CT Rumor: Disney to Release Unaltered Old Trilogy on BR

If you equate respect to being on BD I guess so. Fact is though it's doesn't matter a jot to sales which have been spectacular to say the least.

I watch it no problem. I have the DS Edition and that was fine to watch but then you realize that really all the SE's changes really only add to the whole movie. The only thing that is too bad is the Han-Greedo scene where only Han should shoot (I didn't see the version where Greedo shot after he was killed!) because it doesn't work. If they could have made it work I'd be fine with it but it never does and the end battle is far better in the SE with better and clearer shots.

As hard as it is for a very few number of people to believe the PT was enormously successful. It just was. The very fact that Disney is working hard to re-educate people about the OT era is proof of that. The era that the new fans know and have know for 15 years has been the PT one. A new generation doesn't need to learn about it. They already know it.

As for "nods" I don't even know what that means really. It's all one saga now and inextricably linked forever. The ST will be chock full of nods as Luke and Leia are Anakin and Padme's children and then we'll see their grandchildren. The whole situation of the galaxy will be informed by the PT and Clone Wars and so whatever happens after will be tied in with it in some form. Never mind that on a visual level we'll be in a world that looks far more like the PT era than the OT one. It's really not going to look like the OT era did.

 

Avatar is way down the list when adjusted for inflation. As far as cultural impact, Avatar was a flash in the pan. Most people can't even remember a single character's name from that film. Star Wars is a cultural phenomenon. You can't walk into a single store without seeing something with Star Wars on it. It has transcended generations and will continue to do so. To be honest, comparing Avatar to Star Wars is insulting.

 

The ST could easily get by without referencing things unique to the PT (hence what I meant by "nods"). Luke and Leia were major characters from the OT, and their character arcs will flow from the those films rather than from the films featuring their parents. Padme has been dead for ~60 years by the time of the ST, so she will have little relevance to the current story, as will most things that originated in the prequel trilogy. Dooku, Grievous, Padme, Qui-gon, Windu, etc. are all history lessons by the time of this new trilogy. In the OT, the Clone Wars only got a passing mention in the first film. There's no reason to think that they would suddenly become more relevant 30 years later, long after a second war has concluded.

I do agree that we will see settings from the PT. It will be pretty hard to avoid showing Coruscant, and Leia may very well take up residence on Naboo. But if they go for the "small band of misfits on the run" approach rather than the "great political figures at the center of everything" side of the story, than we could very well see a world more like the OT. My guess is that we will start with things looking like the PT, but then something will happen that will force our heroes to survive on the Outer Rim.

 

I'm not arguing cultural impact, I was rebutting the assertion that the first Star Wars film is (present tense) 20th Century Fox's "most valuable commodity". That claim is factually incorrect. You can be "honest" all you like about your own personal, subjective feelings of "insult", but this is one massive Star Wars fan pointing out to another that Avatar is currently a more valuable commodity, in a monetary sense, for Fox than the original Star Wars film.

 

The day Disney bought Lucasfilm, I knew the OOT would eventually be released. You don't pluck down 4 Billion and not be able to explore EVERY monetary angle, and the OOT on DVD/BluRay is a money maker whenever they release it.

I have always said the perfect time to release the OOT on BluRay was the leadup to Episode 7 because Han, Luke and Leia will dominate the hype for that movie. What better time to release the OOT to all of the old school fans who are dying for it along with newer fans who are curious about it? I know there are legal issues with Disney and Fox, so that is another topic for another time, but I'm sure the OOT will eventually be released.

All I can say is, "IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!"

 

I'd love to see the unaltered trilogy on blu ray and of course I would buy it in a heartbeat, but will it get the same sales as the films generated on blu ray when they were released a couple of years ago (I confess I don't know what they generated sales wise). Will it only be the die hards that buy the unaltered trilogy? Is that a small percentage of the SW fans out there that already have the blu ray release?

It may be too early to say, but in the long run will Avatar continue to be make money like Star Wars has over the last 30+ years. Not just on a film by film comparison but in relation to all the spin off that is related to those films and their sequels, that in turn then generates more interest in the original movie?

 

I'm taking these rumors with a grain of salt.

As for the OOT being re-released, I think that would be cool, but it should be included with the current versions. It shouldn't completely replace the current versions, now matter how much we may disagree with some of the changes.

As for the PT being trashed and remade? I don't believe that for a second.

 

We don't care if the OOT is canon. We just want them.

 

Well said, FS!

I don't know what BD is and I don't care about sales. Sales aren't my measuring criteria. I like the original version and feel it deserves it's credit as the forerunner. I likewise don't care about labels.

 

Not sure what BD is. It can't be BlueRay.
Anyway we don't need the OOT to tie into the PT. It worked for us before then and we would like to see them at the highest quality we can.

 

^ That.

 

Except that presumably they will be Jedi and we really had no idea how the Jedi actually worked and didn't until the PT. Same goes for the Sith.

One presumes the Jedi and Sith will be part of the ST. By the same token we didn't really know what the Republic really was and what was lost that they were trying to get back.

What were all these thousands of systems that we never saw and all these aliens we never saw? The OT world was by necessity very narrow in scope because they just couldn't really do much of anything outside of barren worlds like Tatooine, Yavin, Hoth and Dabobah or simple places like Endor or Bespin.

The relevance is that we'll now know how that it all fits together. It's just like the effect the PT has on the OT. Now it's not merely Darth Vader but Anakin who has become Darth Vader, it's not just some Emperor we don't really know but the true evil genius of all-time. So this information changes the story of the OT and will inform the story of the PT. It can't simply go from what ended in the OT and then create a whole new universe of history and rules that have already been established as a base.

In terms of immediate relevance I don't think much from the OT will be in the ST either outside of the characters. There is going to be 30 years of history that will eventually be built up in books and comics but I don't see what will be carried over unless they somehow have some Empire leftovers 30 years later. Outside of design things like the Falcon and updated X-Wings and the like.

Tatooine and Coruscant would be the most likely places to turn up in terms of revisits. Other than that I don't see any particular reason to go someplace already done in the movies.

 

I think it is a certainty. The Disney-era of Lucasfilm has been one of subtle apologizing for the ill treatment of the Trilogy and the pushing of Prequels that has been the last 15 years. They will do it. If Fox can agree with WB to release Batman 1966 on DVD, then Fox and Lucasfilm can easily enter an agreement to get the unbutchered trilogy out on Blu-Ray before Dec 2015. I half expect an announcement at SDCC.

 

So subtle that almost no one has noticed.

Yeah I mean why would you push things based on super-successful movies?

Always the wrong way to run a business.

 

Everything in that rumor sends chills of terror down my spine! Ugh!

 

It will never be overt, but Disney is really supporting the Classic Trilogy. The new talking figures and Disney Store merch? Classic characters. The relaunch of the books? Focusing on classic characters. The Rebels cartoon? Taking its cues from the Trilogy.

For the past 10 years, way too much of the merch has been based on the Prequels. Now those ideas are being shoved aside (apart from Darth Maul) in favor of the OT. It even took Lucas starting on the Sequel Trilogy to get Disney really serious about buying.

Lucasfilm really wants Episode 7 to be successful. They need to shed the image of the Star Wars films that the Prequels helped usher in. Bad dialog, too much CGI, Jar Jar, etc. They want the fans to know it will be better than it was. We are getting what the people want: the further adventures of Luke, Han and Leia + their kids. Releasing the unaltered Trilogy on Blu Ray will be a nice peace offering to the older fans and lovers of classic films. For too long Lucas had been a jerk about these things. He even refused the Library of Congress copies of the films they decreed culturally significant: the theatrical cuts.

I just hope that I'm not forced to buy the awful SEs, with their crushed blacks, bad color correction and stupid additions just to get the movies that should have been freely available. I am a firm believer in voting with my wallet.

 

Considering that they just had Ahmed Best as a guest during Star Wars Weekends a couple of weeks ago, methinks that Disney isn't taking to what you think they need to do by ignoring the prequels.

 

Well of course they are. As I said they don't have to push the PT era as it already has been in existence and been done for over 15 years! They don't need to be introduced or reintroduced. The OT does need to be in books, comics and whatever exactly they are going to do with Rebels because that the the one that is for their target child audience far less know even if some have seen the movies they won't have the same connection. So in this in-between period before EP VII they have to set up what happened after the PT and those characters who will be in the new movies.

The Clone Wars also tooks plently of cues from the OT era in terms of design because it was Lucas who was giving direction and shape to it. As above of course they are going with the OT for now until the ST can come in and then they can work on that.

Obviously then it did pretty well and considering Clone Wars hardly surprising. That is what was on TV and the most recent movies. Now it isn't and Rebels is which is not the OT but that era and logically follows on from Clone Wars.

No, it was the other way around. Disney wanted to buy but Lucas said not yet then he got to work on the ST to at least in his mind feel easier about selling it off and at least handing over a direction to them with KK, MA, LK and others. He got serious about selling to them when he created it.

Yes that terrible image of huge box office, major DVD and BD sales, merchandise, TV series etc etc. I mean this is obviously something they don't want to be associated with!

I will never understand this obsession some people have with dialogue. Because SW movies are like plays and so dialogue based? Like the brilliant dialogue of the OT? LOL!

Too much CGI? The practical effects of the PT dwarf the OT many,many, many times over. If the ST has anywhere near the practical effects work of the PT it will be surprising. I'm sure they will push the idea that they are using a lot though.

Actually the people have nothing to do with it. That's Lucas and the pure logic of going there just like Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin-Vader are in the OT after the PT in story terms.

Well let's face it a small segment of those older fans have been far more than jerks most of the time back.

I've heard different stories on that and I don't have confirmation on what was what and so what the real story is unknown.

I have no trouble at all with the SE's. All this technophile crushed blacks etc etc doesn't bother me not one jot. I think the originals should be out but I think people should look at the original versions with a fresh eye because not everything about them is perfect either. There are various problems (including lightsabers) that really should be addressed.

That's the question though. Do people REALLY want the originals or idealized versions of the originals they have in their mind that doesn't actually exist on the screen?

 

I don't unterstand it either.
Perhaps it's just too easy (and therefore tempting) to cherry-pick some random lines, take them out of context and then present them as "proof" for a respective stance. Besides, it took me one minute to google this...

STAR WARS: a film with comic book characters, an unbelievable story, no political or social commentary, lousy acting, preposterous dialogue and a ridiculous simplistic morality. In other words: a BAD MOVIE.'
The New York Times, 1977

...and this...

Aside from featuring some of the new film's fanciest special effects, this sequence has a welcome touch of the old "Star Wars" impishness, which is strangely absent from "The Empire Strikes Back" too much of the time. The first film's offhanded gags have virtually been cast in bronze; the comic shabbiness of all the space gadgetry, for example, has been expanded from a casual giggle to a full-scale running gag. And the dialogue, fueled with a heightened spirit of adventure the first time around, is more wooden now. Luke Skywalker and a fellow warrior, talking on the eve of a battle: "Right now I feel like I could take on the whole Empire myself." "I know what you mean."
The New York Times, 1980

...and that...

But it is hard to place one’s affections anywhere in a world which is ruled by buttons and dials, computers and bleeps, and people whose conversation is so technical, inaudible or dull that it might be better if the film gave up the idea of dialogue and settled for subtitles where necessary; though John Williams’s music sustains its imperialist theme with the kind of trumpeted fervour familiar in Shakespeare’s histories.
Daily Telegraph, 1980.

...and we haven't reached ROTJ yet, which was the worst received film of the OT. So yeah, hardly new.

Exactly. Apart from that, CGI hate is one of the wonderful mysteries of the internet sub-culture.
CGI is used in films today because audiences (all of them, not just those writing on the internet boards) want films like that. If modern audiences wanted movies to look like movies from the 70s and 80s, then movies would be made like that! There are not because there's no sufficient demand. Simple as that.
Demand and supply. Film companies are giant corporations, they rely on market research etc ... they know what modern audiences want...

...and it's not a film with the look of the 70s and 80s.

Unless it's a deliberate niche film or homage (which Ep. VII probably isn't).

 

You don't have to watch them.

 

That would be down right....logical.

 

And we can't have that can we?

 

Yes or talk about them either but as we know PT haters love to talk about them and apparently watch them over and over again!

It's just so funny to me knowing that if the exact same lines that people deride from the PT were in the OT they'd love them and if the reverse they'd rip 'em to shreds.

Imagine the line "Right now I feel like I could take on the whole Droid army myself." in the PT and how awful it'd suddenly be.

I can see the same for these "Classic lines"

“He’s no good to me dead.”

“Would it help if I got out and pushed?”

“I’m standing here in pieces and you’re having delusions of grandeur!”

“I’m altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”

“Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking Nerf herder!”

“I don’t know where you get your delusions, laser brain.”

 

The main problem I hear is that they can't watch them because they don't tie in to the PT or that they aren't the canon version of the films. We don't care about that kind of stuff.

 

Logic? In Star Wars Fandom?! Go back to Trek, you hippie!