CO said:

theprequelsrule said:

I wish this were true, but Lucas is a stubborn SOB. As I said in an earlier post he hates the OOT and will never release it. Even if sales were disappointing he would probably just say "fuck it" and move on to the TV series. We will not get the OOT until George is dead and the people who take over (and only care about money) release it. Book it.

Lucas is a stubborn SOB, but he is still a businessman. He can do all of this 'revisionism' shit simply because anything he has released for SW since 1997 has not disappointed when it comes to making money. Whatever you want to say about the PT, whatever you want to say about the 97 SE, whatever you want to say about the 2004 DVD's, they all did HUGE business and made him big profits. So there is no reason in his opinion to change, as he looks at us as just a niche community of complainers who wont ruin his bottom line.

Lucas did an interview with Charlie Rose in 2004, and it was a telling quote (I am paraphrasing), "Lucasfilm was having financial problems in the late 80's and my financial guys came to me in the early 90's and said if you do the PT, here is the projected revenue over the next 10 years. I had to make a decision at that point to either do the PT, or walk away from SW forever."

Don't ever get fooled by his vision bullshit, he is still a businessman first. His daughter even said it, "The complainers will bitch and complain, but in the end they will buy it." As long as that happens, Lucas can keep making the changes. A backlash only works when people follow through!

That was then, this is now. George is loaded (again). He does not need money. The correct business decision would be to satisfy as many customers as possible, while still maximizing proftis. Restoring the OOT would not be expensive (Zombie, Harmy and others can tell you why). So, I am left to conclude that not releasing the OOT is an artistic decision.