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The Official Lucasfilm Response

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I wanted you to know how much we appreciate the passion and enthusiasm you have for Star Wars, and thank you for sharing your concerns about our upcoming DVD release.

The DVDs being released in September will contain two versions of Star Wars: Episodes IV, V and VI – the Special Editions (which represent George’s vision of the movies) and the first versions, which will be included as bonus material. We hoped that releasing those “original” movies on a bonus disc would be a way to have some additional fun with the debut of the movies as individual DVDs. We certainly did not want it to become a source of concern or frustration for any of our fans.

As you may know, an enormous amount of effort was put into digitally restoring the negatives for the Special Editions. In one scene alone, nearly 1 million pieces of dirt had to be removed, and the Special Editions were created through a frame-by-frame digital restoration. The negatives of the movies were permanently altered for the creation of the Special Editions, and existing prints of the first versions are in poor condition.

So many fans have requested the original movies, we wanted to find a way to bring them to you. But since these movies do not represent George's artistic vision, we could not put the extraordinary time and resources into this project as we did with the Special Editions. The 1993 Laserdisc masters represented the best source for providing the original versions as DVD bonus material. Although these are non-anamorphic versions, they do preserve the original widescreen composition of the movies.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans – now or in the future – to restore the earlier versions.

We hope you will understand our decision and, again, want to let you know how much we appreciate your interest and enthusiasm.

Sincerely,
Lynne Hale
publicity@lucasfilm.com

Well at least the reversed surround channels have been addressed.

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tht's it- I'm looking for an editdroid edition or any other fan transfers! And does anybody know how to get the XO project or a reply from their mailing list, cause lucasfilm has acted the lowest form of corporate marketing in the history of capitalism. I'm even betting this will not even be in color and in some obscure slavic dialect with english subtitles.
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Well, isn't that nice. I feel like Lucasfilm has just spat on me. My heart dropped on that line, "We want you to be aware that we have no plans – now or in the future – to restore the earlier versions." That company is just determined to have me become bitter and crotchety before my time!

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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I got my response this afternoon too, and it was exactly as above. I was suprised they forgot to put a huge middle finger draping the letter. This is more than insulting, this is the ultimate 'fuck you' by Lucas. I can't believe Lucas has made me hate Star Wars now, as I always retorted from taking cheap shots at him like many around here. But chalk me up to someone who now thinks Lucas is total prick for how he is treating the fans.

My marriage to Star Wars: May 25, 1977 - Sept. 12, 2006

Goodbye George, you will never get a penny from me again as you tamper and ruin my three beloved movies.

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Originally posted by: Lynne Hale
"We want you to be aware that we have no plans – now or in the future – to restore the earlier versions."


- That's pretty blatant. But I don't believe it for a minute. That kind of decision, to restore them and release is purely based on money. If there's not enough money in it, they won't release it, but if they see a definite demand for it, then they'll do some kind of restoration and release it. Lucas has no desire at all to give his fans what they really want, it's ALL about the greens for him, even after all those years of us supporting him and his creativity. The man is dictated by two things; money and digital wizardry, when he should be dictating them. He's lost his creative vision and he's in the process of ruining those movies. What a shame.

peace,

Rebelscum
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Well, thats it then. Its going to be a quick, no effort release. I still think that one of the main reasons they are doing this is that they have a warehouse full of 2004 DVDs that they can't sell. So this is another attempt to move inventory, with a crummy OOT DVD release as a gimmick. Its too bad, because they could of done made this an amazing release, and not a non-anamorphic, LD rip. Some of the worst DVD releases ever have been quickie LD rips.
I still think they have to have a restored film of the original, restored right before they started the '97 SE. I don't buy that the Definitive/Faces masters are the best OOT they have.
As others said, Lucasfilm just said "screw those who want the OOT". I'm waiting for the XO project or some of the others, that will probably be better quality than this release. Its a pity, but I guess I should of expected it.
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Originally posted by: CO
I got my response this afternoon too, and it was exactly as above. I was suprised they forgot to put a huge middle finger draping the letter. This is more than insulting, this is the ultimate 'fuck you' by Lucas. I can't believe Lucas has made me hate Star Wars now, as I always retorted from taking cheap shots at him like many around here. But chalk me up to someone who now thinks Lucas is total prick for how he is treating the fans.

My marriage to Star Wars: May 25, 1977 - Sept. 12, 2006

Goodbye George, you will never get a penny from me again as you tamper and ruin my three beloved movies.


So are these responses to the e-mails, or are these responses to hard copy letters?

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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Originally posted by: Rebelscum
Originally posted by: Lynne Hale
We want you to be aware that we have no plans – now or in the future – to restore the earlier versions.

Rebelscum, can you edit your post so that "Lynne Hale" is credited to that quote and not me? I never said that and it sickens me that it's even attributed to me.

Neil

Well at least the reversed surround channels have been addressed.

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No problem Neil, I've already changed it.

Anyway, I got my response from Lucasfilm just moments ago and I then sent this back to them:

"Having seen Lucasfilm's response to the outcry of fans around the world I am deeply saddened by the blatant and uncompromising response. Us fans have given George Lucas the money and therefore the artistic freedom he needed through all those years. We grew up with those movies and love them so dearly. And now he can't give us what we want, where's the respect and gratitude for what we've done for him? Are you just going to turn your back on us? I always say, what goes around, comes around. So naturally if this decision is not reconsidered then you'll have lost at least one true Star Wars fan. You wouldn't be getting any more support from me. That's a fact.

We are not expecting Lucasfilm to do a bigger than life frame by frame restoration like was done for the Special Editions, but rather simply do a relatively simple transfer from the best possible film elements available so as to preserve the movies as they were, totally unaltered. This could give us the anamorphic transfer that we so desperately want. This would not mean huge expenses for Lucasfilm. And were this to happen it would definitely mean huge sales, since every true fan out there would want to own the movies which changed the face of cinema forever in it's original state. This is an important part of cinema history and SHOULD be preserved. I think it's wrong of Lucas to want to bury these versions which made him what he is today.

Please reconsider this decision. The fans outcry and frustration will only get bigger and stronger if Lucas continues to ignore the importance of the original unaltered trilogy."


peace,

Rebelscum
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lynne.hale@lucasfilm.com

This is the response I just sent back to her:

Subject: Hey Lynne. Read your email response.

And that part where you say “we could not put the extraordinary time and resources into this project as we did with the Special Editions?”

The extraordinary time and resources bit is a crock. You guys rushed Lowry for the 2004 editions, and no one's even asking for THAT level of dedication here, really. We just want new transfers. It can be done, and we know it can, we know the film elements DO EXIST, and that this transfer CAN be finished. No one’s talking pristine cleanup, dirt removal. Just a new master, not the old 93 laserdisc master. Which, by the way, made your publicity dept look a little foolish, since Jim Ward said Lucasfilm looked deep in the vaults for elements. How deep you gotta go to dig up the LD master?

If you simply JUST DON'T WANT TO DO THIS then say so, but don't hide behind some set of false mitigating circumstances designed to shift blame from this shoddy business decision. It costs money to make money, you've got 12 billion in merchandise sales over the past 30 years, you can cough up the relatively low price for someone along the lines of Robert Harris to go in and, using the film elements that ARE more than likely available, give the Star Wars movies some semblance of justice.

Dont' say you can't. Because that rings utterly, hollowly false.

If you're going to spend all that marketing money making these original versions the crown jewel of your campaign to get these discs out the door, you can spend a little bit more to polish that jewel instead of trying to shove a Crackerjack ring in a black velvet jewelry box and telling me how much fun I'm having for getting it. Because the focus of your marketing isn't "You can buy them separately for the first time ever." it's "BUY THE ORIGINALS FINALLY." So something seems a little incongruous that you're willing to spend on the advertising but not the picture itself.

It's well within your means and well within street date. License it out if you have to. If you can license out the right to make Jar Jar lollipops where 7 year olds suck on his tongue, you can license out the originals to a company like Criterion to do justice to the films where you won’t. You’ll still get the money and then some, without actually putting ANY of the cost in that way.

The options are sitting there, BEGGING for you to take one of them. And instead, you pick the worst possible option and then try to market it down our throats as a fun gift and the center of your campaign. That’s beyond dishonest.

Your company is better than this. Prove it. Please.



Yeah, time to send responses back to lynne.hale@lucasfilm.com. That is if we have any fight left. I see a lot of dejected "dammits' going around and fans seriously think it's not worth it. But man--if they're not going to even TRY, then they need to license this out to a company that will. they'll still profit, they'll still get their money. They won't have to put the effort in like they apparently can't be assed to do. Someone else can, and someone else will. You think Criterion is gonna turn this down? You got Robert Harris volunteering. They wanna do it--LET EM.

There's still time.
The Best Show You've Never Heard
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Thanks pal!

Neil

Well at least the reversed surround channels have been addressed.

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Them not having a good quality of the originals is complete and utter bullshit. There is one complete master for the whole trilogy in the vaults and another that Lowery Digital did jsut for GL personal film archive.
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I say update the main page to encourage us to write letters in response to THIS now!

I don't even know what to say...

"You make me angry... very angry indeed."
http://www.gargaro.com/webpages/mad.jpg

I will be writing a return response declaring my promise not to buy such an inferior product. And I will let them know that it is NOT because I'm not interested in the OOT, either.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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George Lucas is an asshole for not releasing the original versions in widescreen. He was an asshole to tamper with the trilogy in the first place back in 1997. He was born an asshole, raised an asshole, and will probably die an asshole.

I'd like a qui-gon jinn please with an Obi-Wan to go.

Red heads ROCK. Blondes do not rock. Nuff said.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/greencapt/hansolovsindy.jpg
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*sigh... f*cking sigh*

Just let Criterion, Anchor Bay or even goddam Goodtimes Video license out the release. No money out of LFL's pocket AT ALL. Let someone ELSE pay for the restoration, manufacture and distribution. IT WOULD COST NOTHING AND THE RESIDUALS TO LFL WOULD BE HUGE.

But no- that would be giving people what they want. And what kind of artist does that? Not the one at Skywalker Ranch, that's for sure.
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Maybe when GL dies (I know thats a mean thought but hey) we will get a good verion of the OOT
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Originally posted by: The Bizzle
lynne.hale@lucasfilm.com

This is the response I just sent back to her:

Subject: Hey Lynne. Read your email response.

And that part where you say “we could not put the extraordinary time and resources into this project as we did with the Special Editions?”

The extraordinary time and resources bit is a crock. You guys rushed Lowry for the 2004 editions, and no one's even asking for THAT level of dedication here, really. We just want new transfers. It can be done, and we know it can, we know the film elements DO EXIST, and that this transfer CAN be finished. No one’s talking pristine cleanup, dirt removal. Just a new master, not the old 93 laserdisc master. Which, by the way, made your publicity dept look a little foolish, since Jim Ward said Lucasfilm looked deep in the vaults for elements. How deep you gotta go to dig up the LD master?

If you simply JUST DON'T WANT TO DO THIS then say so, but don't hide behind some set of false mitigating circumstances designed to shift blame from this shoddy business decision. It costs money to make money, you've got 12 billion in merchandise sales over the past 30 years, you can cough up the relatively low price for someone along the lines of Robert Harris to go in and, using the film elements that ARE more than likely available, give the Star Wars movies some semblance of justice.

Dont' say you can't. Because that rings utterly, hollowly false.

If you're going to spend all that marketing money making these original versions the crown jewel of your campaign to get these discs out the door, you can spend a little bit more to polish that jewel instead of trying to shove a Crackerjack ring in a black velvet jewelry box and telling me how much fun I'm having for getting it. Because the focus of your marketing isn't "You can buy them separately for the first time ever." it's "BUY THE ORIGINALS FINALLY." So something seems a little incongruous that you're willing to spend on the advertising but not the picture itself.

It's well within your means and well within street date. License it out if you have to. If you can license out the right to make Jar Jar lollipops where 7 year olds suck on his tongue, you can license out the originals to a company like Criterion to do justice to the films where you won’t. You’ll still get the money and then some, without actually putting ANY of the cost in that way.

The options are sitting there, BEGGING for you to take one of them. And instead, you pick the worst possible option and then try to market it down our throats as a fun gift and the center of your campaign. That’s beyond dishonest.

Your company is better than this. Prove it. Please.



Yeah, time to send responses back to lynne.hale@lucasfilm.com. That is if we have any fight left. I see a lot of dejected "dammits' going around and fans seriously think it's not worth it. But man--if they're not going to even TRY, then they need to license this out to a company that will. they'll still profit, they'll still get their money. They won't have to put the effort in like they apparently can't be assed to do. Someone else can, and someone else will. You think Criterion is gonna turn this down? You got Robert Harris volunteering. They wanna do it--LET EM.

There's still time.


Maybe since the response was an auto response cut and past job, we should do the same to her. Is lynne.hale@lucasfilm.com a real working address though?
There's good in the Original Trilogy, and it's worth fighting for.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
http://www.myspace.com/harlock415
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Originally posted by: Darth Richard
Maybe when GL dies (I know thats a mean thought but hey) we will get a good verion of the OOT


Or Marcia if that heresay is true, but, well, you know.

Chances are, that is a very real possibility. We now have a fully restored King Kong thanks to remastering and lost footage found and all that to put back in what the censors took out. It may be that our children and our children's children will have to suffer with the SE's but seventy or so years after Lucas eventually kicks the bucket, the original version will be restored to the public. Why? Because at that point, the smokescreen of "artistic vision" will be seen as tha sham it is *AND* the CGI in the SE will not look so hot anymore (if they ever did) so the only people interested in the films will be those looking at them from a historical perspective, which means the originals will be what they want, and they'll get them if they have to painstakinging reconstruct the visual information by hand.
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Ah, I love The Bizzle's letter, especially this part:

"If you're going to spend all that marketing money making these original versions the crown jewel of your campaign to get these discs out the door, you can spend a little bit more to polish that jewel instead of trying to shove a Crackerjack ring in a black velvet jewelry box and telling me how much fun I'm having for getting it."

Yeah, I think the time for being polite has passed. It's full-scale war now.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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Well, I can tell you I'm beyond boycotting this DVD release. I'm now boycotting anything associated with Lucasfilm. So - yes - that certainly means I'm not watching the upcoming TV series or buying those DVDs either. Getting our hopes up with this DVD announcement was the nastiest thing any company could have ever done, and they have pretty much declared war on their loyal fans.
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"The extraordinary time and resources bit is a crock. You guys rushed Lowry for the 2004 editions, and no one's even asking for THAT level of dedication here, really."

Damned fine point. Each film took all of three months, IIRC. Plenty O' time.....

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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It's either over, or it's full scale war. What side are you on? Any suggestions? More letters? Media?
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Originally posted by: jack Spencer Jr
Originally posted by: Darth Richard
Maybe when GL dies (I know thats a mean thought but hey) we will get a good verion of the OOT


Or Marcia if that heresay is true, but, well, you know.

Chances are, that is a very real possibility. We now have a fully restored King Kong thanks to remastering and lost footage found and all that to put back in what the censors took out. It may be that our children and our children's children will have to suffer with the SE's but seventy or so years after Lucas eventually kicks the bucket, the original version will be restored to the public. Why? Because at that point, the smokescreen of "artistic vision" will be seen as tha sham it is *AND* the CGI in the SE will not look so hot anymore (if they ever did) so the only people interested in the films will be those looking at them from a historical perspective, which means the originals will be what they want, and they'll get them if they have to painstakinging reconstruct the visual information by hand.


I thought about bringing this up too about KING KONG. How the hell can the star wars print have gone to bad shape (the way they talk about them at least) if the print that they used for the dvd(KING KONG) had been losted sense 1936 or something. And it still held up fine. LFL are the biggest bunch of liers ever!
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I got the same form letter, only from a guy named "John Singh" instead. This happen to anyone else?
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We go forward, of course. At least I will. This is what I posted when someone opposed the idea of continuing to hammer at Lucasfilm with our combined power

Quote: There's this thing called ego, Lucas has lots of it.

Yes. I know. I was told the same thing by some posters when I started running around the internet a couple weeks ago posting contact information for Lucasfilm and trying to get it posted on a couple websites, including originaltrilogy. And not only did we end up getting a LOT of people involved in this through our concern and our emailing and phone-calling, we got Lucasfilm's attention in a big way.

All I'm doing is now taking them at their word. There's no reason not to continue applying pressure considering the wording they're using in their defense. If they're saying the main stumbling block is the lack of will to spend money to make money in regards to this decision--then I'm going to pressure them to end-run that stumbling block. Lucas has licensed everything else out--why not the versions of the movies he doesn't even really recognize anymore. Like I said, it can't be any worse than licensing Jar Jar Lik-M-Pops and inflatable chairs. And chances are this will get them much more money than that.

If that's the reason they're giving me, that's the reason I'm going to hammer on, and while I understand the sense of resignation a lot of fans have, I'm still gonna try. Especially now that I know they're really paying attention.

Usually we don't have that. Now we do. Now we do something with it. Look what's happened so far. Re-read Robert Harris' email to Lynne Hale. Check that out. I don't see the need to give up now that I know they're staring straight at us--and we're making this much sense right now.

Other people will notice. It's bound to happen.


I mean, from running around rallying each other to email and talk, we've gotten a LOT of people involved. We finally tugged on their pantsleg long enough that they looked down at us. Now we've got their attention, we start going to town. There's no reason to stop, I don't think--because we still have PLENTY of time.
The Best Show You've Never Heard