Interesting wording on the official announcement:

as I recall there was an insert describing all the various soundmixes for the theatrical versions of Star Wars (mono, two channel, four channel) - including the discrete 5.1 mix for the 70mm print - if I can find it, I'll detail what it said.

I don't think people are begrudging him the money, but surely you can understand that the people who Lucas has made billions of dollars off of feel like he could give them a little price break, rather than making them buy a bunch of stuff they probably already have (and, if they don't have, they don't want) just to get what they want.

People complain when studios do it, why should they not complain just because George Lucas is an individual as well as a corporation?

and I also included the word "supposedly" - since Lucas tends to be wishy-washy about all things "Star War"

I feel the same way. Here's a big middle finger to you guys on this forum (you know who you are) who kept stating "get over it...it will never happen...they don't exist anymore...blah, blah, blah"...to those of us of who refused to buy the "special edition" versions and preferred to wait for the originals no matter how dim a prospect it seemed.

While I am not happy to have to buy the SEs with the originals (as they will simply collect dust on my shelf), I am quite happy that he is not making it so you have to buy the pile of shit prequel trilogy. He could have done it that way and sold a buttload of prequel movies to those of us who took a pass.

I do hope they will be anamorphic but having 2.0 sound is fine with me. I have heard many 2.0 tracks that sound better than some 5.1 tracks in the past.

I will now gladly toss my bootleg dvds, laserdiscs, and VHS copies of the originals.

Now the question is, do I sell my current DVDs or hang onto them?

I'm guessing the bonus disk might be the only reason to hold onto it.

Sure they are. People always talk as if rich people or rich companies making more money is somehow bad. Plus, it's not like Lucas ever made anyone spend a dime on his films. Get used to it I say. If we were in Lucas or Bill Gates shoes, we'd make as much money as possible too.

Sure he could. But I somehow doubt adding in the SEs with this set changes the price all that much. Star Wars DVDs and videos usually have been at the top of the price point of what's expected in a DVD. I don't see the price as being dramatically different if it was just single disc sets. My guess is he doesn't want his vision of the films forgotten about or ignored. I'm just guessing here.

I'm saying it's silly to complain about it period. This is America, a country built on capitalism. Rich people, especially those who run companies like Lucas, are in the business to make money. It's not going to stop, and there's nothing wrong with it that I see.

I'm just getting a kick out of remembering all those that claimed if Lucas released the originals, they wouldn't have a reason to bitch and moan. Looks like that didn't work. Let's face it, people are going to bitch and moan because it's George Lucas.

I'm not bitching, I'm just saying its an interesting choice of words...and you Terrell, the man that hangs on every word on Lucas, should have picked up on the "OT as bonus features" That was done so George could feel OK with his idiotic aversion to releasing the original OT for oh so many years..he gets his cake and eats it too. Doesn't mean you can't call him out on it.

Yeah, I learned that yesterday when I received my 2-disk version from ebay.

I wonder if these SW ones will use the original box art.

Yeah you're bitching. As for the "OT as special feature" wording, I couldn't care less chanster. They're being released. That's good enough for me. To be honest, I didn't lose any sleep when he wasn't going to release them, and I haven't given him or the originals any thought since Episode III was released, up 'til now.

I haven't even given Lucas a second thought since I saw Episode III, except to discuss topics here. Even that has been few and far between. I'm just a big fan, and thankful to have Star Wars in any form.

From the USA Today article:

"The original films' video quality will not match up to that of the restored versions. "It is state of the art, as of 1993, and that's not as good as state of the art 2006," Ward says."

If that's the case, we'll NEVER get HD transfers of these movies. They're basically going to use the same transfer that they used for the 1993 movies, according to this. Or does that mean it's just the same print???

Sorry if this has been covered already.

You don't have to buy anything you dont want. How is this "money grubbing"? Don't buy it. That is the beauty of capitalism, don't like it, don't buy it. Don't complain about your decision afterwards.

Oh wait, if you want it then yes you need to buy it. Personally I will buy it no questions asked. I have the SE versions and I have had the laserdisc THX boxset and the VHS versions too!

Who knows. I never thought we'd get the originals on DVD period.

It's called capitalism. People and companies in this country strive to make as much money as possible. That's not a bad thing. So get used to it. Maybe you can give the SEs in the set as a gift to someone.

Of course we will and then some people will complain that they were tricked by a greedy George Lucas!

Another note, it should be very interesting to see how high (or low?) the bitrate will be on the 2.0 audio. Shit, they should give us a PCM track.

Anyone else think this is a really really big dvdtalk punked episode??

Count me in the not bitching group. I haven't purchased any Star Wars DVD's and wasn't going to until the OT was released in non-SP form. It's coming out and I'm happily going to buy them on release day. The way I look at it is that just about anything I get on DVD is going to be better than my fullscreen VHS. I don't care if Lucas puts in as a "special feature" for his true vision, he's giving me what I want and I'll pay for it.

Wish the originals had 5.1 sound, but still happy as hell that they are coming out finally, when we all thought they never would.

I wish he'd restore the whole thing, all three films. Create 5.1 tracks, and give them transfers to Lowry and give them as much time to perfect them. But it's fine with me. I'm guessing restoring the originals would take twice the effort that it took to restore the SEs.

they don't need to create new 5.1 tracks, they need to fix the ones that were intially made for the original 70mm prints.

Since the 5.1 tracks would probably reverse the surround channels and cause my subwoofer to explode when R2 is zapped by the Jawas, I'm thinking 2.0 is a blessing in disguise. I'll just run it through Dolby Pro Logic II and be satisfied.

That's for sure! I remember him saying back in '77 that "Star Wars" was part four of NINE parts.

Years later he's saying that he never said that and that there were only SIX parts of the story.

You're a fucking asshole, George Lucas.

Getting to the party late... but...



(adds to "Upcoming DVDs to buy" list)

In the hardcover book that came with the Definitive LD collection in 1993 it actually states that there are nine parts.