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More dailies/deleted scenes in digital "making of" books... — Page 2

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Concerning an OOT blurays release I think it  could also depend on how they'll handle Episode 7 8 9.

Example: if they use Hayden as a force ghost in Episode 7 (god help us all) some executives at Lucasfilm/Disney could think it'll be confuzing to release the Original cut of ROTJ. 

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That's the other big issue.

Even though I'm hopelessly optimistic based on their releasing of a laserdisc master on dvd seven long years ago, I have to remind myself that it's the SE that was released on blu-ray and it's the SE that plays on spike.

Contrast that against E.T., which for several years now has only been played on tv in its original form. Spielberg regretted doing the SE so much, he didn't bother to include it in the blu-ray release last year. While the original cut was included in the first dvd release way back in '02, I remember a single-disc reissue that was the SE-only.

That's actually kinda similar to the situation with Star Wars on video in the late 90's / early 00's. Sure, we didn't have two-pack vhs sets with both versions (impractical), but both versions were out there in equal quality. Also, as far as most of us were concerned (aside from stuff like the ANH crawl and the audio mixes), there were only two versions of the movies: the original and the '97.

Then there was that 2000 vhs reissue with the roman numerals. Uh-oh, what does this portend? Then just a few years later, not only are we denied the original version, we're given yet another revision of the movie!

So, yeah, pretty good comparison considering which formats were dominant when each movie's "special edition" hit home video. It's quite amusing how these two colleagues have totally different views on what they themselves consider their masterworks. Spielberg is embarrased by his Special Edition while Lucas is embarrased by his original version.

Of course, it's a slightly different story with Star Wars' SE, which was a "test-run" for the prequels Lucas realized the original versions would never be compatible with. Of course, he could've chosen to make a more restrained, less effects-intensive PT to better fit with the OT, but that's all in the past.

There's no petition I'm aware of to get the SE of E.T. released on blu-ray. Meanwhile, there's quite a vocal group who want the OOT on blu-ray. Even if Lucas hadn't pulled that GOUT stunt and properly remastered the films, we'd all still be sitting here now in 2013 waiting for it to hit blu-ray. Disney must know this. They can't be that clueless.

It's not like similar things haven't happened. When WB put out Superman Returns, the HD disc formats had just debuted and a marketing opportunity presented itself. When the movie hit video later that year, they not only put it out on all three formats, but did the same for the Donner cuts of I&II. They did not put out III, IV or the theatrical cuts of the first two, although there was an all-out, all movies and versions collection released on standard dvd. Several years later, they finally upgraded this collection to blu-ray.

Blu-ray is still in the early years of its lifespan. Most of the big titles have been released, but there are still plenty that haven't. Just today I was reminded that The Right Stuff still hasn't hit blu-ray. Two of James Cameron's movies aren't hitting the format until next year (The Abyss and True Lies, both of which, it's worth noting, are currently stuck at NON-ANAMORPHIC dvd quality on home video (yeah)). Me, I'm naively hoping Paramount will someday do proper remasters of the Star Trek films, some of my favorites (at least Wrath of Khan got the proper treatment, but that's not enough).

We keep pointing to some quote someone said and then throwing up our arms and screaming "we're doomed." Guys, the situation isn't nearly as hopeless as we're making it out to be.

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 (Edited)

I never bought the whole "too expensive to restore" story.  Wasn't there some film restorer company that offered to do it for free and Lucas still said no?

The stories about the original version of the film no longer existing are bullshit.  Lucas saves EVERYTHING - how do you think all these "missing" deleted scenes and bonus material keep surfacing with every re-release and repackaging?  If that stuff still exists, why wouldn't the films themselves be in protected storage somewhere?

Also, look at the clips of SW in the "Empire of Dreams" documentary that came with the original '04 DVD release.  In the section where they're talking about the release of the film, the crawl doesn't have "Episode IV A New Hope" on it, Han shoots first (and only!) and the Death Star explosion doesn't have the shockwave on it.  And it all looks DAMN good video quality!  If "the original version of the film no longer exists" then where did they get this footage from?

Lucas has been milking the SE and PT for all he could for as long as he could.  Now that Disney is in charge, I don't doubt that we'll see a proper OT release at some point.  The question is when.

My outlook on life - we’re all on the Hindenburg anyway…no point fighting over the window seat.

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^ Lucas has wound up all of us fans for so long that everyone has basically drawn battle lines and no release Disney could ever put together would satisfy everybody now.

If a DVD/BR with more-or-less the original OT on them had come out in 2004 etc, most would've been quite content. Now everyone has been forced to decide what they want a future BR to include or not include. Personnaly I want the OT released in a clean and error free version, like a pure-purist Revisted akin to the Final-Cut of Blade Runner.  Everything basically unaltered (Minus ILM guy for example) but IMHO removing the 'A New Hope' crawl is a f**king retarded idea.

Problem is...

1. A large number of fans want every little detail put back the way it was on the day of release when a couple of versions (Tiny audio diffferences taken into account) exist even for that.

2. A large number of fans want all the old FX shots replaced with the jazzed up SE ones.

3. A large number of fans want something inbetween like myself.

NO FANS are gonna thank Disney whatever they do, except...

**Drum roll**... The vast majority of the public who couldn't give a sh*t how the films look and will be quite happy with whatever Disney serves up.

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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Ideally, they'll just decide fans and all their little wish lists can suck it, since  the basic standard is what it is, it's not up to the fans. A good Blade Runner '82 disc is easy, affordable and instantly profitable to do and anyone still complaining after that will be so marginal they'll be easily ignored.

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I keep hoping with Disney in the picture that Criterion could somehow license the OOT from them. They're about the only company that could do it right. They've done some Touchstone films since the Laserdisc era, so there is a line of communication there.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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What's the betting the sale of Lucasfilm and all the goings on with the ST, one stipulation was the OT was not to be fucked with or gone near. Knowing GL's apparent disdain of the OOT I wouldn't bet against this. 

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Plus a lot of criterion are made from an IP and not the neg but still look fantastic, which makes things simpler for Star Wars. And the discs are common enough now that its gotten impossible to claim it's not mainstream or commercial enough to do the identical work done for BATTLE OF ALGIERS.

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Ryan McAvoy said:

^ Lucas has wound up all of us fans for so long that everyone has basically drawn battle lines and no release Disney could ever put together would satisfy everybody now.

...

NO FANS are gonna thank Disney whatever they do, except...

**Drum roll**... The vast majority of the public who couldn't give a sh*t how the films look and will be quite happy with whatever Disney serves up.

I don't expect them to cover every minor variation in sound and picture - there's like a dozen different versions.  Obviously they'd pick the one "ideal" pre-SE version.  My point was that now with Disney in charge, there's at least a chance it will be done RIGHT as opposed to the DVD/BD releases we've gotten so far.

My outlook on life - we’re all on the Hindenburg anyway…no point fighting over the window seat.

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On the original topic, when is the release date for this?  I don't know if I'll ever finish my Deleted Scenes Project :(  There's always something more to find or wait for.

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Fang Zei said:

Also, yeah, LFL officially said that to all of us almost seven years ago (how could we possibly forget?), but didn't Lucas himself say just a couple years ago at some convention that it was a matter of the OOT being too expensive (as of that date) to restore?

Yes, he did.

Laserschwert said:

But you took that quote way out of context, so it doesn't mean what it does in this shortened snippet.

What context do you need? It was a Lucasfilm employee, SW-producer and collaborator of George, who was giving a sincere answer when he was confronted with this question a few months after Lucas was giving the ridiculously weak excuse that it's too expensive to restore these films.

I almost preferred when Lucas outright said fuck you to the fans instead of dodging the question.

Laserschwert said:

I would have to answer that officially it’s never gonna happen, but you never know with George. It’s one of the constant things that—let’s put it this way, it changes always. You never know.

It's basically just that the official line ("I would have to answer") at that point was no OT, and that's pretty much what all LFL employees were saying. He also admits that the "official line" doesn't mean sith with Lucas anyway, so the whole quote basically means nothing.

Yes, the "official line" may not mean that much but it's still a glimpse of where the company stood/stand on this - no plans to restore the original films. Then if it has changed in the months since then, good for us. I just choose to believe it haven't.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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I honestly don't think George cares any more. I truly believe that this really stemmed from his wife getting half of those royalties. I always thought that story was true.

Now, that would be out of the picture and he wouldn't care what happens with that money.

I'm betting it happens in 2015.

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A few questions :

1) what exactly are "digital editions" ? A CD/DVD-ROM ? Or something for tablets ?

2) Did this interview appear online already ? If not, can somebody tell me the exact number of SW Insider ? I've found many of them on eBay, I'd like to be sure that I bought the correct one :-)

3) WHEN is this planned to be released ?

 

Thanks

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I can't locate any news about this online, so if Insider is the only source, I as a non-subscriber can't seem to glean any more info on the matter.  Digitalfreaknyc, you got any more details?

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I have the UK Insider every month and could not find any information on this. The reason was that it is apparently in the new issue only just released a few days ago!

US #142 out now.

UK # 118 out june 20th.

 

 

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There you go. It's the most recent issue...which I apparently got over 2 weeks ago :)

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DVD-BOY said:

Has anyone downloaded similiar e-books before?  I'm wondering how easy it is to extract the images and assets, or are they in some proprietary format?

 

Oh I'm sure that, in time, we'll figure it out.

ROTJ Storyboard Reconstruction Project

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pittrek said:


Some new information?


Yes. Three clips were shown at celebration of alternate or deleted scenes

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That's great. Could you say which movie/clips were it?

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pittrek said:

That's great. Could you say which movie/clips were it?

whatch here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/GimboCommunity/videos

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It just amazes me seeing people say that OOT should be restored. I takes just a little computer knowledge to see that it is already restored. When they digitalised and cleaned the film stock for the purpose of 1997 SE (which in average yields higher resolution than 1080p Blu-Ray), they without doubt first copied that data of hi-res digitalised theatrical version on at least several hard disks before started altering one of the copies. When they applied the changes for the 1997 SE, then they actually reduced the size/resolution to fit Laserdisc.

If you ask me, the theatrical versions are already digitalised and cleaned up somewhere in LucasFilm archives. That is unless Lucas specifically ordered to destroy the source data.

真実