I get the sense, from what Mike Verta had to say on the matter, that the Disney execs don’t seem all that interested in a theatrical version release (hopefully that changes once they hear his pitch). So I’m not sure if they have anything in the works. But on the other hand, we do know that Lucasfilm requested a scan of a print from the Library of Congress. So…maybe they do have something in the works? I dunno. I feel like there’s a lot of mixed signals on the official end of things.
But my optimism is more with this site and the projects people are doing. Even if nothing is released officially, projects here and only getting better and better. If we think Despecialized looks good now, it’ll look even better after utilizing DrDre’s tools and cleaned up Silver Screen Edition scans (& perhaps Technicolor scans in the future?).
Didn’t Mike say that his 4K restoration cost about 100K? To me, this information should be enough to persuade Disney to either release the OUT or begin restoring it. It’ll cost Disney practically nothing to restore these films and they’d make total bank. With millions of hits on those OUT and Special Edition comparison videos, and also the popularity of the despecialized editions, I would find it hard to believe that Disney is unaware of the demand for these versions of the films. I have a feeling it has something to do it FOX still retaining rights until 2020. Maybe Disney wants all the monies
That’s just his personal investment, not price of labor. An official restoration would cost much more.