I've been trying to get to the bottom of this rumor, one I haven't put on the site before now, because I didn't want to get it wrong. It began with an email about a year and a half ago. Then little echoes from time to time. Then when I talked to some Lucasfilm people, the same ones that Chitwood and gang talked to a while back, I popped the question, there was an uncertain silence followed by a "yu..NO!" So I knew this was probably going to happen. I've been trying to get someone inside SKYWALKER RANCH mixing a flick or to install carpet... anything to see if we could get to the bottom of this. And well, here we go. This should be considered rumor, till they get the system finished and offer it up to Theater Owners, but all I can say is, it sounds like it would sound cool. I'll call this source, the phantom menace...
I had the good fortune to visit Skywalker Ranch over the weekend on a Tech Tour held during the annual Audio Engineer Society convention in San Francisco (it was a beautiful place, but I digress...). Talking with a few people who work at the Tech Building on the Ranch, I discovered that The Phantom Menace will be the first release in a brand-new surround sound format that is currently being worked on in a collaboration by THX and Dolby. The big cheese who I spoke with said that there will be three surround channels, because there will be a new low-frequency (sub-bass) channel at the back of the theater, behind the audience. I was told (as closely memorized as possible), "The idea first came up when Gary Rydstrom was mixing "Jurassic Park" here. Mr. Spielberg asked, 'Can't we make the sound come from behind the audience?' And of course, they couldn't so they were pretty frustrated, although Gary tried." It was also joked--extremely tounge-in-cheek--that it was merely a move to make theater owners shell out for another speaker. No word on what the new sound format will be called. Hope you find this of interest (and of course, please don't divulge my address).
