re: Star Wars
 

I remember a while back when he was interviewed by the New York Times, he said “Why would I make any more,” Lucas says of the “Star Wars” movies, “when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?"

I just though to myself, George, you run Industrial Light and Magic, the biggest visual effects house in the world. You run Skywalker Sound, the biggest post production studio in the world. You run THX. You are one of the richest men on earth. You have produced, written, and directed some of the most successful films of all time and you are worth more money than almost anyone on earth. Why do you care what a clique of people on the Internet say about you? Are you really that insecure? I kind of feel sorry for you if that's the case.

The key problem now is that after the 2006 release, there's a catch-22 where they can say "Well, we released it, and people still complained!" I thought high-quality releases should be a given, but apparently not.

re: Star Wars
 

DVDS?!??!

I must have THESE!!!!

re: Star Wars
 

:hscratch:

re: Star Wars
 

:lol:

Maybe they're doing combo packs because the DVDs have been out of print for the past couple of years, and they're putting these out so they only have one SKU for both formats.

re: Star Wars
 

I like the new OT set cover. But seems like it's just a re-release of the same trilogy sets. I think they said there'd be a new comm. track from archive interviews.

If they were serious, they'd have included ultraviolet - it's the future, man.

re: Star Wars
 

Hmm. I wonder if they'll be some good deals on the current sets as retailers make room for the new ones.

re: Star Wars
 

Doubtful. They will sell side by side until exhaustion or sent back like every other set that gets re-released.

Limited space in stores now so the combining of the SKU is probably a requirement.

re: Star Wars
 

I keep wondering if these are just stray pressings of the 2004 & 2008 releases they still have lying around, or if they keep releasing them again and again because they keeps selling well, I assume the latter.

re: Star Wars
 

I think they could benefit from pulling a Disney Vault move. Yank 'em for a few years.

re: Star Wars
 

There's the possibility that these DVDs will be based off the Blu-ray versions, which had changes from the 2008 release. So they then couldn't possibly be left over discs.
Disney may end up doing that when Lucasfilm regains distribution rights to 5 of the six films in 2020; meanwhile Fox likely wants to milk these films as much as it can before they lose the rights.

re: Star Wars
 

I rented the DVDs and BDs, but I didn't buy them. I've been waiting for versions without the crappy special effects and gratuitous scenes.

As others have said, someone should just release both versions, original and special edition. How hard is that? It's done ALL THE TIME with other films.

re: Star Wars
 

Great, so those vile things can be further ingrained into the consciousness of the public and continue selling and reducing the chances of the originals coming out!

I don't want to wait that long!! And in any case, even if they Disney vault it, you'll be able to find copies almost anywhere for a pittance, it's not like it's rare or something.

No other franchise has a creative owner as obsessive about which version he out out and which version he wants to get rid of than Lucas. The man is passionate about it, good, bad, or indifferent.

re: Star Wars
 

I thought they only had SWIV until 2020.

re: Star Wars
 

I'm more amused some people think we will still be able to buy movies on discs in 2020. What retailers will be selling them? Will Best Buy even exist?

re: Star Wars
 

This maybe a dumb question, but could FOX put out the OOT remastered sometime in the near future on BluRay if they wanted to? Lucas took his future SW business to Disney, so they have no loyalty to him anymore, and they still own the Home Video rights, why don't they just milk the OOT for all its worth now?

re: Star Wars
 

Fox actually owns distribution rights for Ep 4 in perpetuity. However, they have the distribution rights to Eps 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 until 2020.

Best Buy may not exist, but discs are still a possibility. Hell, music is still released on vinyl, which I doubt people a decade ago thought would still be occurring. Video discs may end up being a niche market, but it's still one that could be filled by the studios, even if it's reduced to something like burn-on-demand for many titles.

It's complicated, and it's a bit of an unknown since it likely depends on distribution contract Fox and Lucasfilm have. Fox currently has distribution rights for all the films, but Lucasfilm owns the copyrights for all of them. It's possible that Fox only has the rights to distribute what Lucasfilm gives them to distribute.

Even if Fox has the right to distribute other versions of the films without Lucasfilm approval, they may have difficulty getting the materials for an OOT remaster. Lucasfilm has the original negatives in their possession, and I believe that Lucas went on a quest to recall as many prints as possible of the OOT, so Fox may not even have a print available.

Even if they did have a copy, and did have the rights to distribute it without authorization from Lucasfilm, they still may play nice with Lucasfilm. Fox owns the rights to Ep 4 in perpetuity, but they likely know that it's worth most as released with the rest of the trilogy, so they may be wanting to work with Lucasfilm and Disney in a combined distribution deal for at least the first 3 films. So they won't do anything to deliberately antagonize Lucasfilm or Disney, especially if the trade-off is only to please a relatively small part of the market for these films.

re: Star Wars
 

I think Vinyl is more of a 'fad'-type situation. It's cool to collect, and the hipsters love it, but it's far from a money-maker. Wonder what the stats are on Vinyl.

As for discs, it'll be an online only type deal aside from some new releases. Studios are already pushing Digital pretty damn hard.

re: Star Wars
 

They have the right to the six movies until 2020, but they have the rights to the original film in perpetuity.

Hopefully yes, probably not.

It begs a number of questions. Do they have OOT prints? Could they restore them, or would they have to go through Disney? Would either of them be willing to restore them? Could Disney and Fox reach an agreement about the profits if it's necessary for both parties to be involved? How profitable is the OOT to them?

But since Lucasfilm is owned by Disney now, wouldn't they have to go through them? I assume until 2020, Disney's hands are tied and Fox can release what they want?

Lucas supposedly went on a purge to find and destroy as many OOT prints as he could. I've often wondered, if they scanned the OOT footage to create the SE, wouldn't that still be on file someplace? Again, there's so much behind-the-scenes stuff that we don't know about, it's difficult to say anything for certain.

Rumors are a-flying, but I think it's all just fanboys blowing smoke right now.

It's probably cheaper for them (to say nothing of offering them more control, but I'm paranoid).

re: Star Wars
 

As Lucasfilm is now owned by Disney, any deals Lucasfilm now makes would likely have to get approval from Disney. As for what Fox can and can't release, again it's hard to say. As evidenced by the upcoming DVD/Blu-ray combos, Fox can at least re-release material they already have. Whether that extends to them being able to restore and release the OOT on their own is anyone's guess.

This is an excellent article if you want to know about the state of the OOT, and what was done to it when creating the SEs:
http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/savingstarwars.html

The short version is that the films weren't completely digitally scanned to make the SEs, and most of the restoration in '97 was done photochemically. Parts that were replaced with new digital effects weren't restored at all. Lucasfilm likely still has all the original elements though, so a digital restoration is still possible.

re: Star Wars
 

I doubt Lucas would have destroyed all the original elements, he was most likely just trying to get a hold of them and prevent them from circulating.

re: Star Wars
 

So you don't know any "stats" on vinyl, but already definitively stated its far from a monkey-maker. Oh, and the hipsters love it. :lol:

re: Star Wars
 

I would guess probably not, but like you said, it's the upper level business dealings of two gigantic media conglomerates, there's probably a lot we don't know.

Extremely disappointing, but hardly surprising. But it does probably reduce the chances even further, since it would make a restoration of the OOT even more costly and time-consuming.

We could all dress up like hipsters, and make fun of our exes. Yeah.

re: Star Wars
 

Some recent articles:
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/12...ss--83471.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/ar...pagewanted=all
http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/...-revolver.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/vinyl...surging-2013-7

re: Star Wars
 

With the upcoming release, guess prices for the existing DVD sets will change. Since I've got mine, I hope they go up!

re: Star Wars
 

Doesn't the Library of Congress have good prints of the originals? Seems to me these movies were included in their film preservation program. Even if Lucas himself never allows it, they exist and could be reproduced someday long after he's gone. They've already up and done it to Kubrick, against his and his family's continued wishes, with Fear and Desire.