As every fan knows by now and we’ve announced here that Phantom Menace will be the first of the six movies to be re-released in 3D. John Knoll, a veteran in visual effects for Industrial Light and Magic, as well as a co-creator for Adobe Photoshop, will be leading the project. He was the original Visual FX Supervisor for Episodes I, II and III and one of things he talked about in doing the conversion was that since he was in charge then, he knows what kind of depth there was in each scene. This should make it easier and more accurate, assuring that it will look correct in the final project.
But it’s pretty clear that LucasFilms recognizes the hesitation in the fan’s hearts over this. After all, everyone remembers the fiasco around the conversion of Clash of the Titans, which basically ruined the movie. Lucas released a video on YouTube that talks to John Knolls and he goes through some of the challenges of the project and how they plan to overcome them. While it may not belay fears in the hardcore, the message did give some hope that they are going to be extremely careful about it, and not rush through it like they did in Titans to make it 3D at the last minute because of Avatar.
By the way, Knolls was Visual Effects Supervisor for Avatar too, so that’s a good sign.
Now if I can just get over my fear of Jar-Jar in 3D, I’ll be good. George??
