Too bad star wars is still under copyright. If it was public domain the fans could undertake a donate money approach and have a new telecine done from a print like the one in the national achives of film, in the library of congress.

Or a company that does not want to spend the money or resources could have a donate money thing set up like Robert Harris has done for the 70mm roadshow version of the Alamo.

All Lucasfilm would have to do is give Harris access to the film and other misc items needed for a restoration and then he could get the public and film fans to pay for it since a billionaire like lucas won't do so even though he is supposedly a member of a foundation for the preservation of motion pictures and a member of the board,lol.

It seems to me an artists rights are in conflict with the historical preservation of these classic films. Why can't Lucas do both? He makes his fans happy and gets to continue to tinker with the films to his hearts delight.

Sounds to me a logical alternative, and everybody wins in that scenario. He gets to put his directors finished cut out there, and the originals are saved from the destruction of time as the negatives rot in the LFL archives.

I mean it seems to reason that he would have had a new negative made from the restoration in 1997 before the cgi was done, which would be able to be used in making a new home video release of the originals and make the films viable for theatrical exhibition.