As a friend of mine has said, the "Art of" books for the prequels really make you hurt from what might've been.
I just LOVE how misleading it was that they framed both of them in 16:9, even though the GOUT is only 4:3 letterbox.
(all kidding aside)
My dad recently got an HDTV, and the '04 discs look so good that it hurts to not have the original versions in comparable quality.
When I first clicked on this thread several days ago, I thought I was going to find that someone had finally drafted an actual petition. If someone can just make a good argument as to why we want the OOT in decent quality, then we can go from there on what exactly we want.
ESHBG said:I am going to laugh so hard if the OOT bonus discs do turn out to be anamorphic and Luca$ tries to slip it in like ntohing even happened at all. With how crazy he is, I could see him doing something like this LOL
No, the "like nothing even happened at all" act is going to step out on stage when he puts the OOT on blu-ray.
Ditto on what Gaffer Tape said.
They don't actually say a word about it on any of the discs to my knowledge. There's just that one glimpse as Gaffer Tape said.
I would want the theatrical versions of ALL six movies on a future blu-ray set, not just the OT. After all, I actually saw the prequels up on the big screen. I don't want the OOT or theatrical TPM stuck in laserdisc quality.
Baronlando said:Well, even though it's most likely just a repackage of the shitty 2006 discs, look at it this way: the original versions have now been widely released TWICE, so much for the whole Integrity of Lucas' Vision BS holding things up, at least that's been put to rest.
Yeah, and what's weird is that I didn't even notice this thread until after posting in the Star Wars: Take Two thread. What I was going to say there, but didn't, is that Lucas has already thrown out the window all credibility as to an artistic stance by releasing the original versions at all. "Now we'll see who wants them, it'll all come out in the end, etc." As you said baron, we're now getting them for the second time when they were supposed to be limited editions. Hell, I still saw them on sale at Borders recently next to all of their other star wars stuff (mostly the new Clone Wars books, in addition to stuff like the paperback of Allegiance, etc).
Could the estate allow it, or would Lucas write into his will "not even over my dead body?"
Hey, whatev. If we can at least get the OOT mastered in HD someday (a feat well within the realm of the possible) then I can live without Episodes VII through IX. It would be hard enough to fit it into continuity, although they have left themselves a one hundred year gap before the Legacy comics start.
While I'm on that subject, no, I don't think we're ever going to see something like a reboot happen with Star Wars. This only happens when the franchise is both creatively bankrupt and not still controlled by the guy who started it 30 years earlier. Even when Lucas is gone, the most unexpected thing that might actually happen is what we're all on this website for. But I have a feeling that could happen much sooner.
It's been redone in its own way anyway, with alterations to the original and retcons in the prequels. Really, I think that's the key difference between Star Wars and the other franchises.
Episode VIII is up.
Johnny Ringo said:The thing that DOES piss me off about the Show / Film is that it totally disregards the 2d clone wars series, While HEAVILY borrowing ideas from it.
Do tell. I've been curious about this ever since Filoni acted in that behind the scenes video as if the Genndy series never happened. "Ever since that conversation in A New Hope, Star Wars fans have been wondering ..... what were the Clone Wars?" Ummmm, yea, and we just got exactly that several years ago.
http://chud.com/articles/articles/15965/1/REVIEW-STAR-WARS---THE-CLONE-WARS/Page1.html
Oh, and Moriarty's review is worth reading just to get to those last couple sentences.
Incentive, much?
The two-disc blu-ray costs the same as the two-disc standard dvd, which is the same thing Iron Man is doing (and for the same price). However, the single disc is still five dollars less than Indy's.
Since this is the most recent thread that's relevent, I'll mention it here.
Indy IV has been officially announced for blu-ray. Yes, that's right, Lucasfilm is putting stuff on blu-ray. We're one tiny step closer to our goal, people!!!!
http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/kingdom-of-the-crystal-skull.html
Here's another Washington Post article that I read just a few days ago in the paper and ink edition.
It's a good read:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/07/AR2008080701846.html
A not so positive, but somewhat generous review.
Seeing as how the new software apparently lets you upload your own, yea, I'm on it.
CO, I'm strangely in the almost exact opposite situation.
A friend of mine mentioned to me a couple weeks ago that he'd actually considered going the midnight madness Toys R' Us sale. To be fair, he was in a club in college where people would mod nerf guns, so that's kinda his thing. Anyway, this was over an aim conversation, and I mentioned the whole deal with how this is basically just an ad for the show. Then, earlier today, this same friend sends me a message asking about going to see it on friday.
So while all of your friends either don't know or don't care, I don't care but know someone who does. It's surreal.
It says right in the opening crawl of ROTS that both Obi-Wan and Anakin are KNIGHTS. Also, in the EU Anakin becomes a Knight some six months prior to ROTS. His hair being slightly grown out and his scars, along with the fact that he can now take a padawan, would place the new show somewhere in that six month span (probably at the very beginning).
Yea, I'm just wondering if when they show it on tv - since they're probably not going to show it in 2.35:1 - if there was more picture information that's getting matted off for the movie or if that's all there is and the tv version will just "zoom it in" to 16:9. Trivial, I know, especially when the rest of the show will almost definitely be done in straight 16:9.
So have we gotten confirmation of whether or not this is just the first several episodes of the show edited together (and in cinemascope)?
Too true.
It's a little sad that it's apparently of zero consequence to Lucas just because he makes so much off of merchandise and therefore doesn't need the money.
Baronlando,
In answer to that, I'll simply say that the GOUT was a cash-grab. But because they oversaturated the market by releasing Star Wars on dvd for the third year in a row, they now need to wait a while before the next release.
He probably won't release it until after the 3D versions hit theaters. Speaking of which:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news08/080808h.php
Hey, if the GOUT is all we ever get, then it will be a glass fully empty. But that remains to be seen.
This was inspired by the "How would you remaster the OOT" thread.
Ok guys, you know I like to speculate. The reason we're all here is that we want George to come around and give us all what we want, and whether we like it or not, he's the man with the legal rights, so the decision (at least for the next several decades) rests in his hands. The 2006 release, I've come to realize, can be looked at either as a glass half full or a glass half empty. I remember people on this forum saying that it was, at the very least, a step in the right direction. But for whatever reason, that opinion seems to have shifted over the last two years.
So far, we have a comment from McCallum about "100 hours of documentaries." This got me thinking about the possibilities for the Blu-ray, which - even if it's ported to standard dvd (and I doubt it will be) - is what everyone will be making the biggest deal about, just as they did back in '04 when the movies were finally on dvd. Dual-layered blu-ray discs have enough capacity that if you had six of them you could easily hold 100 hours in good quality 480 SD video. Even if they ported the blu-ray to dvd, I don't think they'd bother including any of that documentary stuff since they would need several extra discs per film just to hold all of it.
The movies will most likely be released individually, with the option of getting them altogether in a big set. I honestly don't see Lucas doing much alteration to any of the prequels (beyond what he's already done, anyway. see: the current dvd releases). He'll get Lowry to clean up TPM and AOTC (Yes, even though it was shot digitally. Lowry said that back in '04, as I recall, so it's their words and not mine). He could EASILY branch the theatrical cut of TPM seamlessly, so I would hope he does so. Digital Yoda is the only additional change I'm expecting to see in the updated cut. But eps II and III I'm expecting to remain the same.
And that brings us to the OT, reason we're all here. Ok, here's what I see happening. George will either take RAH up on his offer or he'll just dig up the interpositives from the archives and get his own people to handle the transfer. They'll master the movies in 1080p and that will be that. For the audio, there will be at least a regular lossy 5.1 (that's using the Blade Runner blu-ray as an example) if not a lossless or uncompressed variant. Those discs will be tacked onto the primary discs which will be the latest update of the 2004 version. So it would be two discs each for the prequels (with both versions of TPM seamlessly branched) and three discs each for the originals.
Why do I think he will come around? Well, for lack of a better answer, it's that I view the GOUT as a glass half full situation.
As for a timetable, my first guess would be when the live-action show starts. The latest rumor is that Indy IV is hitting blu-ray in October, but the originals aren't hitting until later. Maybe that will be 2009 and then Star Wars will be 2010?