reporting on the new stage, the Los Angeles Times observed today [...]

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK DIRECTOR DEAD AT 87

Irvin Kershner, best known as the director of the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back, has died in Los Angeles after a long illness at the age of 87. In a statement, George Lucas, who reportedly hired Kershner after being impressed with his work on The Eyes of Laura Mars, said that he had [...]

CONFIRMED: STAR WARS BEING CONVERTED TO 3D

George Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) special-effects unit has begun work on converting Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace to 3D but does not expect to release it for two more years, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Wednesday). The newspaper said that it had obtained a press release that corporate parent LucasFilm [...]

STAR WARS GETTING BLU-RAY TREATMENT

George Lucas says he has been waiting for the Blu-ray Disc format to prove itself before releasing his Star Wars films in the high-definition standard. In an interview with the New York Times, Lucas said, “We’ve been wanting to do it as soon as we possibly could, but we just wanted to do it when [...]

THE FORCE WON’T BE WITH HIM — AND VICE VERSA

David Prowse, the actor wearing the Darth Vader costume in the original Star Wars movies has disclosed that he has been barred from attending “official” Star Wars conventions, including the upcoming Celebration V. Prowse, who has previously been a regular at such conventions — he reportedly donates his fee for appearances and autographs to arthritis [...]

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