Fang Zei

Megan Fox would probably get the medal for "doesn't do it for me." I saw Die Hard 4 and Transformers (in that order) on the same day (Transformers' opening day here in the States, actually) in theaters with a bunch of my friends. John McLane's daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) definitely did it for me more than Megan Fox. Granted, it helped that I'd seen her as a cheerleader several months earlier in Grindhouse.

Actually, the time between the PT and the OT is gonna be covered by the live-action series .... if that ever happens. I'm sure it eventually will happen, LFL has to keep the franchise going somehow.

I really hope we get the original versions of THX and Graffiti on blu some day. Unless there's some sort of agreement with Lucas we don't know about, he has no control over those movies. THX is Warner's and Graffiti is Uni's. THX is such a short movie that WB could very easily include both versions on a single, dual-layered blu-ray disc (with either version on its own layer) and still have enough room leftover for all of the extras from the 2-disc dvd. Universal could just use seamless branching for a nice, all-inclusive blu-ray of Graffiti.

Why of course, good sir. I'm simply saying that from a mass-production standpoint, if they could stamp out two-disc sets (each disc dual-layered), they can do the same thing with blu-ray.

I guess my main point is that there's no excuse for them not to do that. They can come to a reasonable msrp for the sku's if it's just a two-disc set.

Lucasfilm could very easily give us a three-disc blu-ray for each film of the original trilogy. Remember, the Blade Runner set was only five discs because they were putting it out on both blu-ray and hddvd.

It went:

Disc 1: hi-def presentation of the final cut

disc 2: standard dvd containing the Dangerous Days documentary

Disc 3: hi-def presentation of the theatrical, international and director's cuts of the film, all seamlessly branched onto the same disc.

disc 4: standard dvd containing various bonus material

Disc 5: hi-def presentation of the workprint.

The VC-1 encodes on the hi-def discs were identical for both hddvd and blu-ray, and they couldn't be more than 30gb since that's the limit for hddvd. So, on the blu-ray version, 20gb is completely wasted on the hi-def discs, 20gb that could've been used to house the 9gb standard dvd files.

Aside from deleted scenes (which they can and should present in full high definition), the blu-ray can use bd-live to give the fans access to plenty of extras without the need to even use up any disc space. That means they have all the space they need (50gb) to give the films' video and audio the fullest quality available on home video.

But guess what, we're not even asking for all that.

ALL we are asking for is the original version on blu-ray.

Just one measly 50gb disc for each film.

I'm not naive enough to think that we won't at least have to buy a two-disc set that has the 20xx version on the first and the doubleoriginal on the second, but still, can Lucasfilm not even give us a two-disc set?

They gave us two-disc dvd's, I say they can do it again for blu-ray.

Make it happen, George.

It would be cool if we got another Star Wars trilogy every decade-and-a-half. Hell, go all the way up to Episode XV. The PT was George's "I can do whatever I want" project. An ST can be more in the style of the OOT.

I sold off my THX-1138 two-disc dvd some months back after hearing early word of a 2010 release date for the blu-ray. Looks like that date is somewhat more official now.

Sucks how WB can give us a Terminator Salvation blu-ray with each cut on a separate disc and not do the same thing for THX.

Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment need to do right by the fans! The excuse of not wanting the original versions out there doesn't work anymore because, guess what, they were officially put out there (just in 1993 quality).

If they seriously plan on streeting the blu-ray as early as next year, I really don't see how "Star Wars in hi-def!" alone will make it a bestseller. DVD was a much different situation. It was people finally upgrading from vhs and laserdisc (formats from the mid-70's) to "everyone's favorite format."

The smart move would be to release the films individually (like in '06) but include the original version on a second disc in the same quality as the 20xx version. Just slap a sticker on the front reading "For the first time ever, the remastered original version in hi-def!" There's no way that won't guarantee way more copies getting sold.

The prequels' discs could easily include the theatrical versions with seamless branching, no need for a second disc. Phantom Menace is the obvious example, since they are likely to replace the weird-looking puppet Yoda with the much more Empire/Jedi-looking digital model from Clones and Sith. I would still want them to include the '99 version of the movie, if only for preservationist/historical reasons.

Speaking of which - and I don't wanna get too ahead of myself here - what are your thoughts on including the '97 SE and making ANH, Empire and Jedi three discs each? They'd still have plenty of room across the three discs for whatever extras they wanted to include (Blade Runner only would've needed the three blu-ray discs if they hadn't also put it out on hddvd day-and-date, and we don't have that problem anymore now that the format race is over). I certainly think it would be interesting from a historical perspective, to let people see where all the controversy started. If the '97 interpositives are still lying around, all LFL would need is to make a fresh hi-def master.

Seriously, I find it just a tad ridiculous how Blade Runner, the movie that got swept under in the summer of E.T., can get the ultimate home video treatment, but Star Wars can't because the rights are owned by LFL and not a major Hollywood studio. It's been said before, but George Lucas' career has been rife with irony.

Lucas' role in the prequels should have been the same as Empire Strikes Back:

Write the story and pay for it, let other people do the rest.

Instead, he decided to write and direct it all by himself (Jonathan Hales co-wrote the Clones screenplay, credit where credit's due).

The Special Edition in '97 was Lucas going "I am the auteur of these movies even though I only directed one of them."

But that's the thing. Giving the OT an update in the form of the SE wouldn't have been so bad if it didn't mean going onto a PT where close to every last shot has some sort of cgi effect in it. It's pretty ridiculous when you consider how each of the original films only had a year of post-production whereas the prequels had two years.

Wow, just wrote out several paragraphs and then accidentally closed the tab, blast. Must remap the mouse pad and left/right clickers at some point.

Anyway, the gist of what I was writing is this:

Do you think Lucas' reasoning for leaving the SE at 1080 comes from the fact that the prequels' effects were mostly rendered at only 2K (if even that)?

Wow, first I heard Bradley Cooper mention that he'd seen him and James Cameron on the red carpet, but now the show has started and George is literally at the front of the closest table to the microphone!

If WB chose to release a bd with the original version of THX or if Uni chose to do the same thing with Graffiti, would LFL be able to legally stop them?

Zombie, you're mistaken about the opening of THX-1138. It's "American Zoetrope," Coppola's company, that you see at the very beginning, not LFL. LFL doesn't own any kind of rights to that movie, WB does. WB actually announced in a transcribed live chat on digitalbits that they were looking at a 2010 blu-ray release for it.

It's the same kind of situation with the first American Graffiti. That's Universal's property.

That reminds me, I should totally put a link in my avsforum sig. I post over there from time to time (same handle).

How many signatures did the old petition get?

I'm surprised how dead this thread is considering .... well, considering what it is.

Are any of you guys actually gonna buy the blu-ray if it doesn't have the remastered OOT in it?

Fooled me once with dvd, shame on you Lucas. Fool me with the next format, shame on me. That's the problem here. Lucas thinks that "Star Wars in 1080p!" will be enough for even the biggest hater to go out and buy it. The sad thing is that he might be right. Guys, the big message we need to send is all the potential money LFL will be losing if they don't include the OOT. They're gonna have to include an entire additional 50 gig disc with each movie in order to give us what we want anyway. Sure, I'd be thrilled if they gave each movie anything remotely approaching the Blade Runner / CE3K treatment, but this is Star Wars and it has become a mere product after all these years. They put out a four-disc set, charged $70 for it, and made the highest single-day sales in the history of the dvd format.

Blu-ray is a different story. For one thing, we have to wait and see what the deal is with the 3D conversion. I'm really starting to think it won't happen, if only because I just don't get how they're going to re-release SIX MOVIES in theaters and still make a profit after such an expensive conversion process. The industry just standardized 3D blu-ray though, so maybe we haven't heard the last of all this.

We also have to remember that the live-action show will be hitting around the same time and Lucas still doesn't have a distributor for it. I can't help but wonder how 20th Century Fox's distribution rights to the six-film saga is gonna play into all this.

I don't know when the old petition got started, before '04 or after, but this time around we're getting it out there well before the initial blu-ray is hitting (Bill Hunt puts it at 2011 at the earliest). This gives us time to get more signatures.

Jay, the twitter message is a few characters too long. You might want to revise it. I simply deleted the part where it says originaltrilogy.com since that's in the actual address already.

Gil Taylor, Star Wars' DP, was a "special effects photographer" on Dam Busters.

Yeah, but this is the GOUT we're talking about here, a transfer of an old transfer. There's information being lost on all four sides from what I can see.

Yes, you're correct that - according to my logic - we should be seeing more on the GOUT than the 70mm and not less.

Kinda random tangeant here, but:

I just re-watched the restoration mini-doc on the newest Godfather set today. In my wildest dreams as a film fanatic, This is the exact kind of treatment the OOT would get.

Yeah, but the only example I can remember of a 70mm print being used to transfer a scope movie is the old Blade Runner dvd. They zoomed out in order to keep it appearing at its original scope ratio and filled in the space on the sides with .... well, with nothing but more black bars. Most tv's overscan the image slightly, so most everyone with that dvd probably doesn't even notice. Watching stuff on an hdtv is a different story though.

The 70mm prints wouldn't be an option for restoration since there is lost information on the sides. The source is 2.35:1, but the 70mm blow-up is 2.20:1.

Baronlando said:

It's interesting the way these things are characterized at different times. In 1993, the IPs were good enough to be the source of an elaborate 100 dollar laserdisc box called "DEFINITIVE", and 2 years later the whole thing is on the brink of death if not for the heroic measures of doing a re- release. (and now we're getting to the point where some dude on youtube with a beat up old trailer can get very nice results. look how cool this is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_OhgiNE0Dw

yet also strangely frustrating)

Wow, that's amazing. Strangely frustrating, indeed.

Anyway, the IP isn't what was suddenly falling apart a couple years later. It was the actual o-neg itself.

Baronlando said:

Didn't Lucasfilm later (in 2006) claim that the IPs had been somehow physically "stripped for parts" or something for the SE, making them unusable for anything now?

 

Actually, they didn't even say that.

What they said in '06 was "existing prints are in poor condition," which tells us absolutely nothing. Plenty of other best-quality prints of the original versions of other films were in "poor condition" until they were RESTORED. If - after finishing the '97 project - Lucas had the IP's he used destroyed for no good reason, he's an asshole.

Gaffer Tape said:

But why would anyone want to dress up like a lame clone?!  Why wouldn't they want to dress up as Luke Skywalker or Han Solo?!

Because they're watching the show that takes place before Episode III. The clones are still the "good guys."

Tomorrow I'll finally be able to watch the new Avatar trailer in good quality. My guess - way back when - was that Lucas would attach a teaser for 3D Star Wars to Avatar when it hits in December. Yeah, looks like that ain't gonna happen (I mean, we would've heard it by now, right?).

All of his talk about it has probably only been that - talk. Obviously they converted a few scenes from ANH but that's just a few scenes. For all we know, that's all they ever did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHsn_PPDrEw

This will likely get found and taken down by the end of the day, but there will only be more people to come along and post it again!