Original/Unaltered "Star Wars" Trilogy on Blu-Ray in 2017

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Bowie Fett, Feb 23, 2017.

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  1. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Oh, you'd be surprised. Lucas was quite a pack rat, and Lucasfilm has a full-time archivist that has every surviving print, mag track, photograph, script, outtake, costume, prop, and everything else that survives. For example: I just learned that since director Rian Johnson was loathe to use CGI for Yoda in Last Jedi, they took the original 1983 Yoda puppet out of the archives, had it scanned and a mold made from it, and made a precision copy of it, which they used (under Frank Oz's supervision) for the new movie. So every shot of Yoda in the new film is a rubber Muppet, not CG. And it's all Frank Oz's voice. They also worked very hard to get the color and texture of him exactly right, to follow the look of the previous films.

    I have rebuilt and reconformed old films before, and it's quite a chore. For example, I had to match all the split-screens, dissolves, and optical fades in Phantom of the Paradise for Fox, and it took days and days of work to get the negatives to precisely match the print, since we had A/B roll negatives. (I was part of the same process with Dances with Wolves, Star Wars, and Return of the Jedi as well.) It's a lot of work, but you can get it absolutely pixel-perfect if you work hard at it.
     
  2. Sondek

    Sondek Forum Resident

  3. Plan9

    Plan9 Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Toulouse, France
    No idea. But they put the original mono mix of Jaws with the 7.1 remix on the latest Blu-Ray release.
     
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  4. hanshotfirst1138

    hanshotfirst1138 Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    Apparently this could cost over 10,000 people their jobs, which is even more disturbing and sad.
     
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  5. lambfan68

    lambfan68 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minnesota
    If there's nothing in the purchase agreement between Disney and Lucas that legally prohibits the release of the original films, then we'll see them at some point. I suspect the real issue was working out the money split between Fox and Disney, but the cover story was their "promise" to George. Some suit will eventually add up the potential for profit and they'll be released. Probably in a huge box of the three saga trilogies in a few years.
     
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  6. supermd

    supermd Senior Member

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
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  7. Michael Rose

    Michael Rose Forum Resident

    Location:
    Davie,Fl
  8. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I think this is exactly true. I don't think there was any kind of "promise" made to George Lucas that they would never release the original films. I still say if they released the old and new versions simultaneously in one boxed set, nobody would be upset. George gets his new versions, the fans get the original theatricals, the studio makes a lot of money, and historians get great movies preserved. I see no losing side here.
     
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  9. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    George has already "gotten" his new versions out in multiple versions, multiple times. I say retire the Special Editions for at least 10 years and make the original releases the only versions available- prequel tie-ins be damned. :)
     
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  10. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I think discarding them completely would be disrespectful. If it doesn't cost a dime extra to the audience buying the discs, then I say provide both versions. You always have the freedom of throwing them away after you buy the boxed sets, or just never watching them.
     
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  11. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    He was disrespectful first by making all the changes, IMO.
     
  12. Encuentro

    Encuentro Forum Resident

    I and many others would be all over this release. It would be a win-win for most Star Wars fans.
     
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  13. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Remember: this is the guy who created the characters, developed the idea, wrote the initial stories, supervised the scripts, supervised the direction, supervised the post, AND financed the films AND owns the copyrights. It's very, very rare to have somebody with that degree of control in Hollywood. From Lucas' point of view, they were his movies, not the viewers' movies. Too many people they have a false sense of ownership of films they see in theaters or TV, but the truth is: it's not your film. It's the filmmakers' film.

    Again, if they go with my prediction -- a boxed set with both the original theatrical releases and the final Lucas-altered versions -- everybody will be satisfied. I could also see individual films released with two discs (one original, one altered), and that wouldn't bother me. What is a good question is: what version will people want to watch in 50 years? 100 years? Or will people not give a crap at all and forget about the films, just a trivial pop culture moment that was big for a while and then forgotten decades later?
     
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  14. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Location:
    Götaland, Sverige
    The blu-ray seems to be Lucas's final version, but is it Disney's final version?
     
  15. hanshotfirst1138

    hanshotfirst1138 Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    That doesn't being to cover it.

    WHEN?! I'm not getting any younger!!

    I'd pay damn near any price within reason for the originals. If it's in a big boxed set and done correctly? I'd pay in a heartbeat.

    I don't think that's true
    Lucas didn't make Empire or Jedi, but that's a separate topic. Regardless, at the end of the day, he's the legal owner and can do what he likes with the films. But that doesn't mean fans don't have every right to criticize him for essentially trying to destroy a hugely important, if not outright vital, cultural artifact, not to mention what it does the work of hundreds of technicians and craftsman. Like I said, that's his right. But that doesn't make him immune to criticism.

    Oh, and if someone knows where I can get the Apocalypse Now rough cut, PM me ;).
     
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  16. SonOfAlerik

    SonOfAlerik Forum Resident

    Location:
    Westland, MI USA
    I'm still hoping that the silent, B&W lost cut of Star Wars is included as an extra on the next Bluray release in the near future.
     
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  17. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Why would there be a silent, black and white cut of Star Wars? It wasn't filmed in black and white or without sound.
     
  18. SonOfAlerik

    SonOfAlerik Forum Resident

    Location:
    Westland, MI USA
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  19. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
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  20. Luke The Drifter

    Luke The Drifter Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I would not care if it "doesn't cost a dime extra to the audience". But I have never seen three additional Blu Rays in a box set for free. It would surely be advertised as 6 films and priced as such. I am like other posters. I bought your crappy versions already George. Give me the original trilogy.

    BUT: If that is what it takes to get the originals...so be it.
     
  21. SonOfAlerik

    SonOfAlerik Forum Resident

    Location:
    Westland, MI USA
    If you browse youtube there is actually a lot of the footage from this Lost Cut. Little bits here and there. Some footage with sound can be found as well. For example an early edit of the cantina sequence where you can see Han Solo flirting with some mystery woman.
     
  22. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Again: they're not George's movies, and it's not his decision to make. Contact this person:

    Lucasfilm, Ltd.
    Attn.: Kathleen Kennedy, President
    500 S. Buena Vista Street
    Burbank, CA 91521

    I think it would be a combined decision between her and Disney CEO Bob Iger... but they have to get the rights to the films first. And that's not a done deal just yet.

    Lucas was there every minute of every day in pre-production and post-production, so it's fair to say his hands are all over the film even when he didn't technically direct it. Trust me, all of these are very, very much Lucasfilms, and I think the directors involved were just caretakers. I worked with George every other day for more than 3 months, and -- while I liked him personally -- there was no question that he was a control freak's control freak.

    Also, as I said before, Lucas has not owned these films since October 30th, 2012, when he sold them for $4.05 billion to Disney.

    [​IMG]

    That's the actual contract in front of them that transferred the rights of all of Lucasfilm to Walt Disney Pictures. What has never been revealed, though, is what specific conditions were attached. For example, could Disney shut down Skywalker Sound in Marin County or Industrial Light & Magic (which has divisions in several countries)? My guess is no, not as long as Lucas is alive. But they certainly don't need permission from him to change, not change, release, or not release any of his films.
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2017
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  23. Plan9

    Plan9 Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Toulouse, France
    More or less true for Richard Marquand (Return of the Jedi director), but much less for Irvin Kerschner (Empire Strikes Back director).

    Source: [​IMG]

    Most excellent book BTW, one of the few you have to read if you are a fan.
     
  24. The Hermit

    The Hermit Wavin' that magick glowstick since 1976

    Wasn't Rinzler preparing a 'making of' book about TFA and Disney put the kibosh on it? Would love to have read what really went on behind the scenes there. Say what you want about George Lucas, but he was always pretty cool and never precious about letting people peek behind the curtain on the making of his company's output... he even let the highly critical documentary The People vs George Lucas use official footage... Bob Iger, by comparison, would have threatened legal action!

    It was because of Kershner's highly profligate Empire shoot - weeks over schedule and millions over budget! - that Lucas held on to the reins a little tighter for Jedi... it's also well-known that the former film is the SW film that Lucas likes the least; too dark, too slow, Kersh not shooting any wide establishing shots, etc.

    Even on Jedi, Lucas had faith in new producer Howard Kazanjian to keep things on schedule and budget - which he did - and had initially little to no intention on being on-set much, but he increasingly found himself so in order to assist Marquand (who he gave considerable creative freedom to) in the area of special effects which the latter had little experience with. But the urban myth that Lucas ghost-directed Jedi aren't entirely accurate... Marquand himself stated that the final creative decisions always rested with George, but the whole process was highly collaborative in nature from the outset... except when it came to the Ewoks; no-one but Lucas liked them, but it was his dime, so...

    One last thing; it's somewhat ironic that (Sir) Ridley Scott provided a foreword to a 'making of' book about Empire... he's on record, (and recently too) as stating that the 1977 film is the only one that mattered for him!
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2017
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  25. csd79

    csd79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hungary
    With respect, have you actually seen their results? IMHO the quality of the 4k77 is much better than some of the earlier film-based fan stuff, and very much enjoyable. Obviously an official restoration by professionals from the original negatives would be preferable, but until that happens, 4k77 is the closest thing to the original Star Wars in HD. And the amount of effort and money these "morons" put into it is admirable I think.
     
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