Fang Zei said:
The new films are trying very consciously to recapture that OT feel. A release of the OOT by the time Ep9 hits theaters would only make sense.
Really ? Last time i’ve checked there was a CGI Falcon and a CGI main character in TFA. I’m not really convinced by the “OT feel” that would prove Disney’s gonna release the OOT. Mainstream audience watch the bluray and don’t complain about these versions.
What will they come up with to sell the 4k UHD release?
Well, the answer is in the question: the 4k UHD release will contain… 4k picture quality and awesome sound. This is enough to sell it.
Now the fact is that the original prints are still somewhere in Lucasfilm’s vault. Otherwise they can’t make a 4k release (ie a 8k restoration). Or else they can use the 1997 SE prints (it was released in theaters, I guess the definition of the print is higher than 2k, right ?), and then they would need to “refresh” every CGI special effect (Paramount did it with ST-TNG, Disney has the money to do so). But at this point, they will also need to change the colors to match Lucas canon version, so… hum… not sure the OOT would be given as a “bonus”, but at least there is a slight chance that the 1997 version ends up being in an anniversary boxset… which would still be a gift for DE edition since they are way closer to the original versions than the 2004/2011 releases are…
As a matter of fact, Disney once released a very shitty version of “Beauty and the beast” as well as an extended version of “Lion King”. But the original (and far better) versions have been released in bluray; the extended cut of “Lion King” is even nowhere to be seen in bluray I think (but a few minor alterations are still present if I remember correctly). Disney is not exactly “snow white” for its own video releases (“Song of the South” anyone ? Bad movie but I love the animated parts, still they don’t want to release it… like Lazy Lucas does not want to release the OOT in a proper way…), so I woulnd’t exactly count on their alleged “cinephilia” or “OT respect” to actually deliver the original cuts…
Difficult to see, the future is…