From the things I have heard him and Lucasfilm say about it, the original negatives were destroyed in the process of making the SE versions, and the prints they have are in very poor shape. So if that is true, we aren't talking a day in the lab right? We are talking about some serious effort to get to a print that would be transferrable. Am I wrong about that? When Lucas put out the SE's, they were talking about how if they didn't do that restoration then, they would have never been able to re-release Star Wars ever again, because the negative was degrading, and the prints that existed were all really worn out from overuse.

I have heard from a lot of people who say they know for sure he's lying and has all these pristine copies of the saga just laying around in his basement, but it seems like a whole lot of assumption to me.

I really think this is one case where the "dog ate my homework" isn't just a huge lie.

I think that's part of the reason he didn't originally entertain the idea of O-OT on DVD, because he knew the best he could do (without hiring Nasa to ressurect the original picture quality of the film from a bunch of worn out prints), was to use one of the previous home video release masters as he has. I don't think he wanted to put out a DVD with a movie on it that wasn't Anamorphic in this day and age. I could just picture Jim Ward begging him to just let them do it, and Lucas saying: I don't think they'd want what I can give them".

Now if it's really not a big deal, if there really is a print laying around that he could send to a lab for a day and be done with it, then I think it would be in poor taste for him to not do that.

Is there anything beyond speculation (or anonomous people who conveninently happen to know for a fact but can't reveal how they got the info without occupational rammifications), to say he's really lying about all of this?