4K restoration on Star Wars — Page 34

The bit about the sources is suspect for me. But then again anything regarding the OT gets taken by me with many grains of salt.

Here's hoping, but in the meantime no blue milk is being spilled.

SilverWook said:

Coppola did have the Apocalypse Now neg cut to make Redux though?

I don't think so, but he then had the new prints made with a digital soundtrack and printed in Tech IB's limited revival. Then for all successive video masters, one was generated from this 2001 project and for seamless branching merely conformed to the 1979 original cut.

I don't mind the 2001 process, but I do mind the subsequent ignoring of the original film that is a masterpiece both with it's original look, feel and innovative split surround Dolby mix.

And also, I find it interesting about the reports of OOT prints still being circulated in 1993 or so and then being pulled, with the same people complaining of the SE prints being very contrasty and disappointing in comparison to the prints that had still been in circulation a few years prior.

I still don't believe the "originals are destroyed" mantra, and if worse came to worse the materials prepared for the SE would have been the best available elements in 1995 or so, and be the most suitable for a new presentation of the OOT.

gizzy2000 said:

JT 1138 said:

I suspect that the rumors are true, especially with this 4K restoration.  It's too bad that it appears there won't be time for a theatrical re-release of the OUT before episode 7.  That would be so much fun, leading into the new trilogy.

Also makes me wonder what will happen to the other SE's if this is true.  Are they stuck in their current quality or would Disney go through the trouble of recreating it using their new scans?  Not that I really care.  I'd like to just have the OUT and '97 versions.

Disney definitely won't waste time and money re-adding all the special edition CGI in 4k. I'm sure they'll restore the OT in 4k because, come on, it's Star Wars, but I see no reason as to why they'd waste time recreating terrible looking to begin with CGI, especially since 50% of people don't care and will buy it anyway, 40% of people put up with the SE's but wish they didn't have to, and 9% of people will not re-buy anything Star Wars unless the OUT is included. I think the Special Editions are stuck at their current quality since they've already had a blu ray release, I only wonder if the SE's will be included alongside the OUT if this is true. 

I think for now, IF they do release the OUT, we will be getting both versions, although it is possible that they'll start phasing out the SE like what happened to Spielberg's ET special edition.

It would be ironic and somehow fitting if the originals were fully restored from the O-neg in glorious 4K and brought back into the spotlight, while the “superior” Special Editions were stuck at 2K resolution because of the limitations of the technology used at the time.

I’d love to see the SE’s 20 year reign of terror end as it fades away into just a curious footnote in film history.

https://games.yahoo.com/news/original-star-wars-trilogy-unaltered-002200388.html

the rumour got picked up by a yahoo poster. Even if the rumour is untrue it's still great that it's getting so much attention. Gizzy2000, I'm sure you will be overjoyed to find out that the Badass Digest article you loved so much is referred to in the Yahoo article :p

I guess the Yahoo blogger (or whatever he is) didn't want people to get their hopes up either, but I also wish they wouldn't have cited an article written by a clueless internet blogger. Then again, that's probably what the comicbook.com article is...

Bobocop said:

It would be ironic and somehow fitting if the originals were fully restored from the O-neg in glorious 4K and brought back into the spotlight, while the "superior" Special Editions were stuck at 2K resolution because of the limitations of the technology used at the time.

I'd love to the the SE's 20 year reign of terror end as it fades away into just a curious footnote in film history.

The only release labelled as Special Edition was the 1997. That release got pretty much the least care of all releases. The Special Edition is not stuck at 2K but rather in LD format.

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/star-wars/31751/original-cuts-of-star-wars-reportedly-heading-to-blu-ray

These are all coming from the same source, well, lack of source. At this point, I won't believe anything that doesn't come directly from StarWars.com.

doubleofive said:

These are all coming from the same source, well, lack of source. At this point, I won't believe anything that doesn't come directly from StarWars.com.

 A very reliable source named KenralyShadow told me that in the new 4K-sourced SuperSpecial Editions, Luke's hand will be shown falling out of Cloud City and landing on a passing freighter which then carries it into space. Later, when Vader loses his hand, it will fall past the DSII reactor, land on the Falcon as it passes through, and be carried away from the explosion safely. When Lando takes the Falcon in towards the Forest Moon, the hand will fall off and drift away into space. After the dancing celebration, we'll see Vader's hand bump into Luke's hand. The two hands clasp and float away into the void, which is right where we'll find them when SW7 opens.

At least the final shot of ROTJ won't be the happy clappy group photo anymore!

JT 1138 said:

imperialscum said:

Bobocop said:

It would be ironic and somehow fitting if the originals were fully restored from the O-neg in glorious 4K and brought back into the spotlight, while the "superior" Special Editions were stuck at 2K resolution because of the limitations of the technology used at the time.

I'd love to the the SE's 20 year reign of terror end as it fades away into just a curious footnote in film history.

The only release labelled as Special Edition was the 1997. That release got pretty much the least care of all releases. The Special Edition is not stuck at 2K but rather in LD format.

It may not be technically accurate, but it seems like most folks refer to the '04 and '11 editions as the SE's. 

Just because most do it wrong, doesn't make it right.

imperialscum said:

JT 1138 said:

imperialscum said:

Bobocop said:

It would be ironic and somehow fitting if the originals were fully restored from the O-neg in glorious 4K and brought back into the spotlight, while the "superior" Special Editions were stuck at 2K resolution because of the limitations of the technology used at the time.

I'd love to the the SE's 20 year reign of terror end as it fades away into just a curious footnote in film history.

The only release labelled as Special Edition was the 1997. That release got pretty much the least care of all releases. The Special Edition is not stuck at 2K but rather in LD format.

It may not be technically accurate, but it seems like most folks refer to the '04 and '11 editions as the SE's. 

Just because most do it wrong, doesn't make it right.

Actually, the only people I hear not refer to any post-97 release as the Special Edition are Lucasfilm reps (at least when George was in charge) or TFNers who both referred to them as the """official""" versions of the films or the true versions or whatever. Just recently there was an Alec Guinness tribute where they were screening all of his most famous films, and they had a disclaimer saying that it was the "special edition" of Star Wars, same with the Plaza Atlanta about a month ago. I'm glad the current versions are referred to as the Special Edition so that people who don't care won't forget that there is in fact an original version.

I think we should start calling it the "Special" Edition.

So, this means that if RMW is doing this 4K restoration, they have to restore the unaltered scenes of Mos Eisley, Yavin, Death Star, etc. etc. and then go back in and recreate all the lame CGI?

Oh ok, thanks. Something that I haven't really seen addressed is would Disney be willing to recreate that CGI that was updated in the 04 Special Edition? The more I think about it I'm starting to wonder if Lucasfilm would be willing to put the time into doing that for a version of the movie that people either just put up with, or outright hate, so I'm starting to think that if we get a 4K blu ray release we might just be getting the OUT restored. If they do recreate the future changes is there any reason why they would re-add changes that are literally universally hated, like Hayden in Jedi or the Darth Vader, "NOOOO"? Also, would they recreate the cheap looking CGI Jabba (the 04 version is pretty bad too) or would they try to make it look better? The more I think about it, assuming this 4K thing is happening, I just don't see them giving such a treatment to something like the Special Edition, a thing that 99% of people don't like or don't care about. I would love to think that the Special Edition is just going to stay at its current condition, or maybe even be phased out like ET's special edition, but maybe I'm being overly optimistic. 

moviefreakedmind said:

So, this means that if RMW is doing this 4K restoration, they have to restore the unaltered scenes of Mos Eisley, Yavin, Death Star, etc. etc. and then go back in and recreate all the lame CGI?

 That would be the best method (rescan the negative and it will still be upscaled 2k. You think the Star Trek TNG blu-rays settled for upscaled 480i special effects?), but they don't have to recreate it to look as bad as it did before

Unfortunately, there are many special editions changes that I liked. I thought that the new death star battle was an improvement over the old one, and the new audio cues for the empire strikes back star destroyer scenes are an improvement over the original, which seemed lazy and incomplete (listen to the imperial march as it was played in the scene where captain needa heads to the executor and the scene right before we see the bounty hunters and compare it with the special edition from the original.) The only parts of the ROTJ special editions were the cleaned effects. I can tolerate the rancor beak, but I didn't care for the new celebration scenes and I hated jedi rocks (to be fair, the song isn't horrible. It fit pretty well in Star Wars Battlefront 2's Jedi assault mode IMO, but seeing Sy Snootles lips almost swallow the camera and the endor guy opening his big mouth turned me off. I'd hate to see that scene in 3d xD. Even if those parts weren't a problem, the cgi doesn't blend well with jabbas palace full of muppets...).

TL:DR A few of the changes of the ANH and ESB special editions are improvements, so I'd hate to see them go.

IMO they should release both the OUT and a new SE with redone CG effects which fit the source material better and don't look as dated as the original special editions. There should also be a toggle so you could pick how you want your star wars to look without resorting to fan edits (OUT "look sir droids", shortened SE "look sir droids", original SE "look sir droids"; no jabba, human jabba, 1997 jabba, 2004 jabba, maybe a new jabba?; etc.)

edit: one more point. If the new emperor scene from the 04 ESB and the Christenson Anakin ghost in the 04 ROTJ were recorded the same way AOTC and ROTS were (*cough* 1080p digital *cough*) then they will never be 4k, ever...

So, let me get this straight. This means that if Disney wants a true 4K restoration where everything is 4K, they'll only be able to do it to the unaltered footage? Unless they want to make their own SE CGI, right?

I don't think we'll ever be rid of the SE. It's seeped into Star Wars like a grape soda stain in shag carpet