I must echo Kurgan's thoughts on the matter.
Throw in theatrical cuts of the prequels and I'll buy those on blu-ray as well.
I don't think that Spike deal actually kicked in until 2008.
It was a confusing use of words, but I think by "the three masters" he meant the o-negs for the "three" original films (the original trilogy).
I'm pretty sure the plan is to see if TPM does well at the box office and then convert/release the others one year at a time.
That's not what I heard.
With each passing year it's not so much a question to me of "if" so much as "when" the OOT will be restored and remastered. What I would absolutely love to see is this:
Let's assume TPM-3D does well at the box office. I would love for the Blu-ray 3D release to be an all-inclusive ultimate edition, complete with the theatrical cut (yeah, getting my hopes up on that), and the same goes for AOTC in 2013 and ROTS in 2014. When ANH hits, LFL should at the very least make the blu-ray a two-disc set that includes the theatrical version, same goes for Empire in 2016 and Jedi in 2017. I think it just needs to be made clear to Lucasfilm that we'll pay a premium to see the OOT restored.
Any number of things is possible. Maybe they'll re-release the bd's of the six films individually at some point in the next couple years and include the remastered OOT then.
What's hard to imagine happening is an OOT release that doesn't force us to buy the newer version also. Even more unlikely would be the ultimate scenario of George licensing Criterion to do it (which would be awesome, don't get me wrong, but at the same time kinda inappropriate since these are some of the highest grossing films of all time and not the kinda stuff that's up Criterion's alley).
I recently heard that George made ninety-some-odd-million dollars last year. It seems a tad ridiculous to me that he can't spare a tiny fraction of that to restore a piece of film history he himself helped create.
Every time a shot from eps II or III popped up, I winced and thought how much better those movies would've looked if Lucas had just stuck to shooting in cinemascope like on the other four films. Say what you will about TPM, the cinematography is gorgeous compared to the other two prequels.
someone did a comparison in one of the threads (don't remember which) between TPM shots from the new ILM doc and one of the TPM transfers that's out there. It confirmed that the shots in the doc are from a new transfer.
EDIT: ah, you found it
I know someone already did this with shots from the recent ILM documentary, but it would be interesting to see a TPM comparison between the dvd/hbo/cinemax/spiketv version and the new trailer.
None, I thought the TPM opening day digital projection (which only played in four theatres in the U.S., two in Jersey, two in Cali) was the exact same edit as the 35mm. Are you thinking of the pre-release version where Darth Maul's body doesn't split in half?
Found this:
This is fantastic news!
I noticed that Electronic Labyrinth, Lucas' student short that became THX 1138, was also inducted this (last) year.
Here's the thing:
For next year's blu-ray, since the format is 1080p Lucas doesn't really have much of a reason to pay for a re-do of the '04 masters at a higher res. Those masters are already 1080. Episodes II and III have been ready to go since the day they came out.
Now, keep this in mind:
Episode I is hitting 3D in theaters in 2012 and ILM is already at work on the conversion process, so they probably did a new DI (or, as we've been debating, went back to the files if they're still there) in order to yield 1) a new transfer for next year's blu-ray (which the film actually needed, unlike the other five) and 2) a new, higher res master from which they could start the 3D conversion process. II and III are already completely digital. When/if they get around to IV in 2015, doing a new DI probably won't seem like a such a horrible financial burden for Lucas /sarcasm.
They really are gonna need to do a fresh scan for the 3D version of the OT. In the case of movies like II and III and Avatar, the cameras for the live-action photography were only 1080p, yes, but they went through 2k DI's as far as I know, effectively scaling the live action footage slightly. Avatar was projected at 1920 by 1080 for its 16:9 digital 3D version, but there was also a scope (2.35:1) digital 3D version made for the auditoriums set up for scope. This scope version probably had a horizontal resolution of 2048 (2K). The OT movies are, obviously, scope-only. Maybe Lucas thinks 1920 by 817 will still be considered good enough for a 3D projection in 2015, but he won't be getting around to OT until then, so who knows.
I heard this morning and somehow didn't remember to head over here until just now.
Damn, did this news hit me hard.
I've also got somewhat of a "just yesterday" story. Last night I got in a traffic jam driving up I-95, turned on the radio to find out what was up and heard Leslie Nielsen had died. I had listened to the first several minutes of the slashfilmcast episode where massawyrm from aintitcool mentions recently seeing an original 1980 print of Empire. I had nothing but time to kill, so I decided to listen to the rest. Later on in the episode they bring up the news of the 3D conversions and Massawyrm said how the original version of Empire, with all of its mistakes, was still so awesome to watch.
Maybe I've become out of touch, but I'm honestly surprised if Lucas expects the initial blu-ray set to sell like gangbusters the way the '04 dvd set did.
The "Empire of Dreams" documentary from the '04 dvd claims Spielberg was Lucas' first choice to direct Jedi.
I found something interesting in a post over at the avsforum. This person's dad apparently sat next to John Lowry on a plane flight. Here's the relevant text:
"He also mentioned that they're working with the Star Wars movies again, and have gone back to the originals for the groundwork. This is probably for the 3d versions (I would assume the masters for use with the Blu-Ray set are finished already). He implied that this restoration means they will have restored versions of the theatrical Star Wars movies, but that they have had no indication from Lucas that the movies are in the pipeline for release in their theatrical versions."
Here's the direct link to the post:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=19486382&postcount=71
Now someone just needs to dig up an '83 print of Jedi....
Yeah, I don't think 3D will completely take over. Color didn't stop filmmakers from shooting in black and white. Super 35 didn't stop them from shooting in cinemascope. Digital didn't stop them from shooting on film.
You beat me to it, None! I just saw Nikki Finke's tweet about it and raced over here.
I noticed recently that the (reportedly terrible) 3D conversion of the new Clash of the Titans is hitting Blu-ray 3D soon. So I guess hollywood doesn't intend to just sit on the converted movies after they've left 3D theaters. The amount of money from double-dips is just too hard to resist, regardless of the product's actual quality.
ETA several things:
I can see it now.... 2017 rolls around and the converted Star Wars saga is finally complete. Then, a few years later, BAM, Episode VII in native 3D. Just like Lucas "converted" the OT to make them look like modern movies with cgi and digital sound (the SE) and then a few years later, BAM, Episode I with those very same dewbacks and rontos.
All I have to say is that I'm filing this converted saga news under Do Not Want. I don't care how good a job they do, it's still just a 2D movie converted to 3D after the fact. One native eye-view will never look as good as two.
What does everything think this bodes for the OOT? By 2013 we could have an updated Making of Jedi and the first two prequels in 3D and still no OOT blu-ray.
Honestly, the only surefire way to get me excited about a Star Wars movie would be Episode VII, which I could totally see them doing in another eleven years anyway.
hairy_hen raises an interesting question:
What exactly was the source for the '77 crawl in the GOUT?
Zombie, I'm not sure if it's been brought up here at the boards yet, but there's an interview up at thedigitalbits with the answer to your question about the Apocalypse Now BD.
http://thedigitalbits.com/articles/apocalypse/interview01.html
Basically they scanned the 2001 IP (The Redux IP), restored and color-corrected it and, for the '79 version, simply conformed it to that edit. Since it's a relatively simple difference in edits, both versions are seamlessly branched onto a single disc. I expect that BD-50 to be packed to the brim!
If AMC's projectors will all be 4K then we'll have no problem. No new movie is mastered at a higher resolution than 4K unless it's for something like IMAX.
AMC switching completely over to digital projection by 2012 is good news to me and I'll tell you why. Like ChainsawAsh said, every new movie these days goes through a DI anyway, so you're not really gaining anything by seeing it on film.
Secondly, let me give you a couple stories:
I saw Star Trek on opening day and then went back to see it again less than two weeks later. There was a line running down the right side of the print during the last act. Yeah, it's really thin and easy enough to ignore if the scene is relatively dark, but when Spock was flying his ship above the BIG BRIGHT EARTH through the BIG BRIGHT ATMOSPHERE, the line was really noticeable and just made me think "wow, that wouldn't be there if I was seeing this in digital projection."
Then there's my Inception story, oh boy ....
Didn't see it until the Monday after it opened. For starters, there was a thread/fiber/hair/whatever stuck in the gate, so on the lower center of the screen there was this shape sticking out and moving every 24th of a second, really distracting especially during those bright white snow scenes towards the end. It was there from when the trailers started and never went away throughout the entire movie (as a side note, I've learned that if you ever notice something weird about the projection during the trailers then you'd better say something because that's how it's gonna be during the movie). Also, about 30 minutes into the movie the projector turned off and then started up again a few seconds later.
Funny thing is, there was also a screw-up with the one movie I saw projected digitally this summer. Splice was shot in Super 35 but framed at 1.85:1. In other words, it was shot Godfather III style. Whoever was in charge must've thought it was framed at 2.35:1, forgotten to open up the screen, who knows. Subtitles got cut off, tops of heads were getting cut off to an unusual extent (even for Super 35) and - even though I hadn't seen the movie before - it was pretty clear that there was picture information we weren't seeing. For instance, in an establishing shot where we're supposed to see a car driving across the horizon .... we only hear it. I also noticed the odd framing during, ahem, that scene (you know the one I'm talking about if you've seen the movie).