https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1204960815821946880?s=21
JJ is on our sides
That’s good to hear, and I respect him for being open about his views in this matter, but he sadly also confirms the OOT will not be released for reasons even he doesn’t understand.
As far as he knows.
This is pretty major imo. We have the director of 2/3 of the ST saying on camera in a sit-down interview that he doesn’t understand why the unaltered versions haven’t been restored to modern quality. The most we’d gotten from him prior was casually mentioning he’d shown his kids the original versions in a written interview several years ago (whether this was the GOUT or Harmy is unclear).
Rian hasn’t brought up the subject at all to my knowledge since he was hired by LFL back in 2014, although he did jokingly refer to the SE as “the cartoon version” on twitter the week the bd’s came out back in 2011.
I think, it goes a little bit beyond, as far as he knows. He literally states, he asked about the OOT, and was told a release wasn’t possible. So, I think it’s almost certain the OOT will not be included in the physical release of the 4K versions next year. In this respect it’s also important to note, that the new 4K master was done under the supervision of Lucas before the sale of LFM, making it even less likely the OOT will be restored, as this will be an archive release, not a new restoration by Disney. The release of the OOT is becoming less likely with every year that passes, and with physical media becoming extinct, next year will likely be the last opportunity for such a release, as the SE will forever remain the available versions on streaming services. I just don’t see it happening next year, and so I don’t see it happening at all, sadly.
Well, we know this isn’t entirely true, since these new 4K versions were clearly mastered after Disney’s Lucasfilm acquisition. They include the revised Lucasfilm logo that Disney created in 2015, and they were given the Dolby Vision HDR treatment by the same Company 3 colorists who did The Mandalorian. Dolby Vision didn’t even exist until around 2015.
I think you’re probably right that the foundation of this 4K version existed back before Disney’s acquisition, and was completed under George’s supervision. But I’m afraid your assumption — that the entire master as a whole was completed before then — is simply not true. In fact, looking at the evidence, I would wager that in its current, completed form, this new 4K version was completed this year.
The color grading for was likely done in the Disney era, but the 4K restoration by Lowry was finished long before that. Remember that Gareth Edwards was shown the new restoration when he worked on RO. Here’s what an employee at Lowry had to say about it (https://thecantina.starwarsnewsnet.com/index.php?threads/star-wars-4k.54414/):
"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”."