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Fang Zei

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14-Oct-2006
Last activity
9-Jul-2025
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Post
#274072
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/274072/action/topic#274072
Time
I think the "9-disc" part of the rumor is actually just pure speculation and a jumped-to conclusion on their part. It's funny the way you construe it as the 2-disc prequel sets plus the '04 OT discs, 'cause I was thinking something quite different. If it were nine discs, I'd think it would be the latest 2007 edition of the saga plus the 3 OOT movies fully remastered. If the Superman set was 14 discs and it could be sold for only 70 dollars, I don't see why LFL can't go all out and do at least 12 discs for the movies themselves plus any additional discs on top of that.
Post
#274055
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/274055/action/topic#274055
Time
Originally posted by: MeBeJedi
"this is the first time that something SW didn't sell well"

Actually, product merchandising for TPM was abysmal. Lucas complained that there was simply too much, and subsequently limited the licensing for AOTC.


Right, but I think what was meant is that it was the first time a home video release of Star Wars did not sell well, and even that I think is up for debate because as we've said the numbers pretty conclusively show that the GOUT sets sold well.

Lucas really is an attention whore when it comes to the OOT. I actually want to believe that he authorized the GOUT release not only to keep money flowing into LFL but also to keep people talking about him.
Post
#274045
Topic
It seems like nobody involved in the making of the Original Trilogy has spoken up about George Lucas’ oppression of the unaltered theatrical version of the OT.
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/274045/action/topic#274045
Time
that's interesting to find out

Kersh didn't really seem to care about the changes made to Empire since it wasn't changing the story so far as he saw it, but since that scream does pretty much change what happenned it's interesting to know that it might've been taken out for the '04 dvd at his behest.
Post
#274043
Topic
Lucas @ The Oscars
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/274043/action/topic#274043
Time
Originally posted by: ReverendBeastly
Originally posted by: Jumpman
If someone can give me a complete and logic answer to this question, I'll gladly change my mind....

Becuase they didn't have 30 years of cultural hindsight in 1978.


you beat me to it

Star Wars was something like no one had ever seen before, it was too new. Even The Return of the King, which is pretty much regarded as the first Fantasy movie of any kind to win the award, was the third movie of a trilogy. The previous two had already been nominated for best picture and both lost.
Post
#273917
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273917/action/topic#273917
Time
the way in which the theatrical LOTR dvd's were done would actually be my ideal treatment for the OOT. For each film, first disc is the movie in 16:9 enhanced widescreen and Dolby 5.1, with maybe a commentary or something since the movie isn't as long as an LOTR and hence doesn't take up as much space on the disc, and then the second disc would be all vintage documentaries, commercials, trailers, etc (then again, they already took care of the commercials and trailers on the '04 dvd). This wouldn't be hard to do at all, but LFL will probably drag this out as long as they can, selling us the "30th anniversary" stuff and the two tv shows before they bother to get around to it.
Post
#273905
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273905/action/topic#273905
Time
Originally posted by: Number20
But as someone has said earlier, nowhere has anything been promised.


that was me,

although thinking back on that, Lucas did say in an interview around the time of the 9/12 release "now we'll see" and "it'll all come out in the end." Maybe to him this is nothing more than a funny experiment even though, as I keep saying, there's no way he doesn't know about the huge demand for a good quality OOT release. LFL should just do a high-def transfer of the OOT and get it over with so they can keep revising the SE every few years to keep it "updated."

As someone said in either this thread or one of the others, the star wars trilogy is just one of countless other movies that are yet to see the light of day. Watching that youtube video that someone linked to earlier, the "real political face talk" one, THX-1138's original version hasn't been released on dvd either. What are the chances it ever will be?
Post
#273833
Topic
It seems like nobody involved in the making of the Original Trilogy has spoken up about George Lucas’ oppression of the unaltered theatrical version of the OT.
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273833/action/topic#273833
Time
I was just thinking about this exact thing yesterday. At the press junket for the '04 dvd, Kershner said "I don't know what he's talking about" in response to some guy asking what he thought about the SE. Kershner just said that the color was enhanced, the sound was enhanced, they added the snow monster and that was it, "it's the movie I made." Maybe it's just because special effects are special effects and he himself said that wasn't his department or forte. He's a humble director who realizes that there are other people involved in making the movie besides him, something Lucas doesn't have the biggest respect for.

Kershner obviously had Lucas's blessing to do the SE of Empire, but I don't think ROTJ's would have been as bad if Marquand had still been alive in '97.
Post
#273765
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273765/action/topic#273765
Time
Originally posted by: Jumpman
"please someone tell me what's prevented LFL over all these years from remastering the OUT."

Because, he didn't want to. The Special Edition is closer to what he wanted all along, from the beginning. He feels this is what HE wants to see out there in the general public when it comes to Star Wars.

Yes, but this was never preventing them from remastering the original versions.

Originally posted by: Jumpman
Also, this notion that Lucas won't or can't stop changing things is stupid. From '97 to '04, he didn't really change much at all. '97 was the year he changed and updated. '04 was the year he fixed the updates he made. I can pretty much guarantee that whenever the films are released again, the changes and updates will be very minimal compared to what he did in '97. It'll be fixing lightsaber colors, correcting matte lines, and another transfer. He'll do the most updating with the Prequels.

But Lucas' days of constantly redo the films is pretty much coming to an end....The scenario of what's going to be changed in this boxset has gotten way out of hand in the online community.


Were we discussing possible changes to the future boxset? No, we were discussing changes that have been made.
Post
#273722
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273722/action/topic#273722
Time
Well, we already knew the boxset was happenning. Now comes rumor that it just might not be happenning this year. To be perfectly honest, they didn't promise us a damn thing besides the '06 GOUT being the only time (as of now) that the original versions will be available. Is that a slap in the face to the fans? Of course it is, and it always will be. If they release a remastered OOT, we can put all of this behind us (that's exactly what people said when they announced the 9/12 release, back before the non-anamorphic news broke, ugh...) but it won't make the 9/12 release any less of a slap in the face. LFL has made their choice and they can't take it back.

I think a big problem is that while people care about seeing the OUT restored and remastered once and for all, they don't care enough about it. I mean, otherwise, wouldn't LFL have done it by now? Maybe there just aren't enough film fans out there and the general public really will just accept whatever LFL puts out. I think even if this rumor turns out to be true, LFL should announce the OOT's status one way or the other and do it soon, certainly no later than Celebration IV.
Post
#273702
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273702/action/topic#273702
Time
and that's pretty much how I felt back in '97 seeing the SE. It didn't feel like the same movie because it wasn't the same movie. The biggest way in which some fans have been duped is thinking that these movies are legally Lucas's. Guess what? ANH wasn't even his until the mid-90's. Star Wars '77 was a studio picture that Lucas directed. The sequels were legally Lucas's but he did not direct them. Eventually he got hold of the total rights to ANH...just in time to turn it into a different movie. Do you see what happenned here? Look at the end credits of Star Wars SE, it only says copyright 1997 LFL. So please, unless those rumors about Lucas's divorce settlement with Marcia are true, please someone tell me what's prevented LFL over all these years from remastering the OUT.
Post
#273683
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273683/action/topic#273683
Time
I absolutely agree, KM and Guy. This has only really been a problem so long as the movies have been on the dvd format. A theatrical re-release is one thing, that's not something you can actually take home and watch. When the SE's hit vhs later that year, they were just as limited as the previous OOT vhs releases in terms of their format. It wasn't until 2004 when this became an issue, because suddenly the SE was good enough for dvd but not the OOT. Laserdisc was the highest quality way to watch the OOT back then, and guess what? It still is. No one was happy with the GOUT release, but some of them simply accepted it and bought it anyway. The "some people will never be satisfied" argument is only used because there will always be some crazy people out there who want every single Star Wars related thing in existence pertaining to the original movies, and I think that even they too would be quite happy if the OOT was restored and remastered. So I don't want to hear this kind of "some people will never be satisfied" argument anymore. I think the reason the "prequels/Lucas suck" gets lumped in with the "release a high quality original trilogy" is that some people have a hard time seperating the creator from his creation.
Post
#273660
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273660/action/topic#273660
Time
very well said zombie, couldn't agree more

the smashed dividing line you talk about has been a point of contention over the SE's, I also think. Lucas really does live in his own little world and simply doesn't acknowledge that people actually don't want to sit through very obviously pandering updates. Yea, back in '97 I don't think I thought of the updates as anything more than cool things to do now that the movies are back on the big screen. Nevertheless, there was always that part of my brain that clearly recognized "this is from 1977, that is from 1997." Then I found out they were cut into the actual o-neg. Hypocrisy is the only word my vocabulary can muster when he 1) talks about his kids not growing up to enjoy the movies he grew up with, 2) alters the o-negs of three movies simply because he's now the one with legal control and finally 3) cranks out 4:3, borderline unwatchable transfers of 3 of the greatest movies ever made and then makes commercials with parents talking about how their kids can see what they grew up with as if he's doing us some sort of favor. And this was taken from the depths of the Lucasfilm archives?

Another thing about the dividing line is that Lucas isn't revising history to make it seem like all six movies were made concurrently with one another. There's a real sense of history in the '04 discs which is why I'm all the more frustrated with it. Lucas is never getting around the fact that these were first released in '77-'85 anyway unless he just totally remakes it from scratch as you mentioned. That's why he doesn't really have a leg to stand on in regards to the originals "not existing." This is why I can't see any reason for him just not remastering the originals and getting it over with. What really is he afraid of? That if people can watch the originals in the same quality as the SE that they won't watch the SE anymore? I sure as hell don't see why some people would stop watching the SE, they seem to prefer it to the originals (don't ask me why). No, I think Lucas is safe in that respect, but he does still owe it to the fans to stop all of this nonsense. And to the people who say "Lucas owes you nothing" I can't help but get the impression that you think of yourselves as his bodyguards or something. That if you don't go along with what he thinks then you are automatically wrong. Arguing that Lucas doesn't owe the OOT fans anything implies that he does owe the SE fans something.
Post
#273587
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273587/action/topic#273587
Time
That's exactly what I've been thinking ever since the non-anamorphic news broke back in May. Sure, people would've been pissed off having to watch the originals in inferior quality...but at least they'd have them along with the '04 set. That's why I almost felt betrayed. Back in early october of '04 I asked my mom if she could pick up the boxset at costco and in fact she did. It's still sitting on the shelf back home. Lucas had said that the original versions were dead, the boxset had enough bells and whistles to distract me, I accepted it for what it was. Then two years later he tries to sell the exact same thing again (except without the bonus content) just because he knows there are people out there who will pay 60 dollars for something that costed next to nothing to produce.
Post
#273523
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273523/action/topic#273523
Time
Yea, I can't help but think that LFL is doing us a favor in a really wierd way, getting us to just forget about it for this year. They have even less of an excuse to not release the remastered unaltereds anway now. That much less money I'll be spending this year. 2009 is about as far the horizon goes for Star Wars right now, so I certainly can't see it being released any later than that. However, I can't help but put up yet another question mark and wonder if it will even be dvd at all by then. No, I think it will still be dvd anyway, but Lucasfilm is really overanalyzing their economics if they're holding back the boxset on the whim that enough people aren't going to buy it.
Post
#273494
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273494/action/topic#273494
Time
the boxset might not happen this year

This is proof positive that they shot themselves in the foot with the 9/12 release. If they hadn't bothered with the '05 or '06 releases, the demand they claim isn't there would be there all the more. If this does in fact get pushed back - and who knows, maybe it's only because they're too lazy to think up what to put in the box - but if it does get pushed back a year or two, this had better be, oh, I'd say 12 discs minimum.