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Star Wars coming to Blu Ray (UPDATE: August 30 2011, No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!) — Page 8

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With Avatar I'm sure there must have been some theaters showing it in digital 2D in 1.78:1, since they might've had a digital projector installed but not real-d. There were 18 different versions made for U.S. theaters alone. The blu-ray might not replicate my own theatrical experience (twice in 1.78:1 real-d and then a third time in 2.35:1 real-d), but it's absolutely optimized for 2D hi-def presentation.

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By that same token. Avatar is also getting another cut which is going to be between 40-50 mins longer than the one currently available. So the six additional mins may not be a big deal but it will nonetheless probably replace the original theatrical cut.  Unless everybody starts looking at original theatrical cuts as extended previews for the eventual special Editions and or extended cuts. I mean one way to make theatrical cuts unique would be to have them in theaters only and when it gets released at home it is a different cut, maybe not drastic but always slightly different from what was viewed in theaters. Plus when sequels are made to movies they are NOT sequels to the directors cut they are sequels to the theatrical cut, but if you cannot find the theatrical cut for viewing you are expecting a sequel to whatever version you watched. Halloween is a good example. How many different versions did Rob Zombie put out of that? If you only saw the workprint version Halloween II won't make sense to you because of what happens to Dr Loomis...

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Ah, I miss the good old days in this thread when we only complained about not getting the OOT...

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All of this discussion is pointless.  Us fanboys only want people to blame.  Is it Lucash?  Or Cameron-spelled-with-a-cent-sign-for-the-'C'?  Don't confuse us by presenting logical facts.

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TV's Frink said:

Ah, I miss the good old days in this thread when we only complained about not getting the OOT...

Sure it all adds up to what I'm saying. Theatrical cuts should have mandatory release on every format prior to any special editions.  Lord of The Rings and Star Trek did it right on Blu Ray. Theatrical cuts first.. Next release special editions etc etc etc...

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But that's what is happening with Avatar.  Theatrical first.  I don't understand what you are getting at by saying the Avatar theatrical version will disappear.

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I just don't want to see the theatrical cut Avatar disappear when these new cuts are released. The original cut must always remain an option.  It all goes back to that quote Cameron said about Lucas... As long as Cameron doesn't disown the theatrical cut of Avatar he has a right to be critical of George's creative decisions.. 

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It will not disappear. It's in every store in the world right now, and the original T2/Abyss/Aliens haven't disappeared either.

 

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Unless they properly remaster the OOT, count me out (even when I DO get blu-ray capability). If they give OT deleted scenes on an extras disc, I'll rent THAT. But otherwise color me unimpressed...

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TV's Frink said:

But that's what is happening with Avatar.  Theatrical first.  I don't understand what you are getting at by saying the Avatar theatrical version will disappear.

 I'm just overwhelmed that James FREAKING Cameron, one of the Big wigs of Hollywood Big Wigs actually comes out and says what Lucas is doing altering and burying the OT is crap, and one this board we seem to be still so annoyed that the man said "I'm King of the World!" at the Oscars 15 years ago that all we can do it attack him.

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TheBoost said:

I'm just overwhelmed that James FREAKING Cameron, one of the Big wigs of Hollywood Big Wigs actually comes out and says what Lucas is doing altering and burying the OT is crap

 I wonder if he's signed the petition yet?....

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Rebel1one1 said:

Sure it all adds up to what I'm saying. Theatrical cuts should have mandatory release on every format prior to any special editions.  Lord of The Rings and Star Trek did it right on Blu Ray. Theatrical cuts first.. Next release special editions etc etc etc...

It's odd to see you say that LotR did it right by releasing Theatrical Releases first/only.  All other websites are criticizing that as a money grabbing move.

Why can't we all just get along with seamless branching?  That's how all of my Cameron Theatrical/Special editions are.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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This discussion about Avatar is yet another reason I'm glad I did not, and will not, ever watch it.

Want to book yourself or a guest on THE VFP Show? PM me!

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I have watched the 04 dvds many times, and just thought to myself "just ignore the additions, it will be like the originals."

But the damn things scream for attention. Like the stupid jawas on the stupid rontos.

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

<span> </span>

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I have a feeling we MAY see the unaltered original Star Wars films in this set. I think even Lucasfilm MUST realise by now that they've kind of run out of carrots to dangle in front of fans' faces! That they've run out of more bait to tempt the hardcore fans with yet another release. The original trilogy is the last bargaining card they have left to guarantee monster sales of their product!

But.... according to The digital bits we may not get this until October 2011 - why the freaking delay??!? I'm sick to death of Lucasfilm's tactics these days. They could bring out these on Blu-ray tomorrow if they wanted! With HD set-top boxes and home computers going down in price, many can now burn their own versions in HD if they have the know-how. All the information to do this is freely available on the net. I think Lucasfilm would be wise to give the public what they desire NOW or lose out future sales to pirated HD copies of all 6 films floating around the internet.

Lucas used to be a good business man (the days of him being a decent director I think are long gone, if indeed they ever existed...) and he MUST know he'd make a killing on a remastered bare-bones blu-ray release of the Original unaltered trilogy. I think he's just stubburn and secretly probably hates the fact that his original films are held in higher esteem than his CGI cartoons!

Still I think by now just about EVERYone he knows in both the film world and in the higher echelons of Lucasfilm MUST have hinted to him by now that offering the original trilogy would be a wise thing to do.

Such a disappointment that it looks like it'll be a 'all or nothing' box set rather than individual releases of each film. Hopefully they'll follow if the Lucasfilm DVDs were anything to go by. Really though, in 2010 we should have seen individual blu-ray box sets of each film by now ala Blade Runner, or Close Encounters featuring all cuts of each respective film plus a generous helping of supplementary material, and original theatrical poster cover-art, not something photoshopped by someone who clearly has little eye/respect for iconic design... Treat these as PROPER film releases befitting their cult status, and importance in US cinema, rather than 'something for the kids'.

In fact they could take a page out of Harry Potter's book, by releasing a version for the kids with garish cover and silly extra games on disc or something, and a proper version for film buffs (not JUST hardcore Star Wars films) with original cover design, historical press cuttings, press-kits, trailers, making ofs etc etc. The kind of thing we'd probably have by now if a company that really CARED about film history like Criterion or even the BFI released these films. These are some of THE most popular films of all time - I still remain stunned at the lack of imagination showed by Lucasfilm in marketing these films properly for the home DVD/Blu-Ray market. Time was they were at the cutting edge with their LD box set.....

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The Definitive Collection LD set was not exactly cutting edge compared to what Criterion was doing at the time, and had been doing since 1985.

The DC has about the most sparse commentary track ever conceived, and trailers that look like they were copied from bootleg VHS.

The packaging was cheap, and the sleeves split open ten minutes after you opened the box. The book on Lucas had already been on the market for a while, and was a double dip for some fans.

The technical goofs in this set are legendary, and the sub-par much hyped THX mastering is still haunting us to this day. ;)

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Actually, the DE was as good or better than most Criterion titles, and certainly was one of the better studio disks on the market. I'm not sure if your post is supposed to be ironic or what.

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One would think that someone would have realized the selling point of including restored HD transfers of the original theatrical films, even if only studying the intense positive reaction from BR and CEot3K.

Maybe the delay means that some actual quality control will be implemented...well I can dream can't I? It only took 11 years after the "one last time" release.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
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The first run of the Definitive Collection LD set had actually many technical problems initially but most of them was corrected later on and on the subsequent '95 THX re-release. They did at least listen to their customers back then.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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zombie84 said:

Actually, the DE was as good or better than most Criterion titles, and certainly was one of the better studio disks on the market. I'm not sure if your post is supposed to be ironic or what.

For $250 bucks, I felt a little ripped off. Criterion would have done it better. Your mileage may vary.

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Where were you in '77?

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Not all Criterion titles were equal though, don't forget. Some didn't even have extras, such as Rashomon (!).

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Anyways, GL must be a psychopath. 

That's probably why he made SW-as an elaborate, prolonged mass-torture device for decent people.

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Rebel1one1 said:

I just don't want to see the theatrical cut Avatar disappear when these new cuts are released. The original cut must always remain an option.  It all goes back to that quote Cameron said about Lucas... As long as Cameron doesn't disown the theatrical cut of Avatar he has a right to be critical of George's creative decisions.. 

There's no chance of that happening. Cameron has stated that the theatrical cut is the director's cut, it's his cut of the film. Any extended version, he's said will be "fan cuts", in that they're being extended purely so the fans can see more of the film.

 

Plus, he's done multiple versions of films before, and the original has never disappeared.

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I'm not quite understanding what all the Avatar talk is about. A good amount of movies have a director's cut released on DVD/Blu Ray... but never has there been a director's cut that digitally pastes new CGI into it or digitally shifts a character's head to dodge a laser that drastically changes his character. Usually, in a director's cut, the entire theatrical movie is still there, but with some additional scenes.

 

The OT is an entirely different beast. I don't think anyone (well, many) would be bitching about a theatrical version release if, say, Lucas released the OT with a bunch of deleted scenes restored and NOTHING MORE. It's the fact that the changes make the movies WORSE that we want the original version in high quality.

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Question about the capacity of the bluray disc and how that relates to the Star Wars movies, ie what could fit on each disc, how is that material divide up between discs.  (this is tangential to Zombie's Letter writing campaign, didn't want to muck up his thread just yet)

Starting with the wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc

These discs are either minimum 50gb but are upto 100gb versions.

A. is this 100gb version compatable with older bluray players? and is the 100gb currently being used for retail movies or is it more of a data disc?

B. If the 100gb is a retail movie format, how much video at high or very high quality would it hold.  The idea being could it house 2 full length versions of ANH plus the SE scenes?

According to: http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/#bluray_capacity_video


How much video can you fit on a Blu-ray disc?

Over 9 hours of high-definition (HD) video on a 50GB disc.

Now since everyone is a stickler for quality, if they went with a very high bit rate, would this half the time, so 4.5 hours?  Is that a good assessment?  That would be enough for what ever version George wants in full, the Theatrical (same quality) full, and the SE revised scenes, the score 35mm & 70mm, and a bunch of other variations.  So 6 disc of just movies, no commentaries, no cut-scenes etc.  An expanded set (announced before releasing this set) would compensate by including Documentaries, and other video material.

Or would it satisfy everyone if the OT theatrical was on a separate disc.  Three movies on one disc, or is this pushing the quality level?

How would everyone divide the material they want over 'x' number of discs.  I would expect that in all versions there's an easy way to purchase just the movies, since that's going to be their dominant sale.  But maybe there's an argument against that.