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Fang Zei

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14-Oct-2006
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24-Apr-2024
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Post
#273905
Topic
a rumor from thedigitalbits.com...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
Post
#272801
Topic
Getting too old for this sort of thing?
Time
21

one of the earliest Star Wars memories I have is of going through a collection of movies taped onto vhs off of tv airings in the basement of my aunt's house. I don't remember what age I was, 5, 6, maybe even 7, but I decided to watch Return of the Jedi. I didn't even know that it wasn't the third part of the trilogy, I just assumed it was the second because it had the word "return" in it. I don't think I got much farther than "look, captain solo, and he's still frozen in carbonite" before I stopped from not knowing what the hell was going on. And btw, Nanner, I just now read your post, wierd coincidence.
Post
#272151
Topic
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed?
Time
Roughly 4 years ago I missed school for an entire week because of the snow. About halfway through the week I decided to escape from my neighborhood and returned with Bounty Hunter which was a 5 day rental. The sound didn't load on a couple of the levels, it was still fun though. I beat the thing just in time to bring it back on the night it was due.

Pretty soon after that I played through The Clone Wars, Starfighter and Jedi Starfighter and - a couple years later - Battlefront. Jedi Outcast was also fun and I have fond memories from back in the day of playing Jedi Knight and one of the X-Wing games on my uncle's computer. Going even further back, there's Super Star Wars and Super Empire. I played Super Jedi at a friend's house and just a couple years ago I got all three used at a gamestop. Let's not forget Shadows, RS and BfN. Battlefront II was fun to play through. Come to think of it, I don't think there's a Star Wars game I haven't enjoyed.

Still haven't gotten around to the KOTOR games or Republic Commando.
Post
#271269
Topic
Your first reaction to Hayden is ROTJ
Time
Because it all goes back to this idea that Obi-Wan meant "died" when his actual line was "was destroyed." Granted, Luke does say "then my father is truly dead" to Vader later on in the movie, so take that for what you will. In any event, Obi-Wan was neither destroyed nor killed until ANH and that's why he's still Alec Guinness but Anakin is now Hayden. It's really yet another reason for why it was a stupid change.
Post
#271268
Topic
Do you legally own the OOT?
Time
Yea seriously, vbangle. I actually thought this was the same thread as before.

Technically I own the whole thing except my copy of empire doesn't work. I got the '95 ANH fullscreen vhs for christmas that year and was a damn fool not to make sure I got the rest in due time. About a year and a half ago I stumbled upon used copies of the '95 empire and jedi tapes, both fullscreen, at a record and tape traders in rehoboth, delaware. ANH was not to be found. Perfect coincidence, right? Well, when I eventually play the tapes I discover that the copy of empire is totally shot. There's basically constant static and nothing I do is fixing it. Jedi played just fine though.

About a month prior to this, I found a used copy of the '86 Jedi fullscreen vhs (still in its cardboard box!) at my local potomac video's spring sale. I'm pretty sure it's the copy that they rented out for all those years, it still had the sticker on it from when another company owned the place. So logically this one should've looked and sounded like shit, right? After pressing play and getting past the static of the lead in tape, there was the cbs/fox logo and then it went straight into the movie. Beautiful.

So yea, I've got ANH, two copies of Jedi and a shot copy of Empire.
Post
#270898
Topic
The OT on HBO HD this month, unfortunately it is the SE
Time
Of course we should be so lucky, but that's another story. You have to wonder how many people are actually bothering to sit down and watch the OT SE in HD on HBO. Are people by and large really that accepting of the SE? Regardless of Sansweet's comments at comicon, no one simply "doesn't care" which version they're watching. There will always at least be a marginal preference for one over the other.

By the way, I don't know what eros' problem is. To reiterate what I said, my computer monitor is high enough resolution for 16:9, 480p (anamorphic dvd resolution) but only barely enough. That's why I couldn't care less about watching the OOT in 720 or 1080 because I don't have anything to watch that high resolution of a picture on. I just want my remastered, anamorphic OOT dvd.