This may be a gamble, but I just put my 2006 DVD set on ebay before it becomes worthless, lol.

I don't know what all the hubaloo is over the new versions. They look amazing. Sure they are adulterated, but fuck it, the emotion, the movie, the awesomeness, still there...

Sure, the only change that really bothers me is the ROTJ ending.

Vader's "Noooooo!" was my last straw. Fuck those special editions!

I grew up on the 90's special editions, which I thought for the most part, added something positive to the films. The NOOOOOO and Hayden Force Ghost are the only 2 things I've really hated. The end of Jedi was about as close to perfection as you can get, there was no need to mess with it.

Awesome news if true. The main question I have is if they'll be able to be purchased individually or at least as a Original Trilogy only set or if we'll have to buy some elaborate box set. I'd shell out either way but would prefer either single releases or a set of just the Original Trilogy.

The noooooo at the end of Return of the Jedi is the reason I've refused to buy the Blu-ray set thus far. I actually was thinking recently about getting a copy of the Harmy versions of the films but glad I waited.

If it is released this year, I can't see Disney releasing some OOT/PT boxset, as I think it would be an OOT boxset release only. I think they are saving the Super Duper Boxset for after Episode 9 (PT/OT/ST Boxset).

One of the "big" panels at Celebration this year is for the 40th Anniversary...so if anything is happening re: an original version release, it will be first revealed there. It would have to be a collaboration with 20th Century Fox though...so I'm not sure how that happens.

It happens like this:

Disney: We want to release the theatrical versions of the original trilogy, do you want to make money?

Fox: Yes.

I still remember the excitement of the announcement that the originals would come out on DVD, only to discovered we'd get non-anamorphic bullshit. I've never gotten over that burn, and now approach any and all rumors with skepticism at best, cynicism at worst. Rumors have been flying since the day of the Disney buyout, but not a a damned thing concrete. I'm no longer hoping. I'd love for it to happen, but unless I see it officially announced, I just shrug it off as wishful thinking. And even if they do announce it, there are any number of questions: color timing, sound mix, which of the mild pre-1997 tweaks they'll keep, mastering. Even if by some miracle it does happen, there are still half a dozen things that could get fucked up before the Blu-ray even hits the shelves. Believe me, I want this more than anything in the universe (Well, I have a few other things on the list, but anyway....), but I've been too badly burned too many times to approach this with anything but a belief that it's false hope.

That's just it though. They don't look amazing. In fact they're pretty darn shotty. Detail has been scrubbed away (with fake grain put in its place). Contrast and colors are f'd six ways to Sunday. And that's just the big stuff. Anyone going through those movies with a fine tooth comb will find all sorts of headscratching digital "fix-ups" that are somehow both unnecessary and lazyily applied. All this is especially frustrating considering Lucasfilm is supposed to be at the forefront of movie technology.

I feel it probably was more complex. Disney/Lucasfilm most likely wants to gain the distribution rights to the original film, which Fox owns in perpetuity. Fox, on the other hand, likely doesn't want to give up their share of the gross revenue from that film. Disney may have come up with a deal to get the rights, in exchange for Fox getting a cut of the gross, even from box sets packaging the other films, in order to release the original versions this year to coincide with the 40th Anniversary.

I imagine that there are massively complex legal issues in boardroom between Fox and Disney that probably beyond anything we can guess about. If they're willing to cooperate (which I doubt), there are probably layers and layers and layers of legal negotiations. Not saying it's impossible, just probably more legally complex than any of us could probably imagine.

I'd I weren't so worried about having Boggs Diamond as a cellmate, I'd have download Harmy (and a dozen other fan-edits) by now .

It may be complex, but it's not impossible. I can't tell you how maddening it is to see comments on Facebook and reddit from people who think Fox owns ANH lock, stock and barrel and love to shoot down rumors like this.




But in the meantime, here's The Digital Bits to shoot down the rumor:
Link: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/column...ts/022417-0100


I still find that hard to understand. When Disney bought Lucasfilm, Day 1 should have been to get the new movies started but Day 2 should have been "somebody hunt down the original versions and start cleaning them up".

Why is this so hard to get done?

Ah yes, time for the annual rumors. 40th anniversary doesn't be mean much, unless the rights to A New Hope got sorted out.

Sure, it's not impossible, and never say never, but I was pointing out that whatever deal, if one ever comes to be, is not going to be as simple as how Obi-Wan Jabroni painted it.

I don't know about Reddit, and while I'm sure some naysayers are probably overzealous in their cynicism, it's good to be skeptical of such rumors and understand that Fox's current perpetual distribution rights to Star Wars, plus their time-limited distribution rights to the next 5 Star Wars films, definitely complicates matters and makes a newer release until such issues are hashed out or resolve on their own (such as Disney waiting until Fox's distribution rights to the latter 5 films expire) less likely.

Studios are typically loath to spend money on something until they have to. Depending on the condition of the original negative and elements, and their current storage and maintenance, there may not really be a rush to scan the original film elements until a release is likely. Any money they spend now will just become tied up as expenditures and a "loss" until revenue from sales can come in.

Not to mention that film scanning and restoration technology progresses so fast that unless you release it instantly, you may end up having to do another scan and restoration at the time of release just to be on par with other releases. See the films that got "HD remasters" for DVD releases that then got new remasters for Blu-ray.

Finally, imagine the outcry that would happen if people learned that Disney had performed 4K scans and remasters of the original versions and then were simply sitting on them until the proper release window presents itself. At least right now there's the mental buffer of "oh, the work hasn't been done yet." If 4K masters existed but weren't being released, fans would be foaming at the mouth, and release rumors would be popping up every other week.

Batman 66 made it to video. Anything is possible

When hammering out the rights to get a film or TV series released, anything is definitely possible.

However, Star Wars is not in danger of ever going out of print or becoming unavailable. Disney and Fox are always going to work together to have some version available. The Blu-ray re-releases, as well as the digital "bundles" of the first 6 films (with all but the first part of "Disney Movies Anywhere") are evidence of that.

The sticking point is whether it makes sense to release a specific version of the first 3 films, and how and when.

Because Disney doesn't care. They bought Lucasfilm for the franchise IP rights so that they could churn out tons and tons of new Star Wars content every year. The older movies are, in Disney's mind, already played out. The return on investment for another re-release would probably not recoup the expenditure of a major restoration effort.

Keep in mind also that Disney has just as bad or worse a track record for altering, censoring and suppressing its old movies as Lucasfilm does. Song of the South will never see the light of day again, nor will the original version of Fantasia.

To be fair, the Song of the South has really strong racial undertones tied to it, as do parts of Fantasia. Disney has at least looked into ways into releasing Song of the South in a socially responsible way, although they haven't ever settled on one.

Star Wars, on the other hand, isn't having the original "suppressed" due to any racial or social issues, but simply because its creator and long-time owner preferred the revised versions he made.

If that wrangling was going on, then yes it would be more complex. However, if, in order to get them out this year, Disney was willing to let Fox distribute them under the original agreement, it would be very simple.

MAYBE even letting Fox distribute them now under the existing agreement is part of an agreement to get the rights to Episode IV back to Disney (ie, we'll let you distribute the unaltered OT for a few years and make a bunch of money, but ANH reverts to us with the rest of the films in 2020. Otherwise we'll sit on them until then, and you'll only make money from ANH).

That's a pretty strong "if." The existing agreement is pretty strongly in Fox's favor, and the unaltered versions are pretty good leverage. And while releasing the unaltered versions during the 40th Anniversary of the first film is nice, I'm not sure it's enough of a marketing boost to justify basically just handing them over to Fox.

Yes, that's a more plausible arrangement, and not as simple as what you originally proposed.

I did that last year and made a couple hundred. Fine with me after having some copies from other sources. I don't even know if I will bother buying blu-rays if the originals come out again. Maybe just do iTunes.

This rumor could end up being true AND you still will regret it. A release of the OOT could still have some alterations that aren't the type people have rallied against Lucas for doing. Things like the effects of laser blasts on humans, light saber colors/effects, and other very minor changes that are not Han shooting first, Jaba in ANW, the force ghosts, etc. And then of course there is always the possibility the color timing will be different or any other number of things that don't have to do with the Lucas SE changes.