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Star Wars theatrical versions not coming in 2015 — Page 9

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Sadly I’m starting to think that absolute best case scenario would be some kind of 40th anniversary set, but even that is unlikely since it has been since the SE that we’ve gotten an anniversary set. I think that Disney would wait for Fox to lose distribution before allotting Lucasfilm any funds for a restoration so that the maximum profit is available, unless of course they negotiate rights sooner.

The Person in Question

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There is sure to be something big in 2027, as that will be the 50th anniversary.

However, I hope Disney will do the right thing and not wait that long. They could sell the OOT commercially as soon as 2020, when the ST is over and they own as much of the profit as they will ever own. Demand for the OOT would likely be higher circa 2020 than 2027 too.

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If Disney is the obstacle then I think Fox would be willing to negotiate in Disney’s favor because they’re running out of time to make money off of these movies. Unless Disney truly wants to get every single penny possible, I don’t understand why they would wait another 4 years to release the original versions. It’s tough to say what’ll happen. When a strange comment by John Landis is all we have to go by it isn’t a good sign that it’ll be released any time soon, especially since (after watching the footage of his comments) he does not make any mention of where he heard the news, contrary to Empire magazine’s statement that he heard it from Lucas himself.

The Person in Question

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You know the crazy thing is that I was kind of meh on The Force Awakens, it was just OK for me. And yet I went and watched it twice, both Friday night and Saturday night last weekend with my family.

I have never seen the OOT on the big screen. Ever.

If Disney released the OOT in theaters, I would probably go and watch each film at least 10 times. No joke.

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Alderaan said:

I don’t think the OOT will be released until the next decade, sometime after May 2020. Disney will wait until all of Fox’s distribution rights expire on the other movies, and they will simultaneously wait until the ST is over and dies down.

For me, this wouldn’t make sense. The distribution rights for Star Wars won’t go back to Disney, only for Empire and Jedi. If Disney wanted to piss off Fox by not sharing the money for the last two movies, why wouldn’t Fox simply prevent them from releasing Star Wars altogether? How could Disney release an OOT without the first movie?

Ceci n’est pas une signature.

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Frank your Majesty said:
For me, this wouldn’t make sense. The distribution rights for Star Wars won’t go back to Disney, only for Empire and Jedi. If Disney wanted to piss off Fox by not sharing the money for the last two movies, why wouldn’t Fox simply prevent them from releasing Star Wars altogether? How could Disney release an OOT without the first movie?

Well, the corollary is why would Fox refuse to do a deal after May 2020? We come back to the old argument they would likely never turn down free money. Sure Fox might want to do a deal now, but Disney (in their interest) tells them nah, they’re not interested at this time. After May 2020, Disney approaches Fox and says they are finally interested.

Of course FOX could say F*** you guys, but that’s not likely. Maybe they get 1/3 of what they would get now, but it’s still profit and I’m sure they would take it.

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I was more optimistic regarding an OOT release than anyone I know, but now that I’ve seen them ignore the obvious chance to release them in correlation with the new movie, I’m starting to lose hope. After re-checking John Landis’ comment, there’s no reason to think that anything he said is based on fact. It really just sounded like him referencing something he read online, or heard in passing. Right now I have no reason to believe that we’ll see the OOT in the near future. I hope I’m wrong though.

The Person in Question

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I came across a several month old theory regarding the future of the Star Wars trilogy that involves a new version of the Special Edition. Devin Faraci of Badass Digest - which isn’t necessarily a website I trust, but in this case I’m willing to entertain the possibility - stated in April that a new 4K version of Star Wars (A New Hope specifically) existed in which Han shoots first, claiming multiple sources from Disney. He also said on Twitter: “That 4k STAR WARS where Han shoots first? They also redid (but didn’t remove) the CG Jabba.” This may all be a big load of garbage and yellow journalism, but perhaps it’s true. This either means that they’re going to leave the SE behind and just bombard us with another round of revisionism, or perhaps we’ll get some big, expensive-ass box set along the lines of Blade Runner for the 40th anniversary that includes the all-important OOT! His rumour of the revamped 4K SE makes sense given that the CGI from previous Special Editions would have to be redone/reconstructed for 4K, but he also once said that Fox owned the OT and wouldn’t release the unaltered versions until Lucas died, and before that he claimed that the OOT would be released with TFA… Again, not necessarily the most trustworthy or consistent source all of the time. We’ll see I guess.

The Person in Question

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Re-doing the CGI Jabba is unacceptable. Everyone here already knows that though.

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Well of course it’s unacceptable if that is all that they release, I was just wondering that if this were true would they take advantage of the fact that a new version has been created to release some kind of Bladerunner=esque thing including at the least both unaltered and new versions or perhaps all versions

I know this subject has been discussed at length before, I just don’t recall that Faraci commentary and thought it might be interesting food for though

The Person in Question

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That supposed journalist who claimed to see a newly revised ANH last spring was full of crap. He said it was the upcoming digital release and then just slightly altered the lie when that turned out to be essentially the 2011. ‘Oh, right. It must have been the 4K then.’ Also quite possible that he saw a fanedit of some sort. From what he wrote, he was not the brightest crayon in the shed.

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Alderaan said:

Re-doing the CGI Jabba is unacceptable. Everyone here already knows that though.

The Jabba scene for me would be better as an extra on the DVD or BluRay, not as part of the film. Let alone the fact that most of the dialogue is in the Greedo scene, the CGI Jabba just looks bad no matter which version youre watching. The CGI would pass if the scene was an extra because it would just give people an idea of where Lucas would have gone if he had included the scene in the final film. But as inclusion in the final film, it just doesnt work IMO.

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crissrudd4554 said:

Alderaan said:

Re-doing the CGI Jabba is unacceptable. Everyone here already knows that though.

The Jabba scene for me would be better as an extra on the DVD or BluRay, not as part of the film. Let alone the fact that most of the dialogue is in the Greedo scene, the CGI Jabba just looks bad no matter which version youre watching. The CGI would pass if the scene was an extra because it would just give people an idea of where Lucas would have gone if he had included the scene in the final film. But as inclusion in the final film, it just doesnt work IMO.

That’s exactly what that scene needs to be.

It was quite fun in 1997, before there were DVD extras as we know them today. It was a neat way of getting to see some unused footage of Han Solo on the big screen, and I was all for it, regardless of the way Jabba looked.

I remember when I first got a DVD with seamless branching to deleted scenes (the first X-men), thinking that this would be a great way to present Star Wars. But no. George’s threats on the final OOT VHS release, stating that it would never be seen again, were not just a marketing gimmick. It was the mind boggling truth.

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It was the final release of the OOT on home media, up until they were released again in 2006. The GOUT was insulting, but it was a release of the unaltered films on DVD. Had he still stood by his belief that the original films should never be seen ever again and would eventually deteriorate with the VHS tapes, then he would not have released the GOUT.

Either way, Lucas’ opinions on the OOT can be discussed forever, but regarding the rumors spread by that man a few months ago, I don’t trust him either. I just thought that his comments sounded plausible and made sense given that if a 4K restoration of the SE would require reconstructing or redoing the CGI, and that maybe if they made a new version they’d take advantage of that opportunity to release a set including multiple versions of the films.

The Person in Question

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moviefreakedmind said:

It was the final release of the OOT on home media, up until they were released again in 2006. The GOUT was insulting, but it was a release of the unaltered films on DVD. Had he still stood by his belief that the original films should never be seen ever again and would eventually deteriorate with the VHS tapes, then he would not have released the GOUT.

I still believe he meant it in 1995, regardless of the fact that the GOUT ended up happening. That was a combination of pretending to cave to the demand for it and actually sabotaging perception of the quality of the OOT.

made sense given that if a 4K restoration of the SE would require reconstructing or redoing the CGI, and that maybe if they made a new version they’d take advantage of that opportunity to release a set including multiple versions of the films.

Agreed. There’s no straight forward path at all, given that a 4K 1997 edition would be seen as a strange move. So anything or everything are still potential outcomes as far as I’m concerned. But as far as Landis or other specific ‘leaks’, I doubt there’s any real information out there.

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It’s pretty much impossible to know for sure what George’s intent was by the time he sold Disney, especially since he claimed that the only reason the OUT wasn’t on the blu ray was because it was too expensive. Maybe it’s true that he just didn’t have time to restore the OUT because he was completely focused on making more changes. Regardless, my point wasn’t so much on the “leaks” themselves, but more the fact that because there is no straightforward path to restoring these films, then perhaps they will take the big project of restoring these films as the opportunity to release both the Special Edition (whether with updated 4K CGI or not) as well as the unaltered versions.

The Person in Question

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Someone a few years back offered to restore the originals for nothing. Lucas never responded. It obviously goes much deeper than ‘it costs too much money’.

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crissrudd4554 said:

Someone a few years back offered to restore the originals for nothing. Lucas never responded. It obviously goes much deeper than ‘it costs too much money’.

Well, that may have just been an easy cover statement rather than explaining that he just didn’t want to. But remember, nothing is free, while he may not have had to pay Robert A. Harris a salary, he would still have had to have funded the restoration and paid all of the other people who were working on the restoration. It also would consume his time as he would have no doubt supervised it, while simultaneously trying to supervise the other project that his changes were being added to. Maybe that’s the case, or maybe he did want it to never be seen again, who know? Now that he is gone however, that is irrelevant to whether it will be released now, which I think will either be when TFA comes out on blu-ray, or when the 40th anniversary happens alongside Episode VIII.

The Person in Question

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I cant imagine them coming out the same time TFA comes out on BluRay. I think that would be overshadowing but thats just me. 40th anniversary sounds logical but also thats the same year Episode VIII is supposed to come out so whether or not Disney and/or Fox wants a release of the OUT to be in the midst of that should be considered.

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moviefreakedmind said:

crissrudd4554 said:

Someone a few years back offered to restore the originals for nothing. Lucas never responded. It obviously goes much deeper than ‘it costs too much money’.

Well, that may have just been an easy cover statement rather than explaining that he just didn’t want to. But remember, nothing is free, while he may not have had to pay Robert A. Harris a salary, he would still have had to have funded the restoration and paid all of the other people who were working on the restoration. It also would consume his time as he would have no doubt supervised it, while simultaneously trying to supervise the other project that his changes were being added to. Maybe that’s the case, or maybe he did want it to never be seen again, who know? Now that he is gone however, that is irrelevant to whether it will be released now, which I think will either be when TFA comes out on blu-ray, or when the 40th anniversary happens alongside Episode VIII.

I firmly believe if the GOUT will be release in HD, it will happen on the 40th anniversary in two years right before Episode VIII

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moviefreakedmind said:

CatBus said:

“Because it makes good business sense” has been a valid argument since 1997. If anything, that argument is actually becoming less valid as time goes on, as the proportion of the Star Wars fanbase that has actually seen the Star Wars trilogy that started it all decreases.

It will always make good business sense. There always has been and always will be a market for the unaltered films. Things we infinitely smaller followings have received releases in the past. The producer’s cut of Halloween 6 was released on bluray recently as the selling point for the Halloween box set, and in 2013 the original mixes of ZZ Top’s studio albums were released on CD for the first time since before they had been altered with new percussion in the late 1980s. There really is a market for almost everything, but especially Star Wars. Despecialized Edition has proven that there is a market for the OT. Whether the fact that there is money to be made will motivate Lucasfilm to them releasing the films is yet to be seen, however.

Not sure we’re in disagreement. The original ZZ Top mixes may still have a market now, but it would have made more business sense to do it twenty years ago. If they held out another fifty years, would it have still made business sense then? I think our different attitudes come from our differing expectations of an official OOT release. If I’m reading you correctly, you seem to think it could happen in 5-10 years, while I tend to think the most likely official OOT release scenario is for the OOT copyrights to expire (still a hundred years out or more), so that some public domain media outfit like Laserlight will release it as a cheapo vintage classics collection. The length of the wait does impact the size of the audience, if the wait is long enough. I’m not saying an OOT release won’t make business sense even then, just that it’ll make considerably less sense than it would have a century earlier.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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CatBus said:

moviefreakedmind said:

CatBus said:

“Because it makes good business sense” has been a valid argument since 1997. If anything, that argument is actually becoming less valid as time goes on, as the proportion of the Star Wars fanbase that has actually seen the Star Wars trilogy that started it all decreases.

It will always make good business sense. There always has been and always will be a market for the unaltered films. Things we infinitely smaller followings have received releases in the past. The producer’s cut of Halloween 6 was released on bluray recently as the selling point for the Halloween box set, and in 2013 the original mixes of ZZ Top’s studio albums were released on CD for the first time since before they had been altered with new percussion in the late 1980s. There really is a market for almost everything, but especially Star Wars. Despecialized Edition has proven that there is a market for the OT. Whether the fact that there is money to be made will motivate Lucasfilm to them releasing the films is yet to be seen, however.

Not sure we’re in disagreement. The original ZZ Top mixes may still have a market now, but it would have made more business sense to do it twenty years ago. If they held out another fifty years, would it have still made business sense then? I think our different attitudes come from our differing expectations of an official OOT release. If I’m reading you correctly, you seem to think it could happen in 5-10 years, while I tend to think the most likely official OOT release scenario is for the OOT copyrights to expire (still a hundred years out or more), so that some public domain media outfit like Laserlight will release it as a cheapo vintage classics collection. The length of the wait does impact the size of the audience, if the wait is long enough. I’m not saying an OOT release won’t make business sense even then, just that it’ll make considerably less sense than it would have a century earlier.

I completely agree regarding the length of time. My thinking was mostly based on the notion that it will be released within the next few years, or at most the decade. In that sense, I don’t think it would have any less of a market now than it did then. Of course, once we get into multiple decades it is absolutely true that the market will naturally shrink. That being said, I just can’t see Disney thinking that it is really worth it to wait until 2020 to do anything with the existing Star Wars films. Especially passing up the 40th anniversary, but I guess Lucas did the same thing in 2007 so who knows at this point

The Person in Question

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I think with sites like these and fans acting together to preserve the original films to an extent also diminish the chances of a proper release. They figure ‘theyve found other ways to get what they want. Whats the use in releasing it?’ Now thats not me being critical of this site because at the same time i like to think that the more followers sites like these get will be enough to convince Disney and Lucasfilm that there will always be a growing fanbase and desire for the original cuts. But i agree if its not gonna happen within the next ten years theres really no point but i hope im wrong.

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If the Star Wars films were not released in any form then I would agree with the idea of fan preservations hurting the chances of a release, but the Despecialized Editions (amongst others) actually take sales, however minimal that number may be, away from the official releases of the Special Editions and especially any future release that does not include the OUT. I don’t think that sites such as this would do anything but prove the demand for the OT. Most people, or at least all that I’ve seen, have not claimed that they will not buy a release of the OUT because of Harmy’s work. They think of it as a way to watch the Star Wars Trilogy until an official blu ray is released. I would imagine they’d use a legitimate release of the OUT as a diplomatic way of shutting down popular fan projects.

The Person in Question

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I don’t Disney likes to leave money on the table.

Die hard audiophile Beatles fans actually preferred vinyl to digital transfers done by specific individuals with high end equipment over the early CD releases. (Which dated back to the 80’s) When the new remasters came out a few years ago, the consensus seemed to be the bootlegs could finally be retired.

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