Honestly, the 2020 thing is reason enough for me to think Disney is just sitting on it.
Even if they waited until then to do a 4k UHD release (which I suspect they’ll do anyway since it will be a while before UHD even gets close to where blu-ray was in 2011), I think they might also hold back even on releasing the OOT on regular blu in the meantime. Their fear is probably that the fans will go out and buy a remastered OOT blu and then, several years from now, when they finally get the rights back and release the UHD, those same fans will shrug and say “nah, I’m good.”
It’s like that Wired magazine guy said ten years ago the week the GOUT was released:
“They’re not going to make the fans happy because the happy fan has everything he or she needs.”
Now, I should say I have no problem waiting, so long as they make it worth the wait. If Disney really is archiving every piece of Star Wars material, here’s how I’d want my ideal release:
For each of the OT films:
Disc 1: The “final” version.
Presumably this is what RMW was working on, a 4k scan of the o-neg with the 04/11 changes replicated/upscaled. Possibly this could have additional final tweaks, like if that rumor about Han shooting first again turned out to be true, for example.
Disc 2: The 1997 Special Edition
Since the '97 interpositives are presumably still in good shape, I would want a 4k scan of that as the starting point. It would ensure that the colors were how they looked in theaters in '97. If we’ve still got the cinema DTS discs floating around all these years later, remastering the '97 SE exactly as it looked and sounded should be relatively straightforward.
Disc 3: The original theatrical version
Ideally I would want them to hire someone like Robert A. Harris to supervise this, using strictly 1977-1983 material. I would only want them using the o-neg if there’s some foolproof way of only using the pre-97 material. He said rather confidently in a message board post several years ago that he could restore the original versions using the separation masters. Not quite sure what they would use to remaster the theatrical sound mix, perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I can chime in.
Anyway, I’d also want the theatrical cut of TPM, even if they had to do a scan of the '99 “o-neg” or the IP. The Imax version of AotC would be a bonus as well.
Hmmm, if we hear nothing at Celebration can we start a new petition?