Broom Kid

RM4747 said:

I hope so, but if they were all being released at the same time, wouldn’t the announcement have mentioned Empire and Jedi too?

No, because they didn’t do that on the first announcement, either. They originally said it would be “Star Wars: A New Hope” and said the release date was April. And then months later they said it was the original theatrical version, and the release date is now February.

We’ve got over a year until the 50th anniversary year actually kicks off. They’ve been working on all three movies since 2022. They’re not going to work on all three movies and then artificially withhold the other two by years when the 50th is right there. They’re not gonna announce everything all at once. They will add to the 50th celebration every couple months, more than likely, with new details as to what that entails, the closer we get to it.

I don’t think they’re going to put all 3 in theaters at the same time.

It’s exactly what they did for the 20th Anniversary. And it was (surprisingly!) huge. People forget now but the Special Edition wasn’t expected to do THAT much business. There’s no reason to think they won’t do it for the 50th Anniversary. It maybe won’t do AS much business now (nothing does, audiences have been steadily declining at the theaters SINCE the 90s, really) but I feel like people are going “there’s no way they’ll do that, they’ll milk it” more out of cynicism/skepticism nurtured over years and years, rather than looking at what they’ve been doing with all three movies basically SINCE they became a Trilogy in the 80s.

edit: I remain astounded at how NATURAL the colors look, especially on Star Wars. Every new leak shows just how striking the photography was on that movie.

I feel like it’s exceedingly likely they’re going to run back the 1997 Special Edition (20th Anniversary) release schedule. They’ll have a whole year of stuff. Theatrical releases in the spring, Starfighter in the summer, Merch/Streaming/Home Video in the fall, in time for the holidays.

They’re not going to stretch out Empire and Jedi on three year (or even one year) waits per movie. They already know that with each movie release the receipts for the trilogy decrease. That’s what happened in 1997, too. These movies are 40-50 yrs old. People aren’t going to wait on them to come out in yearly installments again. There is basically no anticipation for “what happens next” that makes such a thing feasible anymore. They’ve been consuming them AS a trilogy for about as long as it’s BEEN a trilogy.

They moved the release date of Star Wars’ re-release up from April to February 19th. That’s very likely because they’re making room for Empire and Jedi to squeeze in before Starfighter opens. And if they’re doing that, they’re 100% going to have a UHD/Blu-ray release and streaming drops on that same schedule.

My only real question is about the soundtracks. I really want to believe Mike Matessino and Neil S. Bulk (he used to visit here!) have been working on the glory-hallelujah blowout 9-film expanded/remastered set of all Williams’ scores.

But it’s December 2025. This isn’t really happening until February 2027. We got time for all those announcements to come out (or the evidence of their existence to leak, LOL)

You should see it!

Giant wormlady is very paperback vibes, but the section of the movie she was in unfortunately was very cuttable.

and thanks so much, Faelin, for giving it a shot! I’m glad you dug it!

oojason said:

Felling pretty good, mate. 🍺🍺
 

It only took 8306 days (March 10, 2003 - December 5, 2025) before the goal of the site was a confirmed achievement.

8306 days man. That’s 22 years, 8 months, and 25 days. Site’s gone through a lot of permutations in that time.

How we feelin, boys & girls?

Well, it took 8,306 days (March 10 2003 - December 5 2025) but this site’s goal has been finally confirmed.

How’s that feeling, folks?

It’ll come to streaming & UHD.

God the timing on this is just mwah - chef’s kiss.

Vladius said:
I don’t have a dog in this fight

It was never a fight

Also please never use the phrase “media literacy” ever again.

huh.

edit: Will never get over just how sunburnt those blu-rays were. Carrie Fisher almost looks like she got shot in the shoulder.

Nobody tell this dude anything til he pays you five bucks

So what I’m reading is, you paid him to find out behind the scenes info.

He doesn’t know anything more than what you could have got here for free months ago. So what you paid for was embellishment and bad conjecture - and about four separate reminders that he’s got “contacts.” I’m not mad you posted it here. I’m not mad, period. I thought it was a good opportunity to point out what he was actually doing. Think of it as an object lesson in media literacy

Nobody is forcing you to keep vouching for and defending that position. You don’t have to keep doing so, and by doing so, force yourself into making contradictory statements with every quote. You’re just choosing to do it.

None of this is hostile. I can see why it’d be frustrating to someone who wants to keep doing something despite it not going the way they’d like, but that frustration is also a choice.

RM4747 said:

I’m honestly not that interested in the behind the scenes work lol,

You pay Bill Hunt a monthly fee to spoon soft-serve-bullshit into your eyes.

That Patreon post just reeks of B.H’s brand of B.S. It’s pretty clear through the way he’s writing that he “found out about this” the same way everyone else did - via the initial leaks that first happened on the YouTube. Someone musta shot him those details on the low (of course they did, rule #1 of having a secret is telling someone you’re not supposed to).

Everything else in that post is… I don’t know that he’s just making stuff up whole-cloth, but he’s definitely embellishing a great deal on what happened and when it happened. I think he’s simply betting that nobody who is paying him money to talk about home video in 2025 is going to either know, or be in a position to know, that he’s fluffing himself, LOL.

But the big tell is that he seems to have no real idea what the timeline on this was, and keeps talking about it like it’s way more recent than it really was. The whole bit about him tying all this together in his mind (a regular Pepe Silvia here) upon hearing about the BFI screening is the giveaway. He seems to legit believe that screening and this restoration (which began YEARS AGO) are inexorably linked, and that the former is key to the latter.

He’s laying out a line of bull for people who value the idea of being an insider so much they’re willing to pay him a monthly fee to feel like they have a friend in the industry (he takes care to spell out how connected he is, don’t he). He doesn’t know any more than anyone that’s been keyed into this leak from the beginning. But there’s worth in convincing people he does, so he’s going to do that.

I’ll give him this, he’s done a really good job at parlaying being “the face” of DVD collecting in its heyday into an ongoing hustle all the way into the UHD era. He’s ridden the decline of physical media as well as any of his peers ever did. But if you gotta dedicate 3-4 paragraphs to reminding people that you know people, it’s doing the opposite of what you want it to do. These aren’t the days where bonus feature teasers got Hall-H panels by themselves, and it hasn’t been that for a decade.

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

I don’t think Lowry “messed them up”. The DVDs and BDs almost certainly looked as George wanted them.

I’d be surprised if LF doesn’t have an actuate color reference in their archives.

IIRC one of the interview documents that came out specifies that they’re using at least two different references. I believe they have an answer print for each film and even a screening print to check against? I’m not 100% on that though

It’s too many examples of stuff not present in any other version, with detail not in any other version, with framing unlike any other version, for people to still be pursuing the idea it’s a fan-hoax.

GET EM

Against my better judgment, clicked the link and found the thread and whaddya know: It’s literally the same 8 or 9 guys it always is, being the same Mandark-esque nudniks they always are, going as hard in the paint as they can to “prove” how much more they know to the other 10-12 almost-dilettantes watching them, who are all just waiting for their own chance to do the same thing. And about 2/3rds of the time, they’re completely wrong anyway, LOL.

Every now and again someone points out it’s this exact insecure antisocial behavior that has caused people who work in the industry to walk out of the THX-style prison and never come back, and within seconds they shrug and revert back to sucking the weird, vaguely angry pacifier they’ve been mouthing since 2011. I guarantee you they’re F5-ing this exact thread so they can “cleverly” rebut whatever’s been said in a way that does nothing but reinforce and embody every sad aspect of the misbehavior I’m describing.

edit: turns out yes, they were, and yes they are. That thread over there is now comparing people who post here to pedos, and making holocaust jokes. Top class spot!

At least a couple of them have the tiny measure of self-awareness available to notice basically every other online outlet for physical media recognizes they’re unpleasantly crazy and awful to interact with? It’s honestly kind of a miracle the larger site still allows the forums to exist, they’re clearly unneccessary at this point and considering their outsized reputation for nastiness, likely a detriment by now. It’s basically just a group home for tens of antisocial online “debate” addicts, with a couple hundred onlookers/bots milling around.

Can’t be a lot of money in that.

It’s been a locked room for almost 20 years now, and the people who got locked in all those decades ago frequently don’t know how to act anymore, LOL. If they ever did, considering when it was that the doors got nailed shut.

LOL, the folks over at blu-ray.com…

If someone does switch to a new source, make sure to watermark it with “blu-ray.com can kick rocks”

Between that place and myspleen, I can’t tell which one is most like the prison room in THX-1138.

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

Do we really think George cares? He did in fact release the OUT on disc, just lazily and cheaply. And he has approved screenings of OUT prints. I think it’s more he never wanted to spend the millions to restore them, given they’re not his preferred version. If someone else spends the money, which Disney appears to be, I doubt he’d care so long as his preferred versions also remain available.

This is it in one paragraph.

Mocata said:

Does woke mean anything these days? I use to think it was something do do with common sense being replaced by box ticking and messaging but it’s hard to say any more.

Woke is one of the more fun reappropriations of language to mean absolutely nothing that’s happened in quite awhile.

“Woke” (staying woke, being woke) was basically just slang for Black folks to keep their head on a swivel. “Stay Woke” was mostly just a slang term short for “keep your eyes open” or “pay attention” to danger in social situations. It most frequently got applied when it came to people trying to rob you (metaphorically or literally) but not being up-front about it. Know who you’re around, know what moves they’re likely to make to put you down and keep you there. Eventually it came to represent a larger societal idea (it didn’t take that long to encompass that meaning) where you see behind bad-faith arguments/definitions for societal progressivism, but that’s more or less the etymology of the term.

Once the social media era grabbed hold of it from its origin (which pre-dated social media by DECADES, btw) it got pretty quickly diluted by bad-actors looking to defang the phrase completely, until now it basically means “something a racist person thinks is ‘virtue signaling’ or worse, ‘reverse racism’ being unfairly perpetuated upon THEM”

It’s more or less a dogwhistle for conservative types to cry about things they don’t like personally. Has nothing to do with being “woke” at all anymore, it’s just kind of an all-purpose insult for anything the person calling it out deems beneath them in even a SLIGHTLY progressive manner.

It’s basically to the point now where its ONLY usage is either ironic, or full-blown ceding the redefinition of the term to acknowledge that the only real use of it comes from right-wing folks trying to use it like a scarlet letter.

JadedSkywalker said:
I liked Vader with the red lenses and don’t choke on your aspirations, that was very OT Vader.

Complete side-tangent: I know it’s a bit of a tiny kerfluffle regarding “the red lenses” on Vader (and he did have sort of darker amber/tinted lenses in Star Wars that often had a bit of a red hue when the lights hit them) and how Rogue One supposedly overdid it to some degree; but as someone who has cut a version of that movie and pixel-peeped QUITE a bit, a lot of the “red lenses” stuff is literally just red light IN the shot reflecting off the lenses, which otherwise still look mostly dark/black. The meeting with Krennic on Mustafar seems to be a scene that gets complained about heavily, but you can actually see the set lights casting a red glow on the scene and reflecting off the mask. It’s not that the lenses are red, it’s that there are orange/yellow/red lights bouncing off that plastic.

I believe the entire purpose of Driver pursuing Soderbergh (who then got Burns onboard) was primarily to investigate the idea of the character not being “redeemed” - Driver had initially signed on thinking that was the goal with the guy, and that had been reinforced by how The Last Jedi was done.

I don’t think they were trying to cement Kylo’s importance to the overall story, really. In fact, his being forcefully, clumsily shifted to hold almost the whole focus of the ST by the midway point of Rise of Skywalker is a huge reason it folds in on itself, dramatically - the movies start by pairing Rey and Finn as the co-leads, and then Rey takes center stage for the 2nd chapter, and instead of Finn & Rey coming together for the 3rd chapter, they backseated both of them for the sake of making Ben the hero/main character. Say what you will (I do, all the time, LOL) about Trevorrow’s skills as a creative, but at least his first couple whacks at the story recognized where The Last Jedi was pointing towards, and it was NOT a “redemption” for Kylo, and it was 100% at Finn leading some sort of uprising amongst the First Order (which is probably the only way the Resistance overcomes having almost no numbers).

This seemed to have been a story looking to pursue the original idea in a different framework. Kylo/Ben wouldn’t actually be prominent to that degree, he’d be hunted, and the clumsy, facile idea of “redemption” forced on him would be sidestepped for a more interesting examination of the character who actually IS too far gone.

Make it anime

Rip off Macross

Done.

Pretty interesting the Polygon article is clearly writing this thing because of the leaks, but doesn’t cite them (instead citing the now 10yrs old story about Edwards watching Star Wars as prep for Rogue One) - and makes sure to include this sentence

Yes, it’s 50 years old, and that original print probably wouldn’t look spectacular.

Which sucks! Gizmodo cites the Polygon story but manages to actually INFORM their readers as to why people are wondering about it (and doesn’t seem to just casually toss in the idea it’ll look bad by default, LOL)

oojason said:
They could be in indicator towards a physical media release (or large-scale internal archival project) - rather than just a DCP for a theatrical run for the 50th anniversary. I do hope we get to see some more of those kind of videos.

I think the dead giveaway this was always going to have some sort of physical release (whether it’s Disney doing it or they license it to a label like Criterion) - even before the official 50th announcement so early - is that they’re working on an Atmos mix next to the theatrical audio restorations.

I’ve heard the suggestions that it could be an internal archival project BUT an Atmos remix nulls all that out. You’d only be doing one of those if you’re planning on a big release, theatrical AND home, otherwise it wouldn’t make any sense to do at all.

FWIW - in my own bespoke edit of this movie for my Plex server (mostly made out of this edit to begin with, of course) I did keep his ghost out of the proceedings, LOL, while trying to rework the ending with diff. music choices and no dialog once she leaves the Falcon.

I dunno, maybe this would work/could work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN13Uvk3D-0