moviefreakedmind

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20:14
An extra panel is lit up on the aisle leading to Vader.

1:37:29
The sky behind Luke spontaneously shifts to a darker color

1:47:24
The particles on the floor need to be restored

And of course, the GOUT footage and the 97 zooming shots could be updated, but those three were the only things I noticed, only two of which are alterations from the Special Edition.

I know that this is not the intent of this project, but I would like to respectfully suggest a version of Star Wars that includes the Episode IV: A New Hope subtitle along with the more consistent colors from the earlier versions of Despecialized versions reminiscent of the home video colors. Again, I completely understand the fact that this is not the goal of this specific project, but I think it is also important to preserve the version of Star Wars that a great number of fans (and many of us in this forum) grew up with along with the all-important theatrical versions. I would gladly do this myself if I had the ability to do it but I would no-doubt screw it up and fail miserably because of my technical ineptitude. I know that Harmy released the Star Wars 90s SE awhile back and has mentioned a willingness to include the Episode IV subtitle. Again, I’d be interested in hearing if you are willing to do this the next time you revisit the Star Wars Despecialized Edition.

If Disney is the obstacle then I think Fox would be willing to negotiate in Disney’s favor because they’re running out of time to make money off of these movies. Unless Disney truly wants to get every single penny possible, I don’t understand why they would wait another 4 years to release the original versions. It’s tough to say what’ll happen. When a strange comment by John Landis is all we have to go by it isn’t a good sign that it’ll be released any time soon, especially since (after watching the footage of his comments) he does not make any mention of where he heard the news, contrary to Empire magazine’s statement that he heard it from Lucas himself.

Sadly I’m starting to think that absolute best case scenario would be some kind of 40th anniversary set, but even that is unlikely since it has been since the SE that we’ve gotten an anniversary set. I think that Disney would wait for Fox to lose distribution before allotting Lucasfilm any funds for a restoration so that the maximum profit is available, unless of course they negotiate rights sooner.

Up until the early 2000s it was widely known as Star Wars and labeled as such, even with the A New Hope subtitle in the opening. I, and a surprising amount of nonfans that I’ve encountered, tend to refer to it as simply Star Wars, but when I’m in a discussion about the series and the story I’ll refer to it as a New Hope. I never refer to any of them by their episode numbers though.

CatBus said:

“Because it makes good business sense” has been a valid argument since 1997. If anything, that argument is actually becoming less valid as time goes on, as the proportion of the Star Wars fanbase that has actually seen the Star Wars trilogy that started it all decreases.

It will always make good business sense. There always has been and always will be a market for the unaltered films. Things we infinitely smaller followings have received releases in the past. The producer’s cut of Halloween 6 was released on bluray recently as the selling point for the Halloween box set, and in 2013 the original mixes of ZZ Top’s studio albums were released on CD for the first time since before they had been altered with new percussion in the late 1980s. There really is a market for almost everything, but especially Star Wars. Despecialized Edition has proven that there is a market for the OT. Whether the fact that there is money to be made will motivate Lucasfilm to them releasing the films is yet to be seen, however.

ROTJ V2 Workprint
37:13
Vanishing TIE fighters at 37:13 do not vanish

Despecialized Edition uses original film sources, and so does Team Negative 1. The people working on the Despecialized Editions are familiar enough with the theatrical sources that I bet they’ve got it accurate, and they also have all of the original audio tracks to my knowledge so those would include the extra “standbys”. I have a similar memory of seeing Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at a young age, and I swear that Gene Wilder actually physically kicked Augustus Gloop into the chocolate river. Sadly I didn’t see Star Wars in theatres though

I know that Lucasfilm has given us no real reason to expect the unaltered versions anytime soon, but recently there has been a lot of hype generating around the Special Editions and demand to see the originals finally released again. Watchmojo’s youtube channel recently released a video detailing the “10 Worst Star Wars Special Edition Changes”, and Jeremy Jahns released a video discussing Harmy’s Despecialized Editions and how great they are. These videos have gotten over 400,000 and 200,000 views respectively. They must know by now that there is no doubt an enormous market for these films now more than ever.

I would like to thank Harmy for the incredible work he has put into making this trilogy available in its “non-special edition” form for us, it really is a public service and it beats the hell out of watching my old VHS tapes. I’d also like to give a special commendation to Deathalo for your contributions as well!

I would like to add though that the disappearing TIE fighters don’t disappear. It’s pretty unnoticeable though unless you’re obsessed with seeing those TIE fighters disappear in 720p.

I’m currently reading The Malcolm X Autobiography as Told to Alex Haley. I’d definitely recommend it

Black Friday has ruined Thanksgiving

Warbler said:

I’d say the odds are stacked heavily against you, but upsets do happen in College Football.

Nebraska has a very, very long history of doing absolutely horrible when they need to bring their best game. I do think that Michigan State was a lot better than Iowa though and Nebraska beat them. So who knows?

I’m curious if Nebraska will be able to beat Iowa this coming week. They’ve been poor all season but after their Michigan State win, maybe they’ve pulled things together.

I would love to own a copy of the ten hour version of They Sold Their Souls to Rock and Roll, but it’s like 40 dollars and I wouldn’t spend that much money on it, or any money on it really. I just really love crappy religious videos. For now though I recently got the Yellow Submarine cartoon on Blu Ray

I don’t feel bad for Lucas, he’s about 5 billion dollars richer now that he sold Star Wars. No one forced him to give it up.

Michigan St. lost because of my presence.

Poor Michigan St. I was at their game against Nebraska

It’s great to see that they are acknowledging the interest in the OOT. “The only reason we still own a VCR” - this is of course because a VCR is the only official way to watch the OOT, minus the laserdiscs/GOUT. I certainly hope that Lucasfilm is stirring the pot and getting ready to finally give them to us.

I think that on paper AOTC has a coherent plot, but in practice I don’t think that it is really possible for an average viewer to follow any of it, especially because of the pointless travel with Anakin and Padme. That being said, I think that Clones had the most potential given the outline.

Fang Zei said:

CatBus said:

I've found torrents to be a perfectly adequate substitute for patience.

You'd think Lucasfilm would've caught on to that by now.

Just as the proliferation of the ld-to-dvd fan preservations led to an official unaltered dvd release, we're now at the point where we have a perfectly serviceable substitute for an unaltered blu-ray.

 Not to mention that Harmy's work is way more well-known than any of the ld preservations were. I made an off-hand joke about the SE's at work a while ago and my coworker recommended them to me.

John Doom said:

Is Legacy, a true masterwork itself, going to be used for the rumored new OUT release?

 If this were the case I doubt Lucasfilm would want him to say anything about it. It'd be awesome if it is though :)

Given that Lucasfilm mysteriously bothered to put an ounce of effort into an otherwise 100% lazy endeavor by including the original crawl in the GOUT back when Lucas was completely anti-OOT, I'd imagine that a professional HD release would do the same. By the way, I also doubt that the hypothetical OOT release would be too bad as far as colors go. I'm not saying that they'll necessarily be entirely accurate, but I doubt they would actually intentionally alter the colors like in the Blu Ray/2004 DVD release, which was done at the request of Lucas himself. I bet they would just quickly 2k scan a well-preserved print and correct it compared to a workprint or an IP or something and then release it, which I would prefer because it allows less room for foolishness and errors.

unamochilla2 said:

I'm kind of surprised Lucas, of all people, would be the one to say this to anyone. 

How does Lucas know what Disney's plans are?  As far as I know, Disney doesn't need Lucas's approval for anything and I doubt Disney would discuss their future Star Wars plans with him.  I mean, Abrams and Kasdan reportedly didn't even use Lucas's treatment for TFA.  Disney didn't spend $4.2 billion to have Lucas approve their plans and actions and Lucas didn't sell it for the same reasons, either. 

In any case, doesn't Fox still hold the distribution rights?

From the sounds of what Landis said, maybe they've debated  on the SEs in the past and George thought he'd tell him that they're finally releasing the OOT when he saw him. I also would imagine that Lucas is fairly in the loop, or at least is given information when he asks. I doubt he has any authority over anything though

It'd be interesting if it would be played in theatres; if so then they would definitely be released on blu ray for profit. Perhaps it isn't necessarily going to be a Disney sponsored showing in theaters, but maybe they will start allowing people to show the unaltered versions in theatres, like in events showing the best movies of the 70s etc etc