‘Star Wars’ Films Will Be Re-Released in 3-D

I.L.M./Lucasfilm/20th Century Fox The Jedi master Yoda in “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.”

If your inner child has yearned to once again watch a fleet of X-Wing fighters mount an all-or-nothing assault on the Death Star, the Millennium Falcon weave through a field of asteroids or the majesty of Ewoks swooping through the trees of Endor – only this time, in the coming-at-you 3-D film format – you’ll soon get your chance.
On Tuesday night, Lucasfilm announced that it would re-release all six live-action “Star Wars” features in 3-D starting in 2012. In a statement, the studio said that the conversion of the movies to 3-D was being overseen by Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects firm founded by George Lucas to help with the creation of the original 1977 “Star Wars,” and that these re-releases would be distributed by Twentieth Century Fox, which handled the six original films.
If there is a catch, it is that the first film to be released in this sequence will be the 1999 prequel movie “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” which means you’ll have to endure 3-D Jar Jar Binks before you get to 3-D Darth Vader and 3-D Han Solo.
In a statement, John Knoll, a visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic, offered fans a cryptically Yoda-esque explanation for why these “Star Wars” films were not immediately following on the heels of such 3-D blockbusters as James Cameron’s “Avatar.”
“Getting good results on a stereo conversion is a matter of taking the time and getting it right,” Mr. Knoll said. “It takes a critical and artistic eye along with an incredible attention to detail to be successful. It is not something that you can rush if you want to expect good results. For ‘Star Wars’ we will take our time, applying everything we know both aesthetically and technically to bring audiences a fantastic new Star Wars experience