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Star Wars '77 70mm theatrical screening signed off by George Lucas himself!

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 (Edited)

So it’s been confirmed - George Lucas himself has signed off on the public screening of an unaltered print version of 1977 Star Wars!

See the below post from DavidMDaut who’s Tweet is referenced in multiple news articles and videos online. The post comes from the below thread where the topic is being actively discussed:

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/70mm-print-of-GOUT-on-Saturday-in-Academy-Theater-in-CA/id/68191/page/1

DavidMDaut said:

Just got out. Program began with Rogue One introduced by John Knoll. Super neat, but that’s not why you’re here.

John Dykstra introduced a 70mm print struck for the UK but never screened (I heard someone say it was ‘81, but the date was never formally stated). It was never screened because the first time it was projected, the print tore, and thus there was about two seconds of pretty major damage right as the Death Star blows up, but otherwise, the print was immaculate. Minimal damage and virtually no fading. “A New Hope” was on the crawl, but otherwise, it’s the original film.

Apparently, after some convincing, Lucas himself signed off on the Academy showing this version of the film. That’s huge, because he has firmly not allowed the original version to be publicly screened since before 1997. What does that mean for future releases? Who can say, but this screening is something that seemed impossible just one week ago.

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Really it just makes an official restoration from Disney all the more conspicuous in its absence.

Lucasfilm has access to even better materials closer in the photochemical chain to the camera negative than the Academy’s 70mm blow-up, although the fact it’s in such good condition means it should probably be preserved if only because it could be the best remaining record of all the picture and sound differences in that version of the movie for all we know. That is of course unless this print is different still from the ‘77 blow-ups and conforms closer to the 35mm prints in terms of content.

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CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

Why is this a thread?

Why do any threads exist at all on a discussion forum? Is the news of George himself signing off on a public screening of SW77 after what we know of his thoughts on the theatricals and efforts to write them out of history over so many years not discussion worthy enough on OriginalTrilogy.com?

It seems quite the sudden 180 to me and something worth seeing what others thoughts about it are.

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crissrudd4554 said:

Valheru_84 said:

Mway1 said:

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/70mm-print-of-GOUT-on-Saturday-in-Academy-Theater-in-CA/id/68191

And? Note that I linked this thread myself in my OP…

Because the questions you are posting here you could have simply posted there. Starting a new thread in regards to an event that’s already being discussed in another thread really isnt necessary.

Except that this thread is not about the event, but GL signing off on the screening of a freaking theatrical print! Don’t know how this is being missed or why no one else finds this surprising or worth saying anything given like I said, what was the default understanding till now about his stance on the OUT.

Sorry, I thought the specific topic would be of some interest on here but it seems I have more to discuss about it with my casual Star Wars fan friends and family than on OT.com

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Valheru_84 said:

crissrudd4554 said:

Valheru_84 said:

Mway1 said:

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/70mm-print-of-GOUT-on-Saturday-in-Academy-Theater-in-CA/id/68191

And? Note that I linked this thread myself in my OP…

Because the questions you are posting here you could have simply posted there. Starting a new thread in regards to an event that’s already being discussed in another thread really isnt necessary.

Except that this thread is not about the event, but GL signing off on the screening of a freaking theatrical print! Don’t know how this is being missed or why no one else finds this surprising or worth saying anything given like I said, what was the default understanding till now about his stance on the OUT.

Sorry, I thought the specific topic would be of some interest on here but it seems I have more to discuss about it with my casual Star Wars fan friends and family than on OT.com

If you actually scrolled through the last few pages of that thread you would know that this subject has reached this sites interest for discussion and has indeed been talked about. Yes this to a degree big news but it’s big news that already being discussed elsewhere on this site.

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I did have a very quick scan through but didnt notice anything obvious and felt it a different enough topic to deserve it’s own thread away from one specifically talking about the screening itself.

Looking at some of the other topics with their own thread, I didnt think for a second this one would be such an issue that the thread would instead be completely derailed to discuss it’s own validity as a separate topic.

I could understand the annoyance if there was already a specific thread on it. In this case it feels like Ive been rounded up by the thread police, a sister department to the grammar police…

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Just found the post by DavidMDaut on page 3 and I think this is why a specific thread is still not a bad thing as I originaly read the OP of that thread and a few comments from page 1 and then thought awesome but I don’t need to read all 5 pages and subsequently missed the news about George until coming across that video. So I will edit my OP to be more of an headline with a quote and link to the discussion in that thread, just for anyone else that also decided not to dive right into that thread and missed that tidbit about some big news 😉

DavidMDaut said:

Just got out. Program began with Rogue One introduced by John Knoll. Super neat, but that’s not why you’re here.

John Dykstra introduced a 70mm print struck for the UK but never screened (I heard someone say it was ‘81, but the date was never formally stated). It was never screened because the first time it was projected, the print tore, and thus there was about two seconds of pretty major damage right as the Death Star blows up, but otherwise, the print was immaculate. Minimal damage and virtually no fading. “A New Hope” was on the crawl, but otherwise, it’s the original film.

Apparently, after some convincing, Lucas himself signed off on the Academy showing this version of the film. That’s huge, because he has firmly not allowed the original version to be publicly screened since before 1997. What does that mean for future releases? Who can say, but this screening is something that seemed impossible just one week ago.

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The bigger discussion that kinda does warrant its own thread is just how much control George does or doesn’t have over this sort of thing now. Isn’t it a little suspicious that for all those years when he still owned LFL he never allowed screenings of the OOT and now that he doesn’t anymore he “granted his permission?”

Like I said in the other thread, it was probably just a formality by the Academy considering their long history with George going all the way back to Graffiti. Notice how Disney hasn’t been mentioned at all in regards to this news?

All of this assumes, btw, that John Dykstra wasn’t just joking when he said they had to get George’s permission. I wonder if anyone managed to capture video/audio of him saying that.

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Yeah, he has no control at all now, I don’t think. It doesn’t make sense for Disney to pay 4 billion dollars and not have full control over it. So it’s more of a blessing than permission.

It’s just because he’s always been such an advocate for the SE and the director and writer of the film in question that they went to him. Like, if one were to ask “is George ok with this?” the ‘correct answer’ would be: “even if it technically doesn’t matter, yes, he’s ok with it, we have his blessing”.

But then again, this could be in the other thread.

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Jay might be able to merge stuff, but I don’t think we’ve had that moderator functionality since the last major forum software update.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Mods can you please re-title this thread to the below:

George Lucas signs off on public screening of unaltered Star Wars '77 print!

For everyone that posted on topic, please repost your replies in digitalfreaknyc’s thread and edit your reply here to say “Moved” once done so it can be included in a cleanup of this thread in a day or two.

The below is actually the type of discussion forks that I thought might occur here and deserved their own thread outside of a specific screening, but oh well…

Fang Zei said:

The bigger discussion that kinda does warrant its own thread is just how much control George does or doesn’t have over this sort of thing now. Isn’t it a little suspicious that for all those years when he still owned LFL he never allowed screenings of the OOT and now that he doesn’t anymore he “granted his permission?”

Like I said in the other thread, it was probably just a formality by the Academy considering their long history with George going all the way back to Graffiti. Notice how Disney hasn’t been mentioned at all in regards to this news?

All of this assumes, btw, that John Dykstra wasn’t just joking when he said they had to get George’s permission. I wonder if anyone managed to capture video/audio of him saying that.

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I thought this was interesting, so thanks Val. If it came up in another thread, I didn’t see it and appreciate your making a new thread for it.

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Thanks Maul, glad I could help at least one person see this news instead of relying on stumbling upon the info buried in another thread. I only came across it myself through a youtube video.