Star Wars: Episode I returns to theaters on February 12, 2012 in 3D

March 4, 2011 By Adam Rosenberg

Lucasfilm confirms that Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace will get a theatrical 3D re-release on February 10, 2012.

A long time ago in this very galaxy a man named George Lucas shared a story. It was a science fiction story called Star Wars that was told in three parts, and it made people very happy. Some time later, Mr. Lucas decided to tell another story, a runthrough of the events that shaped his original. This one wasn’t so hot among fans. There were a bunch of lightsabers though, and Yoda jumped around like a little ninja-lizard, so it was cool.

The Lucasfilm team announced last September that all six of the Star Wars films, starting with Episode I – The Phantom Menace and continuing on chronologically after that, would see annual re-releases in the coming years with a shiny, new coat of 3D paint. Fans predictably went wild, even though the announcement meant that Jake Lloyd-as-Ani Skywalker and Jar Jar Binks would be the first to take their theatrical bow.

The first of those release dates has now been confirmed on the official Star Wars website: February 10, 2012. The timing falls in line with the window Lucasfilm used for its 1997 Special Edition re-releases of the three Original Trilogy films, as opposed to the late-May opening that each of the six original films had when they were first released. The plan for these new 3D conversions is to continue chronologically through the series with yearly releases, which means we can probably expect the remaining five films after The Phantom Menace to fall sometime in February as well.

Showing 1 comment

RomyCrow at 6:03am 4th March 2011 "Yoda jumped around like a little ninja-lizard" - haha, so well said. But seriously, can't Lucas put is considerable creative energies and talents into something new? The Star Wars trilogy (as they were known to me when I was younger, I guess I must call them Star Wars Eps 4 to 6 now though for clarity for the new younglings out there) were hands-down my favourite films growing up, and then Lucas in his wisdom gave them a new 'shine'. Then he shined them again, added new scenes (detracted from the original flow in my opinion) and then unleashed on the world Jar-Jar, "Annie" and a generally lax addition to the franchise. Now he wants to rake in more cash 'converting' a 2D film to 3D. If modern money-epics like Avatar, with visionary directors like Cameron, struggle to make the 3D work consistantly throughout on a film conceptulised and shot with the latest technology, I can't help but think Lucas will, once again, demean and cheapen the Star Wars saga until people forget how good it really once, a long time ago, in a theatre far away....