4K restoration on Star Wars — Page 19

CyberMonkeyBite said:

Hope Disney and Fox (who owns the first one) will get the message that so many fans have been saying over the years, we want the originals and put out new 4k scans on blu-rays and eventually Ultra HD in 10 years or whatever.  They seem to have gotten the message on what was wrong with the prequels, and are trying to make the fans happy with episode 7... hopefully they'll recognize the #1 way to make the older fans happy would be to put out the originals.  I also saw on lowry's reel the Abyss which has never made it past letterbox dvd, I'd be very excited to see a blu-ray of that film as well.

True Lies never made it past letterbox dvd either and Fox said both titles are due out on blu-ray this year since it's The Abyss' 25th anniversary and True Lies' 20th. They've kept absolutely quiet on it but a big announcement is expected at comic con this weekend. That will leave T2 as the only Cameron film without a new transfer (well, aside from Piranha 2). The Skynet Edition used the existing hd transfer and dnr'd it slightly, which looks less than great.

As for Disney and Star Wars, the cynical side of me wonders if Disney won't just keep holding off on releasing the unaltereds. As some guy from Wired magazine said in that Attack of the Show interview about the GOUT, "they're not gonna make the fans happy because the happy fan has everything he or she needs. They will kill the goose that laid the golden egg, they will cook it and they'll sell the bones on ebay."

The real nightmare scenario to me is Disney not even selling the OOT for us to physically own in any way, like on an actual physical blu-ray, but only as a download. I realize nothing lasts forever and that even my precious blu-rays will eventually rot away, but I'm shocked to see these cable companies saying you can "own" a movie when, to my knowledge, you're not even downloading/saving anything.

There's also the situation with Fox to consider. Disney could do one of two things. They could just release whatever they want to release (brand new SE, restored OOT, etc) and just let Fox have their distribution cut, which would be no different from when LfL was still its own company and still got the lion's share of the profits from any Fox-released Star Wars stuff. Or they could sit down with Fox and hammer out some kind of deal (I'd love it if this resulted in the Fox logo at the front of Episodes 7, 8 and 9 but I'm not holding my breath).

Even if they waited until 2020 to re-release anything at all, they'd still have to make a deal over the original '77 film. That's why they might as well just make a deal right now before the blitzkrieg of Episode VII happens.

Then there's this footage in RMW's reel....

What I suspect is in the works is a final 4k master of George's preferred version of the movies. Some of the changes from '04 and '11 are probably being redone, but I wouldn't be surprised if Kathleen Kennedy sat down with George and said "okay, if you had to settle on a final version for all time, are you sure these are the changes you really want to make?" Let's not forget, the scream was added to Luke's fall in Cloud City in '97 and then removed in '04

This really does feel like Blade Runner, with various parties fighting over legal ownership, fans wanting every version to choose from, and the creative force at the center of it all trying to make the movie the way he wants it.

I would think Kathleen Kennedy, being the good friend of George that she is, would want to work with him on creating a final version of the SE, while hopefully also being the voice of reason regarding the changes. Just putting the OOT out there, just by itself, would kinda send the message that the altered versions have been "de-canonized" as it were. I'd absolutely love it if the OOT was given equal 4k treatment, but even if that happens it'll probably be packaged with the SE.

I doubt Lucas cares about a final version anymore. He seems to have wiped his hands of anything Star Wars at this point. And I doubt Kennedy would feel any need to reach out to him. Decanonizing the SE is probably what every wants, though I don't think releasing the OOT on Blu-ray would send that message. Let's not forget the SE is already on Blu-ray. Releasing the OOT would seem like a supplemental release.

moviefreakedmind said:

I don't think canon as far as SE's go is a concern, I don't think anyone is worried about whether or not it is canon that CGI green dinosaurs walk in front of the screen in Star Wars.

What about Boba's voice (affects who plays Boba in spin-offs), galaxy-wide celebrations (effects whether or not the Empire appears in anything set after ROTJ), and Christensen as Anakin's ghost (affects who plays Anakin's ghost in the future)?

moviefreakedmind said:

I honestly don't think ANYONE (fans or not) would care if they just got the OOT and not the SE.

I would like to see the 97 SEs. 

doubleofive said:

Fang Zei said:

Let's not forget, the scream was added to Luke's fall in Cloud City in '97 and then removed in '04

I've heard that Matthew Wood actually removed the scream and when he told Lucas, he shrugged and said "OK".

I could see Vader saying no (in ROTJ) and Greedo shooting first going the way of Luke's scream.

What about them?

Also, 97 SE's wouldn't get you Boba's laughable Australian accent.  BTW, just because he's a clone doesn't necessarily mean he'd talk with the same accent as Jango, would it?  Isn't that more about upbringing?

yoda-sama said:

What about them?

Didn't I put in parentheses why each of the three things I listed matters?

My point with the Boba voice is that if Morrison's Boba voice is canon, Morrison has to play Boba in spin-offs, but if Wingreen's Boba voice is canon, the spin-offs have the freedom of deciding who plays Boba and whether or not OT Boba and PT Boba are the same person.

But wait. If Boba was raised by Jango for the first eleven years of his life, wouldn't that give him the accent too?

DominicCobb said:

But wait. If Boba was raised by Jango for the first eleven years of his life, wouldn't that give him the accent too?

Maybe Boba decided that he didn't like Jango's accent.

darklordoftech said:

moviefreakedmind said:

I don't think canon as far as SE's go is a concern, I don't think anyone is worried about whether or not it is canon that CGI green dinosaurs walk in front of the screen in Star Wars.

What about Boba's voice (affects who plays Boba in spin-offs), galaxy-wide celebrations (effects whether or not the Empire appears in anything set after ROTJ), and Christensen as Anakin's ghost (affects who plays Anakin's ghost in the future)?

moviefreakedmind said:

I honestly don't think ANYONE (fans or not) would care if they just got the OOT and not the SE.

I would like to see the 97 SEs. 

Boba's voice is the only potential issue as far as I can see. The galactic celebration could still be happening off screen in the unaltered version for all we know. As for Anakin's ghost, I highly doubt he'll be written into any future movies. It would also ruin the idea of I-VI as "the tragedy of Darth Vader."

I'd also like to see the '97 SE remastered for blu-ray. It has historical value, it got a wide, record-breaking/setting theatrical release and the prints still play in theaters to this day. I certainly don't prefer it to the OOT, but it was the first time my generation got to see the OT on the big screen and I bet it's still the preferred version for a lot of them. Several of my friends told me how shocked they were (in a bad way) to get to the end of the RotJ dvd and see Hayden Christensen instead of Shaw.

Fang Zei said: I'd also like to see the '97 SE remastered for blu-ray. It has historical value, it got a wide, record-breaking/setting theatrical release and the prints still play in theaters to this day. I certainly don't prefer it to the OOT, but it was the first time my generation got to see the OT on the big screen and I bet it's still the preferred version for a lot of them. Several of my friends told me how shocked they were (in a bad way) to get to the end of the RotJ dvd and see Hayden Christensen instead of Shaw.

This is exactly how I feel. Furthermore, the '97 SE doesn't have the lightsaber problems of '04 and '11.

Lucas has said flat-out that Boba Fett died in ROTJ and will never come back.  So I don't see how which voice is canonical is actually being considered an impediment to how they can do follow up movies, the character is dead.

Firstly, I agree that revisiting Anakin's force-ghost would only serve to spoil "the tragedy of Darth Vader" arc of the first six films.  Going further with that, I don't think they would/should approach many other force-ghosts of recognizable characters (except maybe Yoda), since what are they supposed to do?  Bring in force-ghost Ewan McGregor for Obi-Wan?  It is starting to sound like the segment of "How Return of the Jedi Should Have Ended", where Anakin's force-ghost morphed into young Ani (never have been sure how to spell his shortened name, surely not the very feminine Annie) and horrified the other force-ghosts by squeaking out "Now that's what I call Pod-racing!".

And yes, all official versions of the films should be available, for historical reasons if nothing else.  Heck, it is fun to watch Lucas' decent into madness.

Oh, and darklordoftech, putting in parenthesis why you think SE changes matter doesn't mean they'll matter to me.  So I'll say again, what about them?

Actually, about Jango and Boba, in the PT did we ever really hear Jango talk with his mask on?  In the OOT, Boba only talks with his mask on, and sounds like his voice is modified a bit by the helmet.  If he didn't develop the silly accent (by not visiting the "down under" part of the galaxy?  You tell me), then it wouldn't be hard to explain the differences of Boba's helmet voice to Jango's non-helmet voice.

yoda-sama said:

Oh, and darklordoftech, putting in parenthesis why you think SE changes matter doesn't mean they'll matter to me.  So I'll say again, what about them?

Whether or not you agree with the opinion that I provided, it's a fact that I answered your question.

yoda-sama said:

Actually, about Jango and Boba, in the PT did we ever really hear Jango talk with his mask on?  In the OOT, Boba only talks with his mask on, and sounds like his voice is modified a bit by the helmet.  If he didn't develop the silly accent (by not visiting the "down under" part of the galaxy?  You tell me), then it wouldn't be hard to explain the differences of Boba's helmet voice to Jango's non-helmet voice.

Exactly! I hadn't even thought of how the helmet would change a person's voice. To me it was just entirely plausible that the OOT version was how Boba's voice naturally sounded, even without the helmet, and that his voice box might've been injured in a fight or something.

yoda-sama said:

Lucas has said flat-out that Boba Fett died in ROTJ and will never come back.

Oh, you didn't hear?

http://www.slashfilm.com/boba-fett-lives/

That doesn't hold the weight you're expecting it to.  The lack of the "director edition" of the first Star Trek movie wasn't about creative choice or going back and righting a wrong (the director edition actually tried--and did well--to complete effects and make the movie more coherent, all of which was caused by studio meddling at the film's original release.  There weren't many complaints about that being the only version available on DVD) (Wrath of Khan is the only other one you could be referring to as having a director's cut on DVD, but it also had a theatrical DVD).  The only reason they were released on Blu-ray as they were was for technical and financial reasons.  The director edition of The Motion Picture was done entirely to SD elements and would have to be redone from scratch for an HD master (much like the 2004 and 2011 Star Wars SE's changes would have to be redone if a 4K transfer of the 97SE conformed o-neg exists), so as to pop the movies out quickly and cheaply to Blu-ray, they just scanned existing elements (didn't even clean up dirt and scratches much).  Don't be surprised if they put out new editions sometime down the road.

@darklordoftech  I'm not trying to argue that you didn't answer the question, I'm just sarcastically pointing out that what you say are reasons to keep SE changes don't necessarily hold as much weight to others.  I particularly don't see any need to keep any SE changes, and if something in the PT clashes with OOT, then the PT should be changed, and then maybe it would be less shitty in the process.