While I love that Carrie is doing it, I'm sorta let down that Mark Hamill won't be doing it.

The list seems pretty final otherwise they wouldn't release it yet. I mean, no offense to Mark, but is he THAT busy he can't do a commentary for his movies?

=/

The details are:

Disc 1: Star Wars: A New Hope
Commentary by George Lucas, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren, and Carrie Fisher

Disc 2: The Empire Strikes Back
Commentary by George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren, and Carrie Fisher

Disc 3: Return of the Jedi
Commentary by George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren, and Carrie Fisher

Yeah, i to am pretty bummed out about that. I would love to hear what he has to say now about it. I think we all knew Ford wouldnt do it, but I was hoping for Hammill or even Billie Dee Williams actually... Maybe through Frank Oz and the dude who played 3CPO in there

The most important guy is there: Lucas. He gives good commentary, although I wish they were feature length.

Who are Burtt and Muren?

The sound effects guy and the special effects guy.

They're pretty much who's left of the Old Crew from the original Star Wars.

Burtt has been the sound designer for all the movies. He came up with everything you hear from the lightsaber hum to the laser blasts to the Tie-fighter screams.

Muren if I'm not mistakes is also Old School ILM and the first from that f/x company to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I know he was one of the pioneers of the "morph" effect and CGI use in general starting with the water tendril in the Abyss and the T-1000 in T2.

As far as Mark Hamill goes, from conversation in other threads, Hamill has been wanting to wash his hands of the Star Wars films.

Well at least these commentaries should be a lot better than the really sucky audio commentaries done for the Definitive Collection on LaserDisc a long time ago.

Those were just terrible.

and yet he will do a Star Wars parody in "jay and silent bob strikes back"?

Well, he got paid for that. He probably wasn't getting paid for doing SW commentaries.

Exactly. This is obviously remniscent of the Seinfeld escapade, where the stars weren't being paid for their time to do the extras (except Jerry, of course). Although, in the end, they all agreed to to it.

Obviously, Lucas and his co-horts are going to make more millions from this, yet I am doubly sure the stars weren't offered anything for the extras. Unless they had written into their original contracts that they get residuals from home video releases (which is very unlikely for the time period that these films originally existed) then they stand to earn squat from this release.

In all honesty, I would be pretty POed myself if that is indeed the case.

Why do Ford and Hamill want to wash their hands of Star Wars?

Well, they didn't have any careers after the films...oh, wait...

Seriously though I am very happy to see Carrie involved, I think she is hilarious. Her appearance on Dinner for Five was, for me, the most memorable. I can't wait to hear her comments.

Are these the types of commentaries where the group of people sit in a room around the monitor and discuss the movie as it's playing or is pieced together from clips? I can't stand the pieced together commentaries. I like the commentaries where it sounds like a bunch of friends getting together and reminiscing about the movie while giving interesting information on the making of it.

Hamill was interviewed for the making-of documentary, so all is not lost.

However, I am happy that the commentary participants are reduced to mostly the major players in the production (no Rick McCallum, yay!).

If Ep. I and II are any indication it will be an edited together commentary.

I'm glad there aren't too many actors participating, their remeniscence can often be very shallow and uninteresting because all they did was audition, show up, read their lines, eat lunch, and go home. They know nothing about pre- or post-production.

Bummer about the rest of the cast not doing the commentaries. I kinda wished these DVDs are released after Ep3, then there might have been more insight in the commentaries

Hamill has said on the record several times that he did two specific 'Star Wars' parodies, both of them because his children said that they wouldn't speak to him if he didn't.

One was 'Strike Back', because his children are big Kevin Smith fans too (he is too, to some extent, 'cause he's into comics and all, but his children more so).

And the other was 'Simpsons'. This fact alone should hip you to the fact that he wasn't doing the parodies for the money, since we all know that the 'Simpsons' pays its actors as little as they can get away with, especially guest stars (who make as little as legally permitted by the guilds).

Somehow, it seems like if Mark Hamill *were* interested just in money, he could make a lot more money off of formerly being Luke Skywalker than you'd get for one scene in a $15 million movie. But, whatever, bashing from fanboys never requires actual logic to it.

Hey, look at how extensively the commentaries are alread being discussed here.

Why the need for yet another Star Wars thread?

I, personally, have a lot of respect for people who can poke fun at their careers the way Hamill has. One of my favorites has to be Stan Lee on The Simpsons . . . that man rips himself to shreads ("He can't be the Hulk, because I'm the Hulk! Rrrrrraaaargggh!! <rips shirt . . . sad when nothing happens> I really did it once . . ." )

I don't have a lot of respect fro Hamill as an actor, but I have a lot of respect the fact that he seems to openly and graciously accept that people feel that way.

Not wanting to do a convention circuit, commentary, or spend all of your time with fans does not = washing hands of Star Wars.

Both of these actors were interviewed pretty extensively for the 1997 SE re-releases and neither seemed particularly embarrased about the films or wanted to distance themselves.

But I think both of them want to have careers beyond a (admitedly super-successful) film trilogy that they made 25+ years ago.


The worst I think I've ever heard from Ford was that the around the time of Jedi, he wanted to kill off Han because the character was "kinda weak". Well, look at the role he had in Jedi and compare that to Star Wars or Empire. Do you blame him? There was nothing for Han to do in that film. I'm sure he thanks God every night for Han Solo and Indy.

I don't think I've ever heard a quote from Mark Hamill distancing himself from SW. I see him interviewed on every SW-releated documentary (Lucas A&E biography, etc.) and he's always very positive.

I hope Carrie Fisher rips into Lucas every time "Special Edition" CGI crap footage pops up on screen.

Why even bother to post something like that?

1) Lucas is in the commentary too,
2) Even if he weren't, he would at least have final say over whatever was released, and
3) That would not be a very professional thing to do, especially considering that this man pretty much launched her career.

Hmm, I had to turn off the commentary on Episode 2 because it was just Lucas praising himself and the rest of his entourage doing the same. No doubt this will be the same way.

Only thing that I hate about Lucas commentaries is all the people aren't together.

Everyone seems to have been recorded seperatly. It's more fun to listen to people when they are all together.

As long as Mark is in the documentaries, then it's cool.

And yes, I never expected Ford to do it.