Fang Zei

Well, repurposing footage from 7/8 was one of the prevailing theories for how they would handle this, and Disney only technically said they wouldn’t use cgi (a statement no doubt brought on by Rogue One having just been released the week before Carrie’s death).

Trevorrow said he wants to shoot IX entirely in 65mm, just as he did with parts of Jurassic World. I wonder if he’ll go through with it now that footage shot in a different format has to match with the rest of the movie.

SwissArmyTin said:

UHD seems like a bit of a gimmic to me, but I can understand the appeal of 4k in general. It’s just still a tad too expensive right now for most people to upgrade to a 4K TV and 4K blu-ray player. Heck, I didn’t jump on the Blu-ray bandwagon until around 2012 when player prices started falling under $100 a piece.

It’s just such a shame streaming is slowly edging out physical releases. Video quality (and audio, in some cases) just isn’t up to par yet with physical media, at least from what I’ve seen on Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube. Internet speeds can absolutely nuke any and all enjoyment from watching a film the second it starts stuttering and buffering, then crushing the resolution down to 360p until it catches back up for 1080p.

My nightmare scenario is Disney deciding to sit on it until the winds are clearly blowing in the direction of downloads/streaming and physical media is declared dead (or at least on its way out) by the industry, and only then releasing a restored OOT you’d need to download/stream and would never be able to physically own a copy of.

I feel like it won’t come to that, though. They haven’t even released the unaltereds on regular blu-ray, and we’re about to hit that magic seven-year mark since the last revision of the SE anyway. If they wanted to, they could dip on a 1080p disc release now (or next year if they want to keep to the seven-year pattern although that’s probably been coincidence more than anything else) and simply wait until 2020 to dip again on 4k. It’s the UHD release that’s going to need added incentive for people to buy, and May 2020 conveniently coincides (more or less) with the conclusion of the sequel trilogy.

If they stick to the current plan, Ep9 hits theaters in May of 2019. They could put it out by itself and (and possibly in 4k as well, with TFA, RO and Han Solo also having been released on 4k in the meantime since they’re 100% owned by Disney). Then, a year later in September of 2020 they release the I-XI box set you have to buy in order to get the unaltereds in all their 4k hdr glory.

We don’t know what Lucasfilm/Disney has planned for 2020 in terms of a new movie, but presumably there will be one. Whether that movie is a May release or they revert to December, I think the I-IX UHD set is a likely possibility, either hitting stores in September the same day as that year’s movie or simply as part of the cross-promotion if they go with December.

Well it’s nice to finally know the exact month within 2020 when the rights to the other five revert fully to Disney.

SwissArmyTin said:

Heck, even the physical prop in TPM looked wonky as for some reason they decided to make his dome matte instead of glossy and reflective.

I must’ve noticed that subconsciously in the theater on opening day, but Artoo still looked like Artoo.

It’s CPY having never looked at all like the original Yoda that always stood out to me. The story I heard once about how that puppet was intended merely as a placeholder to be replaced with a cg model in post would kind of explain things. Still, would it really have been so complicated to just get the puppet looking the way it did in Empire?

SilverWook said:

Did they even finish those 3D conversions?

They finished the PT, which doesn’t surprise me considering how three-dimensional those movies already are.

The status of the OT’s conversion is anyone’s guess, but presumably they’ll get to it eventually.

We know there were tests done on ANH a decade ago. I seem to recall Zombie estimating that most of ANH had been converted, actually (I don’t remember where he was getting that info from). But that would have undoubtedly been from the lowry master. I was 100% convinced that the RMW 4k master we first heard about in 2014 was made primarily as a baseline for the 3D conversion. You need a year to really do a decent 3D conversion of a two-hour movie, and it’s been almost three years since we first heard about this 4k OT master.

You do the math.

ImperialFighter said:

Just to add to the fun, I’m gonna speculate that it’s more likely that we’ll get an announcement of upcoming 3D releases of the SE versions of the Original Trilogy, rather than high quality versions of the actual original versions.

Alternatively, 'ol George appears to a mixture of rapturous applause and boos, and grudgingly announces a limited re-release on the big screen of the actual original versions…before walking off smugly with the knowledge that they STILL won’t be getting releaed on a high quality disc format despite that…

In response to both of those points … TPM 3D was never released on 3D blu-ray (!)

DuracellEnergizer said:

Tobar said:

The series will feature fan-favorite “Squirrel Girl” (Doreen Green) as a totally empowering fan girl—tough, optimistic and a natural leader.

Anyone but Daisy Ridley in the role and I’m out.

Wasn’t Anna Kendrick half-jokingly suggested for the role not too long ago?

Mike O said:

Fang Zei said:

The extensive LotR appendices, completed in 2004 with the Extended Edition of Return of the King, were also done in SD. At least they and EoD were 16:9. The Alien Quadrilogy making-ofs from right around that same time (2003/2004) were 4:3 and had to be both cropped and upscaled when they were carried over to the blu-ray in 2010.

Dangerous Days was made in 2007 but only released on a regular dvd across all of the various SKUs of Blade Runner released that year (even for the bd and hddvd). It’s 16:9 and looks like it could have been done at a higher resolution and then downscaled. I’m not sure if this was ever definitively answered, but it’s been ten years and the documentary was never released in hd.

Why crop them? Why? Don’t fuck with the aspect ratio, for God’s sake!

If you’re referring to the Quadrilogy making-ofs, they cropped it from 4:3 to 16:9 for the Anthology blu-ray because the recorded 4:3 interviews, whether film or video based, left enough extra room either above or below people’s heads to sustain that much cropping.

“Yes, but why even crop it at all?” you might ask. Well, since people buying the blu-ray are more than likely going to watch it on their 16:9 hdtv, watching the shots where they show 2.35:1 film footage with black bars on all four sides would be a little underwhelming. Especially when they’re watching the movies themselves not only “enhanced for 16:9 tv” as they say on dvd packaging, but in full 1080p hd.

Mike O said:

JawsTDS said:

Fang Zei said:

Cthulhunicron said:

What exactly does it mean for the negative to be disassembled?

The negative has been conformed to the SE since 1997. George decided to cut the changes directly into the negative because, as far as he was concerned, the SE was the official version of the movie now.

We recently got confirmation from the relevant person at Fox that the pieces of the negative replaced for the SE were indeed put into storage and not discarded.

I think I remember reading on zombie’s website that the negative need not be disassembled to reconstruct the unaltered version. Because a modern restoration would be done digitally anyway, they would simply need to take a scan of the o-neg as it is now, scan in the pieces that got replaced, and rebuild everything in the digital realm.

For further context, the negative is the first-generation source for the footage used in the final cut. They are also without any color timing as that comes later in the process, and unlike a 35mm print, which is a few generations down from the negative, there is only one layer of grain to deal with (this is not the case with SW as there is optical compositing).*

*if I’ve made any mistakes, please correct me.

Would any IPs or separation masters still be usable and around?

Nothing I’m reading here suggests ANY hope for a remastered OOT.

The separation masters are still intact, as are other film elements closer to the o-neg than the theatrical prints.

Robert A. Harris emphasized several years ago that “these assets are well-protected.” If a user on the blu-ray.com forums is to be believed, Disney has been meticulously going through every last piece of Star Wars film material and scanning them in. It’s simply a matter of time … and of timing.

When the 4k UHD release inevitably happens, the prequels will be released same day as the OT and probably packaged with it just like the “saga” was back in 2011.

You can count on it.

Being stuck in 2k hasn’t stopped all these other movies from getting released in 4k. There’s even been at least one movie that was shot in 1080p like AotC/RotS released on 4k (Resident Evil: Afterlife).

suspiciouscoffee said:

Fang Zei said:

MisterRey said:

I was still hoping that they were planning on announcing an OOT re-release at Celebration, but after yesterday’s episode of the Star Wars Show, I’m not so sure anymore. It sounds like they’re teasing a surprise appearance (George Lucas?).
That being said, I talked to Jason Ward on Twitter a while ago and he still thinks that something OOT related is going on at Lucasfilm. So maybe there’s a chance.

There’s always Comic-Con.

Celebration will be about remembering Carrie and hyping up Episode VIII and the Han Solo movie. It actually makes sense that they wouldn’t want to make a huge announcement about the OOT in the midst of all that.

Why, exactly? Are they afraid OOT would make everyone forget about the new movies? “Ehh, we got the original movies now, we don’t care about your sequel movies and EU movies anymore, or anything else you do.”

Well, to quote that guy from Wired magazine in September of '06 when the GOUT was released:

“They’re not going to make the fans happy because the happy fan has everything he or she needs. They will kill the goose that laid the golden egg, they will cook it, and they will sell the bones on ebay.”

He also sarcastically quipped right before saying the above quote that “someday they’ll release a version that will actually transform you into a nine-year-old again.”

I bring all this up because I can’t help but think this is exactly what Disney is doing with the new movies. They’re mining our nostalgia in order to sell tickets. A not insignificant number of fans would probably “have everything they need” if Disney would simply restore and release the original versions.

Maybe my logic is flawed here, but that’s just how I see it.

MisterRey said:

I was still hoping that they were planning on announcing an OOT re-release at Celebration, but after yesterday’s episode of the Star Wars Show, I’m not so sure anymore. It sounds like they’re teasing a surprise appearance (George Lucas?).
That being said, I talked to Jason Ward on Twitter a while ago and he still thinks that something OOT related is going on at Lucasfilm. So maybe there’s a chance.

There’s always Comic-Con.

Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if they announced it out of the blue some time in May just like the GOUT (maybe on May 25th?) and then waited until Comic-Con to unveil a trailer.

Celebration will be about remembering Carrie and hyping up Episode VIII and the Han Solo movie. It actually makes sense that they wouldn’t want to make a huge announcement about the OOT in the midst of all that.

Is it possible they took certain shots from the bd and others from the RMW restoration?

oojason said:

MisterRey said:

The Star Wars Show again hinted at something huge happening during the 40 Year Anniversary panel today…

Aye, they made a pretty big deal about it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4FnHBITnTw (about 1m 10s in)

“The sand-hating Sith Lord.”

It’s nice to see even they have a sense of humor about that line.

As for whatever surprises they have in store, “if you’re there you’re going to want to BE IN THE ROOM for this” doesn’t really scream “restored OOT” to me. That really seems to point much more in the direction of what others have been saying, namely a surprise appearance from Harrison Ford or GL himself.

Honestly, it wouldn’t matter if it’s not at the opening panel, I don’t even need an announcement that it’s happening this year. I just want someone at this convention to address the issue.

I had a full-sized video poster for LOTR: The Two Towers that I got at the midnight release for the theatrical dvd way back in August of '03. Not sure if it got thrown out or if it’s still rolled up in a cardboard tube, but it had sustained several major rips the last time I saw it.

digitalfreaknyc said:

Tallguy said:

digitalfreaknyc said:

I’ve been trying to find this out for myself. I wasn’t even born when it originally came out so my first time seeing it in theaters was in the early 90’s. The Nintendo game came out and they had select screenings of it in theaters around the country. There was an ad in Nintendo Power and that’s the only way I knew about it. I’m dying to know the date. 😦

Hmmm. That sounds harder. If my newspaper dive works out I’ll let you know. I know I have no chance of getting the date.

It’s actually much easier. There were screenings all over the country on that one date. I just have to find the damn magazine with the ad and it’ll be done. I even remember which theater I saw it at 😃

Are you the one who used to have that story in your sig about having seen all three unaltered films theatrically in the 90’s or am I thinking of someone else?

rpvee said:

I’d love a series about the fall of Ben Solo, it’d definitely be more dramatic than a book about it.

As for the Celebration surprise(s), someone mentioned earlier the possibility of it being a Lucas appearance. That would be fitting, and I don’t think anyone said the surprise would be any kind of announcement. If anything, the big surprise being merchandise of any kind, including a new home media release, would probably get an underwhelming “making the fans buy the same movies again” response, OOT or not. That doesn’t sound like a fitting enough surprise for such a huge panel.

I’m starting to think you’re right, and that we’re probably getting our hopes up for no good reason at all.

If it ever happens, it will probably be an out of the blue announcement when we least suspect it just like the GOUT was.

joefavs said:

Anyone else really surprised by how normal and mellow Forest Whitaker’s speaking voice is on the special features? I don’t think I’ve ever heard him not doing a voice for a character before.

You mean Forest Whitaker doesn’t sound like his characters from Species and Ghost Dog in real life?

Tobar said:

Dave is on the panel. I could see them announcing the new show he’s been working on.

I probably heard about this at some point and simply forgot, but what new show are you referring to?

The only potential problem (from Fox and Disney’s end of things) with waiting until 2020 is not being able to sell us anything new in the meantime. Disney is conveniently side-stepping this problem with the digital release and the tnt deal, but that only covers non-physical (and non-theatrical) media.

I don’t see Disney waiting too much longer to put out their own movies (TFA, RO) on 4k Ultra HD. Once that happens, the fans are going to wonder what’s going on with the OT. It will be like what happened with the saga’s release on dvd where GL wanted to wait until RotS was also hitting the format, except this time it may actually happen with Episode IX and for entirely different reasons. It’s going to piss off some of the fans who want to enjoy I-VI in the highest quality possible as they wait for Episode IX, which is why I could see Disney authorizing a UHD release within the next couple years and simply letting Fox take their cut.

But now we’re back to the whole problem of people not really giving a shit unless the OOT is restored as well.

Which presents yet another dilemma for Disney. If they do acquiesce and release the OOT in the next year or so, even if it’s just on regular blu it leaves them with one less thing to sell people for the first time post-2020. Not as many people are going to want to rebuy it on UHD.

I wonder who gets to stream/broadcast Rogue One first. IIRC, TFA was the very last movie in Disney’s deal with Starz. Captain America: Civil War (also Disney) went up on Netflix Christmas Day.

Maybe Rogue One will hit Netflix as well before eventually heading to TNT along with TFA.

I bring this up because I don’t feel a pressing need to buy the blu-ray like I did with TFA exactly a year ago but would still like to watch it again via legal means. I’m fine with waiting for 4k, especially since I’d rather pay a couple extra bucks to future-proof (assuming a regular bd copy is included) than pay for stuck-in-1080p quality and a dvd I’ll never watch. If I’m really being honest, I don’t want to buy any Star Wars related media until we’re sure the OOT is being officially restored.

It’s the 40th Anniversary of the original movie and yet we still can’t watch it in an official release approaching modern quality.

The longer they wait, the more clear it will become that they are throwing away money. Harmy’s version gets more and more downloads with each passing day.

This last part is more trivial, but Rian Johnson did slam the SE on his twitter back when the blu-ray was first released.

Even GL showing up wouldn’t kill any remaining possibility of an OOT announcement for me. We already know there’s been a 4k master of the OT-SE for almost three years now. It’s not like the OOT would be in superior quality to that. Most of all, it’s not GL’s money being spent anymore. That’s the entire reason we got the GOUT in the first place instead of something better. He has no reason to care anymore.

I guess they wouldn’t bring it up unless asked.

Didn’t someone ask Kennedy about it at one of the post-2012 Celebrations?

They have to at least address the issue by the time the convention is over, right?

Did it come up at all during last year’s convention in London?

Not getting my hopes up regardless of how many “gigantic winks” they throw our way ahead of time.

John Knoll says Rogue One has about 1,700 vfx shots, placing it roughly halfway between RotJ (at 950) and RotS (at 2,400).

http://www.slashfilm.com/rogue-one-john-knoll-interview/#more-407631