They just had to get this announcement out of the way yesterday, since they want Rogue One to be the center of all Star Wars buzz from tonight until December.
Yeeesh. No bitstreaming, no bd-r, no avchd. Assuming the ps4 does all of these things, waiting a few more months for the neo would make perfect sense … if it weren’t for bloody Comcast and their lockout of hbo go on sony’s systems.
Again, I guess this is what I’ve got the standalone panasonic bd player from eight years ago for. I’m not much of a video gamer anyway. I still break out the ps2 from time to time and play OG Battlefront, but that’s about it.
It looks like getting a roku for my streaming needs might be the way to go. Like I said, I hate voting with my wallet against physical media, but certain realities have taken precedence.
Just chiming in to say that I’d also be interested in seeing the IMAX version reconstructed.
I saw the movie on opening day at Air & Space Udvar-Hazy in 2D IMAX-with-laser and the imagery during those sequences was breathtaking.
This is as good a time as any to ask. Could someone please tell me where the music that starts at about 0:41 in this tv spot is from?
I’m almost certain it’s not in the movie itself, if it’s even from the TFA score at all. I never bought the album so if it’s on there I wouldn’t know.
Those six seconds or so of music have been driving me crazy ever since I saw this preview during the “Shondathon” on abc that week. This ended up being the very first time we heard any of John Williams’ compositions for the movie.
The screening at the Warner Theatre here in DC was originally scheduled for this past Saturday (as were at least half a dozen others across the country) but has apparently been rescheduled for this upcoming Saturday.
The only ones that actually happened on Saturday were in Los Angeles and Kansas City, and then Brooklyn was the day after.
Austin and Denver are this Saturday as well.
Well, they didn’t cancel ALL of the OT screenings this summer:
http://silver.afi.com/Browsing/EventsAndExperiences/EventDetails/0000000021
Tack’s report has me curious if these are the (apparently) new dcp’s or the same old 2011 ones.
Source?
He tweeted about it recently.
The original understanding was that it would be the 1997 35mm prints themselves, and for good reason. They were still playing in repertoire theaters as of just a couple years ago.
But yeah, that was my thinking as well upon reading Tack’s report.
It could be RLM’s 4k remaster of the o-neg (which would still be in its '97 conformation) with the 2004/2011 changes simply plugged back in.
Mike Verta himself described the brief glimpses of the RLM transfer as looking, in so many words, “sloppy.”
I hadn’t considered the pirated game discs factor. That would at least make sense, but if playing bd-r movies is yet another thing* the ps4 does that the xbone doesn’t, I’ll continue weighing my options.
The One S had piqued my interest because of the 4k UHD blu-ray factor. I’ve been wanting to get a streaming device for my downstairs tv currently not connected to anything except a “dumb” blu-ray player from eight years ago. I’d prefer to get a device that’s capable of downloading newer apps but also plays discs (yes, I know, “you’ve already got a blu-ray player, just get a roku,” but I want to “vote with my wallet” in favor of physical media while I’ve still got the option. It kills me that my highly educated cousins got a roku but never bothered upgrading to blu-ray).
I’ve got a sony smart blu-ray player for the upstairs tv that is hooked up to a cable box. It’s limited in its app assortment but it’s got the big ones (netflix, amazon, hulu, youtube, vimeo, vudu), but it doesn’t have hbo go or cbs all access, which I’ll apparently need in order to watch the new Star Trek show come January.
Adding further complication to all of this is the fact that Comcast doesn’t support hbo go on the ps3/4 but does on the xbox. To my knowledge, the app isn’t even available on any of the other UHD players on the market so far.
As far as the bd-r issue goes, I’m assuming the xbox one at least supports avchd discs. Or am I jumping to a conclusion there also? I guess I’ve still got the blu-ray players for these kind of things, and something to continue justifying the “dumb” player sitting around, but it really shouldn’t be too much to ask that these newer devices continue to do everything the older ones did, especially when it’s for stupid copy-protection reasons.
*like bitstreaming, not that I see myself getting an atmos/dts:x setup in the near future, but still.
It only just occurred to me: would that mean it couldn’t play MoD bd’s like the ones from Warner Archive?
Bill Hunt gave an update on the 3D PT + TFA rumors. Apparently that’s still what his industry and retail sources are telling him, with the added detail that it will be five discs total.
T2 was at the very least given a “stealth” reissue at some point in the last year or so. It’s still from the same master, but without the filtering on the skynet edition.
Since it’s only 35mm, I could see them scanning at 6k and mastering at 4k. That’s what they did for the blu-rays of Minority Report and Raiders of the Lost Ark. They could certainly scan at 8k if they really wanted to pull every last detail off the negative, but they won’t be mastering at anything higher than 4k. I don’t think there’s been an 8k restoration of anything yet. Lawrence of Arabia was scanned in at 8k but only finished at 4k. Ben-Hur’s restoration was actually an 8k scan / 6k finish. Baraka was scanned in at 8k but I’m not remembering what res that was actually finished at.
It’s the same reason they filmed out the 4K restoration of the Godfather onto a new negative. It was shot on film, so it should be preserved that way.
The documentary Side by Side has a scene that addresses the whole film vs. digital debate regarding long-term storage. Steven Soderbergh is against the idea of preserving his digitally-shot movies on film, risks of data corruption be damned.
The LoC request from Disney (which was first mentioned back in December IIRC) and Verta meeting with the suits are two huge signs that something is happening behind the scenes.
Fang Zei said:
Hermit’s post about a source inside LFL is encouraging, assuming the source actually knew this info for certain. Finding out that they were indeed planning on getting the true OT out there before TFA just sets the speculation wheels in motion. Maybe they wanted to keep a hundred percent of the attention on TFA?GL making peace with Disney these past few weeks
This is the first I’ve heard about this. What exactly happened? Or are you referring to the possibility of GL producing Indy 5?
No, I’ve heard he has been visiting Rogue One shooting stages.
Ah, my bad. I’m remembering now that I heard something about this as well.
Fang Zei said:
Hermit’s post about a source inside LFL is encouraging, assuming the source actually knew this info for certain. Finding out that they were indeed planning on getting the true OT out there before TFA just sets the speculation wheels in motion. Maybe they wanted to keep a hundred percent of the attention on TFA?GL making peace with Disney these past few weeks
This is the first I’ve heard about this. What exactly happened? Or are you referring to the possibility of GL producing Indy 5?
Packaging TFA with the PT just because they’re the only ones ready go in 3D seems like a really odd choice. Bill Hunt’s never been one to post bogus rumors but I seriously have my doubts about this one.
Hermit’s post about a source inside LFL is encouraging, assuming the source actually knew this info for certain. Finding out that they were indeed planning on getting the true OT out there before TFA just sets the speculation wheels in motion. Maybe they wanted to keep a hundred percent of the attention on TFA?
I doubt any home video version has the original colour timing because that would require an expensive scanning of the 35mm and 70mm film sources. I think it will be the same version for the film.
For the 1.44:1 sequences though, they are from the actual IMAX source, so those scenes should be close to the print.Regarding the original timing, I think they will release a 10th, 15th or 20th anniversary version when they may re-scan the film elements. Also, it’s ultimately what Nolan wants. if he is happy with the TDK Blu-ray, then there will be no re-scans done.
They will certainly do new scans of at least Begins and TDK at some point in the next couple years when they inevitably put out the trilogy on 4k ultra hd blu-ray. It’s possible that Rises has been ready to go with a 4k variable aspect ratio master since it was released. The blu-ray screenshots for that one are very detailed and it doesn’t look like they simply used the Imax DMR master like they did for TDK.
I remember seeing an infographic that basically laid out the very complicated production pipeline for Rises. Nolan is probably the last big budget filmmaker who still insists on finishing his films photochemically and not as a DI, adding yet another step to the process.
The AFI Silver is going to be showing the OT the first weekend in September as part of a John Williams series. They’re playing what feels like practically every movie he ever scored over the next couple months, some of which I had no idea he was even involved with (they’re doing a Valley of the Dolls double feature tomorrow).
I bring this up because the OT will be on dcp, whereas they were definitely still showing the '97 prints just a couple years ago. Between this and the roadshow news, I’m starting to think Lucasfilm has pulled them from circulation entirely.
I’m curious about this as well. Did they not officially state at one point that they were showing the '97 prints? I wouldn’t put it past someone not nearly as knowledgeable about the various versions to have simply jumped to the conclusion of it being the '97 versions (not 2011) and also thinking “prints” (when it’s actually dcp).
Still, IIRC they said “ultra rare screenings of the '97 35mm prints,” which seemed to spell things out in no uncertain terms.
The official site put up an article shortly before the blu-ray’s were released that gave a rundown of all the additional changes for the six movies.
For ESB, the only one I remember off the top of my head was how they digitally fixed the shot where the wampa’s arm is reaching into frame to claw Luke. On previous releases you could see the guy’s actual arm where the wampa arm ended in the corner of the frame. They digitally added more fur to cover it up for the blu-ray, although I seem to recall noticing in the screenshot a parabola* of black pixels in that corner of the image (someone will know what I’m talking about).
I also seem to recall a fix they made to the conveyor belt scene where Chewie retrieves C-3PO from the ugnaughts, but I’m not remembering what it is now. It could’ve been a simple color-timing change for the furnace fire or they digitally added stuff.
Funny how ESB has gained this reputation as the one with the least changes made to it over the years, including '97. But boy oh boy, do I still hear people on the internet talk about how much they dislike the Vader “bring my shuttle” change.
*parabola might not be what the shape is called. Again, someone who knows the alterations well will know what I’m talking about.
Has it already been ten months?
We’re officially overdue for another stirring of the rumor mill.
There’s no way they would remove the logo and fanfare from an OUT release. They would present the movie as close as possible to how it was (at least to the layman if not nitpickers like us), and the iconic fanfare’s absence would be quite a glaring omission.
It’s the SE I was referring to in my post.
I don’t think the 2020 thing makes a difference in terms of the Fox logo showing up on the original versions of Empire, Jedi and the prequels. Disney will own those movies outright after 2020, yes, but I don’t think that legally prevents them from the fox logo showing up in a restored OOT. Think of all the catalog titles now owned by different studios than the ones who originally produced/released them. I’m thinking of all the MGM movies now owned by Warner Bros because of Ted Turner, the Hitchcock titles originally produced by Paramount but now distributed by Universal, or the DreamWorks movies now owned by Viacom because of the folding that happened roughly a decade ago.
The rights issue with Star Wars is a two-way street anyway as we’ve discussed, since Fox owns all versions of the '77 film in perpetuity.