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On Saturday, October 11th, Paramount
Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm celebrated the release of The
Adventures of Indiana Jones with a lavish press event held at
the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Moderating the day-long
event was Lucasfilm's VP of Marketing Jim Ward, and among the
festivities was an exclusive demo of the upcoming four-disc
box set, a presentation of the supplemental features, multiple
Q&A's with cast and crew, and even a few surprises.
Following is a complete transcript of the opening question
and answer session with Ward, who fielded questions about the
trilogy's restoration, supplemental features and - yes - just
what is up with Star Wars.
When putting together your DVDs, do you do any sort
of fan or Internet research?
Jim Ward: What is really great about both Star Wars and Indiana
Jones is that we are in touch with fans constantly. The fans
create their own sites. And they call us. And write us. So,
we don't have to do a lot of research. We are kind of told...first
we are told, Hey, where are they? Get them out on DVD! And then
two, This is what we want to see on them. Again, that is tough.
Because they do want everything and we have to make some tough
decisions. So, we don't really do research. We are already sort
of in the know.
Will the trilogy ever be sold separately as individual
DVD titles?
JW: There was some discussion about that. Do we release them
separately or in a package? I think we came to the conclusion
that when people think about Indiana Jones, they remember him
across the entire saga. And some of the key elements and key
moments blur together from one film to the next. So we thought,
You know what, let's give fans what they want, all three films.
Ultimately, will be they be sold ultimately as three singles?
Again, we have to sit down and talk with Steven, Megan and the
whole team and sort that out. We'll see.
Repackaging and repurposing DVDs has become commonplace
these days. What happens when Indiana Jones 4 is released? Will
this set be redone as the Definitive Indiana Jones Adventures?
(laughter)
JW: Megan Burrows, the President of Paramount Home Entertainment
is sitting right down the aisle over there. And she is sweating
about what I'm going to answer. Big time! (laughter)
The truth is, I wish we were these strategy guys and fifteen
years ago we knew what was going to happen. The truth is we
don't. We don't know when exactly Indiana Jones 4 is going to
happen, and obviously it is going to play into that. Will there
ultimately be a Complete Indiana Jones set of all four? I would
imagine, absolutely. Sure, someday that will happen. but it
is barely on the radar right now.
At the end of the day, it is not our intent or is it ever our
intent to soak these franchises to the degree that we are going
to have people keep buying and buying and buying. We are very
sensitive to those consumer needs. However, because we have
this wealth of material - and you mentioned Indiana Jones 4
is on the horizon - there maybe potentially is an entire four-pack,
if you will. Then, yeah, it will make sense to bring out some
more stuff then.
Was any effort made to persuade either Steven Spielberg
or George Lucas to record an audio commentary for the set, or
to record other cast and crew?
JW: That was an interesting journey with the commentaries.
It has been a creative decision, as you know, by Steven not
to do commentaries. But to be very honest with you, once we
saw the first cut of what Laurent (Bouzereau) had put together,
we sort of said to ourselves, God, if we did have a commentary,
it would have been sort of redundant So, at the end of the day,
you don't really miss the commentary when yo have a two-hour
documentary and the additional featurettes.
Frank Marshall: We when produced all of the making-of material
(seen in the documentary), those were the times before commentaries
and DVD. So, George was very specific on the first movie about
having us doing a documentary. We had done that on the first
Star Wars, and he wanted a historical commentary on how we made
all three movies. So, in a way, we were doing a commentary as
we were shooting, and that is what Laurent has put together
so well. I think the real description of how the movies came
together in real time rather than trying to think of it as you
are sitting there watching it, as we do on DVDs.
Why was the decision made to not include any deleted
scenes, gag reels or easter eggs?
JW: There are always deleted scenes. There are no gag reel
things or any easter eggs, per se. Again, part of it is a creative
choice. It is hard to describe because you need to sit and,
as Frank said, really view this documentary in its full length.
Because it captures a lot of that. It certainly captures the
behind-the-scenes aspect of it. As far as easter eggs, we really
wanted to focus on the iconic nature of the films and keep it
at that.
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