Not sure if this is old news, but I came across this thread on thecantina.starwarsnewsnet.com, and stems from late last year and early this year:
https://thecantina.starwarsnewsnet.com/index.php?threads/star-wars-4k.54414/
Somebody involved with Reliance MediaWorks explains exactly what has happened to the 4K restoration of the OT. It was in fact finished for all three OT movies, and not rejected by LFM as has been suggested in the past. Additionally the colors on display in the reel we discussed in the past were only for internal purposes, and did not represent a final color grading. Here’s the jist of it:
"Reviving an old thread; I’m not 100% sure of George Lucas’ personal involvement with the actual reviewing of re-mastered content, but ILM worked closely with us to restore the original Star Wars Trilogy in 4K.
For those curious, there was a budget, but compared to the DVD remasters we did a decade ago, more money was pumped into creating pristine masters of the original film scans. The remastered footage was completed around 2012, but unfortunately nothing has come of that since.
I can most certainly guarantee you that nobody else is re-mastering the original SW films at this point. I say this with confidence because there is absolutely no one in the industry with technology as good as ours. Mind you that at this point, our software technology ceased development 6 years ago. If that tells you anything about the slow advancements in technology industry wide. This is the main reason Lucas came to us to begin with. We didn’t do the color correction, we only color grade for our own internal purposes. Our outfit is the only place James Cameron, David Fincher and George Lucas, to name a few – would send their films to. Unfortunately, a side effect of good work is price and the industry is flooded with cheap automated systems restoring films. The price the consumer pays is generic 4K upreses.
In my opinion I can only assume that they are waiting for advances in color technology to really make the remasters “pop”.
Any questions are welcome, I’ll try and answer what I can."
“All we provided was a mastered scan of the original with full image enhancement. No audio, no color correction, no VFX work, only a pristine restored digital version of the original. It is highly possible that someone is working on the digital delivery that we provided, I never denied that, but for me to believe that someone else out there has re-mastering capabilities beyond what we’ve delivered is not credible. If someone else is doing a remaster from scan, I can only say that it is being done through an automated system to save Disney money.”
“I can only say so much, but I was a lead image technician for several titles that were restored and have yet to see the light of day, such as True Lies 4K (4K transfer restored around 2013). Star Wars was a collaboration between several senior image technicians at the facility named above. I posted on this thread because I did a search on Star Wars 4K and came across this speculation thread. I thought it would be nice if someone with some insight could shed some light on the matter.”