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Kathleen Kennedy Shuts Down any Hope for Unaltered Release (*not really)

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 (Edited)

LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy went on a podcast during Star Wars Celebration 2017, and was asked about the potential for a release of the Unaltered Original Trilogy. She replied: "“I wouldn’t touch those, are you kidding me? [laughs] Those will always remain his (George Lucas).”

 

 

Edit by moderator: For the purpose of clarity - Kathleen Kennedy was talking about not changing the last version of the Special Edition of the Original Trilogy any further. She was NOT referring to the unaltered theatrical version of the Original Trilogy.

This article, for example, gives a more accurate representation of what she said - and was pertaining to:-

https://heroichollywood.com/kennedy-lucasfilm-star-wars-original

‘Kennedy confirmed there is no actual agreement to keep the trilogy in its current form but when probed further about whether or not Lucas’ final cut of the original trilogy would be altered over time Kennedy assured that is something that will not happen’.

 
 

For additional information…
 
The full audio interview of the ‘Steele Wars Podcast’, conducted in a media line event for ‘The Last Jedi’ at Celebration 2017, can be found below. The section with Kathleen Kennedy starts at 12m 45s:-

https://omny.fm/shows/steele-wars/ep-131-3-star-wars-celebration-orlando-day-2-the-l (21 minutes long)

^ the above link unfortunately no long functions - an alternative link can be found here:-

http://steelewars.com/the_last_jedi_cast_interviews
 

The relevant section of the interview is at 15m 32s…

Interviewer: “A lot has been said about the pass over to Disney, but Star Wars is film of changes… it has evolved over time. Uh, is there like, a contractual or a handshake agreement that the films are locked in their current form?”.

Kathleen Kennedy: “No, there is no-one actually locking us into anything. In fact, the beauty of this relationship with The Walt Disney Company is they have been absolutely fantastic at standing back and pretty much letting us do what we want.”

Interviewer: “Sorry, I mean like the… the vision of George’s final cut of the film that he left us with? Like whether that might be altered over time?”

Kathleen Kennedy: “… (pauses)… You mean the themes and ideas in the six movies he has made?”

Interviewer: “Just the Edits… he has changed over time… like the Special Editions and that sort of thing…”

Kathleen Kennedy: “Oh! I haven’t touched those. (both interviewer and Kathleen Kennedy laugh) You kidding? Those will always remain his.”

 

^ Mod Edit: the above interview with Kathleen Kennedy can also be found here - on youtube:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZO0_yYvmxo (at 2 mins 50 secs) - from the ‘Steele Wars’ youtube channel.

May the Shwarts be with you!

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This has already been discussed in plenty of other threads.

Also all she was really saying was that she went further alter the SE.

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Possessed said:

This has already been discussed in plenty of other threads.

Also all she was really saying was that she wouldn’t further alter the SE.

FTFY

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Anyway, I’m sure Kennedy is well aware of the demand for an unaltered release on modern formats (blu-ray, 4k, digital, etc). The podcast guy should’ve made it clear he was asking about that, although as someone suggested, maybe he actually wasn’t asking about that at all. Maybe he actually meant to ask her what he asked her, which would be weird because who really cares what Disney does with George’s version but whatever, to each their own.

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Fang Zei said:

Possessed said:

This has already been discussed in plenty of other threads.

Also all she was really saying was that she wouldn’t further alter the SE.

FTFY

I don’t think ftfy is really meant to simply correct typos 😉

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Even if she wanted to, it’s hard when GL has the Only copies (if he didn’t destroy them) to himself. Hell Even Fox Owns the Rights to the ANH. I don’t ever see this coming out officially, but I would love to eat my words.

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Possessed said:

Fang Zei said:

Possessed said:

This has already been discussed in plenty of other threads.

Also all she was really saying was that she wouldn’t further alter the SE.

FTFY

I don’t think ftfy is really meant to simply correct typos 😉

Possessed is right.

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Meant to simply say “fixed.”

I’m bad at interneting.

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Tyler0013 said:

Even if she wanted to, it’s hard when GL has the Only copies (if he didn’t destroy them) to himself. Hell Even Fox Owns the Rights to the ANH. I don’t ever see this coming out officially, but I would love to eat my words.

What makes you think George has the only copies, and not Fox or Disney?

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nickyd47 said:

Tyler0013 said:

Even if she wanted to, it’s hard when GL has the Only copies (if he didn’t destroy them) to himself. Hell Even Fox Owns the Rights to the ANH. I don’t ever see this coming out officially, but I would love to eat my words.

What makes you think George has the only copies, and not Fox or Disney?

No one, and it doesn’t make sense.

Furthermore, Fox does not own the rights to ANH. They own distribution rights. So they get some amount of money when it gets sold. That’s not to say it makes Fox a non-factor, but people love to misrepresent this detail.

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See: the Adam West Batman series getting released on dvd and blu-ray several years ago for why Fox perpetually owning distribution on ANH isn’t a problem.

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towne32 said:

nickyd47 said:

Tyler0013 said:

Even if she wanted to, it’s hard when GL has the Only copies (if he didn’t destroy them) to himself. Hell Even Fox Owns the Rights to the ANH. I don’t ever see this coming out officially, but I would love to eat my words.

What makes you think George has the only copies, and not Fox or Disney?

No one, and it doesn’t make sense.

Furthermore, Fox does not own the rights to ANH. They own distribution rights. So they get some amount of money when it gets sold. That’s not to say it makes Fox a non-factor, but people love to misrepresent this detail.

That’s what I meant, and messed up my reply, about the Distribution rights. I thought he had the originals since Kathlene said they were his.

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I’d kinda hoped that when filming Rogue One they would take some shots to insert into ANH with a 2020 rerelease.

Like the Rogue One’s update on the Yavin IV base. Or Bail Organa on Alderaan before the destruction.

But I know that’s a bit sacrilegious.

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If I’m not mistaken, what’s meant by “the unaltered versions don’t exist” is that the OCN was cut up to insert the '97SE shots into it, right? So a full, intact copy of the original negative might not exist, but most of the OCN for the unaltered versions exists as part of the SE negative, and I imagine either the snipped portions still exist somewhere or complete prints of the unaltered versions exist that are only a generation or two removed from the OCN.

Basically what that means is that it’s not that the materials don’t exist to prepare a 4K restoration of the unaltered trilogy, but it would take some work to assemble the finished product from different materials - there’s no complete original negative they can just run through a scanner and be done with it.

So basically it’s not a question of whether they can, but whether they will.

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Thank you all for clearing up the whole Kathleyn Kenedy deal.