Star Wars films to be re-released in ‘Silent’ format

Movie News: George Lucas has today unveiled plans to re-release all six Star Wars films in an exciting ‘Silent’ format.

“I think that the success of The Artist has proved that silent movies are the future”, he announced.

“In fact it was before I’d even heard about The Artist that my plans for ‘Silent Star Wars’ were formulated. Years before. So I’m not stealing their idea or anything like that. It was probably – oh I don’t know – six years ago when I had the idea. Maybe seven.”

Work has already begun on the time-consuming ‘digital de-sonicifying’ process, with the first of the films expected to be ready for release early in 2013.

“You would think it would be a relatively simple process to ‘retro-fit’ silence onto a movie – maybe by just turning down the sound – but it’s not that easy. Honest.” Lucas explained.

“We have to digitally scrub each separate frame with sonic removal pixels and reverse re-engineer the audio landscape from scratch with special static things and that. It’s all very expensive. We’re not just going to turn the sound down”.

When it was suggested that ‘Silent Star Wars’ may be just a cynical move to get fans to pay again to see a film they’ve already seen countless times, Lucas was emphatic: “Look – Star Wars fans are not stupid. They’re probably the cleverest, most discerning cinema-goers there are.”

“I have no doubt that the lack of sound adds something to the movies. Well, obviously it takes something away from the movies too – the sound. But it probably adds a new depth too, I would imagine. And, of course, Jar Jar Binks will be completely mute. Which can only be a good thing’.”

Story: David Harris

Image: Simon Swatman