Avatar spurs on George Lucas' Star Wars 3D plans

Something, something 3D Dark Side
Something, something 3D Dark Side

Star Wars 3D has been given a new lease of life thanks to James Cameron's Avatar. According to Star Wars creator George Lucas, the project had been stalling but after seeing Avatar become such a success at the cinema, it has given him, ahem, a new hope to make the project a success.

"I'm happy it's so successful, and worked very well in 3D," Lucas explained to Access Hollywood about Avatar.

"I haven't been a big fan of 3D, but that movie definitely improves in [the field of] 3D."

Star Wars struggle

When prompted about his own 3D plans, he noted: "We've been looking for years and years and years of trying to take Star Wars and put it in 3D ... But, the technology hasn't been there.

"We've been struggling with it, but I think this will be a new impetus to make that happen."

Any Star Wars release has always brought with it a sense of occasion. When the Original Trilogy finally came to DVD there was much fanfare and we're expecting the same sort of response when they finally make it to Blu-ray.

There's not a fixed date on Blu-ray plans but we expect plans to be announced soon, maybe at a similar time as when the 3D versions of the film are announced for cinemas.

Once that happens you can pretty much call the Star Wars franchise one cash cow that's been well and truly milked.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.