Fang Zei

Totally forgot about those.

They could just give us only the SE on the 4k UHD release, but they should be smart enough by now to know - 4k or no 4k, HDR or no HDR - that no one cares about buying the original movies yet again unless it’s the original versions.

If I had a penny for every time I’ve read some random person’s facebook / comment section post about wanting the original versions on blu-ray, I’d be an eleven thousandaire.

Didn’t zombie write an entire article on savestarwars about his trip down to culpeper to help scan in and color-correct the LoC’s prints?

Maybe I’m remembering wrong, I couldn’t find the article on the site.

crissrudd4554 said:

Ryan-SWI said:

crissrudd4554 said:

Says you.

Mature.
Fox owns the rights, but it’s not as simple as that, and I have no idea why everyone on these forums seems to think Fox can just jump up and say “Yes! It’s time to distribute the OOT on 4K!” anytime they want.
There’s a lot of legal hoops they need to jump through with Disney and Lucasfilm. The digital releases were missing the 20th Century Fox logo or is everyone forgetting that? Oh right but it’s clearly as simple as Fox just deciding to do whatever they want, they must have decided to omit their logo from the beginning of those releases just because they felt like it.

For the record Fox retains distribution rights for the original Star Wars, it does not own all the prints for the original Star Wars or the right to scan and/or alter anything without the approval of Lucasfilm and by extension, Disney.

Conflicts of interest and contractual legalities are enough to throw a huge wrench in the works for anything like this. Shutting down discussion that doesn’t align with the hivemind doesn’t change that.

I want a 4K release just as much as anyone but expecting one this year or anytime soon is lunacy and I’ll eat my hat if it happens. Feel free to hold me to that.

I never said Fox can just release it when they want. I was just saying ANH will be distributed through into the foreseeable future provided of course Lucasfilm wants them too. Lucasfilm is really the ones in charge of where the movies are going.

As far as the OOT never being released, I don’t think it’ll be this year but in the future who knows?? Studios always want excuses to resell their shit and simply giving out the same SE everytime is gonna get to a point where that’s not enough of a selling point. But if you are positively, absolutely, truly, undoubtedly, with out a doubt, no second thoughts whatsoever, totally convinced it will never happen well more power to you. But let those who are still holding out hope to their business and dreams, as potentially hopeless as they may be.

I would argue it’s already gotten to that point.

They’ve sold us the same discs three times in a row now.

It’s no different, except for the fact that there’s now the ticking clock of Fox completely losing all rights to the non-ANH stuff in 2020 when they revert to Lucasfilm and therefore Disney.

Lucasfilm could authorize a release in the next year or two, of course, but there are multiple factors playing into all of this.

The fact that we now know for sure that there’s been a new scan of the OT is reason enough for Lucasfilm to say SOMETHING by the time Celebration rolls around. They really can’t continue to ignore the elephant in the room.

Also, I just don’t see a new home video release (one that isn’t simply another recycling of the 2011 discs) happening unless it’s also the debut of these movies on the new 4k format. Sure, they COULD choose to make the remastered OOT’s release regular blu-ray only, but I feel like it’s too late for that now. Every 4k release so far has included a regular blu-ray copy for schmucks like me who want to future-proof everything.

Assuming that Lucasfilm isn’t going to simply give us only the SE yet again (now in 4k!) and that they’ll make each OT movie a two-disc thing at the very least, they’d probably have to forgo including a regular blu-ray on the 4k release since it would be too many discs. They would probably do a separate, 1080p SKU kind of like how Blade Runner didn’t bother including a regular dvd copy with the blu-ray and hd-dvd releases.

That said, way more people have regular blu-ray players at this point than 4k, and a remastered OOT would sell like crazy. Sure, it’s going to piss off those of us who’d like to future proof our media, but like I said, if it’s a multi-disc release then they probably wouldn’t include a regular blu-ray in the 4k package anyway.

As said, Disney is dragging their feet in terms of jumping on to the new format, although we pretty much know for sure it’s happening in the next year or so. They probably wouldn’t want the Fox-distributed movies hitting 4k before TFA and RO. At the very least I’m sure they’d want their own Star Wars movies hitting the format at the same time if not first.

But, like I said, maybe we’ll see a remastered OOT on regular blu-ray in the next year or so and then Disney will wait until 2020/2021 to put the entire I-IX saga out in a 4k collection, having worked out a deal with Fox to include ANH.

Not off topic at all!

I asked the very same thing only a couple weeks ago.

Y’know, we’re always talking about how the unaltered OT is the only thing they have left to sell us so far as those movies are concerned.

I’d pay good money for an “all versions” collector’s edition of AotC. The 35mm, dcp and final/most-recent version could all be branched onto the same disc. They could put the imax cut on a second disc just like one of the dvd releases of Apollo 13.

Hey, it’s an idea!

I wonder what’s going on with Jedi.

It’s the only one absent from RMW’s reel and Fraser doesn’t mention it in his interview.

baron_lando said:

The text of the books has never been changed, it’s just one of those things that some fans believe ought to happen, so it comes up every so often, or they ask Hidalgo about it. “New novelizations to better fit the blah blah continuity blah blah consistent with blah”

I could’ve sworn I read years ago that it actually was changed, but everyone’s reply tells me I’m wrong.

It’s possible I’m mistaking it in my memory for the shock of finding out that Owen being Obi-Wan’s brother was actually written into the book and then never changed even after the prequels blatantly contradicted it.

It might have been one of the more recent printings, but this was still at least ten or so years ago.

Either that or my memory is completely wrong on this.

Wasn’t there an alteration made to Jedi’s novelization at some point? They removed a reference to Owen being Obi-Wan’s brother. I’d be curious to know which edition was the first to feature this change.

I’d also be curious to know if any changes were made to the novelizations of Star Wars and Empire.

(In reply to Wazzles’ post):

From Zombie’s article on the subject over at Saving Star Wars:

“The 1985 interpositive was already starting to go pink in 1993 when that release was made, the final home video telecine. By 2020, it will be pink, but salvageable, but all release prints would basically be unwatchable as-is, even Return of the Jedi’s.”

http://savestarwars.com/filmpreservation.html#ch5

That’s a good point, doubleofive.

Why do they keep “finding” these things?

Very True.

I think people get way too hung up on the SE’s vfx being “only” 2k when that’s still the case for movies being made almost two decades later.

The same podcast where I heard that info about Catching Fire and Interstellar (fxguide, if anyone’s wondering) also did an interview with Lola where they talked about The Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron. When the host asked what res they were working at, he very specifically said 3.4k, which happens to be the same res the movie was shot at. Granted, they didn’t handle all of the effects shots in the movie, but I wonder why they would bother if it was just gonna get finished at 2k.

For what it’s worth, imdb lists it as a 2k finish. I can’t help but wonder if there are 3.4k files of the finished movie sitting somewhere at Disney just waiting for a 4k HDR grade.

Doug Trumbull beautifully illuminated the main cause of the problem when Scott Wilkinson interviewed him on Home Theater Geeks a year or so ago.

The problem doesn’t have to do with saving storage space (at least I don’t think it does). Rather it’s the fact that rendering 4k vfx shots on these big tentpole films where you have a ton of effects shots - most of the shots in the entire movie, in fact - is more expensive than simply settling for 2k. The studios also love to bid these effects houses against each other knowing they will give the lowest possible rate out of fear of losing the job to another company. When most of the finished shots in your movie are stuck at 2k, there’s little point in doing a 4k DI.

From what Harmy was saying earlier in the thread, this might’ve changed in the last year or so. I remember hearing as far back as three years ago that the vfx work on Hunger Games: Catching Fire was all in 4k. Same goes for Interstellar a year later, although this one makes a little more sense since Nolan always finishes his movies photochemically and likes to do as much “for real” and in camera as he can.

As said, imdb is not the best source for DI info. TFA had more vfx shots than TPM. If they were only finished in 2k, I’d say the movie is effectively stuck at thay res.

stealthboy said:

Fang Zei said:

I was scrolling through facebook and noticed someone had done a fan-made saga trailer.

One of my biggest problems with the prequels is that George decided to shoot 2 and 3 on glorified HD video cameras and they look terrible compared to the other films.

And now they can’t be re-scanned at 4K like film can. Ooops!

To me it’s more the fact that those cameras’ sensors were only 2/3", or less than the area covered by regular 16mm, nevermind regular 35mm.

I’m sure George considered this ahead of AotC, but he probably figured the drop in frame area was worth it just so he could abandon film for digital.

Since shooting digital was such a new thing in general back in 2000, this also meant abandoning the 2x anamorphic lenses used to shoot the OT and TPM on 35mm (aka true CinemaScope) for spherical lenses.

Those are my two biggest problems: the smaller frame size and the lack of anamorphic lenses.

I was scrolling through facebook and noticed someone had done a fan-made saga trailer.

One of my biggest problems with the prequels is that George decided to shoot 2 and 3 on glorified HD video cameras and they look terrible compared to the other films.

I first heard about it in the 90’s, probably after reading in the Essential Guide to Characters that Boba Fett’s first appearance was in it.

Heard about it every now and then throughout the early-to-mid oughts. Empire of Dreams’ earlier cut apparently had a segment on it that didn’t make the final release.

By the time I joined this forum just over a decade ago I’d already heard about how the holiday special was “out there” if you knew where to look for it, much like the OOT had been when I was lurking the year before.

Finally watched it in late '08 after downloading it from google video (remember google video?!) and thought it was equal parts bizarre, boring, and WTF. The commercials really added to the experience.

Since someone brought it up earlier:

I remember finding it interesting that Fox had the copyright in the end credits and not Lucasfilm. Did Fox pay for its production and simply make it with George’s blessing?

The newspaper comics are another item from that time with Fox’s name on it and not LFL’s, IIRC.

nickyd47 said:

doubleofive said:

https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/817634108419371008

Pablo admits that 2 & 3 are stuck at 1080p

It’s been public knowledge for a while now that episodes two and three were finished at 1080p

Two and Three were definitely shot in 1080p. But I’ve always been curious - especially since these movies are framed at the scope ratio of 2.35:1 - whether they were finished at 1080p or true 2k.

lovelikewinter said:

moviefreakedmind said:

They might’ve been a last minute thing since they couldn’t release what was originally intended for that time.

Maybe.

Hopefully the covers for the 4K OOT will reflect the original poster art and not the horrible steelbook cases. Though I would love a steelbook release to go with my TFA and eventual Rogue One blu-rays. This does leave Phantom Menace as a possible release later on, but Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith will be forever stuck at 1080p and be even more disconnected from the good movies.

Resident Evil: Afterlife, a movie shot in 1080p, is getting released on 4k UHD this month.

The prequels may be stuck at 2k, but they’re by no means stuck on regular blu-ray.

lovelikewinter said:

I wear glasses so I never go to 3D movies, I end up looking like a twit wearing them over my glasses and I get a headache from the double lenses.

I can at least deal with that for real-d and LieMAX 3D, which use polarization. Dolby 3D and Imax laser 3D both use the 6p method, which results in a foggy haze around the image if you’re wearing prescription glasses (haven’t seen a movie in either of those formats, it’s just what I’ve heard). I’m long overdue for a new prescription anyway so I’m just going to get new contacts as well.

One thing giving me hope is that we’ve gotten a reissue of the 2011 blu-rays every two years, which means we’d be due for another one this year, which just happens to be the 40th anniversary.

So, unless they want to give us the same discs yet again, they’ll come up with something entirely new to sell us.

I was so, so sure we’d be getting something new in the lead-up to TFA in 2015, and then all they did was steelbooks (although the movies were finally released individually at least). Even if they don’t bother with a UHD release just yet, I can’t fathom how they would repackage the blu-rays yet again without something, anything, that isn’t just a fancy container.

I’ll only see a movie in 3D if it was at least partially shot that way.

I’ve only intentionally broken that rule twice: Pacific Rim (digital Imax 3D, I later saw it again in regular sized 2D with a friend of mine) and Gravity (real-d). Well, I also saw Jupiter Ascending in real-d out of some misplaced sense of wanting to support The Wachowskis in their crazy space opera experiment that was guaranteed to flop. Maybe it would’ve looked better if I’d seen it in digital Imax 3D (this was right before they started rolling out the laser system), but I thought the post-converted live action looked terrible. The natively-rendered-in-stereo cg vfx sequences, as with any 3D movie, at least looked okay.

I honestly think 3D is mainly there to squeeze more money out of the movies that are gonna make a killing anyway. Pre-2009 there would be be three or four screens showing the same highly anticipated movie all at the same multiplex. Now, when you’ve got a big movie like The Avengers opening, two of those four screens are the 3D version. That means whoever didn’t get their 2D tickets early enough are stuck either waiting for a later showing or just seeing it in 3D, and whatya think they’re gonna do? That’s what happened when I saw Guardians of the Galaxy with my friends, and it wasn’t even opening weekend! At least it wasn’t their first time seeing it, and I ended up liking the movie so much anyway that I took a friend who hadn’t seen it to a 2D showing. The 3D version at least looked decently good.

So, yeah, that’s the one time I involuntarily broke my rule.

It’s frustrating to see the studios pushing the 3D versions of these 2D-shot blockbusters on us while giving the shaft to intentional 3D movies like Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. That’s commerce, I guess.

The only shot-in-stereo movies I know of that are coming out this year are Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (entirely stereo, just like the last two) and Transformers 5 (mostly stereo, just like the last two). Alien: Covenant might have been shot in 3D but there’s nothing in the trailers or posters even advertising so much as real-d. Ridley Scott shot Prometheus, Exodus and The Martian all in native stereo, so it will be interesting to see whether or not he abandoned it for Alien: Covenant.

moviefreakedmind said:

I think the RMW footage looks pretty great.

EDIT: Then again, I think that this entire forum is overly concerned with color correction. I think I might be in the minority there, though.

We should also remind ourselves that the brief clips in their reel may only be from a restoration of the SE. It may not matter if the color timing isn’t accurate.

That might only be for the publishing division to worry about.

Have the Tartakovsky clone wars or the Ewok movies been re-released in any way since 2014? Like, even as a digital download? I could maybe see them slapping it on the poster that you see on the “buy/rent” screen and mayyyyybe on the cover of a physical dvd case, but that kind of stuff (including the animated 80’s shows) seem of little consequence to the new canon.

He doesn’t seem to think so.

There’s also a video about the Threepio shot:

https://vimeo.com/123475322