RM4747

That guy with no name said:

We didn’t just come out of nowhere, claiming we have info you don’t, we have an ethos, we have credibility. Everything that leaked did not leak from the actual source: the YouTube channel, but from within our archive, and not everything made its way out. Everything in this thread has been pre-approved by me for public release… Because most of these screenshots were taken by me… We have been discussing these leaks for almost an entire year, privately. We have a multitude of information that we chose not to release. Why? Because it’s sensitive info that might get people in trouble. You either accept that, so we can have a proper conversation, or you can remain in ignorance. And at this point, you don’t know the half of it.

Credibility? Who gave you credibility?

According to the FAQ, you randomly saw the ALI YouTube page in your recommendations. That’s not a leak, that’s dumb luck.

That’s assuming it’s true, many people (including EckhartsLadder) believe it was more likely leaked by an employee working on the restoration, and this story of someone accidentally discovering the YouTube channel is unlikely, and doesn’t pass the smell test.

Yeah, I’m sure you care deeply about the names you censored from the documents lol

Like “Supervised by K.K.”

Yeah… really hard to imagine who that might be… thank god you censored that one. Really would put her job at risk!

Broom Kid said:

No one here knows anything I don’t know

This is sort of the problem I’m trying to get at, your inability to consider that’s not correct

Claims of insider knowledge or leaks require proof.

“Trust me, bro” is not a source.

Either post the screenshots and documents, or stop talking about it and claiming to have information.

No one will believe you otherwise.

Broom Kid said:

Good luck to you!

You too, Jabba!

Broom Kid said:
But it seems like a real weird way to go about learning stuff you don’t know.

No one here knows anything I don’t know, because it all leaked publicly, thanks to the leakers who didn’t agree with you all gatekeeping the information and clips for years lol

And no one believes anonymous people saying “Trust me… I have more proof… I just can’t share it!”

Sorry, no one believes you. Share the proof, otherwise everyone automatically assumes you’re lying and you’ll be ignored.

I hope more people leak things publicly from your secret little group, so you no longer feel special and important!

Broom Kid said:

Firstly, I’m not making “wild, unfounded claims” I’m telling you what I think. I’m giving an opinion on what I think the plausible scenario is, which is that I don’t think they “changed their minds” on anything, I think “give em the originals on the 50th Anniversary” was the idea for awhile now, and then put forward the support for my opinion being that they’d been working on this for YEARS before anyone found out, which means they were likely planning/scheduling it YEARS before that.

If you don’t want to hear what people are telling you, if you want to wrestle every conversation into a referendum on you and your belief (or lack of it) and the trivia you can’t wait to share like we haven’t already heard it, I mean - you can do that, but I think you already know how tiresome that comes across, right?

Do you want to know what you’re talking about or do you want to be “right” on the internet? Because those are increasingly two completely different things. If you want to react to people answering your questions in good faith like a cross-examining defense attorney you can, sure. Nothing’s stopping you (certainly not a block button, which we unfortunately don’t have here). But it seems like a real weird way to go about learning stuff you don’t know.

The only evidence we have is that work started in 2022.

There’s no proof they were planning this earlier than that, which means it’s definitely possible in 2019 when JJ Abrams said that, they weren’t at that time planning to release them, but changed their mind a few years later.

I think it’s obvious if they were planning to release them back then, they would’ve told JJ Abrams privately and he wouldn’t have answered that way in the interview, saying it’s impossible. He could’ve just said “They don’t want me talking about this.” or “You’ll have to wait and see.”

Broom Kid said:

Why do you think Abrams talking to the press on a press tour is giving 100% honest answers at all times? Also when was Abrams giving that answer? About A DECADE ago, yeah? If my answer is “they wanted to do other stuff first, and then decided to do this on the 50th” then probably nothing changed their mind, and Abrams was giving a now 10-yr old answer that isn’t relevant anymore (if it ever was since it was press tour b.s). Like, why would they tell Abrams anything anyway, what does he have to do with it?

It was 2019, like I said. 6 years ago.

But you said they’ve been planning this release all along in secret, which there’s no evidence of.

And yeah, he seemed pretty honest. It was surprising enough to people at the time that it made headlines that a Star Wars director had asked Lucasfilm directly to release the originals, and they said no or that it “wasn’t possible”.

Broom Kid said:
Your whole thing since you got here is “Just asking questions” and then arguing almost everything you’re eventually told. You can’t simultaneously know better than everyone in here while ALSO asking everyone in here to educate you on all the shit you don’t know, man! Either you actually want to know, or you just want prompts to talk about how much YOU know. One of those is useful, the other not so much.

All of that seems like an off-topic personal attack, so I won’t be responding to it. But none of that is correct.

Yes, I ask for proof when people make wild, unfounded claims like “They’ve been planning this all along!!” lol

In fact, most of these threads are filled with unfounded claims.

It’s lots of “Trust me! I have access to lots of leaked and internal things. No… I can’t post them… just trust me!!”

Sure, Jan.

No one believes any claims without proof.

Thanks to whoever leaked the screenshots on Reddit, otherwise this group would’ve been gatekeeping it for years lol

Broom Kid said:

Yeah, I don’t think anything “changed their mind” - I think they had ideas for what they wanted to do when they first bought the company, and then those ideas ran their course, and then they decided to get ready for the 50th Anniversary. The fact we didn’t even know they were doing this for YEARS before it accidentally leaked out, pretty strongly suggests they think about stuff like this WAY in advance, on schedules it doesn’t occur to us they’re even working on.

Then why was JJ Abrams told it was impossible and given a vague non-answer that he didn’t understand? lol

MORC said:

Of course the fans will be glad over this, but I wonder if the general audiences will be that excited to watch movies they’ve seen a thousand times already again, right after Star Wars got milked dry for content.

I think so. I’ve personally never seen the originals (or prequels) in theaters, so this will be my first time, and I’m excited for it to be the original versions.

The last time it was widely released in theaters was 1997, and that was the special editions. I was very young then lol, so I never saw that release.

They were planning a re-release in 2012, but that was cancelled when they sold the company to Disney.

I grew up watching the trilogy on my dad’s VHS copies from the 80s.

Broom Kid said:

Nothing probably changed their minds, they likely always planned for it to drop on the 50th Anniversary. they’ll have been working on it for 5 years before it actually gets released.

It’s not like this is going to earn THAT much, or that they’re down so bad that they NEEDED it to come out earlier.

I doubt it was planned all along.

JJ Abrams said in 2019 he directly asked Lucasfilm to release the original versions, and they gave some vague answer about how it wasn’t going to happen.

“I have asked about this because, I mean, who wouldn’t want to see that? But I’ve been told that — for reasons that I don’t quite understand — that that’s not necessarily possible. Which is, you know, too bad because that was the thing that I loved.”

If he wasn’t able to convince them or was even given a reason, that’s pretty odd.

Everyone’s hunch seemed to be just that they wanted to respect George’s wishes, and now they no longer care I guess lol

And I think between theatrical and home media it will easily earn them $100 million+

charlynne said:

I honestly thought that George would never do it, but I’m glad to be proven wrong. With so many changes made to this movie, a re-release of the original version and in higher quality was very due.

As of last year, George still seemed opposed to releasing the originals. He was asked directly at Cannes 2024, and grumbled about “We released them on DVD, but no one wanted them! Everyone said they looked terrible! It would cost millions of dollars to restore them! It’s my movie and I can change what I want!”

Once he sold the company in 2012, he gave up all control over things like this.

I seriously doubt they asked for his blessing, since they don’t need it. And Bob Iger supposedly doesn’t get along well with him anyway since he rejected his story ideas for Episodes 7-9 and he didn’t like the sequels.

What confuses me is why they waited so long.

Disney could’ve done this immediately after buying Lucasfilm, or for the 40th anniversary.

So I wonder who changed their mind, and why.

That guy with no name said:

RM4747 said:

That guy with no name said:

RM4747 said:

oojason said:

They are still leaking

I always found the “some guy randomly saw the videos in his YouTube recommendations” story a little fishy.

Seems more likely to me this was leaked by someone working on the restoration.

As the guy in question, I can confirm this is no true…

So how are things still leaking? lol

Wouldn’t they have immediately fixed the auto-uploader and made everything private when they were aware it had leaked?

Hard to believe someone working there isn’t involved if things are still leaking.

Well, you better believe it.

That answered none of my questions lol

They didn’t fix the uploader? How are things still leaking?

That guy with no name said:

RM4747 said:

oojason said:

They are still leaking

I always found the “some guy randomly saw the videos in his YouTube recommendations” story a little fishy.

Seems more likely to me this was leaked by someone working on the restoration.

As the guy in question, I can confirm this is no true…

So how are things still leaking? lol

Wouldn’t they have immediately fixed the auto-uploader and made everything private when they were aware it had leaked?

Hard to believe someone working there isn’t involved if things are still leaking.

oojason said:

They are still leaking

How is that possible? The ALI YouTube channel is still up and public?

Surely, Lucasfilm is aware of these leaks by now. Why would they not have fixed the auto-uploader and made everything private by now?

I always found the “some guy randomly saw the videos in his YouTube recommendations” story a little fishy.

Seems more likely to me this was leaked by someone working on the restoration.

Are new clips still leaking? Or are these ones that leaked originally and are just being posted now?

They still haven’t fixed their upload script? lol

I guess as long as enough remains on the negative for them to restore digitally, it’s best to use that.

The separation masters would technically be second gen, but not sure how noticeable it would be.

Christopher Nolan scans the interpositive instead of the OCN for his movies, and they still look great.

Since they’re doing color correction anyway, maybe it doesn’t matter as much.

aGreatHumanBeing said:

Onne said:

I would love to see “Definitive Editions” where all the problematic changes are reversed. Obviously, this brings a problem : what to keep and what to reverse?

To make every fan happy, Disney must release this on the streaming service with a questionnaire that the viewer have to fill out before watching the movie:

Do you prefer
a) Han shoots first
b) Greedo shoots first

Do you prefer
a) Yub Nub
b) Victory celebration

…and 50 questions later the streaming will adjust the movie according to your input! 😄

Kathleen Kennedy reading this and banging her head on the desk 😆

“I think I’m ready to retire now…”

For the negatives apparently being so faded and in such rough shape, I’m amazed they were able to clean them up so well.

The raw scans are interesting to see: streamable. com/8xxg9h

They also had the option of scanning the separation masters, which are pretty much pristine and don’t fade at all, but that’s more work/time/money and apparently the negatives were still salvageable.

If you watch the behind the scenes bonus feature about the 1997 restoration, they claimed the negatives even back then were already badly faded and in rough shape, and they said “If we don’t do it now, we’ll never be able to scan the negatives ever again!”

youtu. be/VhLUdy3RDpM

Well… thankfully that wasn’t true lol

Broom Kid said:

I feel like it’s exceedingly likely they’re going to run back the 1997 Special Edition (20th Anniversary) release schedule. They’ll have a whole year of stuff. Theatrical releases in the spring, Starfighter in the summer, Merch/Streaming/Home Video in the fall, in time for the holidays.

They’re not going to stretch out Empire and Jedi on three year (or even one year) waits per movie. They already know that with each movie release the receipts for the trilogy decrease. That’s what happened in 1997, too. These movies are 40-50 yrs old. People aren’t going to wait on them to come out in yearly installments again. There is basically no anticipation for “what happens next” that makes such a thing feasible anymore. They’ve been consuming them AS a trilogy for about as long as it’s BEEN a trilogy.

They moved the release date of Star Wars’ re-release up from April to February 19th. That’s very likely because they’re making room for Empire and Jedi to squeeze in before Starfighter opens. And if they’re doing that, they’re 100% going to have a UHD/Blu-ray release and streaming drops on that same schedule.

My only real question is about the soundtracks. I really want to believe Mike Matessino and Neil S. Bulk (he used to visit here!) have been working on the glory-hallelujah blowout 9-film expanded/remastered set of all Williams’ scores.

But it’s December 2025. This isn’t really happening until February 2027. We got time for all those announcements to come out (or the evidence of their existence to leak, LOL)

I hope so, but if they were all being released at the same time, wouldn’t the announcement have mentioned Empire and Jedi too?

I don’t think they’re going to put all 3 in theaters at the same time.

They may release all 3 on home video in 2027, then do theatrical releases of Empire and Jedi in 2030 and 2033.

Onne said:

Honestly, I’ll be fully happy when I’m sure we’ll get the three movies in 4k/1080p blurays bundles (individually or as a box set).
Ok, I know I’m in the minority here (so please don’t trigger the Death Star at me!) : I like most of the special editions changes (minus “Han didn’t shot first”, Jabba in Mos Eisley, the Sarlacc beak and Jedi Rock to name a few) but do you think that this restoration will be used as a template to create a color timing accurate, non DNR’ed version of the SE? I would love to see “Definitive Editions” where all the problematic changes are reversed. Obviously, this brings a problem : what to keep and what to reverse? I think that the exemples that I cited could definitively be reversed. Then remaking the CGI in Mos Eisley with a modern technology would be enough. Those “Definitive Editions” would remain coherent with the prequels and peacefully coexist with the OOT. That would imply messing with George Lucas work, but isn’t Disney already doing it by releasing these OOT restorations?

This was discussed a few pages back, but I think it’s pretty unlikely they’re going to do anything with the Special Editions.

My guess is those will stay untouched, exactly as they are since that’s George’s version.

The color and CGI was overseen by George, and they’re exactly as he wants them.

Kathleen Kennedy was even asked years ago if they were going to make additional changes to the films and she was like “Oh, god no. Those will always be George’s. I would never touch those.”

Slavicuss said:

In some ways, I’m sympathetic.

I’m an editor myself, and I’ve worked with directors who had the temptation to go back and re-edit their films, tweak them, fix problems that we didn’t have the time or money for, etc.

It’s pretty common.

But at some point you have to move on, and realize that’s the best we could do at the time.

Sure, maybe we could go back and do a director’s cut, but I’d never support erasing the original version and pretending it never existed.

Slavicuss said:

I don’t care what Disney’s reasons are for doing this. At last, commonsense prevails.

George Lucas currently in shambles! Just punched Chewbacca in the face!

youtu . be/Bq30vO3K4Lw

Slavicuss said:
Out of interest, who are these people that are supposedly upset that the originals are being restored, and released into theatres?

The minority of people who prefer the special editions lol

But that’s what choice is for, the viewer can pick the version they prefer.

Just like how pretty much every other movie with a director’s cut has released all versions.

Close Encounters, Blade Runner, Godfather 3, etc. etc.

The stupid part wasn’t doing the special editions, he’s correct, the director is free to tweak their movie if they want to. (Assuming the studio allows.)

The stupid part was gatekeeping it, and telling viewers they’re no longer allowed to watch the theatrical version, and trying to ban it and take it off the market. No other director has really done that.

Even Steven Spielberg later admitted that re-editing E.T. was a mistake, and he reversed his changes.

In some cases (Blade Runner, Godfather 3) I agree that the director’s tweaks and re-edits are better, but they should still give viewers the choice of what version they want to watch.

They put all 5 versions of Blade Runner out on Blu-Ray! That’s how it should be done.

I think the variety of online attention it received since it originally leaked on Reddit probably led to them announcing it. After that leak it was repeated by a variety of pretty mainstream websites. Pretty much impossible for one person to take credit for it, except the person who originally discovered the ALI YouTube page and downloaded all of the clips.

I’d be surprised if their original plan was to announce this today.

It was a very short blurb on their website with no details, and it seemed like they were just trying to get ahead of the leaks.

Very much seems like something they’d announce with more fanfare usually, like at Celebration 2027 (maybe the home media releases will be announced there?)

They haven’t announced Empire or Jedi yet either. Maybe those are planned for 2030 and 2033 in theaters? Hopefully we don’t have to wait that long for the home media releases…

Connor said:

Without sounding egotistical I can confidently say that my video of the leaked clips getting the attention that it did definitely pushed them into announcing this early

Umm… okay 😂

I don’t think 50k views pushed them into doing anything lol

This originally leaked like 6 months ago, but it was more widely posted on Reddit about a month ago.

After that it got pretty widespread media coverage online.

JayArgonaut said:

Oh, when did he say that in recent times?

Cannes Film Festival 2024, he did an interview that’s on YouTube.

He was specifically asked if the original versions would be released in 4K, and he got all grumpy and was like “We already released them on DVD! Nobody wanted them, and everyone said they looked terrible and that we purposely made them look terrible! We didn’t, that’s how they looked!”

I doubt if he was even aware this re-master was underway, since he really hasn’t worked for Lucasfilm since he sold it and retired in 2012.

LeperMessiah117 said:

RM4747 said:

That guy with no name said:

They spent millions of dollars on this and have hired like 300 people. Of course, they’re gonna milk it on home media lol!

Would love to see George’s reaction to this news lol

youtu . be/Bq30vO3K4Lw?si=SSh_Xw0qET6oamnN

That guy with no name said:

They spent millions of dollars on this and have hired like 300 people. Of course, they’re gonna milk it on home media lol!

Would love to see George’s reaction to this news lol

Wonder if he still thinks “no one wanted to see them” like he was still saying last year.