Fang Zei

It’s reaching the point now for HD that we were at a decade ago for SD.

People were converting the laserdiscs to dvd, George released a transfer directly from the digital master tape itself.

Now people are doing the same thing using actual 35mm prints. The answer to this would be a transfer of something higher up the chain like an IP, sep, or the o-neg itself.

generalfrevious said:

I may never see the originals legally again in my lifetime. This is beyond unfair; it’s unthinkable that the REAL versions of the OT have been gone for twenty years.

In this age of 4K & widescreen TVs, laserdisc quality is the best we will ever get for decades to come.

George Lucas knew what he was doing when he sold SW down the river to Disney.

Since I was posting about this very subject in the theatrical vs special edition subforum just yesterday…

We really have no idea.

They could release it next year, or the year after, or five years from now.

It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if Disney simply decides to wait out the expiration of Fox’s rights to the five non-ANH films in order to maximize their profits.

There were only ever two possible outcomes for a sequel trilogy.

Either Lucasfilm was going to figure out a way to set it within the continuity of the EU (in which case Chewie would be long dead and the ending would neccessarily allow for the Legacy comics to still happen a hundred years later), or they were going to completely start over per George’s wishes.

I never understood why people thought something like a Thrawn Trilogy adaptation was a possibility for the ST. The mere fact that the story would be spoiled already was reason enough for it to stay off the table as an option.

Setting a sequel trilogy within the existing continuity is always what I assumed they’d do. After all, most of the major characters were still alive in the novels with the exception of Chewie.

Most people angry about the EU reboot probably think it was all Disney’s doing when it was entirely up to George. He apparently never considered the books canon to begin with, even though Lucasfilm touted them as “the official continuation of the story” and gladly took people’s money for it.

Like I said in another thread, the delay of Episode VIII from its original date means Lucasfilm won’t have a movie on blu-ray to sell come the Fall, barring a double-dip of Rogue One like they’re doing with TFA.

But, like I also said in another thread, I think they’ll have a harder time trying to justify a double-dip with Rogue One (although they’ve now set a horrible precedent with TFA so who the hell really knows).

So, I think there’s a chance we’ll see something in that seven month span between May and December.

By that same token, the first six films only just started airing on tv again last week. This makes me think it will be at least a couple years before we see them released in new editions.

The other thing to consider is that Disney will finally start supporting the 4k UHD blu-ray format next year. We know there’s already a 4k master of the OT from Reliance MediaWorks, although Mike Verta wasn’t thrilled at how the brief clips in their demo reel looked. This is also likely the SE yet again. It may have already made its way out there in the form of actual DCP’s if Tack’s report from one of the recent roadshow screenings is accurate.

As I’ve said in the past, I truly don’t believe a 4k SE alone will be enough of a selling point. If Lucasfilm wants to see the kind of profit margins they’ve enjoyed with the blu-ray and dvd debuts of these movies (and presumably also with the GOUT to a certain extent), then they’ll have to include a restored OOT at the very least. That holds true whether they wait a year or they wait a decade.

Adywan, could you confirm what the first shot of the Imax sequence is?

I always suspected it was the shot immediately following Rey’s “follow me.”

My opinion for a while now has been that you either watch the prequels first or you don’t watch them at all.

If Lucas had done a better job of justifying the PT’s existence (other than titling the OT “IV, V and VI” far in advance), we wouldn’t even be debating this.

joefavs said:

I’ve got ESB on in the background right now because I’m weirdly interested in where they place the commercial breaks. First one is directly before Vader’s introduction, which seems like a strange place to me.

They want it to be all dramatic when they come back from commercial and we’re like “Ooooo it’s the imperial march.”

joefavs said:

Looks like Comcast’s people screwed up some labeling. According to the guide, Empire is on three times in a row after the prequels.

I also have comcast. My on screen guide shows that they’re only playing Empire twice, followed by the first Hobbit movie afterwards.

Then, a little after 5am, they’re doing a six-film marathon culminating in their first airing of RotJ tomorrow night.

MalàStrana said:

I didn’t know about this ESB lucasfilm intro… I really missed the Fox fanfare opening TFA but using ESB closing coda is very weird for an opening theme. I hope Williams is going to deliver something to replace the Fox Fanfare for EpVIII and the other episodes (or 12 wagnerian movies without intro ?)… even a carbon copy would do… as rich as Disney is, they could even buy it 😃

The ESB lucasfilm intro was done for the digital versions released in April of 2015. My theory is that they wanted some kind of music to accompany the logo in the other five movies so that the Fox fanfare in ANH wouldn’t be jarring.

Of course, less than a year later we had TFA without any intro music at all. Maybe they just hadn’t arrived at that decision in April and might’ve done things differently had they known?

MathUser said:

Watching one of them now. Yup, they either zoomed in the image, or stretched it vertically. I missed the intro tho, it autotuned right after the opening scroll.

It’s zoomed in, just like the vast majority of hdtv broadcasts of movies that are native 2.35:1.

Sometimes you’ll see a letterboxed presentation, like how Spike is showing Dark Knight Rises, but this tends to be the exception rather than the rule.

I noticed last night that ANH was letterboxed until the end of the opening shot. I’m guessing this was to preserve the composition as the Star Destroyer flies overhead.

It would be interesting to see if there is more vertical picture information on the vhs than on the 2.00:1 collector’s edition dvd from 2004. The older dvd from the late 90’s, which was also 2.00:1, was non-anamorphic.

The laserdisc was also 2.00:1 if I’m not mistaken.

I always assumed the 2.00:1 framing was the result of it being the tallest AR that all shots in the movie were protected for if you include the vistavision vfx shots. Either that or Nick Meyer and Hiro Narita simply found it an aesthetically pleasing alternative ratio to the theatrical scope framing.

Papai2013 said:

IMDB was listing IMAX 65mm as one of the shooting formats for ‘The Magnificient Seven’ (2016) but now only shows 35mm. Wonder why?

IMDB is user-based and there’s always the potential for erroneous information.

65mm IMAX was also incorrectly listed as a shooting format for Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman.

TFA is now the third movie to be shot partially in actual 65mm IMAX to receive only a constant 2.35:1 AR transfer on blu-ray (Ghost Protocol and Batman v Superman being the other two).

Yeah I caught the last half hour or so of the 8pm airing and now the first hour or so of the encore.

One thing I’m noticing is a lack of any panning and scanning in certain shots that could really use it, and I’ve got the tv set for full 1:1 pixel mapping. For example, Yoda’s face gets cropped out when he says “your apprentice Skywalker shall be.” Another good example is the establishing shot of the trade federation army marching toward Theed where we can barely see the droid fighters flying overhead.

That bit about how Turner had to make “a separate deal with Fox” for ANH tells me there’s a very real possibility it’ll be the Lucasfilm-only version with that improvised edit of the music from the end of ESB’s end credits.

Or maybe they learned from TFA that silence can be more effective?

I’m still expecting the traditional version with the Fox fanfare if only for consistency’s sake. Digital downloads are one thing, but this is a network tv broadcast.

I do wonder though if this might end up being the hdtv debut of RMW’s 4k master of the OT. Unlikely, I know, but we’ll see.

I’ll try and check out TPM when it replays at 11:02.

Presumably this will be the network debut of the “rebuilt” 2011 master and not the older version spike showed. I’m also curious if they’ll show it letterboxed at its full 2.35:1 width or if they’ll crop it to 16:9.

Thinking back on it now, would it really have cost all that much money in 2006 (compared to your average dvd of just about any other film) to simply do a new telecine of the same '85 IP elements that were used for the '93 laserdiscs?

I know Lucasfilm’s form response letter said “existing prints are in poor condition,” but come on.

Are you gonna tell me they were in worse shape than whatever film element was used for the examples I listed in my long-ass post like Dune or The Thing or Blade Runner?

George’s whole thing was “don’t spend a single cent of my money remastering it,” but was it really worth the backlash?

I know, I know, “he was surrounded by yes men.” It’s still hard to comprehend.

Wasn’t it reported somewhere back around December that Disney had in fact requested a copy of the LoC’s original '77 print of the film?

As I recall, the prevailing theory was that they could very well be using it as reference for what the actual content of the initial theatrical release actually was.

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

This is actually interesting though. He may not think the OOT is coming out, doesn’t mean he likes the constant revision: https://mobile.twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/777605840891064320

This is refreshing to see.

You would’ve never heard an LFL employee saying anything negative about the revisions while George was still in charge.

What we have to remember is that George still left one of his good friends in charge of his company. She probably feels a certain obligation to honor his wishes. Didn’t someone ask her about the possibility of a restored OOT at a convention two or three years ago? I seem to recall reading that she gave a very calculated response of neither “yes” nor “no.”

One thing I find slightly encouraging is how Rogue One doesn’t strike me as something that Disney will be able to blatantly double-dip on later in the year like they are with TFA.

That empty space later in the year could easily be filled by a restored OOT release, and it just happens to be the 40th anniversary.

Wazzles said:

The 2004 DVDs were announced in February and released in September.

FTFY

That would be the one.

The only other thing I remembered was the “He hates the fans, he hates me” line at the end, but I forgot about plush Yoda.

I remembered the Jedi costume, though.

Oh, and it was the main feature disc with the 2004 version that he snapped in half. Breaking the GOUT disc wouldn’t have made much sense now that I think about it.

Haha, Masters of Universe. I knew there was one more anamorphic title he rattled off. I’ve still never seen it, but then again I never watched He-Man.

On a side note, I noticed the Power Rangers movie playing on HBO in HD several weeks ago.

Interesting that Street Fighter was one of his only two non-anamorphic dvds, as I can think of several other Universal releases from the early days of the format that also weren’t anamorphic (Dune and The Thing both come to mind). Brazil was another non-anamorphic transfer from Universal that Criterion simply ported over for their own multi-disc set. Actually, I want to say it was also ten years ago when Criterion finally got around to remastering Brazil in a single-disc anamorphic release.

Which brings me to what I remember most about when the GOUT was released, and that’s how many other movies just happened to receive a remaster the very same month as well.

The Doors, another conspicuously non-anamorphic release, was finally remastered by lionsgate.

Blade Runner was reissued with a better-looking transfer. The previous disc, while technically anamorphic, was one of the very earliest releases on the dvd format and suffered for it.

Seven Samurai received a new restoration by Criterion. Toho is currently working on a new 4k restoration.

Dune and The Thing, the two early non-anamorphic Universal titles I mentioned earlier, had both been remastered by the time the GOUT hit store shelves. Hell, The Thing just received yet another remaster this year.

All of the movies I mentioned have since been released on blu-ray.

Yet here we are, a decade later and nearly four years into Disney’s ownership of Lucasfilm, and the highest quality these movies have seen in an official home video release is a laserdisc master from 1993.

I don’t really see the part where he says “and also there will never be a restoration of the OOT by Lucasfilm.”

There was another amusing video I remember from back then. I wouldn’t know how to track it down now a decade later, but it was some dude in his room with the GOUT discs and he mentioned the non-anamorphic transfers and then proceeded to show the dvd cases of movies from his collection that actually were anamorphic. As I remember it, these titles included Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (“with Robert Picardo the doctor from Voyager” as the dude added).

This video also ended with a breaking of the GOUT discs.

doubleKO said:

Joe Johnston tribute!