Fang Zei

On a somewhat related note, I just got around to watching all three of those interviews for the very first time last night. But the thing that struck me even more than what GL says in the interviews is the realization that this was the "one last time" vhs release and it only took, what, two measly years for them to cave and put it out on dvd (anamorphic or not) after they'd released the SE in 04?

Hey, it would be funny if Owen actually is Obi-Wan's brother anyway. It would be a really wierd coincidence, especially when we're talking in galactic terms, but it could work.

We wouldn't even have to put up with altered colors if LFL would just use a suitable interpositive (or, if worst came to worst, a positive print) of the original versions and just did some rudimentary restoration and then made a 1080p master from that.

All we really mean is that if the '04 versions got remastered for dvd quality, the original versions get remastered for dvd quality (not left in 1993 laserdisc quality). If one version gets put on blu-ray in 1080p, so must the other version.

I hate to say it, but GL was a genius in his plan. He knew that no one out there really knows the first thing about dvd technology, and that he would get away with the treatment he gave the OOT since there are way too many people out there willing to spew their ignorance with "What, you didn't want bad quality?" and so forth.

Well, that's irony for you. The very same people who accuse us of never being satisfied with how our oh-so-precious OOT is presented are the very same people who are constantly demanding more changes be made to the current SE because, ahem, they're not satisfied with it.

Yes, it is.

Not to mention the fact that we shouldn't even be bringing nostalgia into this at all.

Nostalgia is the very reason George didn't bother remastering the OOT. He thought "oh, sure, people will pay 60 dollars for shitty transfers just because they're nostalgic for them." Whatever happened to these being classic movies, not just stuff from our childhood?

Janskeet said:

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the '04 DVD fiasco is what made Ridley Scott become very cautious about his '07 Blade Runner DVD collection. 

You might be right, but then again Ridley doesn't own the rights to Blade Runner whereas Lucas does own the rights to Star Wars. Someone raised the point last year when the final cut was released that if Ridley owned the rights, he might've very well not released the other 4 versions in comparable quality and just stuck with "his" version. Hey, I hope I'm wrong. I also hope that George's people can sit him down and have a nice talk with him about how a new set would sell better if it had the original versions included.

Heh, and I clicked on this thread thinking you were going to metion how it's one of the handfull of widescreen movies that you can't watch in anything better than non-anamorphic dvd.

The current word on Indy IV is that it will in fact be hitting blu-ray (I never seriously believed that it wouldn't). Digitalbits says an announcement at Comic-Con is likely.

I guess we're looking at LFL's first blu-ray release pretty soon.

I remember going to Magic of Myth WAY the hell back in '97 (the Fall, I think) at the Air & Space museum. I've lived in Northern VA my whole life so it's just a hop away. The best part is that it was free (yay DC!). Still have my ticket stub actually. Still remember the Struzan art from the SE posters blown up onto a big wall with a 20th anniversary logo of some sort.

I caught Where Science Meets Imagination with a couple friends back in March when it was still at the Franklin Institute in Philly. I go to school in Northern DE, so once again my location was fortunate.

The coolest part of the exhibit for me was seeing the Devastator and Tantive IV models. Since my knowledge of all things Star Wars has increased vastly over the last ten years, it was cool to see that and go "wow, the Tantive IV model really is bigger than the Devastator!"

CO, you got banned? Wow, time flies. It seems like just yesterday that you and zombie were posting there. The thread about the big announcement of the unaltered versions hitting dvd is what first springs to mind.

I lost a great deal of respect for TF.N when I saw this interview:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwocentsa127.html (scroll to a little more than halfway down. When you see a picture from Empire of Yoda, click on it. It's an embedded video. Yes, after almost two years it's still there.)

generalfrevious said:

Why has this thread been hijacked by Indiana Jones? I thought I started this topic about SW; I guess we so bored we have to talk about something else.

Well, on that note, it's been rumored now twice in the past week by thedigitalbits that Indy IV is hitting dvd in October but that there's still no word on a blu-ray. I'm chalking that up to a lack of information and not to Lucas and Spielberg being crazy enough to not release it on BD. The movie didn't exactly do TPM business. They wouldn't be proving anything by releasing it only on dvd in the fall and holding back on the blu-ray.

It's just that I'm fed up with all of the non-news about the OOT these days. Not that it's you guys' fault, I just snapped is all.

Yes, but we still don't have an answer as to which version it was.

PS: I can't figure out how to make your quote appear before my text and not after.

zombie84 said:

The guy just told us he saw it this afternoon. Take it easy there.

Well, ok, but let's get some answers then.

AND WAS IT THE ORIGINAL VERSION. NO, OF COURSE IT WASN'T. WHY DID YOU EVEN BOTHER STARTING THIS THREAD (NO OFFENSE).

The only thing that's actually been frustrating me is that - while we are here to combine our efforts on preservations and fan edits IN LIEU OF a proper oot release - we've all very rapidly adopted the attitude that Lucas could never possibly be brought around to sharing the sentiment.

To be fair (and to keep things on topic), it's totally understandable why we've pretty much given up any hope of that ever happening. I mean, back in May of '06 when digitalbits broke the news of the laserdisc bidniss, RAH himself basically threw up his arms and said "I give up. I'm willing to do this restoration job free of charge and you don't even want that. What the hell, man."

At this point it's not a question of "could he," but "would he."

Hey, The Graduate didn't get an anamorphic dvd release in the U.S. until just last year unless I'm mistaken.