George Lucas knows you "Star Wars" fans are pissed at him. You don't need to remind him. However, that won't stop the director from defending the infamous changes he's made to the original trilogy.
"Changes are not unusual -- I mean, most movies when they release them they make changes. But somehow, when I make the slightest change, everybody thinks it's the end of the world," Lucas told the Hollywood Reporter.
Lucas, who's been doing interviews of late to promote both "Red Tails" and "The Phantom Menace 3D," even took the time to address one of the biggest "Star Wars" controversies ever: The Han-Shot-First dilemma.
In "Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope," the audience is introduced to Han Solo at the Mos Eisley Cantina, where he runs into a bounty hunter named Greedo. The original version showed Han shooting first, but in the 1997 re-release, Lucas changed the scene to show that Greedo was the one who shot first (which made Han seem like much less of a rogue). Despite the uproar, George still stands by the decision.
"The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in 'Episode IV,' what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn't. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down."
Lucas' defense will likely do little to dissuade "Star Wars" fanatics who have it out for the filmmaker. In fact, George's next quote will probably enrage them further:
"If you look at 'Blade Runner,' it's been cut sixteen ways from Sunday and there are all kinds of different versions of it. 'Star Wars,' there's basically one version -- it just keeps getting improved a little bit as we move forward."
Lucas goes on to discuss the changes he made to Yoda in "The Phantom Menace," along with his thoughts on "Hugo" and SOPA. You can read the entire interview over on THR.
If you're interested in reliving the "Episode 1" experience (or, for some, inflicting pain on yourselves), you can check out "The Phantom Menace 3D" in theaters this weekend.
[via THR]