If Ridley Scott himself had been adamantly opposed to including anything besides the Final Cut in the new dvd, even though he doesn't own the rights to his movies, I still somehow doubt we would've gotten anything besides the Final Cut. Zombie is dead on in that assessment. It annoys me to no end that LFL let the sole motivating factor behind the '06 release be money.

That's the problem here with Star Wars. Lucas keeps going on and on and on about how it's his movie (and from a financial/legal standpoint, it is). But this is yet another bit of revisionism, isn't it? Back in 1980 he told Kershner to fly to the London premiere of TESB without him since it was his movie (Kersh's) and not Lucas'. He's just lucky that Kershner doesn't have a problem with the changes Lucas has made to his (Kersh's) movie. Let's not even get into the argument that Lucas was justified in changing the late Richard Marquand's work since "he directed some of the movie, so it's his to do what he wishes with."

If they finally get it right with the hi-def release, all will be forgiven. But as baronlando put it, it's quite bizarre to think of what we fans are dealing with in the meantime.

Also, comparing Ward to de Lauzirika is apples to oranges in my opinion. While CdL had some association with Scott's company, Blade Runner's restoration and subsequent royal treatment on dvd/hi-def was done out of respect for the material more than anything else. Ward, though he did at least get Lucas' attention over the OOT matter, just works for the guy at the end of the day. I would think he's more experienced in the realm of business than he is in the realm of producing. Star Wars still awaits its Charles de Lauzirika, whoever that ends up being.