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Post #263125

Author
zombie84
Parent topic
Will you buy the OOT again ?
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/263125/action/topic#263125
Date created
30-Dec-2006, 12:55 AM
It is interesting, however, that this supposed box set appears to not have any additional featurettes made for it. Getting all the original players back together for the 2004 dvd set was a big, big deal--they started contacting actors and technitions way back in 2003, and had filmed everything and recorded all the commentaries by the summer. And everyone knew about it. When you have Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill and Gary Kurtz hanging around Skywalker Ranch, people take notice--and the media was informed about what was going on. So Empire of Dreams, the Characters of Star Wars, all those featurettes are all we will be getting, and you can bet the commentaries will be repeated. Even the great PT supplemental disks did not call the cast back--they just used the same publicity junkets and on-set interviews that the actors are required to do.

What does that leave? Super-enhanced Ultimate Final Editions of all the films, including the prequels (as evident by the CGI TPM yoda). Mmm, not too interesting considering there has been "Special Edition" marketing oversaturation already--these will appeal only to the hardest of hardcore fans. Deleted Scenes? Almost certainly, and these are probably the most fascinating prospect of a future release, and you can bet that they were deliberately withheld from the first release as firepower for a future one. Perhaps a sort of "Nostalgia" theme by including the original television documentaries that are so often bootlegged and requested by fans? Another promising extra, but again these pale in actual content to Empire of Dreams, though they do offer some additional footage. But do you think these things are really enough to persuade everyone that bought the 2004 DVD set--as well as the 2006 dvd trilogy--to shell out another 70 bucks or so? No way. You need the remastered OOT.
This would play right into the whole "nostalgia" thing that LFL has been harping, since they realised that the PT can only sustain the company for so long before they have to dip back into the OT. You get the original deleted footage, the original television specials and documentaries...and the original films.

Theres still tons of PT docs to be made--"The Beginning", the fantastic TPM doc, was assembled out of 300 hours of footage. You could easily create new on-set featurettes for the PT, finish more of the many deleted scenes not included in the original disks, and maybe even do more commentaries (Ben Burtt talks so much he could get his own--but it would be neat to finally have some actors participate in a new one). PT fans are so easily persuaded that they could be fooled into buying the films again but for OT fans there is only one real reason: a proper release of the OOT. The only question is: did they alienate enough people with the 2006 disks that they would eradicate their only major market? Hard to say.

With this in mind, there are then two possibilities for this release. PT fanboys are still drooling over fantasy scenes that will be filmed and inserted into the OT, like one of Palpatine dissolving the senate in ANH, or Yoda in ANH or more footage of Alderaan being destroyed, or a re-edited Obi Wan duel. But to do these things is a huge, huge deal, and we would have at least heard some rumblings by now, so i think it is safe to say that any additional enhances to the films will be extremely subtle tweaks that are hardly even noticeable--like maybe corrected lightsaber colours.
So, possibility one: this release is not a major one at all, basically the six existing dvds in a new extra-big box, maybe with more shitty video game demos invading bitrate space and new video interview with Lucas on the overal six-episode saga and a preview of the new tv series.
possibility two: its a much bigger release, but still using the pre-existing releases as the majority base, with "nostalgia" being the theme, containing the OT deleted scenes, tv specials and the remastered OOT, plus the corrected SE's, all the original bonus material, and maybe an extra disk of newly edited featurettes of the mostly PT variety, as well as both Clone War cartoon disks, and a sneak peak at the upcoming TV show. This to me seems much more likely, especially with the 30th anniversary of the ORIGINAL films--they are going to need SOME kind of marketing ploy that flaunts the whole "nostalgia" thing--what better way?