Fang Zei

Temple

Raiders

Crusade

Skull

We've ruled it out because the lightsaber blades are not the unaltered version, which probably means they were redone yet again just as they were for the 2004 version (they weren't changed in '97 iirc).

Devin fully admits that it could be intentionally leaked bs from Abrams. He only ran the story because he had multiple reliable sources backing it up. Even he's having a hard time believing it.

The story about Boyega's character is different, though. That's something he says is backed up by a very large number of sources.

Anyway, assuming the story premise leak is true, I'm glad they're justifying the jettisoning of the EU by going in a much different direction. No one's seen Luke in the 30 years since Endor? I fully expected Abrams to bring Mark into the movie Alec Guinness style, which of course is what he did with Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek 2009, but this 30 years thing gives it a more direct connection to the previous movie and washes away any kind of preconcieved notions from the EU.

Also, I think it's safe to say, from everything we've heard, that the Empire, stormtroopers etc are still around. One interesting rumor some guy posted in the comments section at badassdigest is that Ep7 finds the galaxy in a state of Cold War, with the Empire on one side and the Rebellion (New Republic?) on the other. There's no Galactic Government that forms in the books during the Vong invasion (although as I understand it the Galaxy just ends up collapsing into civil war yet again and blah blah blah). So, that's another interesting justification for jettisoning the post-RotJ EU, assuming it's true and not a rumor.

One last thing: the part about Han and Chewie flying around in a ship that's not the Falcon doesn't make sense since we know for a fact that they built a Falcon set. Unless of course they're bringing it into the movie in an unexpected way. Again, assuming any of this is true and not just fabricated.

I want to say AotC and RotS were still "finished" at full 2k cinema resolution. That is, the vfx and the DI were done at that resolution, even though the native footage was only 1920:817.

TPM would've almost certainly been finished that way.

If that's true, that means Lowry's 2004 work on the OT was actually slightly lower res than the prequels. I guess it was close enough to not tell the difference, since dcp's have apparently been made from it and shown theatrically.

... Or I'm just overthinking all of this.

Gizzy2000, yes, you are correct.

If all they used as their starting point was a new scan of the negative "as is," it's conformed to the '97 version of the movie.

Quite a bit of that is still the true original negative or at least dupe neg to replace the o-neg that was damaged/faded beyond repair. A good 85% of the neg, give or take, is still one of those two things and would still count as the true original.

The remaining 15% or so is stuff that didn't exist until '97, like the digital recomposites of the fx shots and the new cgi stuff. None of that would count in any way as the unaltered original.

The unaltered original version of everything that got replaced was, hopefully, put into storage and not destroyed. If preserved, it would still be a viable source for restoration of the unaltered trilogy.

In any event, I think we've determined that this new scan has to be from the o-neg and not the '97 interpositive. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, though.

That's what I thought, just making sure. For some reason it sounded weird to me.

Stupid question, but what's JJ saying just a split-second before it cuts to the music?

Is he saying "that" a second time?

The camera is craned so far out I can barely see his face.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it's definitely the 1977 recording of the main theme at the end of that video.

The nostalgia button-pushing continues....

Oh wow, I didn't even notice that "over/under" design of how the s-foils fold up.

A description of John Boyega's character:

http://badassdigest.com/2014/07/20/star-wars-episode-vii-follow-up-john-boyegas-character-is/

I hope the desert and snow planets are places we've never visited before, not Tatooine and Hoth.

Looking at the engines, if the wings are designed to split like an x-wing (and it looks like they are), then this is yet another design inspired by the Ralph McQuarrie paintings.

Also off-topic, I noticed there was footage from the Brosnan 007 films in RMW's reel. I bring this up because the GoldenEye blu-ray, a long-awaited title, was horrendously DNR'd. The other three looked fine (I'm going purely off screenshots from blu-ray.com and elsewhere for all four films).

Anyway, I don't have the disc to do a comparison with the RMW footage. Anyone want to take a crack at it?

I honestly don't see where all this concern is coming from about how Disney might try and pass off an only partially de-specialized version on us.

They'd be called out immedialy and they know it.

Maybe after it got out into the news Disney was like "Hey, ya mind not listing something that big and unannounced on your website?!"

Ryan McAvoy said:

How long does a quality restoration take anyway?

With a little over a year to go 'til EpVII, it doesn't leave much time for a restoration project, including all the research needed, planning, scanning, cleaning, recompositing (?), designing of packaging, filming/editing of bonus materials, having the sets manufactured etc etc. Seeing the OT again at cinema or on Blu-Ray before the ST would be fantastic but theres not too much time left for it to happen.... nobody wants a rushed release.

For all we know, much of the restoration work might already be done. Those RMW employees' resumés seem to indicate this happened sometime between 2010 and 2012.

Well, technically they were just "postponed," which everyone took to be a nice way of saying "cancelled," but we don't really know that.

I bet Disney is calculating the best move here.

On the one hand, I could see a 3D trailer for a re-release really blowing away modern audiences if done correctly. It would be like the modern equivalent of the x-wing flying out of the tv screen in that first SE trailer from late '96.

On the other hand, there's the potential for backlash leading up to Episode 7. Rolling out the SE yet again, even if it's a more polished "final" version, might do more harm than good.

Jaitea said:

Harmy said:

Well, over-all, I'd say it's good news, because the existing 2004 master was horrible, so even if it was the altered version, which we've now confirmed it almost certainly is, it's still good that there is a new better master. On the other hand, the fact, that they seem to have decided to restore/remaster the altered version doesn't exactly bode well for an official OOT restoration.

I think it does seem pretty likely, that this "restoration" was done in 2012 for the planned 3D release, for which the 2004 1080p master didn't cut it any more, so they hired these guys to do the 2004/2011 version over from new 4K scans.

 Yeah, I agree that it all stems from the preparation for the 3D version, & I'm happy that theres a superior clean version in the vaults

What theyre gonna do with it is the question though

J

This is kind of like when Jurassic Park got a new scan for its 3D conversion but the 2d transfer in the combo pack was still just the old blu-ray.

Speaking of which, I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of the 3D versions still happening. We probably just haven't heard anything in a while because of TPM 3D's mediocre box office and the change of plans following the Disney buy-out. I could also see them rolling out the last two prequels, even if it's a short run just to get them out of the way for the main course. RotS looks pretty three-dimensional already, so they'd have their work cut out for them.

But who knows, really. It seems like a given considering Ep7 will more than likely be converted to 3D. Then again, Disney might not want there to be backlash from rolling out the SE yet again. They might just focus on an OOT blu-ray to gain the fans' trust. Heck, maybe they'll do both.

Ultimately, they'll go with whatever option they think will make them the most money.

The fact that it says "4k 16-bit" by itself should be enough evidence it's a new scan, because those words don't describe the old scan at all.

From the photos I've seen of the theater, it doesn't look like the screen is particularly large. A 2k dcp from the 1920:1080 lowry master would probably still hold up rather well on that size screen and get the "wow, amazing" reactions posted on facebook yesterday.

Yeah, it was always highly unlikely that a brand new 4k transfer of any version of Star Wars was gonna debut under such circumstances.

The footage in RMW's reel does appear to be from the new scan. There's also footage of True Lies and The Abyss, which we know got new transfers for their long-awaited blu-rays later this year. Maybe the respective companies didn't care one way or the other about RMW showing off their hard work using footage from their movies, even though it kinda/sorta "spoils" whatever grand unveiling they might want to do later on in the form of an actual trailer, tv commercial or whatnot.

Danfun128 said:

twister111 said:

Please don't give Disney any ideas about "fixing" or "preserving changes". They "reversioned" Power Rangers and it was awful. Saban saved Power Rangers from being stuck like that, Lucas is not going to save Star Wars from any Disney reversioning.

Original versions first and foremost, preserved and properly restored. NO ALTERATION IDEAS ACCEPTABLE UNTIL THEN!!!!!!!!! NO EXCEPTIONS!!!

 

Ahem, before 2010, and before 1994, WITCH BANDORA SHOT FIRST. Someone make a pic of that... Seriously though, Disney hasn't released its own films in their original format, so what makes you guys think Disney will release an hd OUT?

That's true, but I think the SE of Star Wars is probably the most well-known "other version" of a movie ever. Disney wouldn't hesitate to cater to the many fans out there who remember the OT as it once was.

I would hope Disney and Lucasfilm bring in Robert A. Harris to consult on the best way to go about restoring the unaltereds. Around the time of the 2011 blu-ray release he reassured everyone that the film materials were "well-protected." If his prior work is any indication, he certainly knows what he's talking about.

It actually should've gotten out by now if they started at 8:00 on the dot. The SE's running time is 2 hours and 5 minutes.

Oh, I bet it's no longer a big deal to George if the unaltered originals at least get a new transfer, just as long as it doesn't look better than his preferred version. You wonder what the exact terms of the sale were, but I just can't comprehend the idea of spending 4 Billion dollars for a property and getting everything except the Holy Grail of said property.

It would've been one thing if there was something legally stopping George from releasing the original versions. There was speculation back in '06 that we were getting the 1993 transfers not because of George's attitude but because of his divorce from Marcia. I think the theory was that this might've even been a prime motivator behind the creation of the SE in the first place, since they were technically different movies (or something) and none of the money made off of these new versions would go to Marcia. 

I'm pretty sure those rumors were debunked, though.

EDIT: Supersonic kinda beat me to it. I'll just add that I don't see another blu-ray release happening without the original versions being included (even if you have to buy the latest version in order to get it). The OT on home video has pretty much run out of any other possible selling point.

See, the funny thing is that if this dcp they're showing tonight is from a new 4k scan/master of the o-neg (which, as we've discussed over and over again, is conformed to the '97 version) and it hasn't at all been "re-altered" to reflect the changes from '04 and '11, the only real difference between this screening and other authorized screenings of ANH that happen all the time is that one is an actual 35mm print and the other is a 4k dcp.

The way they're raving about how good those 20 minutes looked, it certainly sounds like this is the new 4k transfer and not the old one from Lowry.

While I highly doubt GL cares one way or the other about the OOT anymore (I would certainly hope 4 Billion dollars was enough for him to get over his hang-ups about it), I would also think he'd want both versions out there in equal quality, or at least have the SE out there in higher quality.

That's why I don't think this new 4k job is for anything other than the SE.

Could they use it to restore the OOT as well? Maybe, but I'd hope in that scenario that they would know exactly what they're doing.