THR reveals the story

Los Angeles, February 2012 - The Hollywood Reporter's Alex Ben Block reveals the exhaustive process involved in bringing Star Wars to the screen in 3D in his article 'What 'Star Wars' in 3D Means to George Lucas'. Featuring input from Lucas himself, 20th Century Fox CEO Jim Gianopulos and Prime Focus CEO Namit Malhotra, it tells the story from the genesis of the idea to Prime Focus being awarded the contract and the subsequent work involved.

"The issue about 3D is not a technical issue," Lucas told THR. "It's a creative issue. You need people with certain taste and certain talent to make it work. It's hard to explain but if you talk about color timing, people will say 'Oh that's just a technical thing.' It's not. You can actually completely change the way people view a movie by color timing and/or sound mixing. These are highly technical but they're very important creative endeavors. You need talented people to do it. You can't just hire people off the street."

Jim Gianopulos, co-chairman and co-CEO of 20th Century Fox, the studio handling the release for Lucasfilm, added "Now we had the chance to do it again through the advent of 3D technology, to add a dimension so to speak, literally and figuratively, to that experience."

Prime Focus CEO Namit Malhotra concluded "They tested some of the best companies out there. It completely went on merit and quality, who came up to their expectations. We qualified on that basis. It was a moment of huge pride for a company like us. To stand in front of the man (George Lucas) and have him say, 'You've done a good job', it's a big homerun for us in that regard. It's sort of like everything meshed, all of our professional goals had come together."

To read 'What 'Star Wars' in 3D Means to George Lucas' on the THR website, click here.

Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, which was converted to 3D by Prime Focus, took in $23m in the US and $20.5 million from foreign box office ticket sales in its opening weekend.