“we do know that Disney and Lucasfilm have created a new 4K master of the original Star Wars (1977 – don’t ask us which version, though we strongly suspect they have 4K presentations of both the original and George Lucas’ preferred version).” - Digital Bits. I trust Bill Hunt’s strong suspicions more than most people’s.
This is the other SE change I was talking about that snuck into v2; notice the panels at Vader’s feet:
I never saw any of those things in those movies.
Of course you didn’t. You’re not a latent pervert.
What’s hilarious is people were seeing these things watching the VHS on a tiny analog tv screen. And even if it really said SEX, were little Timmy and Suzie (not their real names) going to become deviated preverts as a result?
I thought that it said “SFX” and I did!
The only “facts” we really have are that a 4K restoration of a version of A New Hope exists, although even that is hearsay (albeit from a very reliable source), and that the Library of Congress made a scan of their copy of the theatrical cut of Star Wars at the request of Lucasfilm.
I don’t even think that the blu ray looks that bad in the image Mass posted. I’ve never seen the blu rays though.
The Lion King -
I still remember seeing this in the theatre, and I still remember a scene that stunned me. Over halfway through the movie, a bunch of leaves lift into the air and spell out the word “SEX”, but as a kid I thought that the leaves spelled out “SFX”. I was shocked and didn’t know what to think. It distracted me for the rest of the movie. Why would the SFX crew think that it was necessary to distract the audience from the film purely to draw more attention to themselves? It struck me as incredibly arrogant and conceited. Why should the SFX crew be deserving of such a semi-cameo when the voice-actors, animators, and artists are just as responsible for the movie’s creation? Even though I now know that I just misread it, and the leaves didn’t spell “SFX”, I still can’t unsee it, even though it has now been removed from the movie because of the confusion.
Yes that’s what I’m referring to. The only changes I’m aware of being in the DE are the missing shell casings, a panel on the floor behind Vader being lit up on the Star Destroyer, and a frame where the sky immediately darkens when Luke enters Cloud City (which isn’t really a change so much as a coloring bug).
It’s also important to keep in mind that if they’re doing the theatrical version, they can’t just leave out frames or they’ll risk the audio getting de-synched. It’d be more trouble than it’s worth and they know fans’ll jump down their throats if they leave things out. Wardrobe malfunction might be iffy, but we’ll see how they handle it.
My real fear with this is that they’ll choose to not restore the bullet wound impact frames that were cut in 1997, or an image like the partial nudity in the Jedi dance scene. I could see Disney censoring these things, but maybe Lucasfilm as a subsidiary of Disney will have less restrictions like that.
I’ll get excited once I’ve seen it and it’s perfect.
What does a “perfect” OUT blu ray look like to you?
It’s happening boys. There’s no way all this is happening simultaneously by coincidence or that this many people are wrong or flat out lying (why would they?).
I would bet my life they aren’t lying, and I’d bet at least a few years of my life that there’s no way that they’re all mistaken, which would apparently have to also include George Lucas if John Landis understood him correctly.
I did some digging on the old rumor of John Landis dropping that the original versions of Star Wars would be released, and I found a little more closure on that. In the video, he does not mention hearing this from George Lucas, so I feared that this part of the rumor might be total BS. On theforce.net, however, I found one of the first people to actually report on Empire Magazine’s bombshell about the OOT, from the “Star Wars Post”, and he stated “I pushed Empire to confirm and they insist John dropped in their conversation saying its what George told him.” - so unless Empire Magazine outright lied, then George Lucas himself is under the impression that the original versions will be getting released. I know that this is mostly old news, but it makes that rumor feel a lot more concrete than it did when I first heard about it.
I don’t think there are really any canon issues with the SE and OOT. There really isn’t anything consequential changed as far as the “saga” goes.
I think the RMW footage looks pretty great.
EDIT: Then again, I think that this entire forum is overly concerned with color correction. I think I might be in the minority there, though.
We should also remind ourselves that the brief clips in their reel may only be from a restoration of the SE. It may not matter if the color timing isn’t accurate.
Good point. The RMW thing was done (or at least started) years before TFA was released and apparently even before Lucas sold out to Disney. If what some people are saying is true, and the theatrical cut of Star Wars is being restored (I emphasize Star Wars specifically because from what I’ve gathered, that’s the only one they’re having problems with), they’ve been struggling with it as recently as 2015 at least, which was when they got their scan from the Library of Congress. Maybe that was taken for a last minute reference to make sure all of the cut footage was restored properly. That would fit with what someone on Steve Hoffman’s forum said along the lines of the OUT being “almost finished” in 2015, but A New Hope needed more work so it was pushed back until 2017 for the anniversary.
To be fair, it isn’t like the Despecialized Editions are exactly legal.
Will you be restoring the marks on the ground in Cloud City before Leia escapes?
Why would they need to put a disclaimer on the box?
I think the RMW footage looks pretty great.
EDIT: Then again, I think that this entire forum is overly concerned with color correction. I think I might be in the minority there, though.
We’ll see what they end up doing. I bet it’ll be visually fine because the only pre-SE video change was the opening of Star Wars. It’ll be colors or audio that get a few perfectionists riled up. Hopefully they’ll include a couple original theatrical audio tracks.
There’s some intense speculation going on about that in the General SW Discussion forum. I think we’ve nearly cracked the case.
I have heard that Harmy’s plan is to make 3.0 1080p using the 35mm print scan, but I could be misremembering.
I heard about that. I think that is the plan for 3.0, but I remember Harmy saying that he considered updating SW a bit for a 2.8 release basically, and then he’d do them all in 1080p for the 3.0 versions.
Getting rid of those videos wouldn’t help Fox hinder the Despecialized Edition. If they wanted to put a stop to it then they’d probably contact Harmy himself. Do you think it was just a content ID match that led to Fox blocking the video, or a specific targeting?
Most stores only sell the PT and OT separately anyway. Also, it tended to be the SW fans that defended the PT when it came out. They weren’t beloved by the masses.
The post-ROTJ years and pre-SEs were “The Star Wars Trilogy” - not saga.
Sorry for the most-likely redundant question, but I’m about a year out of the loop on Despecialized. What is Harmy’s plan? I remember after 2.5 of Jedi he said that he’d get Empire to 2.5 (which I know is what’s happening now), and I seem to recall there being a potential update to Star Wars before the 3.0. Is that right or was that plan discarded?
Thanks again to Harmy and all those who help with these. The despecialized editions are a gift. From about 2005 until 2014 when I joined I can count on one hand the number of times I watched Star Wars (I refused to watch the SEs), and now it’s at least twice a year with the Harmy editions.
I remember the “saga” language getting thrown around a lot once we got the prequels.
