milo bloom

And keep in mind Fox would love to also release the originals on DVD/Blu also and would gladly chip in towards the cost. I have no doubt that they have secretly compiled the resources to create good home video versions of the originals, and all they need is Lucas' go-ahead to start the authoring and pressing.

I don't buy the "costs too much" story for one minute. This is Lucas being "ashamed" of the films that made him what it is, and it should stick in the craw of anyone claiming to be a fan of the film history.

Travis McClain

I read The Making of Revenge of the Sith and was very surprised--given that it was officially sanctioned by Lucasfilm--how clearly it shows Lucas shooting numerous scenes with the idea that he would figure out how they went together as a movie once he got to the editing room. The author (Jinzler, I believe) tries his hardest to liken this to a documentarian, but it still came off to me as a guy just wingin' it. Hardly the "visionary" Lucas has tried to sell himself as these last 20 some odd years.

You could also argue that he'd have more of that personal fortune to donate by releasing the original versions--which clearly have a willing audience. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that even those who are fine with the revised versions would also eagerly spend the money to have the originals...because it's part of the history of Star Wars.

AnonomusBob15

Does anyone have any idea how much money was spent creating the 1997 and 2004 editions?

bunkaroo

Well more wealth than you can imagine!

Travis McClain

Incidentally, I had a dream last night in which Jar Jar Binks was digitally replaced with Roger Rabbit. It greatly improved fan opinion of The Phantom Menace, but Liam Neeson was considered inferior to Bob Hoskins.

Jay G.

Somewhere between $10-$20 million was spent on the 1997 SEs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rs_re-releases
http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/savingstarwars.html
I've never read any info on how much money was spent on the 2004 SEs.

jiggawhat

I have to agree with this. Lucas doesn't have money? That's a laugh. The guy is minting money with the merchandise sales. He can't put up his own money to for the restoration?

He either is being miserly with his money or ashamed like you're saying.

bluetoast

I dunno kid, I can imagine quite a bit.

Jay G.

OK, I did find some evidence to support this. There has never been any official announcement of Fox handing copyright over to Lucasfilm. However, it turns out that the copyright on the 1997 SE of Star Wars was still attributed to Fox, but by a 2000 VHS release, the copyright notice had been changed to Lucasfilm.

The only major incident to occur between those two dates for the property was that Fox and Lucasfilm negotiated a distribution deal with for the prequel trilogy, with The Phantom Menace being released in 1999.

Link to an article detailing this history:
http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/buyingstarwars.html

It makes a good amount of sense. Fox retains distribution rights to Star Wars, and thus a percentage of the gross from the film, while gaining distribution rights to three more Star Wars movies. Since Lucas owned all the other rights to Star Wars, other than the film itself, there was very little Fox could do with it, and the profits from just the theatrical release of The Phantom Menace probably exceeded what Fox could earn from Star Wars in the next 70 years or so.

So it looks like Lucas does own the series lock, stock, and barrel.

JJE-187

I don't care what version is released as long as I get Star Wars on BR. He can change the entire Saga into a gay furry musical and I would buy it

Nick Martin

and THAT'S the problem.

There's no way in hell I'd pay for six movies, three of which I don't like and the other three too far gone just because they're on Blu-ray.

The Valeyard

Evan Meadow

I say he should spend some of that money getting a really good complete set of the Droids cartoon out on DVD and just not that one disk containing only 8 of the episodes.

DarthMarino

I'll second this and add in the Ewoks cartoon even though it's not as good. They are part of the Star Wars history and should be available. Just like the Tartakovsky Clone Wars series which has been out of print for years and I have a feeling will never be released again.

Boba Fett

I still think, sadly, the only time we'll get all the stuff we want released is when Lucas dies. If a studio/executives don't get their hands on it, someone will surely be in the ears of his daughters telling them how much money they can make nickel and dimeing fans to death with all the stuff their father wouldn't sell.

Travis McClain

I'm sure he's planned for this eventuality. He'll be cremated with the original cels.

Drop

I guess the main problem here is Lucas being lazy and cheap? It sucks but it's his show. His vision really is for the revisions, he doesn't want to put the effort into something he doesn't like anymore.

This is kind of another debate, but I don't think artists owe anything to their fans. Their purpose is to create and it's up to each individual to like what they have produced or not. The artist does have the right to change or revise their work (and revision is not something new, it's incredibly old and it probably has existed as long as art has). And the audience has the right to not like it.

Of course there is the argument for historical preservation. But that argument does not like to take the artist's opinion into it. Which feels wrong to me. Yet, we've seen plenty of great works released against an artist's wishes and wills (which is good news for the unaltered fans). And still many of the great achievements are alternate or replaced versions. I don't think there is any simple answer here.

We were once so willing to let the artist do what they wanted because it pleased us, and then when they want to do something we don't like we don't want them to have control anymore. It's certainly a conundrum.

And I say all that wanting the original versions, but I'm also pretty damn happy with the revisions (and even the prequels). And I'll always have my memories that Lucas helped create and which he cannot erase (let's make a joke about that, right guys?). I also can't recreate those memories, I'm not five anymore, and I don't watch Star Wars to do that. I watch Star Wars because I still enjoy the films. I still like the characters, I still like the story, and most of all the imagination that strikes my mind and lets it wander into a beautiful place. If the films didn't do that anymore than I simply wouldn't care, move on, and hold onto the memories when I need them most.

I could keep going, but it really doesn't mean much. Plenty of people aren't going to like what I say, or even hate it, and no one is going to change their mind about the topic. Just my thoughts. It is what it is.

I guess the bright spot for anyone who only wants the original unaltered versions is that they still exist and Lucas does not completely hate them. Clearly prints exist and, if Lucas wanted to, he knows he could restore and release them which means someone else eventually could and probably will.

Travis McClain

I'm in favor of historical preservation. I do think, though, it's important that it's made clear that the discarded work was a draft, or work in progress, or for whatever reason not considered by the artist part of his or her body of work. In the realm of music, for instance, I'm fascinated by demo versions. I realize they were never intended for the public so I don't evaluate them the same way I would scrutinize a polished studio recording, but they're fun to hear and make a nice supplement to one's library.

In the case of Star Wars, I think what really upsets a lot of people is being told that what they viewed as the final product for 20 years was now dismissed as a draft. The refusal of Lucas to keep the theatrical cuts in print adds to that sense that we were part of an ongoing test audience of some kind. It doesn't faze me the way it does a lot of others, but I can appreciate why they would feel cheated.

Artman

I'm leaving those for my childhood memories...lol. The Great Heap special is on youtube if you want a Droids fix.

gmanca

Which film was it of the prequels where Lucas had to basically re-shoot the whole movie after finding out it was not what he wanted/didn't make sense? I thought I had read something like that before but I can't remember the specifics.

Artman

Other than normal reshoots I don't think that happened. You're probably thinking of The Phantom Menace documentary where after viewing the rough cut for the first time - Lucas was questioning whether it would make sense "I may have gone too far.." with so many storyline elements up front. Of course, the ideal scenario is that the director would know this ahead of time, before the expense of shooting, etc especially with an effects heavy film with as much prep time as they had on it.

What they should've done was cut together the whole film using storyboards and stand in voice actors to see how it flowed. That's what animated films do, and I believe Peter Jackson did that for LOTR and King Kong. It's not exactly fool proof, but it usually helps.

coli

If you listen to the Revenge of the Sith Commentary, Lucas admits he had to re-shoot and re-write the whole turn scene for Anakin! I am still suprised Lucas admits this on the commentary, because this is essentially the reason he made the Prequels!

The original turn scene had Anakin doing it more for power, and he felt that the jedi had betrayed him. It had nothing to do with the saving Padme because of the dream he had. Lucas has Anakin turning once Palpatine tells him he is the sith, and then Mace and Co. eventually come in and Anakin stands by the side of Palpatine and watches the Mace/Palpatine duel unfold right in front of his face.

Lucas says on the commentary he felt the orignal turn scene came up flat on dailies and he didn't think it worked. The problem because he already shot the movie out of order like most directors do, he shot the 2nd half of the movie in the original context of Anakin turning!.

So that is why the last few scenes on Mustafar don't make sense as Anakin in talking about power in a more broad sense, and talking about 'his empire.' Another scene many fans complain about is Anakin turns and then goes and kills all the young jedi. In the original turn scene where he is doing solely for power and thinking the jedi are the evil ones, it makes sense that his first mission would be to kill all jedi. But if he wants to save Padme from dying, what is the point of killing all the young jedi first?

So what Lucas does is just re-shoot the scenes leading up to the turn to try to salvage the movie, and in my opinion, the Prequels at that point! He reshoots Palpatine telling him he is the Sith, and now Anakin goes to Mace. He adds that scene where Anakin tells Mace that he is the sith, and Mace tells him to stay back. Lucas then adds the scene where Anakin and Padme gaze at each other across Coruscant to show Anakin is thinking of her as Mace goes to arrest Palpatine. (Lucas added in Anakin saving Padme as the reason as that might give the movie an emotional boost). Then Lucas reshoots the scene where Anakin walks in RIGHT when Palpatine is defenseless, and now he chops off Maces hand. And then turns 5 seconds later.

In short, Lucas fucked the most important part of the prequels, you think he would have gotten this right after 20 years of thinking about it!!!!

gmanca

Ah, that was it coli, thanks for the write-up. I've only seen that film once after Thanksgiving Dinner so I really didn't give a crap about it as much as I gave AOTC waiting in line to see it in DLP. But you raise some points that completely make sense when I think back like why the hell all the Jedi kids were killed by Anakin as opposed to some clones. The motivation of saving Padme works but only if you really care about the characters and how they are being portrayed.


Yup, and I think they even tried that on ROTS since Spielberg worked on the pre-vis but they still messed it up.

Evan Meadow

Well I've got a bootleg of all the episodes. Need to watch them again. I don't think I've ever seen Great Heap but I can't remember.

Artman

Hehe, yeah it only aired once in 86, I remember watching it. About a big droid that sucks the life out of R2 units...lol.