Oh the Irony Mr Lucas.

[Ladic]

Lucas on Colorized Stooges Movies: Nuts to Nyucks

George Lucas, a longtime foe of "colorized" movies, has sharply criticized Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment's decision to release two Three Stooges DVDs today (Tuesday) that will allow viewers to watch them in either their original black-and-white or digitally colored versions. In an interview with the Associated Press, Lucas said, that the Stooges' slapstick comedy belongs in a black-and-white universe. "Would color distract from their comedy and make it not as funny anymore?" Lucas said. "Maybe just the fact that they're in black and white makes it funny, because their humor is dated. But by putting it in black and white, it puts it in a context where you can appreciate it for what it was. But you try to make it in full living color and try to compare it to a Jim Carrey movie, then it's hard for young people to understand. ... It's not fair to the artist."

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/#1

[Vostok 7]

Let he who hath no sin cast the first stone.

Vostok 7

[hirohawa]

I read that earlier today. What a hyppocrite.

[Californium]

Um, ain't he the one who's been spending the last few years making three stooges movies in color?

Quick, somebody look for vampire tuna bite marks on his neck... Something smells fishy.

[DARTHTODD]

Ok, I'm not as harsh as you guys, I'm a huge SW fan and will never rip on Lucas.....but even I had a little chuckle when I read this. This is hilarious.

[Sundown]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who caught the connection. Okay... It's a travesty to alter old films... but it's perfectly alright to hack up something that's part of film history, that fans still love in its original form, then make the original version difficult to access... so long as you're the credited visionary. I see how that works.

The quote does explain a few things however. His adoration of the Stooges explains for the evil that's Jar Jar and the mostly-lame slap-stick he's been sneaking into the Original Trilogy.

To be fair though, he is consistent here on one thing. He's against the viewer having a choice.

-Al

[Mr March]

Lucas should keep his contraversial opinions out of the public eye if he wishes to avoid being an easy target. Comments like this just give his critics all the more ammunition. I like the guy and enjoy some of his films, but he's playing with fire ever since the release of the prequel trilogy and his refusal to preserve the theatrical releases of his own films. I mean let's face it, Brin's diatribe never would have found print in any genre magazine pre-TPM, but articles criticizing the new Star Wars films and Lucas himself are common newstand fare these days.

[JsARCLIGHT]

I bet if the old Stooges director crawled out of the grave and in a deep, rotting zombie voice said "Coooooooooloooooooooooor" that Lucas would be sitting next to his decayed ass helping him with a pantone book to discover the true vibrant color of Shemp's pants that he originally intended with his works because his true awesome creative vision could not be accomplished with the feeble tools of the time. After all, in King George's eyes if the original artist wants to keep painting over the canvas they can do it till the cows come home... especially to retcon said artist's crapass writing of new projects.

Edited August 11, 2004 by JsARCLIGHT

[Skippy438]

In defense of old GL, the colorization of the Stooges and the SW special editions are different. The decision to make the SEs was George's, since he is the creator he has the ability to change something that he had created without compromising "fairness to the artist." The argument about the colorization of old movies is that they are often colorized without any consideration of the creators or artisans responsible. Granted, Columbia/Tristar may have gotten authorization from the Stooges estates, but those responsible for those films have been dead for decades. There are many hypocritical things that Lucas does, but this one is definitely a gray area.

[bsu legato]

The Three Stooges raped my childhood!

[Mr March]

LOL

[Panon]

What a hypocrite.

What I found interesting though was a point in the AP article that IMDB didn't mention -

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas, who testified with Steven Spielberg before Congress in the 1980s against colorization and other forms of alteration, said the process yanks such slapstick performers as the Stooges out of the black-and-white universe they belong in."

So when exactly did the old Lucas die and get replaced by the horrible one we have now?

Edited August 11, 2004 by Panon

[Noriko Takaya]

Yep, he is a friggin hypocrite.

[Anubis]

Look who's calling the kettle black.

Hypocrite ass.

[Pat Payne]

     

Let he who hath no sin cast the first stone.

Vostok 7

Actually, to be fair to him, he is talking about OTHERS mucking about with someone's picture. If Messers Moses Horowitz, Lawerence Feinberg and Jerome Horowitz got together with Jules White and Harry Cohn (a long shot, as all of the above are long since deceased) and decided to colorize the Stooge films, I'm kinda sure that Lucas would have kept his big trap shut.

EDIT IN: Damn -- beat to the punch again! Darn you, Skippy, Darn you to heck!!

Edited August 11, 2004 by Pat Payne

[Radd]

To be fair, the Star Wars movies are his to do with as he pleases. Still, that is pretty freaking stupid of him to say.

[Radd]

Damn I should pay more attention before I post. I normally do, but when reading threads related to Star Wars the words all just kinda blur together these days.

[eugimon]

the real sad part is that lucas talks about comedy like he knows something about it.

[Jolly Rogers]

So what if Columbia/TriStar colorized the film without the consent of the original filmmakers. THEY MADE THE ORIGINAL B&W VERSION AVAILBLE ON THE SAME FRIGGIN' DISC, FREE OF CHARGE! They gave the audience a CHOICE, unlike Emperor George.

As much as I am for the artist's right to do as he pleases with his own creation, Lucas just Pwned himself with that retarded comment.

[1st Border Red Devil]

Well....

I will say that colorization has been done to movies that DIDNT need it (and were PURPOSELY filmed in black and white). Whomever colorized Treasure of the Sierra Madres should have been taken out and shot. The same for The Hill and a number of older pieces that someone just decided to f*ck with for no apparent reason.

[Gaijin]

Hello George? The Kettle called...said you're black.

[Die, Alien Scum!]

The Three Stooges raped my childhood!

George Lucas raped my adulthood!

The first three SW movies we're cool, but these last two have been pretty bad. I'm an adult now and Lucas has molested my inner child.

[BoBe-Patt]

The Three Stooges raped my childhood!

It soitenly did!!

[Keith]

If i'm reading that right, it says that the DVD's will have the option of watching the films in black & white or color. Perhaps Lucas's beef isn't that the colorized version is that, but that people are actually being given a choice....

[Chuey]

Hello George? The Kettle called...said you're black.

My sentiments exactly.

[Doryu2025]

In defense of old GL, the colorization of the Stooges and the SW special editions are different. The decision to make the SEs was George's, since he is the creator he has the ability to change something that he had created without compromising "fairness to the artist."

That's a good point that holds up when talking about Star Wars, but I don't remember any stories of Lucas consulting with Irvin Kershner for The Empire Strikes Back. And since Richard Marquand has been dead for 17 years, I think it's pretty safe to say that Lucas probably didn't pass along any ideas for a revamp of Return of the Jedi before the actual director of the film passed away.

Edited August 11, 2004 by Doryu2025

[buddhafabio]

The Three Stooges raped my childhood!

George Lucas raped my adulthood!

The first three SW movies we're cool, but these last two have been pretty bad. I'm an adult now and Lucas has molested my inner child.

except for the whole jarjar incident I would say Phantom Menace was alright. I did not like attack of the clones very much but was saved by all the action.

[Blaine23]

To be fair though, he is consistent here on one thing. He's against the viewer having a choice.

-Al

Word.

But maybe we're being unfair to George... yeah, he's against colorizing B&W Stooges - but sources tell me he's all about adding CGI effects all over them.

[Caufield]

The Three Stooges raped my childhood!

It soitenly did!!

[Amped]

the real sad part is that lucas talks about comedy like he knows something about it.

He does know about comedy! Just look at what he's one with his Star Wars franchise!!! Face it guys... as soon as he introduced the Ewoks we all shoulda know something was screwy back at the ranch...

[Warmaker]

In defense of old GL, the colorization of the Stooges and the SW special editions are different. The decision to make the SEs was George's, since he is the creator he has the ability to change something that he had created without compromising "fairness to the artist."

That's a good point that holds up when talking about Star Wars, but I don't remember any stories of Lucas consulting with Irvin Kershner for The Empire Strikes Back. And since Richard Marquand has been dead for 17 years, I think it's pretty safe to say that Lucas probably didn't pass along any ideas for a revamp of Return of the Jedi before the actual director of the film passed away.

But the thing is... Star Wars is Georgie's creation. If he wanted things a certian way, he's free to do so since Star Wars is his creation.

Now, like many here, I prefer the way events unfolded in the original versions of Star Wars. The idea of Han shooting first against Greedo lended alot to his "bad image" which was key to his character. But if Lucas wanted to change things around, then it's his call alone. Star Wars is his creation.

What would have been nice is having 2 different sets. The original and the Special Edition. That would have been able to please both camps. Actually, it would be really interesting to see which of the 2 sets sold better. After all, there's no denying the original trilogy DVDs will sell.

Edited August 11, 2004 by Warmaker

[cobywan]

I think he disagrees with giving the viewer a choice of which version to watch.

[Angel's Fury]

I think he disagrees with giving the viewer a choice of which version to watch.

As if anybody is listening to his rants.

[Angel's Fury]

Face it guys... as soon as he introduced the Ewoks we all shoulda know something was screwy back at the ranch...

[mikeszekely]

Lucas should keep his contraversial opinions out of the public eye...

I think most famous people should keep their opinions to themselves. Sure, they're entitled to their opinions, but too many celebrities use their fame as a platform the voice their opinions, when many times they are not necessarily qualified to speak on the topics.