CertifiedTHX

Help me understand something:

When they talk about the originals coming from LD masters, does that mean they will be using actual LD video (which I can imagine not looking so good), or does that refer to whatever served as the source for the LDs?

--THX

rgray_69

They will be using the master that was used to make the LDs, so they will look better on dvd.

Jimmy 345

Star Wars will never die. Star Wars is immortal. Guess what the television shows are a comin and they will get super high ratings if they are any good. I own all six movies on DVD and will continue to love em. If you think Star Wars is dead why worry about it. Can't beat a dead horse.

B5Erik

George Lucas is an ass.

He couldn't care less about the millions of fans who have made him darned near a billionaire. He was the ultimate fanboy made good, and now this former "fan" has basically given the finger to all the fans who prefer his original works to the revisionist versions that he put out over the last decade.

To hell with him. I'm not putting another dime in his pocket until he shows a little appreciation to the fans who gave him the money that made his "revisions" possible in the first place! A little appreciation and respect would be called for, don't you think? But, NOOOOOOOO, Lucas has become a snobby, arrogant, selfish bastard who couldn't care less about the fans. That press release/e-mail makes that perfectly clear.

The more this goes on the angrier I get about it.

I can't believe what an absolute jerk Lucas has become. I would never have guessed in the late 70's or early 80s that he would turn on the fans this way. (And he has turned on a majority of Star Wars fans - because the majority prefers the original versions and he doesn't. So he's pissed about that - and saying, basically, "It's my ball, and I'm going home!")

Damn, I'm mad!

Feathers McGraw

Whatever, it's still massively overpriced. At sale prices on release, it's still easily $75 to get the set of three, a good $20 more than the old SE set, and that had an extras disk and a box.

And after the initial sales, folks will have to pony up $100+ CDN for this steaming "treat" that George has dropped for us.

Wannabe

Looks like I'll be eating my Lucasfilm licensed "Han shot Greedo" hat. At least I can take the money that I was going to spend on new Star Wars DVDs and put it toward a case of Tums.

Does he know the definition of "hypocrite"?

Believe it or not, George Lucas was not the only person involved in the making of these movies. Ask Ralph McQuarrie, John Dykstra, Gary Kurtz, Rick Baker, or Marcia Lucas. Star Wars (what Lucas now calls A New Hope) is a great movie that represents some of the best filmmaking of the 1970's. What Lucas is doing is completely disrespectful to all of those people that were involved in the process of making those films. He's completely disregarding their work and dishonoring their memory.

By the way, last weekend I watched the "2004 version" and I didn't think it held up. The scene where Luke and Ben enter Mos Eisley looks too busy and too cartoon-like, in other words, like CGI. The new scene with Jabba: it's redundant. It's a almost a word-for-word retread of the Greedo scene.

Hey Lynne Hale and George Lucas, I want you to be aware that I have no plans – now or in the future – to purchase your poor quality version of the original movies. Furthermore, I and my family will NEVER spend another dime on your movies.

A multi-billion dollar company and you're not willing to spend an extra hundred grand to make your product better and your fans happy with an anomorphic print?

Well, we hope you will understand our decision and, again, want to let you know how much we don't appreciate your lack of interest and enthusiasm.

Terrell

I understand your anger and disappointment. I really do. But how is releasing the originals, in any way disrespectful to people that worked on this film? He's releasing them, people can see their work. Hell, considering 95% or more of the original footage is contained in the 2004 DVDs, even releasing that was not disrespectful. You can clearly see everyone's work even in the new DVDs. The vast majority of the changes were additions, rather than removing or changing the work.

Oh Lord! Not this "we made Lucas a billionaire and he owes us" crap. Lucas owes you and I nothing. When we bought a ticket, you got to enjoy the films. When you bought an action figure or toy, you got to own it and collect it. So fans got their money's worth. Everything between the fans and Lucas are square.

I'll say this. Lucas is wrong on this issue. It's a stupid decision on his part not to at least release it in anamorphic. It even sounds spiteful. I understand the anger. But it's when the angers turns to silly hyperbole that things get to be a bit too much.

Living Dead

I suppose since he now considers the films that made him rich to be "bonus material," Lucas sees no reason in doing anything special with them.

I just can't believe that the films we all know and love are truly dead in regards to restoration. We'll never be able to have high quality versions that separate these classic films from the mostly sub-par prequels. I own all 6 movies and enjoy them each in turn, but as a 6 movie saga, it just doesn't flow for me. I can only watch them as separate trilogies.

I can't honestly say I ever expected something like the restoration done to the 2004 release to be applied to the unaltered originals, but I certainly never expected to have Lucas piss in my face either.

It really is a sad day for fans of the Original Trilogy.

CertifiedTHX

Excellent. That's what I was hoping. Thank you.

--THX

Grubert

But not nearly as good as they'd look if they struck a new transfer. Just compare the new and old releases of The Thing or Titanic).

No sale for me.

KnightLerxst

As morbid as this sounds, I think once Lucas passes away the originals will finally see the light of day in restored, high quality form.

coli

For the ones last week who said "this is just a rumor, everyone should cool down." Now what do you say? Lucas just gave us the middle finger, and atleast we were prepared for it, so when Sept. 12th comes, I don't have to waste my money.

This shows how out of touch he is, he is the only director who hates and wants to put the screws to a part of his fanbase. He has become so isolated on what everyone wants, I bet he sits up there with Rick McCallum and wonders why we don't love the SE.

Just remember George Lucas was the one who was wondering why fans were cheering for Tantive IV so much at the premiere of ROTS. A friend of his leaned over and said to him, "That is one of the first ships the fans saw in 1977, it is iconic." Listen to the ROTS commentary, Lucas even admits he didn't know what the fuss was about. So do you think he is going to understand how much people love the originals?

Fuck you, George, the divorce is final, I will sign the papers this morning, cause you have beaten me down, and I just can't win as a SW fan. You win, I have no more strength to fight for the O-OT.

May 25, 1977- May 24, 2006

Egon's Ghost

The 1998 Thing wasn't that bad. But the anamorphic release struck from the same master (right?) certainly does look better.

kajs

Someone has already done that using the laserdisc non-cgi scenes.

digitalfreaknyc

Yah...but even the OFFICIAL release was screwed up.

There seems to be no winning with Star Wars.

rennervision

Not unless copyright/public domain laws have changed a hundred years from now. It will be just like the way today's fans of "Metropolis" are interested in seeing the original cut of the film. Sorry THX, but I must respectfully disagree.

sracer

Look at the history of copyright law. The laws WILL change. 100 years from now Star Wars will not be in the public domain. Copyright will have been extended to 200 years or more by then.

djtoell

Copyright extension is the least of the problems with seeing the original version of Metropolis. The film was in the public domain in the US until it had its copyright restored, and no one waved a magic wand in the preceding decades to make all of the missing footage appear. It just doesn't exist anymore, whether still under copyright or in the public domain.

DJ

Puzznic

I am not a big Star Wars fan but even I think that this is really messed up. Why are they acting like the big draw of these releases are that they are being released seperately? Everyone that wanted the special editions bought one of the previous 2 releases. They know the unaltered versions are the real draw and are only putting the SEs on there to jack up the MSRP by pretending that you are getting 2 movies when everyone already has the SEs.

It just stinks of ringing their fans dry when they easily could have thrown the laserdisc transfers on DVD and sold them for $9.99 or less. Even at that price it would have been all profit considering how little work and expense went into the transfers.

I am a huge Joss Whedon fan on the level of some of the diehard Star Wars fans but if Joss ever started acting like George Lucas then I would seriously have to rethink the whole thing. So far he has been kind of like the anti-Lucas, hopefully it stays that way.

djtoell

Even though copyright terms will keep getting extended, it's good to know that at least the existence of psychic abilities to predict the future have been proven...

DJ

bboisvert

People said the exact same thing about the Young Indiana Jones show, and that was cancelled quietly during it's initial season. Hell, most people have forgotten it even existed. The VHS volumes sold so poorly that they never even released the 2nd wave. (I personally like the show, but most people don't seem to give a shit about it one way or the other.)

The SW television show *might* get "super high ratings", but that's certainly not guaranteed. It may suck. It may not match what the public expects to see in a SW show (much like Young Indy was too slow/historical/whatever for the target audience). Or, Lucasfilm just may find that people -- even lifelong fans of the films -- are sick and tired with the direction things have been going and don't tune in beyond the first couple of episodes.

At some point, even the fans can stop caring and walk away. It certainly happened with Star Trek.

IIG

I hate to see you fans of the OT get crushed like that, but that is George Lucas' way. It can't surprise anybody. Good thing I'm happy with my SEs and would not have upgraded anyway.

VoreLord

This was posted on TheForce.net forums by a user named RogueScribner. I agree with this opinion 100% on this issue:

"When people asked for "unaltered" films, they were referring to content. This should go without saying since are basis of comparison would be the Special Editions which had their content altered.

When people speaking of the quality of the DVDs refer to not caring if there are some scratches, they are not saying that they don't care if there are scratches on the DVD. Would you take them so literally? They are referring to the film image itself. Which has nothing to do with the transfer.

When people asked for the O-OT on DVD, it was with the assumption that if it ever happened, it would be presented in the best way possible. Meaning, it would take full advantage of the technology millions of us enjoy every day and present us with great sound and picture quality.

"Original" refers to content: original soundtracks, original edits of the film, original presentations. But it should go without saying that when you present a film on a new medium that the medium should be taken fully advantage of. Or even just adhere to the standards of the day. By presenting us with a non-anamorphic transfer, we are LOSING picture quality. The amount of visual information being coded to disc is LESS than if it were an anamorphic transfer. Even if you only have a standard TV set, you would still benefit from an anamorphic presentation as it would INCREASE the resolution of the image on your screen. By converting a laserdisc master instead of making a transfer from an actual film element we are LOSING picture quality. The movies won't look ANYTHING like they did in the theaters in '77, '80, and '83. The movies won't look ANYTHING like the '04 DVDs. They will hardly look anything more than our dusty old deteriorating VHS tapes. We're supposed to pay $60 for the pleasure of watching subpar DVDs. It's unbelievable.

When DVDs get reviewed, typically there is a numerical or alphabetical rating in regards to picture and sound quality. From the look of it, this release will probably score a whopping 4 or 5 out of 10 on picture quality. Does that sound right to you? For a frickin' STAR WARS release??? These DVDs should not be onpar with first generation DVDs that everyone agreed was so horrible and hard to watch. They should adhere to the STANDARDS of TODAY. Nay, they should EXCEED, but I think people by and large would settle for adhering to them.

But we're not getting standard DVDs. We're getting SUB-STANDARD. And why some people can't fathom the problem with that is beyond me. They're either ignorant of the real issue or they are callous to their fellow fans and taking pleasure in their pain. If you're being ignorant, I hope I've enlightened you. If you're being callous, I hope Lucas one day craps on something you love. "

digitalfreaknyc

I hope the reviewers tear Lucas a new hole when these come out.

mars396

I also got the e-mail from Lynne Hale

This transfer off of a laserdisc concept concerns me:

will they be simply a 2 hour chapter (i.e. no chapter stops, no scene access) ?

isn't there a pause at the one-hour mark where the laserdisc would get flipped ?