I find it interesting everyone keeps focusing on Lucas - as I pointed out a while ago though, the director of Empire (Irvin Kershner) has stated that he does not want to see changes to his film (interview here). This contradicts what Lucas said when he claimed that "I think it's the director's prerogative, not the studio's to go back and reinvent a movie" -link. With Lucas now out of the picture this should allow for at least Empire to be officially released the way that its director intended.