{"id":454,"date":"2013-03-11T22:59:30","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T22:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.obiwandi.at\/?p=454"},"modified":"2013-03-13T20:02:41","modified_gmt":"2013-03-13T20:02:41","slug":"dark-times-12-1997","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obiwandi.at\/?p=454","title":{"rendered":"Dark Times 12 – 1997"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fleetwood Mac seemed uncannily absent from the charts when George Lucas painted early 1997 in the glowing hues of the sweet summer of 1977: You must learn the ways of the Force if you are to come with me to the multiplex…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Even a sprightly winter breeze was powerless to keep distant memories forever chained to the inhospitable draught of times past: History would diligently record the incessant ringing at North American box office counters as A New Hope<\/em> grossed $138,257,865, its sequel achieved a muscular $67,597,694 and the Force-wielders slashed an inspired $45,470,437 from a crumbling Sith Empire. The total for the entire trilogy in North America alone was an unbelievable $251,325,996. While impressive…most impressive<\/em>, the stellar success of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition<\/em> warrants scrutiny not because of what it troubled the record books with. The unprecedented box office victory \u2013 made complete by the films\u2019 astounding resilience in competition with brand-new releases – signalled that \u2018after 14 years without a new Star Wars<\/em> movie, the pent up audience demand was not to be denied\u2019 (Variety<\/em>, March 1997).<\/p>\n

\"Variety,<\/a>
Variety’s resident illustrator J.C. Suares neatly captures the festive return of saga from a galaxy far, far away in this November 1996 issue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Said consumer interest in the Star Wars<\/em> brand was the envy of the industry and deservedly so: Consumer potential needs to be nurtured with great care, for the crucial sense of (re-)discovery must not fall prey to greedy manipulation, which ultimately lurks in every commercial interaction. Since TESB\u2019s 10th anniversary celebration in 1990, when Lucasfilm cleverly married the sequel\u2019s tagline \u2018The Star Wars Saga Continues…\u201d with George Lucas\u2019s announcement of the tentative Prequel saga at the Star Tours<\/em> Florida inaugural ceremonies, there had been a steady supply of official indications and hints pertaining to the Prequels. Awareness \u2013 that life-giving substance of any brand – was growing immensely, but audience interest needed to evolve naturally.<\/p>\n

So it was in 1995, after years of vague allusions bouncing off basically technical discussions on how Young Indiana Jones<\/em> and Radioland Murders<\/em> could boast lavish effects on a shoestring budget \u2013 a prerequisite for the Prequel endeavour \u2013 Lucasfilm strikingly went on the offensive: having proven himself a reliable proponent of cinematic innovation, George Lucas turned squarely towards his intrepid space heroes. What began as an emphatic celebration of the films\u2019 classic status would be gradually juxtaposed with hypothetical assumptions of what digital technology would add to the series\u2019 narrative scope (\u201cI can have Yoda walk\u201d). Talk of \u201cnew elements\u201d being added to the ageing films germinated on the masterfully planted notion of conclusion to OT domination (\u201cFor the last time\u201d), thus serving as both a teaser for the re-release and an inspiration. By 1997, the Special Edition<\/em> ultimately acted as perfect leverage at a crucial stage of Star Wars<\/em> resuscitation.<\/p>\n

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