Imagine this, if before they altered everything, they restored the O-Neg and printed it on newer film stock to preserve the original versions for future years and they just, have never told us anything about it and they put the it into the Twentieth Century Fox Film Vaults and hid it from the world for years, then they go and create the Special Editions. Then they’d go on in 2006 and give us a Laserdisc Master with the original crawl spliced on, which is another thing, was it from the new Original Version Preservation O-Neg that they (possibly) created?
And another thing that has me thinking, did they really restore the original versions, then printed it on new film stock? Just to A) preserve it for future generations. or B) they plan on releasing these versions when George is dead. But then just went and made the Special Editions, and what I think, it’s (possibly) some sort of a coverup story to hide the fact that, the original versions are restored and could be released. Then they went onto say that they printed over the O-Neg “When these were completed, they apparently were printed onto film and re-cut into the negative, replacing the original negs, which were undoubtedly put back into storage.” - The Secret History of Star Wars, 11/03/09
But could this be a coverup and the “Original” (I use that term loosely due to the fact where my theory is that they restored the Unaltered Versions and reprinted them on newer film stock) Negative, which could still be in the vaults and they’ve kept it under wraps because George acts like a big baby when someone questions the original versions.
So what you’re saying is that the negative that was physically restored is in storage, but the DIGITALLY restored “negative” is the one that was used for every SE since 1997? I guess that would clear up the confusion. Thanks 😃
As a side note, as much as I want Lucasfilm to release the original versions, I also think it would be in poor taste of them to do it after George dies if he doesn’t give them his approval (which he most likely won’t). George’s approval is really the only thing holding back an official OOT release.