This guy just keeps finding new ways to make money off the same old garbage...
(Taken from Scifi Wire):
"George Lucas told ShoWest that he is planning to remaster all of the Star Wars films for rerelease in 3-D as a way to promote the technology, according to The Hollywood Reporter."
Go George!
So what? TheBeach Boys and the Rolling Stones and who knows who else are still making money of songs thirty or more years old.
Lucas is just taking advantage of his most loyal (and clueless) fans. Every five years or so he'll re-release the first three movies on DVD with some new gimmick (New Special Edition With Remastered Digitally Enhanced End Credits - Names 30% More Readable!) until the last of the die-hard holdouts either wise up or die off. You always have the option to ignore it and keep watching the original versions - nobody's going to force you to purchase it.
I will say that with the CGI-enhanced versions and now the 3D versions and whatever comes next, those movies are undergoing a transformation of Michael Jackonesque prooprtions. Sad, but they can't take away our original version VHS tapes.
Maybe he'll re-edit them and include a bunch of scenes with things being thrust in the direction of the camera :)
Think of it this way, every time you go to a concert of a band thats been around even more than a few years, you are going to get the old stuff that made you a fan in the first place, plus the new stuff the band has been working on. The band just doesn't play the new CD's worth of stuff, they go back to play the stuff everyone liked before. A lot of times, they do it a bit differently as their skills and tastes change.
Think of Star Wars as just "George Lucas On Tour", every time it comes around to your town, it's the same universe, the same band. The old favorites are there, done a bit differently, new material brought out to experience, etc, etc...
That Lucas is actually willing to go on tour a second time, or more, expanding with new material and refreshing the old, is pretty impressive. That fans are willing to see what's new this time around doesn't make them 'clueless'; they are just fans.
Next time you are at a concert and the band does a new song that's great and a new song that's only so-so and an old classic with maybe a different feel or different style, think of Lucas and Star Wars
Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Wookies!