Correct, sir. This will mark the first time I will buy Star Wars on DVD (apart from the laserdisc rips). Glad I waited!

Good news for fans adament about the originals. I'll probably stick with the SE's that i already have though.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the new packaging looks like. The current artwork on the 2004 discs is some of the worst-looking Star Wars artwork I've ever seen--and I've seen a lot of bad SW artwork.

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Awesome news, though. Came from out of nowhere. Hope they're cleaned up as much as possible, and I'm totally cool with the 2.0 sound. I do wish that we would get some old school extras on the second disc, instead of the 2004 cuts (which most of us probably have already), but on the other hand, if the 2004 discs are identical, I won't feel as bad about getting rid of the 2004 set.

And Lucas still sucks--just not as much as he did yesterday. :)

Would you be willing to tell Temuera Morrison that face-to-face? :D

Seriously, this is really cool news. I grew up with originals, saw them all in their original theatrical runs, love the prequels and prefer the 2004 versions. Guess I'm not a REAL fan in some people's eyes. :)

Anyway, I'm very excited to get these release for nostalgic purposes, but also because I think there's a chance we will see the technical issues with the 2004 OT (reversed score on ANH, sabers in ESB and ROTJ) corrected on the editions packed in with the unaltered versions. Why else include them unless they are somehow different from the current release? If there are fixes to the 2004 versions, it would be the best way for all involved. Lucas doesn't have to pay for an exchange program, and people don't have to spend extra $ for corrected versions, as they are almost definitely going to buy the unaltered cuts anyway. The only way you'd lose is if you didn't want the unaltered versions.

And can we please stop with the "Lucas is greedy" crap? This guy doesn't need money. He's savvy though. He has shown that he will use money from one project to finance another. He made much more money from the 1997 SE theatrical releases than he spent on them. I'm sure he put a lot of that money right into Phantom Menace. I'm guessing he's doing this now to help finance the TV projects and finally cut the legs off of the bootleg market. He may be crafty, but he's not greedy.

I don't agree with all his decisions, but he deserves our admiration, gratitude and respect. I mean this guy created and gave us the most beloved movies of a generation, and all some people do is bitch about him. What would the industry and movies be like if Lucas and SW never existed?

I think it's very big of him to do this now, even if he does have his own interests in mind. He's received so much flak for not releasing the theatrical cuts, it would have been very easy for him to just say "screw it" and never do this. But he changed his mind and is seemingly admitting a mistake. I applaud him for it.

I'll be putting my copies on order tomorrow from my local distributor.

Exactly what I was thinking. The old ones will be great to have, but I imagine I'll primarily be watching the most recent versions when I'm in the SW mood.

This is definitely good news. With the exception of the Greedo scene I think all the changes were for the better and I definitely prefer the 2004 editions but I've always said that people should be able to have a choice. I'll be buying these, but the way these films are being released is less than ideal.

First of all, the fact that they come with the 2004 editions sucks. I like them but I already own them and I wish I didn't have to repurchase them when they are most likely the exact same discs I already own.

Secondly is the fact that these aren't presented in a box set and the bonus disc from the box set isn't available seperately. Re-buying the three 2004 discs would be a lot easier to accept if I could just buy a new box set that completely supercedes the one I have. The release should be:

Disc 1: original "Star Wars"
Disc 2: 2004 "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope"
Disc 3: original "The Empire Strikes Back"
Disc 4: 2004 "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back"
Disc 5: original "Return of the Jedi"
Disc 6: 2004 "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi"
Disc 7: 2004 bonus disc

But no, if I want to own all 7 discs I have to ultimately aquire TEN discs across four seperate releases and then somehow unload the three superfluous discs.

They should make the three new discs available seperately or make all 7 discs available together, but the current situation sucks.

Most probably the best DVD-related news in a long while.

I read somewhere here that the crawl is not going to be in it.Can someone here confirm this?

Amen Brother. I have never understood the hate for the guy who created the most loved series in film history. Lucas is both an artistic and business genius and I admire that. He basically made Star Wars for free, and was smart enough and brave enough to get the merchandising rights. Since then all he has done is pretty much reinvent the medium all with own money.

As far a complaining about his video release methods, he could have released this trilogy alot more than he has, how many triple dips are already out on DVD of crap movies. This is the most important franchise ever and this is only a double dip. Lets wait and see all the details before complaining about this release and if you have to buy all the Star Wars DVDs to get everything so be it. Come on this is Star Wars.

It'll be awesome to hear Han say "It's alright, trust me!" Instead of "It's alright, I can see a lot better." Sorry, I'm just a stickler I guess. Oh yeah, excited to hear the music in the death star attack again, instead of it basically being muted.

Too little, too late... I've moved on to the High Def formats.

I'll wait a few more years.

fitprod

Hurray!!! Han shoots first, the yub yub song, no uncle fester hologram, no CGI, no hayden ghost!

I remember i posted before hoping to have the 1977,80,83 originals each released separately as 2-discer (2nd disc extras) individual releases w/ original cover poster art giving some respect to them as pieces of cinema rather than bunched together with crappy computerized cover art in the botched versions. Hopefully the poster art is on the covers.

The only mention of the opening crawl, in terms of anything being missing- is that these new DVDs will feature the original version of the "Star Wars" crawl: WITHOUT the "Episode IV: A New Hope", as that was added for a later theatrical release when 'The Empire Strikes Back' was released.

I for one could do without the forced "extra" aka another copy of the 2004 SE. Just give me the unaltered originals George and I'll be quite happy.

Speaking of which... I finally attempted to watch my copy of "A New Hope" from the 2004 boxset not that long ago. Turns out I got one of the defective copies. Is Fox still allowing people to switch it for a fixed copy?

Based on the USA TODAY article it sounds like they will be using the laser disc version from 93 or 95 as the source.

I wouldn't be so positive the originals are going to be on any HD DVD set. In fact, I think it's slim.

Why wouldn't they, eventually? After all, they're probably the most wanted set of films of all time.

this is awesome. please don't mess up the sound or color of the light sabers and other stuff. the only thing they should touch is the boxes around the tie fighters, and even that is not that important i suppose.

Because in that article, Jim Ward seems to be saying that these are being done from the 1993 video masters that were created for the laserdiscs. In other words, not HD...

If they're serious about giving folks "the original version that they remember experiencing in theaters," they can't rely on the LD masters, at least not exclusively -- I'm pretty sure Lucas had already made minor alterations to the films by 1994 and the "Definitive" LD release reflected those changes.

Not at all. Any time I see some of the SE's I'm constantly bombarded with "Hey, that wasn't in the film I saw 15 times in 1977" thoughts.

I knew it... I knew it... I knew it.

Finally complainers get their way, and there are still some people who want to complain and say 'oh Lucas is greedy'. Isn't that a point that doesn't need to be made? Yeah, Lucas doesn't NEED the money but an empire is an empire. Bill Gates doesn't need money yet he's still in business. His level of greed was well established when these movies were re-released to begin with, right?

The originals are finally coming, and in a set that will contain the newer ones as well. If you waited, no need for you to ever double dip until you want to upgrade to an HD format. If you didn't wait, well then now you can at least say 'great, now I can finally see the films I remember falling in love with years ago'. There's double and quadruple dips on many things. It's no surprise Star Wars is getting this treatment.

Personally, I don't mind the newer versions. I already own the original or 'newer' boxed set so to speak with the altered versions, but I'll be picking up this set as well. It would be interesting to watch one version compared to the other on DVD back to back.

no hayden ghost = sale

Wow...I can now retire my laserdisc player...

I'd be really psyched if these came with a LPCM soundtrack instead of DD 2.0.

Ahh, who am I kidding... F***ING A! September 12, 2006 will be a day long remembered.