Movieline

Today in Predictable Things: George Lucas Converting Star Wars Saga to 3-D

George Lucas has announced plans to spend the next six years personally supervising the stereoscopic 3-D conversion of the entire Star Wars series. The first entry will hit theaters in 2012, with a new entry coming out each consecutive year. But even if you're pumped to give Lucas more money, this sounds like a bad news/good news scenario. Check out the details after the jump.

Okay, bad news first: When Lucas says entire Star Wars Saga, he means all six. That means in 2012, we'll get to see Jar Jar Binks in 3-D. In fact, if the Mayans and Roland Emmerich are right, The Phantom Menace is the only entry that will be released in our lifetime! But even if they aren't, it still means no Empire Strikes Back until 2016. They way things are going, they may have to convert to something completely different by then.

Now for the good. Remember Clash of the Titans and The Last Airbender? Oh cool, I didn't see them either. But I heard the 3-D conversion looked muddy and actually worse than if they had just left the movies alone. That shouldn't be the case here. With Lucas supervising each transfer, that Death Star trench scene will probably look every bit as cool in 3-D as it should.

Also, with Lucas throwing so much money at it, this could push the 3-D conversion technology forward quite a bit. Since it seems like studios are going to keep pulling these conversions for a while, it'd be great if Lucas pushed the technology to a place where it actually looks good.

Lucasfilm is expected to make the official announcement today. Stay tuned for updates.

[via Deadline]