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4K restoration on Star Wars — Page 117

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moviefreakedmind said:

Fang Zei said:

Tyrphanax said:

I assume there will be plenty of editing to be done to an official OOT restoration if we get one.

One nice aspect of Disney waiting until 2020/2021 is that it would give Lucasfilm time to do the most thorough restoration possible.

They can bring in the experts (Robert A. Harris, etc) instead of leaving everything at the mercy of someone who has no clue how these movies should look.

Mike Verta has already said the Reliance clips are nowhere near being accurate to the original look of the film. If their 4k “restoration” was only for George’s SE, then maybe that’s a good thing. It would allow the SE to be whatever George wants and the OOT to be properly restored.

We really have no idea what the Reliance restoration will look like on blu-ray whether it’s the OOT or the SE. We only have it in a compressed Vimeo file and don’t even know if it was a work in progress or not. I personally do not consider a blu ray with colors that look slightly different from an original film print to be “nowhere near being accurate to the original look of the film”.

Mike’s just a perfectionist. Most people would be happy if we got something as good as that.

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Fang Zei said:

One nice aspect of Disney waiting until 2120/2121 is that it would give Lucasfilm time to do the most thorough restoration possible.

Fixed your post for you.

It couldn’t be any more clear that Disney has zero, nada, zilch plans to restore and release the OOT.

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Unless you own Disney, I find it hard to believe that you have such an intimate knowledge of their business plans and reach.

The Person in Question

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They’ve owned Lucasfilm for 5 years. How long do you think it takes to greenlight and execute a film restoration and release exactly?

It’s amazeballs that some of you were carrying your pitchforks to George’s door after a couple years, but after 5 years you’re all card carrying Mouseketeers. Give me more sequel crap!

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Alderaan said:

They’ve owned Lucasfilm for 5 years. How long do you think it takes to greenlight and execute a film restoration and release exactly?

It’s amazeballs that some of you were carrying your pitchforks to George’s door after a couple years, but after 5 years you’re all card carrying Mouseketeers. Give me more sequel crap!

Lol

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

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Alderaan said:

They’ve owned Lucasfilm for 5 years. How long do you think it takes to greenlight and execute a film restoration and release exactly?

It’s amazeballs that some of you were carrying your pitchforks to George’s door after a couple years, but after 5 years you’re all card carrying Mouseketeers. Give me more sequel crap!

I don’t care about the sequels at all and I’ve made it clear that I don’t want to see any of the future spinoffs and might not even see the next two ST movies in the theater. You seem to think that the OOT played any role in Disney’s purchase at all. There goal isn’t to greenlight and execute a film restoration and release as soon as possible, but to time it for the maximum savings and profit.

The Person in Question

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Alderaan said:

They’ve owned Lucasfilm for 5 years. How long do you think it takes to greenlight and execute a film restoration and release exactly?

It’s amazeballs that some of you were carrying your pitchforks to George’s door after a couple years, but after 5 years you’re all card carrying Mouseketeers. Give me more sequel crap!

It’s called giving Disney the benefit of a doubt. If the 40th anniversary comes and goes without anything, the pitchforks will be dusted off. Although at this point, some projects around here are so good, we might not even need an official release anymore. It’s Disney’s loss if it comes to that, because we would like to give them all our moneys, as they say.

And there are at least two people on this forum who know a hell of lot more about film restoration and internal studio politics than you. 😉

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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 (Edited)

The problem is that the division between ownership of what Disney/Lucasfilm and Fox has is unclear, at least to me. Is it at all likely that a deal to spend money on this kind of thing for a new release would happen while another corporation has the reigns? Do the people that aim to profit from such a thing get along with the people that now own the negatives?

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Mocata said:

The problem is that the division between ownership of what Disney/Lucasfilm and Fox has is unclear, at least to me. Is it at all likely that a deal to spend money on this kind of thing for a new release would happen while another corporation has the reigns? Do the people that aim to profit from such a thing get along with the people that now own the negatives?

We have no way of knowing the answer to that.

I’m more and more convinced with each passing day that Disney will simply wait this out until they regain the rights to the non-ANH movies in 2020, disappointing as it would be to get absolutely nothing (aside from yet another repackaging) for the 40th anniversary this year.

Obviously I hope I’m wrong.

The 4k UHD format will be the other huge factor in whatever they decide on, I think. Disney will finally start supporting it in the next year or so and I don’t see them waiting long before releasing their wholly-owned Star Wars movies like TFA and RO. That will leave the first six movies conspicuously absent, but now we’re back to the whole conundrum of Fox owning the rights for at least another several years.

IIRC, George wanted to hold off the OT’s dvd debut until after the PT was finished. Maybe Disney will actually hold off the UHD debut of I-VI until after the ST is finished. It’s not like there will be a newer/better physical format right around the corner in 2020 like there was in 2005.

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It might actually be more profitable for Disney to release a new product now than in 2020. A 40th release I think is inevitable, and another repackage of the existing master would sell to new viewers, but not to folks like us.

A new product including OOT, on the other hand, would have wide appeal and justify a higher price. By 2020, I imagine we’ll be the only market, with the inevitable growth of streaming and the continued sale of the current version (at lower and lower real dollar prices) to people who wouldn’t care or notice the difference between the two products.

IIRC, the distributors cut is relatively small, and Disney would benefit more by increasing sales volume rather than waiting for the rights.

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

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If something does happen this year and it’s not a repackaging of the 2011 discs I think it’ll be a 4K restoration release of ANH only. Waiting til 2020 doesn’t really matter in that films case. However restored unaltered cuts of ESB, ROTJ and the PT sounds likely after 2020 since Lucasfilm/Disney will now have full ownership of them plus 2020 marks the 40th anniversary of ESB. Just theory of course.

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2020 would mean that three trilogies could be sold as a “saga” though… yuck.

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I already have the Star Wars Bluray Saga box set from 2011, I don’t want to buy another one. Harmy’s DE OT version is enough for me, until an official release, if it ever happens.

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crissrudd4554 said:

If something does happen this year and it’s not a repackaging of the 2011 discs I think it’ll be a 4K restoration release of ANH only. Waiting til 2020 doesn’t really matter in that films case. However restored unaltered cuts of ESB, ROTJ and the PT sounds likely after 2020 since Lucasfilm/Disney will now have full ownership of them plus 2020 marks the 40th anniversary of ESB. Just theory of course.

1997 only being ANH’s 20th didn’t stop them from releasing Empire and Jedi also.

Yes, I realize the rights to ANH will never revert to Lucasfilm, but I’m pretty sure Fox can’t release something new without getting LFL’s approval first. Otherwise they would face the wrath of Disney’s lawyers.

I’ve heard it argued that Fox effectively owns ANH since they control the distribution rights forever, regardless of what we’ve heard about them “gifting” it back to George in the 90’s in exchange for distribution rights on the PT. I feel like we still don’t know the whole story behind that. Zombie’s article on the subject, written in 2008 well before the Disney deal, suggests Fox did indeed hand the copyright over to Lucasfilm in the late 90’s: http://fd.noneinc.com/secrethistoryofstarwarscom/secrethistoryofstarwars.com/buyingstarwars.html

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I guess Disney waits for Episode 9 in 2019, and then release a Super-Duper Boxset in 2020 with all of the 9 SW movies including the OOT versions for 4K.

I’m an original member here dating back to 2004. Haven’t posted in years, but looking forward to posting again.

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Fang Zei said:

crissrudd4554 said:

If something does happen this year and it’s not a repackaging of the 2011 discs I think it’ll be a 4K restoration release of ANH only. Waiting til 2020 doesn’t really matter in that films case. However restored unaltered cuts of ESB, ROTJ and the PT sounds likely after 2020 since Lucasfilm/Disney will now have full ownership of them plus 2020 marks the 40th anniversary of ESB. Just theory of course.

1997 only being ANH’s 20th didn’t stop them from releasing Empire and Jedi also.

Yes, I realize the rights to ANH will never revert to Lucasfilm, but I’m pretty sure Fox can’t release something new without getting LFL’s approval first. Otherwise they would face the wrath of Disney’s lawyers.

I’ve heard it argued that Fox effectively owns ANH since they control the distribution rights forever, regardless of what we’ve heard about them “gifting” it back to George in the 90’s in exchange for distribution rights on the PT. I feel like we still don’t know the whole story behind that. Zombie’s article on the subject, written in 2008 well before the Disney deal, suggests Fox did indeed hand the copyright over to Lucasfilm in the late 90’s: http://fd.noneinc.com/secrethistoryofstarwarscom/secrethistoryofstarwars.com/buyingstarwars.html

I know Fox would still need approval, I was just saying since they control the distribution rights for that film there’s no need to hold out til 2020 for Lucasfilm/Disney to get a 4K remaster of that film out on BD. The other films on the other hand I could possibly see them waiting it out til 2020 since Fox won’t be an obstacle. However as you pointed out there’s still likely elements to this whole ‘rights’ situation that hasn’t been explained so at the moment it’s all speculation.

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crissrudd4554 said:

Fang Zei said:

crissrudd4554 said:

If something does happen this year and it’s not a repackaging of the 2011 discs I think it’ll be a 4K restoration release of ANH only. Waiting til 2020 doesn’t really matter in that films case. However restored unaltered cuts of ESB, ROTJ and the PT sounds likely after 2020 since Lucasfilm/Disney will now have full ownership of them plus 2020 marks the 40th anniversary of ESB. Just theory of course.

1997 only being ANH’s 20th didn’t stop them from releasing Empire and Jedi also.

Yes, I realize the rights to ANH will never revert to Lucasfilm, but I’m pretty sure Fox can’t release something new without getting LFL’s approval first. Otherwise they would face the wrath of Disney’s lawyers.

I’ve heard it argued that Fox effectively owns ANH since they control the distribution rights forever, regardless of what we’ve heard about them “gifting” it back to George in the 90’s in exchange for distribution rights on the PT. I feel like we still don’t know the whole story behind that. Zombie’s article on the subject, written in 2008 well before the Disney deal, suggests Fox did indeed hand the copyright over to Lucasfilm in the late 90’s: http://fd.noneinc.com/secrethistoryofstarwarscom/secrethistoryofstarwars.com/buyingstarwars.html

I know Fox would still need approval, I was just saying since they control the distribution rights for that film there’s no need to hold out til 2020 for Lucasfilm/Disney to get a 4K remaster of that film out on BD. The other films on the other hand I could possibly see them waiting it out til 2020 since Fox won’t be an obstacle. However as you pointed out there’s still likely elements to this whole ‘rights’ situation that hasn’t been explained so at the moment it’s all speculation.

What I forgot to say was that Disney probably wouldn’t want just one movie getting its own release without the other two as well. In fact, they would probably want all six getting reissued even if the only big deal is that IV-VI finally include the remastered original versions.

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong raises a good point. Streaming is only going to grow in the next several years as physical sales continue to decline. If Disney waited until 2020 to release anything new at all for I-VI they would risk losing people’s interest. I really can’t think of anything they could come up with to generate sales on reissues, other than the obvious.

Disney is stuck between a rock and a hard place. They can either give us the goods now and let Fox have their cut, or wait it out for several years and throw away the money they could’ve been making.

I’m still very curious to see how UHD will factor into all of this. Fox has supported the new format since day one, but Disney is yet to officially announce anything. If it were up to me, Lucasfilm would do a 40th anniversary release Blade Runner style, with separate SKU’s for regular and UHD blu. That way, people like me who still haven’t upgraded their hardware would be forced to buy the regular blu-ray in the meantime and the uhd version would still be there years from now when Disney’s regained the rights.

Or maybe Disney will simply keep the UHD in their pocket until 2020, but I find that unlikely since more and more people are upgrading to 4k and would be pissed to see I-VI (well, at least IV-VI) withheld when TFA and RO will likely be released on the format in the next year or so.

But the least likely scenario to me is having the same old 2011 discs reissued again and again for the next three years. The master is 13 years old at this point, we know they’ve done a new 4k master of some kind, and a 4k home video format exists. If there is any kind of new release announced for this year I would be shocked if it didn’t have some new disc-based content.

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SilverWook said:

It’s called giving Disney the benefit of a doubt.

It’s been 5 years. Five. It was fine to give them the benefit of the doubt for a time. But five years is long enough to figure out that Disney has no plans to release the OOT.

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Alderaan said:

SilverWook said:

It’s called giving Disney the benefit of a doubt.

It’s been 5 years. Five. It was fine to give them the benefit of the doubt for a time. But five years is long enough to figure out that Disney has no plans to release the OOT.

Five years is the cutoff? So you have experience as a professional film restorer and seasoned, profit-driven studio executive then?

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

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CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

Alderaan said:

SilverWook said:

It’s called giving Disney the benefit of a doubt.

It’s been 5 years. Five. It was fine to give them the benefit of the doubt for a time. But five years is long enough to figure out that Disney has no plans to release the OOT.

Five years is the cutoff? So you have experience as a professional film restorer and seasoned, profit-driven studio executive then?

How does he know that they didn’t decide to start restoring the OOT on the 365th day of the 4th year?

The Person in Question

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Comparing Disney to Lucas is just silly. He was the one who got us in the whole mess in the first place. There are so many different variables involved now that make it impossible to pass judgement at the moment for the continued non-release of the OOT.

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I’m willing to at least wait until the big convention a couple months from now before I start declaring it a hopeless cause.

It’s arguably less hopeless now than it has been in several years. Lucasfilm obviously didn’t put out a gag order regarding the 4k restoration if Gareth Edwards talked openly about watching it.

Something is happening.

But if the convention comes and goes without a single word on the subject, that’s when we can start complaining.

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CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

Five years is the cutoff? So you have experience as a professional film restorer and seasoned, profit-driven studio executive then?

No, five years is way past the cutoff. Anyone who gave them five years was more than generous or, more likely, just plain delusional. Robert Harris is quoted as saying the entire restoration of films like My Fair Lady took less than one year. He called that “a lot of time”. And sure, that is a lot of time and hard work, but it’s less than a year. For Star Wars and Disney, it has been five years … and nothing.

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Alderaan said:

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

Five years is the cutoff? So you have experience as a professional film restorer and seasoned, profit-driven studio executive then?

No, five years is way past the cutoff. Anyone who gave them five years was more than generous or, more likely, just plain delusional. Robert Harris is quoted as saying the entire restoration of films like My Fair Lady took less than one year. He called that “a lot of time”. And sure, that is a lot of time and hard work, but it’s less than a year.

I can’t help but read your post in Larry David’s voice. We know they have a 4k source somewhere, it’s just a matter of when Disney feels like the timing is right and when they want to spend the money to send out and promote the release, not to mention the legal hoops they have to jump through.

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Handman said:

We know they have a 4k source somewhere…

Of what, the SE? The OOT? How do you know what they have? There is nothing to indicate they have scanned the original elements of the film. Seems like a lot of wishing and hoping if you ask me.