He posted it on his Patreon, he posts all of his scoops there first, before eventually putting them on the website.
ibb . co/PGnCdY20
Bill Hunt said:
All right, you may have seen on the Internet over the past week or so that there’s a rumor circulating that the original Star Wars Trilogy is being remastered.
And depending on where you’re looking, you may have seen more information or less information on this particular topic.
I’ve been holding my tongue on this for a while, and for good reason, but now that it’s starting to be out there in the ether, I wanted to chime in here on Patreon. (Not yet on The Bits, but maybe soon—we’ll see.)
So let me just clarify things right up front: Yes, my sources have unofficially confirmed that Lucasfilm is engaged in a full archival restoration of these films, and has in fact been working on the project for many months now.
This is indeed a full ground-up restoration of the original theatrical films—Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983)—scanned from the 35mm camera negatives, the VistaVision effects negatives, and best additional available film elements (interpositives, etc).
And the primary motivation here, especially with the original Star Wars celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2027, is preservation. Disney paid a large amount of money for ownership of this franchise, and creatively it all begins with these three films. So it makes a great deal of sense to protect those assets.
You may be surprised to learn that this is really the first proper photochemical preservation effort on these films done since 1996-97.
Keep in mind that the current 4K Ultra HD editions are all based on 16-bit 4K scan and restoration work done by Reliance MediaWorks (formerly Lowry Digital) in 2011-12 for the Blu-ray release… and that effort was built upon the 10-bit HD scan and restoration work done by Lowry back in 2003-04 for DVD… which of course built on the 1996-97 restorations done for the Special Edition theatrical releases.
But of course, lots of people were unhappy with the SE work, and it’s fair to say Reliance/Lowry’s restoration efforts have been controversial over the years—as physical media fans will no doubt be aware, their work has tended to be somewhat heavy handed.
In terms of this latest effort—which is apparently being done by a team custom assembled by Lucasfilm specifically for this project working under the name Aurora Light Imageworks—I’ve actually been tracking the details since March of this year, which is when I first began to hear from industry sources that work was underway.
The information I was hearing began picking up in late April, leading up to Disney’s annual “May the Fourth” celebration, and what was notable then was the number of industry sources reporting to me that they were seeing or hearing signs of work happening.
When I say industry sources by the way, typically I’m talking about studio executives, filmmakers, producers, DPs, people who work in tech services at various post houses and authoring facilities, and occasionally retail sources—that sort of thing.
As it happens, I’m friends with multiple people who work for Lucasfilm directly, either at the Letterman Digital Center, or ILM, or Skywalker Sound on the Ranch, etc. But I’m also very careful not to put such people in an awkward position, and it’s typically only very senior people who have and can share valuable information off the record or on deep background.
But what’s that line from Andor? “I have friends everywhere.”
I’ve been a working professional in this industry since the mid-1990s. I know a lot of people. And one hears things.
It was when news broke that the British Film Institute had discovered a rare Technicolor I.B. print of the original 1977 version of Star Wars in their archives, and that Lucasfilm was particularly interested in it, that things began to heat up. And then came the most surprising news: Not only did Lucasfilm allow the BFI to screen that print publicly in London (in June of this year), Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was there to introduce the screening!
That was the moment I knew these industry restoration rumors were the real deal. Why would Lucasfilm be so interested in this particular print? Because such prints have a finer grain structure and they’re made using the dye-transfer “imbibition” printing process (that’s where the I.B. comes from), so the colors don’t fade. In other words, that print is probably the best color reference for what the original film should look like that still survives.
And the fact that Lucasfilm allowed it to be screened for the public (no doubt after properly scanning it for protection) is, I believe, telling.
On the topic of the new restoration itself, a great deal more information has quietly leaked in recent weeks—allegedly by accident—from within the project. We’re talking about raw video clips of scanned sources, technical notes, and other information.
If the details are to be believed, the restorations are based upon new 6K scans of the 35mm assets (OCN where available, and color reversal intermediate or interpositive when needed), as well as 8K scans of the VistaVision material. And the audio work is being done by Skywalker Sound from the original stereo mixes and 6-track 70mm mixes (sourced from magnetic stripe), with the mono mixes used as reference, and of course Ben Burtt’s original sound library and his more recent 7.1 and Atmos mixes.
I don’t want to share too much of what’s leaked, but I will share a trio of snapshots (from video clips) of each film. Keep in mind these aren’t necessarily final, but they do give you a very good idea of the scan and source image quality…
These images are greatly reduced in size and compressed for posting here. But as you can see, even these raw images are better in terms of color and detail than the recent 4K releases. So it does seem as if—for perhaps the very first time ever—these restorations are being done right, again from the ground up. And the goal is to archive, protect, and preserve virtually every single piece of film, and every original element.
Now… it also seems likely that once these original theatrical versions are restored and protected, that George Lucas’ preferred Special Editions will be upgraded as well. Once again, that may mean yet another pass at redoing many of the CG visual effects shots first produced in 1996-97.
The question of course is: Will those restored original theatrical versions see the light of day? Or will the Special Editions—appropriately upgraded based on this new restoration work—continue to be the only publicly available versions?
Given that 2027 is the 50th anniversary of the original Star Wars, and given that Lucasfilm has already allowed that Technicolor I.B. print to be screened by the BFI, my suspicion is that there’s a good chance we will actually get to see the original OT, perhaps via limited theatrical and IMAX screenings.
And maybe… just maybe… on Blu-ray and or 4K Ultra HD. (May the Force Be with Us!)
But the simple truth is that we just don’t know yet what 2027 will bring.
In any case, I am personally beyond relieved to know that those original theatrical versions are finally being properly preserved, so that fans will never again have to listen to George Lucas or anyone else claiming that they no longer exist, or that they’ve somehow been lost to time.
And that is no small thing.
So what do you guys think of all this? Please share your thoughts in the comments below and feel free to discuss all of this with your fellow Patreon subscribers.
And please don’t share any of what I’ve posted here—including the screen shots—outside of Patreon. There are many more such leaked images online, if you know where to look, but I’m only going to share these few here on Patreon, and not on The Bits. And when I do finally make a post on our website about this, it’s likely going to be much more concise than what I’ve written here.
Keep in mind that work on this restoration is still underway, and much about the 2027 50th anniversary celebration has yet to be finalized by Lucasfilm and Disney. My feeling is: Better to hold our tongues in public now, and let things play out as they will, so as to not negatively influence whatever decision they ultimately make.
Back with more soon! Stay tuned… –BH
