SDCC news - OUT "quite likely" on Blu-ray — Page 7

^ Good point. These days fan word of mouth can really boost or fatally damage a film. Disney would score so many brownie points if they got the Theatrical OT out before EpVII drops. Turning sceptics into Disney fanboys/girls... that's cash money right there.

Ryan McAvoy said:
These days fan word of mouth can really boost or fatally damage a film.

Mielr said:

 

Ryan McAvoy said:
These days fan word of mouth can really boost or fatally damage a film.

Makes me think of "The Lone Ranger." Depp is blaming the critics' reviews for the film's failure and Disney has lost an estimated $190 million.

They can make some of that back with a proper OOT release. ;-)

 

What bugs me is that whenever a badly reviewed film like all of the Transformers movies does well, the studios and producers go "Bah! Stupid critics! They don't know anything!" But then when a film that got bad reviews bombs they say it wouldn't have if it hadn't gotten bad reviews. I can't work both ways guys. The Lone Ranger might've been an interesting movie if Verbinski has actually decided which one he wanted to make. It bounced from shockingly violent Peckinpah-esque deconstruction to knockabout slapstick. And it was way, way, way, way too long. The Lone Ranger and John Carter of Mars (I will not remove the "of Mars" from the title, even if Disney does) both counted as big bombs. I'm hoping that'd contribute to a desire to release the OOT, but we'll see.

Fang Zei said:

How appropriate that the youtube commenter put DVD in all caps. Yes, it was released on dvd, which unfortunately allows for quite a range of quality (the GOUT, for example, was an IVTC'd laserdisc master). But we still don't have the original versions on blu-ray, do we?

Mike O, there's nothing to stop Disney and Fox from working out a deal right now. They need not wait until 2020. It's only the distribution rights, anyway. If Disney didn't mind seeing a small portion of those blu-ray sales going to Fox, they could release the damn thing right now. The only real problem is the distribution rights to the '77 film are apparently Fox's FOREVER. I guess maybe that's something dating back to 1977 that didn't change when they voluntarily handed the film back over to Lucas in the mid-90's.

Yeah, theoretically no, but it'll depend on how much they're willing to share and build bridges. And with this much money on the line, I'm wondering if they'd be willing to do it. But we're talking about the dealing of multibilliondollar corporations too, I'm sure there's plenty going on that we don't know.

Fang Zei said:

DominicCobb said:

I think the sooner someone asks LFL about their position on the OUT at this time the better. No doubt they have a position, so it'd be great to know for sure what it is. And to make it clear there are still people out here that want to see these movies.

Indeed it's surprising we haven't heard anything yet. It's been the better part of a year since the Disney deal. Maybe the plans for the OOT haven't been finalized yet and they don't want to say anything until making the grand announcement.

Or maybe nothing is happening and this is all just speculation, which is far more likely.

Fang Zei said:

Anyway, I was convinced George was eventually gonna get around to restoring the OOT someday. Didn't he make some comment at Celebration Europe about how it was still "too expensive" to restore the original versions? That right there pretty much sealed it for me: it was about money. All the Disney deal did was make it that much more of a sure thing, and pretty much guarantee it would happen sooner.

No offense but I honestly don't know if you're just playing dumb or if you genuinely bought that excuse. This was the film that practically made the company.

"Too expensive" said the billionaire who has basically declined a fully-paid-for preservation of the existing materials in the past.

"Too expensive" said the billionaire who never answered to film historian and preservationist Robert A. Harris offer doing it for free back in 2006.

This is a guy who doesn't want his original films restored and preserved, it's that easy. Of course there is time and expense needed for it to happen but when the mogul of a multi-billion dollar company like LFL lament such a thing as being too costly, you don't need to be Einstein to get what he says is just a really bad excuse. And that without even knowing about all the facts surrounding his revisionism crusade for the last two decades.

I mean this is the same guy who apparently had written into his contract with Fox, stating that any prints of the original film that are found must be hunted down and destroyed. Do you think LFL provided The National Film Registry with a 1980 print of The Empire Strikes Back when it was selected for preservation in The Library of Congress three years ago? I think Irvin Kershner would have liked the idea...

LucasFilm didn't fund the "restoration" back in '96, it was all funded by Fox. Maybe it's time LFL lift their fingers and give something back to its devoted fans that really should have jumped ship a long time ago after all the kicking in the nuts. If not for that, do it for American film history.

lightspeed2112 said:

But didn't George say that the originals were "destroyed" while making the Special Editions, so they couldn't be released even if he wanted to? Would this not make him out to be a liar then?

IIRC, Robert A. Harris mentioned years ago that the actual original cut negative wasn't altered (it was disassembled, cleaned up and reassembled). A new duplicate negative was what all the work was done on preparing Star Wars for the Special Edition. Everything else is just horror stories made up to conveniently make it seem like a restoration is somehow impossible.

No, I'm pretty sure that was what RAH said, but it may only be what he assumed as it would be the reasonable thing to do.

But yeah, reading that American Cinematographer article again it certainly sounds like they actually did directly alter the O-neg. The horror... whatever the case is, restoring and preserving Star Wars and its sequels is not an impossible task if only there's will, the money and expertise exist.

Is Harris' offer still open? Could Disney hire him if they're working on the hypothetical restorations? Will they? If what is being suggested is true (OOT footage was dumped, the rest was restored), then it sounds line there'd be a lot less restoration to do. But that sounds too good to be true, and that's if Disney is interested in a restoration.