According to Variety, LucasFilm has confirmed that they are in the process of converting all six films in the Star Wars Saga into 3D format. The first film,
Episode I: The Phantom Menace, will hit theaters sometime in 2012.
20th Century Fox will once again distribute. Fox domestic distribution prexy Bruce Snyder called the series "perfectly suited" for 3D and said "I expect this to be as much fun for people that have not experienced 'Star Wars' as it was for people who were there in 1977 staring at the screen with mouth agape."
No word on release dates for the following films as that will be determined by the length of time it takes to actually convert the films over to the new format.
John Knoll, visual effects supervisor for Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic, is overseeing the conversion. Knoll says that the studio is committed to making sure the resulting products will be just as good as those that are filmed in 3D format. He also says that they will avoid using the typical exaggerated 3D scenes that have marked previous stereoscopic films.
"Having seen a lot of stereo material, I have very strong opinions about what I like and don't like about stereo," Knoll told Variety. "I'm going to be applying my aesthetic. It's not going to look like (conversions) we've seen in the past."
I think it goes without saying that this will be received with very mixed reviews, as 3D films are seen by some as nothing more than a gimmick for studios to scrape more money out of movie goers. Others feel that it adds a new experience to a film that would otherwise be drab and uneventful.
Way say you ComicBookMovie users? Is this a smart move for LucasFilms or just a ploy for the studio and Lucas himself to grab as much money as possible from us?