Star Wars fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming year. The Star Wars film franchise is getting a new lease on life with stereoscopic 3D conversion. LucasFilm and Fox will release Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace on February 10, 2012. Subsequent 3D versions of the five remaining George Lucas films will be released, likely one a year. With gamers still playing through LucasArts’ Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, next on the horizon is the second massively multiplayer online (MMO) game Star Wars: The Old Republic from BioWare and Electronic Arts. Gamers will also be able to play LEGO Star WarsIII: The Clone Wars in 3D on Nintendo 3DS.
The 3D conversion of the six films is being handled at Industrial Light & Magic at the San Francisco Presidio complex,
YRsoft Releases Its Multifunctional Media Toolkit Ultimate, which is also home to LucasArts games. To date, 3D conversions of films like Clash of the Titans and The Green Hornet have created negative backlash when compared to films shot in 3D. ILM will have plenty of time to convert each of the films, and starting with the new movies that were shot digitally should help the process along.
Star Wars fans are also getting the original trilogy of films on
Blu-ray Ripper for the first time this September. All six films will be available from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in various collections. With the new 3D films going theatrical, the next step will be for LucasFilm and Fox to release
Blu-ray cloner versions of the new films in the coming years.
The last time LucasFilm brought Star Wars back to the big screen was with the special edition versions of the original trilogy in 1997. With those three films, a new movie was released each month beginning with January 31 with Episode IV: A New Hope. The 3D films will get a longer year-long window,
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