Star Wars coming to Blu Ray (UPDATE: August 30 2011, No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!) — Page 15

Octorox said:

“Releasing the originals is kind of an oxymoron because the quality of the original is not very good. You have to go through and do a whole restoration on it, and you have to do that digitally. It’s a very, very expensive process to do it. So when we did the transfer to digital, we only transferred really the upgraded version.”

Read more: Star Wars Blu-Ray Announced for Fall 2011, Deleted Scene Revealed | /Film http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/08/14/star-wars-blu-ray-announced-for-fall-2011-deleted-scene-revealed/#ixzz0wcpxnYMM

 

...meh

 Well guys, I am officially signing off from OT.com and SW in general.  For years, I wanted a quality release of the OOT, and I always came here in hopes that I get that news someday.

Well, Mr. Lucas is spewing the same bullshit for the last 10 years about the OOT, so I honestly don't care anymore.  It's a waste to even care about the OOT as I almost look at it now like a childhood friend who moved away.  The memories will always be there, but it's time to move on from SW.

Hmm, Bizarro world is interesting. So basically, it's going to take another year to not release the actual movies. I can't wait to not buy this.

Star Wars was restored in 1995-1997. It was paid for by Fox and cost about $20 million of their dollars. Lucas doesnt know what the fuck he is talking about. The restoration is already done and it didn't cost him a dime, he would hardly have to do anything at all. The only thing you would have to do is repair the missing 5% of the film to un-SE it and then colour time the transfer properly. If he wanted to go further he could start doing further dirt removal, but they didn't do that for 1997 and it looked bloody good then.

Its basically only a little bit more work than a straight transfer of the film.

How do we know this is going to be the '04 version, though? It could be a new SE with updated effects.

Lord knows the '97 CGI is starting to look dated.

I'm with you, CO. Although it doesn't matter to GL that old-timer fans really dislike/hate what's happened to the OOT over the years. The next generation is eating the new Star Wars stuff up in droves.

This Blu-ray news is the worst yet, though. GL is so full of shit about the state of the original movies, the negatives, blah blah blah... Lucasfilm could easily release the OOT is HD with little effort, but they simply refuse to.

Unless GL dies and someone (not Rick McCallum) steps in to take over with a clear head and actually listens to the long-time fans, nothing will change.

Nothing but extreme disappointment about this. Long live the HD bootlegs.

All hope is gone . R.I.P the original Star Wars Trilogy.

Going back to the James Cameron discussion a few pages back... I agree with him to a point, although just "dropping scenes in" can still change the overall movie to an extent. This happened with his Aliens SE; although on that occasion (on DVD at least) there was the branching option and the original (IMO, better) version was available to the viewer.

Also with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Director's Edition included a couple of new scenes which didn't really add anything to the already perfect movie (unfortunately, no branching option on that particular DVD).

But Lucas seems to be entirely driven by generating more and more profits for LFL at the expense of the original fans. The earlier reference to his embarrassment of the OOT is nothing more than a smokescreen for milking more dollars from SW. He's just a business man, not an artist.

Like CO, I've finally had enough of this nonsense too. Lucas has flipped the bird at the original films - the ones that MADE his Empire! - one too many times.

Lets face it, many people out there DO see us original fans as moaning constantly, and I'm just tired of the whole damn thing. Lucas has got his way. I don't hate the man but I have ZERO respect for him nowadays, and at the end of the day there's FAR more important causes in the world one should lobby for, but I'm severly disappointed that this businessman (I cannot call him a film maker any longer) who professess to be a film fan himself, and realises the importance of film restoration, can just be such an arse about releasing the originals.

He's a man who is still living off past glories and has an inflated view of his own talent. He's not getting any more cash from me. It's not ideal but the GOUT is going to be the go-to for me, along with Adywan's superb discs. On the subject of Ady he can - ina very short space of time - release a theatrical version of Empire which pisses ALL over the official releases. And yet Lucas cannot pony up for a similarly high quality release because of money?

Sigh. I've had enough of all this. Time to move on and to support releases by directors who DO care.

P.S. If anybody from Lucasfilm - or indeed anyone that knows the bearded one - happens to visit this site, it would be awsome if somebody had the balls to say to Lucas, "This (release) is wrong. These films were created via a LOT of talented people. Many of whom have had their work erased from the trilogy. The originals need to be preserved just to 1) show their place in history and 2) honor their work which helped make you a billionairre."

Nerfherder said:

Like CO, I've finally had enough of this nonsense too. Lucas has flipped the bird at the original films - the ones that MADE his Empire! - one too many times.

P.S. If anybody from Lucasfilm - or indeed anyone that knows the bearded one - happens to visit this site, it would be awsome if somebody had the balls to say to Lucas, "This (release) is wrong. These films were created via a LOT of talented people. Many of whom have had their work erased from the trilogy.

Yes, it was the originals and the original fans who made his LFL empire, and he just continues to give the big middle figure to both.

And since 1997, it's been a sore spot that the talented artists who worked their asses off to make the visual effects of the OOT get remembered and disrespected by having that work replaced with inferior CG effects and additional useless scenes.

Yep totally agree - it's all wrong, and very rude and disrespectful to those that contributed to the scenes that have since been cut/altered.

I wonder if The Wizard of Oz, or Jason and the Argonauts, or King Kong had their shots replaced by CGI, if people would be up in arms about it - as we are here - or if they'd just shrug and say it's still fundamentally the same film, get over it as many seem to do to Star Wars fans? It disturbs me that many seem to not care about preserving films AS THEY WERE SEEN originally, flaws and all, and attack those that complain that they want this.

It's all moot now anyways - I'm not going to wait for Lucas to get his head out his own backside. He could have given this to us next year if he really wanted - people are going to have to wait an entire year as it is, just to get the SE's! It's just madness - why the delay?! And we all know he probably WILL release the originals when he has run out of other Star Wars titbits to throw to the masses to continue his revenue of Lucash-dollars! Lets face it he's running out of ways to resell the same product to people now. Notice with the Special Edition blu-rays he's using deleted scenes to sell the set!!! The next release he'll have little choice but to include the originals. I also find it curious that for someone who seems to prefer the prequals, he is focusing on the "original" (or SE) films to kick-start the media announcement of the entire saga on blu-ray.

Another thing to consider; if he gave us the originals on blu-ray, I am 100% sure he couldn't resist tinkering with them in some way. I bet the colours would be screwed with, and he'd probably get rid of all traces of any matt boxes too. Or he'd have the sound remixed or something. I doubt we'd ever get a 100% exact reproduction of the film as it was...

It's all extremely sad and frustrating to those who genuinely love film, and like seeing a very important part of film history preserved as originally shown.

However, at the end of the day, they ARE just films. Life goes on. There's other things going on in the real world which are far more important. I'm done with wishing for Lucas to ever respect the original Star Wars movies, and fans...

Time to move on!

msycamore said:

Celebration V... it's ridiculous. What is it they celebrates on these events? That these important films cannot be properly watched anymore? It's sad but we all kind of knew this already, the only thing I'll spend money on is the coming Making of ESB book.

Listening to some of the crowd's responses in that clip I just had to shake my head - they'll clap at anything! Scarey.

The one heartening thing is that the original cast still get such a rapturous welcome. I doubt you'd get that to the same extent with the prequals. George must know this deep down I should think. It's just so bittersweet that this could be a true celebration of the original films for fans of either the theatrical vesions or the SEs, perhaps with a workprint thrown into the mix too - heck I'd be screaming and whooping it up then and we'd all be celebrating. A VERY big missed opportunity.

"That may have been one of the only non-SE things to happen at that event!"

True - I agree that clip was awsome and I probably would have applauded had I been there too. Perhaps - as a 37 year old - having seen the Trilogy that I loved for so many years be treated badly over the years, and then a series of lack-lustre prequals and all that, I'm just completely jaded and burned-out about anything Lucas related these days. Yes those clips will be amazing to see, but it will be bittersweet knowing they're on a disc with the SEs only.