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Original Unaltered Trilogy Petition is happening on change.org!

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Signed. Good luck to them - though that particular petition has been going on for 7 years now.

Of course, I certainly hope they do succeed - and it is released on 4K / UHD with all the care, respect and love the unalerted theatrical version of the Original Trilogy so richly deserves. 👍
 

I think there are a few more similar online petitions listed up in the Sites and Publications Supporting the Petition forum if you’re interested, jpb19.
 

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
‘How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

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I hate to say it but the low number of signatures over such a long time tells them what they already suspect; it’s not worth the effort.

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Its never gonna happen these versions don’t exist anymore to George. Disney has followed his wishes on this matter. They’ve also made a business decision that Lucas already spent money on the 2020 special edition which they had to spend no money on, and they released that on Disney plus and 4K disc and made a ton of money doing so.

Also petitions never work, with few exceptions. I signed the original petition years ago it didn’t move the needle one bit.

Unless you think it was this site’s petition that got the GOUT released, which at best was a slap in the face and a way to kill the pirate DVD market.

This petition is so old its for a Blu-Ray HD release and doesn’t mention 4K.

It would have been fairly simple and easy for them years ago to do a 2k scan, grain managed but not heavily degrained, like a Criterion blu ray. And released it on just old Blu-Ray. It wouldn’t have needed to have come from the original negative. It would probably have cost no more than a few million dollars or less. Now that we are in the 4K era they aren’t going to get off so easily.

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I’m still holding out hope that someday, somehow, something will lead to an official release of the unaltered movies, but petitions don’t work. I signed it anyway because it can’t hurt, but I don’t expect anything to come out of it.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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Because they usually just show how few, not how many, people are involved.

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That said, Lucasfilm and Disney have to know how many people are at the very least interested in a restoration of the unaltered movies. This petition having so few signatures in the wider scheme of things looks to me like it was because not that much effort was put into it by the organizers, and I’d think Lucasfilm and Disney are well attuned enough to the fandom that they wouldn’t take the few signatures in this petition as evidence the fandom isn’t interested, but maybe that’s wishful thinking.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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Lucasfilm and Disney have to know how many people are at the very least interested

Yeah this shows them. The wider fandom barely cares at all and the general audience cares even less.

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Yeah, I don’t think petitions will help, especially since there’s so many out there. Mostly what we need is POSTIVITY. People running around being negative about it is going to kill everyone’s buzz. We need people to be EXCITED about the possibilities.

I think it’s people speaking up on social media that moves the needle nowadays. Unless someone proves otherwise, I’m going to continue shouting over there.

#ReleaseTheOriginalTrilogy

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Is it at all possible it is up to Lucas whether they are released or not? Does he legally maintain final cut on episodes 1-6 even if Disney owns Lucasfilm?

Its always been a question if there is a contractual reason it hasn’t happened, everyone thought it was because of the 20th Century Fox situation. But Disney bought that studio.

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From the small and incredibly vague comments people from LFL have made over the years, probably yes.

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Mocata said:

Lucasfilm and Disney have to know how many people are at the very least interested

Yeah this shows them. The wider fandom barely cares at all and the general audience cares even less.

The wider fandom aren’t activists, but they do care. They’re not hardliners like us and don’t campaign for the OOT’s release or contribute to restoration projects, but they would probably be interested in it were an official release to happen, and I’d bet most Star Wars fans at least prefer the unaltered movies. Although it’s probably a lot more even for the general fandom than people like us.

Considering how genuinely common it’s become fans to either have Harmy’s Despecialized Edition or unaltered VHSs, though, I do absolutely believe that most of the fandom would be interested in an official unaltered release. Especially because there’s a lot of people who would like to see the unaltered movies but are put off by downloading a movie over the internet, or the roundabout way you have to get it if you aren’t going on a public torrent tracker.

Disney/LFL must know that at least it’s a large untapped market. At this point I bet the reason it hasn’t been released is because Lucas still has final cut privileges, or they have some sort of agreement with him. I wish they’d just come out and say that though instead of keeping quiet about it. Maybe they’re just trying to have their cake and eat it too by releasing the 4K versions and then the unaltered versions. But that’s beyond wishful thinking.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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I think that the issue is Lucas, to be blunt. Even if Disney can do it, it’s not going to happen while George is still alive. I mean, I wish the man a long, happy, healthy life, and I mean that genuinely, but I think he’s the main obstacle.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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I know that even casual fans from my generation (in their 30’s and older) usually know about and are interested in the original versions. The trouble is that people accept, probably with good reason, that they will never be released no matter what they do, so why bother with petitions or vocal complaints?

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
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