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The Official Lucasfilm Response — Page 10

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Let's put this in perspective though. The negatives were digitally mastered in 1993, using the best available technology. The negatives were cleaned and fully restored to their best abilities, before the changes done in 1997 and 2004; when as has been repeadidly explained - new effects shots began to take the place of parts of the original negative. I'm prepared to believe the quality of that master may well be better then the quality they could pull from release prints - or other generational copies, unless they are willing to invest a lof of money into the restoration.
Some were not blessed with brains.
<blockquote>Originally posted by: BadAssKeith

You are passing up on a great opportunity to makes lots of money,
make Lucas lose a lot of his money
and make him look bad to the entire world
and you could be well known and liked

None of us here like Lucas or Lucasfilm.
I have death wishes on Lucas and Macullum.
we could all probably get 10s of thousands of dollars!
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Originally posted by: Mielr
Yes, and remember that all of the "new" stuff for the SE, weren't added onto to the original camera negatives (that would be impossible)- all of the original elements were scanned, then the new stuff added digitally, then it was all output to NEW negatives.
They can be and they were.
Some were not blessed with brains.
<blockquote>Originally posted by: BadAssKeith

You are passing up on a great opportunity to makes lots of money,
make Lucas lose a lot of his money
and make him look bad to the entire world
and you could be well known and liked

None of us here like Lucas or Lucasfilm.
I have death wishes on Lucas and Macullum.
we could all probably get 10s of thousands of dollars!
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Originally posted by: boris
Originally posted by: Mielr
Yes, and remember that all of the "new" stuff for the SE, weren't added onto to the original camera negatives (that would be impossible)- all of the original elements were scanned, then the new stuff added digitally, then it was all output to NEW negatives.
They can be and they were.

They can be and they were...what? I'm not sure what you mean.

Digital effects cannot be physically added to a 30-year old negative (to be clear- I'm not talking about cutting and splicing here- I'm talking about actually changing the content of the original negative frames). The negative can be scanned, and the digital effects can be combined with the original image via computer, but then the final result must be output onto a new piece of film.

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I'm pretty sure that the IP used for the DC masters was used to replace parts of the o-neg for the "new" SE negative. However, since it was a negative being made, those segments would have been duped from the IP, leaving it intact in itself. This was the first generation IP from the original negative, which is why it was chosen for the DC masters (at the time it was considered the best single source). Why it was chosen over the dye-transfer print (which was also struck from the o-neg) I don't know. Which is in better shape now is another question. However, it seems there are at least two good 2nd generation sources intact.
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I just sent them an E-mail saying why i dont want them . Will i get a reply back ?
May the force be wth you .........
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We want you to be aware that we have no plans – now or in the future – to restore the earlier versions.


Then, unfortunately, I have no plans, now or in the future, to purchase any future Star Wars products until a restoration of the original versions is produced.

How about putting something like that on the response? Polite, but get the point across.

“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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Originally posted by: Harlock415
it just irks me to no end. Lucas has vast resources and people willing and able to do it for him. This whole huge cost line is a crock. THe restorers would consider it a labor of love.


Forget labor of love, a quality release of the original trilogy is guaranteed to make tons of money for Lucas. He's worried about whether or not there is a market for it? I'd bet that even over half of the people who liked the PT would probably like to own the orginals for the sake of novelty at least. And, even if it is merely a minority of Star Wars fans that want to see the originals, we are talking about Star Wars here! A minority in the Star Wars fanbase is freaking huge.

The only explanation for George Lucas' actions is that he wants to destroy history. Nothing else.

"Now all Lucas has to do is make a cgi version of himself.  It will be better than the original and fit his original vision." - skyjedi2005

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I don't know. I mean, I don't run a multi-billion dollar corporation, so perhaps I shouldn't judge, but evidently, Lucas just hates the orginal versions. The core of it seems to be that he finds them to be inferior versions and thus thinks that they should not be made available, and that if they are, then they do not deserve the same treatment as the SEs.

“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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That's it in a nutshell. But his notion is dead wrong. Because his "perfectionism" has caused people to actually hate Star Wars when they didn't before. Immaculate CG does not tell a story. His ability to tell a story has diminished, and he's screwed up the ones that didn't need fixing in the first place. He's changing history because he can. He's mucking up his stories because he can. He's holding out on the very people who made him what he is because he can.

C-3PO or Han Solo would call it delusions of grandeur, but I have one word to describe his entire attitude: Megalomania.
I am fluent in over six million forms of procrastination.
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Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
That's it in a nutshell. But his notion is dead wrong. Because his "perfectionism" has caused people to actually hate Star Wars when they didn't before. Immaculate CG does not tell a story. His ability to tell a story has diminished, and he's screwed up the ones that didn't need fixing in the first place. He's changing history because he can. He's mucking up his stories because he can. He's holding out on the very people who made him what he is because he can.

C-3PO or Han Solo would call it delusions of grandeur, but I have one word to describe his entire attitude: Megalomania.


I just don't undestand it, that's all. Why does he hate his own creations so much? It would be one thing if the studio had edited them like the infamous "Love conquers all" version of Brazil (which, although Gilliam despises it with every fiber of his being, is still available), but he made them...well, some of them. I keep wondering if there is some deep-seated reason for it.

“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 think that Lucas knows that so many people don't like the changes he made, so he can't admit he is wrong. In his opinion, he improved the movies and he knows now that people prefere the OOT. His ego can't handle it. I think this release is an atempt to shut some people up. And unfortunatly, it might work.

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Originally posted by: Mike O

I just don't undestand it, that's all. Why does he hate his own creations so much? It would be one thing if the studio had edited them like the infamous "Love conquers all" version of Brazil (which, although Gilliam despises it with every fiber of his being, is still available), but he made them...well, some of them. I keep wondering if there is some deep-seated reason for it.


I don't want to sound all wacko here and pin Lucas's aversion to the O-OT on just one thing, but has anybody considered it may be related to his divorce in 1983? His wife left him and remarried, and anybody who's been through a divorce can tell you that even the most agreeable ones can be absolute hell to go through. And since his film-editor wife's thumbprints are all over the O-OT, I am only speculating that perhaps Lucas has been unconsciously attempting to bury that whole association. Look at his complete unwillingness to give us anamorphic widescreen of the O-OT; he doesn't want to spend another dime on it because it's wrapped up with a lot of pain already. Deep-seated is dead on, brother.
"Charlie don't surf!" -- Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore
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Originally posted by: 20th Century Mark
I think that Lucas knows that so many people don't like the changes he made, so he can't admit he is wrong. In his opinion, he improved the movies and he knows now that people prefere the OOT. His ego can't handle it. I think this release is an atempt to shut some people up. And unfortunatly, it might work.


That is what worries me most. If this release doesn't sell well, he'll say that no one wanted it. If it does, he could say that now everyone who wanted it has it. Hopefully, though, he instead think that the OOT=more money. I would say that Lucas doesn't want it released because he is a purist who cares more about his vision than money but...well, to put it politely, his actions seem to indicate otherwise. I wonder if this will end up like like the situation where WB only wanted to include the Donner Cut of Superman II in the boxed set or the MGM release of the unrated Robocop in the trilogy set because they know full well that people will pay exhorbitant amounts for the best available version of their favorite movie. If the 30th anniversary boxed set included the OOT remastered, I would, sad to say, probably pay and eye-gouging price for it.

“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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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.


Well put! Unfortunately, I don't think that LFL will Let em.

“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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Well considering that Star Wars is in the National Film Registry (where important films are restored and preserved), and it was inducted in 1989, you can rest assured that the original version of Star Wars is not lost.

It is merely being held hostage by Luca$h
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They are limited edition so is that another way off forceing fans to buy them ? I think it is ! Its another why of grabbing money from fans !!!
May the force be wth you .........