^ a 2014 article
A snippet… The full thing:-
"With the sale of Lucasfilm last year to Disney, came a new hope for a “proper” release of the original, original trilogy – the films generation X grew up watching over and over again. Unless there was some contractual clause we are not aware of (and there certainly could be), Disney does not have any of the emotional hang-ups or concerns about Lucas’ “original vision”, or about trying to tie the original films to the prequels that so concerned Lucas himself. More importantly, Disney has a history of re-releasing classics “for a limited time on Disney DVD and Blu-ray”, simply to make more money. They surely know that releasing a truly high quality Blu-ray of the Original unaltered Trilogy will sell at least a hundred thousand more copies of Star Wars, and could therefore cash in quickly by making a small, but very vocal, section of the Star Wars fan base (myself included) very happy.
However, A year after the sale we still haven’t seen this release – Christmas came and went without incident. While, Disney could be waiting for Episode VII to hit theaters and cash in big at that time, there are other factors we need to consider. A lot of people assume that the original version is locked away in a vault somewhere just waiting to be transferred to DVD and Blu-ray, but the reality is that by all official accounts, the original negative was chopped up to create the Special Edition. A very good, and detailed, documentation of the restoration and creation of the “Special Edition” is available at the Secret History of Star Wars site.
ILM was working on many dozens of new shots, and an even larger amount of enhanced shots, using digital effects to re-do, expand, re-edit and otherwise alter many scenes in the film. 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. As a result, the negative for Star Wars is filled with CGI-laden modern alterations. When Lucas says that the original version physically does not exist, this is what he really means–the negative is conformed to the Special Edition.
That being the case, it would likely be prohibitively expensive to repair and restore the original negative – it would cost millions – far more than the projected revenue from sales. Even that recent “Dear J.J. Abrams” video could only lure about 125,000 people to sign their petition.
As a compromise, Disney could simply scan several of the original surviving 35mm prints of Star Wars (several such projects are underway by fans at the moment, by Mike Verta, Team Negative 1 and others) and create a very high quality 1080p version of the original Trilogy that way, which might appease the fans and be far more cost effective compromise.
However, even assuming that they are able to create a restored version, they would then have to secure co-operation 20th Century Fox which controls all theatrical and home video distribution of both Star Wars Trilogies (at least until 2020), and they own distribution rights to A New Hope in perpetuity. Like the Marvel characters that Fox owns in perpetuity (the X-Men), Star Wars could be seen as something else that they have to hold hostage over Disney. Of course, owning the Marvel characters allows Fox to continue to make X-Men Movies, which earns them millions of dollars, making it a wise business decision. Refusing to distribute a restored original Star Wars Trilogy sounds like an extraordinarily bad business decision. Fox has nothing to gain by doing so, and to refuse is just to say no to what could be a rather sizable pot of cash, so we’re confident that Disney and Fox will be able to reach agreement on this issue. Perhaps they will agree to allow Fox to distribute future Star Wars films – after all, a Star Wars film without the Fox fanfare at the beginning just wouldn’t be the same now would it?
We’ve had our hopes dashed so many times that at this point we all have a “believe it when we see it” attitude, but with Episode VII primed to restart worldwide Star Wars mania, there has never been a better time to re-release the original, original trilogy. At this point, which do you think would sell more copies? A repackaged 2011 Blu-ray (which is still on sale) or an HD version of the films we remember from our childhood and which haven’t been given a proper release since 1995?"
50 Cent is just an imposter
http://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/022417-0100 - a 2017 article
A snippet a screenshot of the article…
^ the four links featured in the article above are to…
‘yesterday’s post’ : http://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/022317-1600
‘read on here’ : http://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/022417-0100 - it just links back to the full article
Harmy’s Star Wars Despecialized Editions ‘here’ 1 : https://www.facebook.com/despecialized
Harmy’s Star Wars Despecialized Editions ‘here’ 2 : https://originaltrilogy.com/discussion/Star-Wars-Preservation/id/17
The FE Renegades thread; from the people who post ‘go kill yourself’, ‘fuck you’, ‘let’s throw abuse’, and more at OT staff & members. Four years on and still throwing accusations, slurs and abuse at the OT & anyone outside their Salacious Crumb filled clique. + FE Discord “to vent” more at the OT. Wook’s take.
^ a 2015 article from The New York Times.
The blurb (it is a lengthy article - though one worth reading in full; below is a snippet):-
'Mr. Lucas always knew his audience. In April 1977, the month before “Star Wars” opened, American Film magazine ran an interview in which he talked about who he wanted to reach. “Rather than do some angry, socially relevant film,” he said, “I realized that there was another relevance that is even more important — dreams and fantasies, getting children to believe there is more to life than garbage and killing and all that real stuff like stealing hubcaps — that you could still sit and dream about exotic lands and strange creatures.” His influences were a postmodern grab bag, from samurai films to “John Carter of Mars.” (Years later, Joseph Campbell was worked into the conversation, too.) Crucially, Mr. Lucas said, “I wanted to make a children’s movie, to go the Disney route.”
He specifically sought out science-fiction fans for “Star Wars,” and 20th Century Fox, its distributor, advised exhibitors to use science-fiction displays in public libraries to reach youngsters on summer break. Fox also urged exhibitors to try to rope in college students in language suggesting that this was a flick meant to be seen in an altered state: “If ever a motion picture was guaranteed to catch and send the imagination of college students soaring, it’s ‘Star Wars.’ ” Figuratively or through a cloud of smoke, the audience soared, and so did the box-office receipts. The film was a smash, conquering the public and critics — in May 1977, Time crowned it the year’s best — and remained in theaters throughout 1977, reopening in ’78 and in successive years. (Most studio movies now are in theaters for about four months.)’
'Mr. Lucas’s true genius may be in marketing, including of his vision. Like other filmmakers who came of age in the 1960s, when American directors became auteurs, he has strong views on authorship. In a 1997 interview with Wired, he addressed the studios’ and artists’ rights, arguing that a copyright should belong to “the artist” of a film and not the large corporation that owns it. “I solved the problem by owning my own copyright,” Mr. Lucas said, “so nobody can screw around with my stuff. Nobody can take ‘Star Wars’ and make Yoda walk, because I own it.” When asked about the changes that he had made to his earlier work, including to “Star Wars,” he said: “It’s my artistic vision. If I want to go back and change it, it’s my business, not somebody else’s.”
He could not be more wrong. If the past four decades have made anything clear, “Star Wars” the phenomenon doesn’t belong to Mr. Lucas or a studio, no matter what the copyright states: It is owned by the fans who — aided and abetted by him and his expansive empire — turned it into a sensation, a passion, a cult and, for some, a lifestyle. In 1977, when the first movie opened, a fan could buy tie-in promotional toys, T-shirts, posters, masks, books, comics and children’s costumes. And no wonder: It was a film, as Mr. Lucas said in 1980, written with “visions of R2-D2 mugs and little windup robots.” As the decades and sequels opened and closed, those mugs and toys multiplied into a seemingly infinitely expanding emporium of desire, a “Star Wars” alternative reality in which you could live, play (online and off) and dream.
In its narrative simplicity — its good versus evil morality, its cheerfully blank hero and bang-bang action — “Star Wars” became the ultimate toy, one that fans could spin in all sorts of directions. Its universe was at once specific and so broad that it inspired fan fiction in every imaginable form, tone and medium from comics to novels and movies. Years before the popularization of the idea of participatory culture, a term for those who are at once pop-culture consumers and contributors, “Star Wars” fans had staked their claim on this world. That engagement sometimes took Mr. Lucas aback. “It’s always amazing to me when people take them so seriously,” he is quoted as saying in Dale Pollock’s essential book “Skywalking” (1983). His movies, Mr. Lucas also said then, are “kind of dumb.” (In turn, the fans have lashed out at him, including for digitally fiddling with “A New Hope.”)
In the years since, Mr. Lucas has clearly embraced his destiny as a force. And while it may seem strange, given his hatred of the studios, that he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, he found it a perfect home. Mr. Lucas helped shape modern conglomerate cinema, to borrow a term from Mr. Schatz, but it was Disney that really pioneered cradle-to-grave entertainment. In 1929, Walt Disney sold the rights to use Mickey Mouse (soon called the “million dollar mouse”) on children’s writing tablets, signing his first licensing contract a year later. “The sale of a doll to any member of a household,” Roy Disney, Walt’s brother, said, “is a daily advertisement in that household for our cartoons and keeps them all ‘Mickey Mouse Minded.’ ” As it turns out, though, the real Force is the mouse that roared.’
The FE Renegades thread; from the people who post ‘go kill yourself’, ‘fuck you’, ‘let’s throw abuse’, and more at OT staff & members. Four years on and still throwing accusations, slurs and abuse at the OT & anyone outside their Salacious Crumb filled clique. + FE Discord “to vent” more at the OT. Wook’s take.
^ a 2021 article.
A snippet from the quality article linked above…
'By now, most people know that the Special Editions have ceased to be “special” editions. They have become the de facto versions of the trilogy that are commercially available. And the changes didn’t stop in 1997. In 2004, with the trilogy’s first DVD release, the films were revised again. The infamous Jabba the Hutt scene from the ‘97 Special Edition of Star Wars was altered up so that the CGI Jabba looked closer to his Return of the Jedi appearance – among other changes.
More significant alterations came in 2011 with the trilogy’s first blu-ray release. Chief among them was the inclusion of Darth Vader awkwardly shouting, “no!”, at the end of Return of the Jedi. Finally, further changes were made between 2010 and 2012 that eventually saw the light of day when the trilogy arrived on Disney+ in 2019.
Presently, the theatrical cuts are not commercially available in any format.
The deliberate erasure of the theatrical cuts isn’t good for culture or history. Countless writers have pointed out the inherent value of the original cuts of these historic films – this isn’t even the first time I’ve harped on about them! But it does bear repeating: the original incarnations of these films left an unimaginable cultural footprint. To effectively bury them is a baffling act of destruction.’
^ also at https://twitter.com/CF_Stewardson/status/1464273749646188547
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.
Disney Is Still Pretending The OG Star Wars Movies Don’t Exist (November 2021):
https://screenrant.com/star-wars-movies-theatrical-cuts-special-editions-disney/
‘A recent Star Wars special on Disney+ uses footage from The Empire Strikes Back special edition, showing that Disney still avoids the theatrical cuts.’