CT Will Disney Re-Release Theatrical Cut Of The Original Trilogy?

The worst thing about the GOUT discs is the position of the subtitles. When you watch them on a widescreen TV, the bottom line of the subtitles is chopped off. They could at the very least have positioned the subtitles more centrally.

 

There are so many Fans who would like to see the original versions that it should be fairly easy to get Disney to release those. I mean it's no problem to get 2000 people to a birthday party because someone posted an invitation publicly on Facebook. But I would not be surprised if George made it part of the deal with Disney that they agreed not to do so... :"/

 

I've always wondered about that. I wouldn't be surprised if it were so, because in George's mind, the movies were always evolving and the old versions no longer relevant.

 

There's no way George would put some sort of clause stopping Disney from re-releasing the OOT. The 2006 DVD's are evident that Lucas doesn't particularly care about the films being re-released.

 

Disney paid George $4 billion. I don't think Disney would agree to a deal that would severely limit their return on investment. I think after 2020 you will see Disney cut a deal with Fox to release the originals unaltered. Fox still owns some rights to the OT until 2020 and then they just have some rights to ANH. So that's why I'm thinking it will be around then we can see this happening.

 

Maybe yes. Maybe no. We don't know.

If he doesn't care at all anymore and they can release them then why haven't they?

Have they determined that it's a very small fan market that is served by the fan preservations?

If nothing happens with this anniversary then what other impetus is there for a long time?

That's the point though. They paid a measly 4B. In no way shape or form would not releasing the theatrical versions cost them anything as the sales of the SE have shown over and again for 20 years now.

Irrelevant. Fox simply gets a fee for ANH and that continues on. There really is no deal to cut anymore as that is all worked out already. The last deal was the digital and that was done.

 

There's plenty of possible reasons. They may feel that it would be wiser to focus on the new films, and wait until later to work on an OOT HD release. After all, that's the reason we never saw any of the films past TPM released in 3D.

 

To be honest, It would be a total breath of fresh air if this happened.

 

Eh, that's a bit different. We're talking about a Blu-ray/digital release (I doubt they'd get a limited theatrical run like the Special Editions did 20 years ago), whereas with the 3D releases of the Saga, having a theatrical re-release for all six films leading up to TFA over a few years kind of takes the punch out of Star Wars returning to theaters. I absolutely understand why they nipped the 3D re-releases in the bud.

 

If they plan on releasing this, they're either waiting for the perfect moment (40th anniversary, after EpIX, GL's 75th birthday...) or negotiating with 20th Century Fox.

 

I'm holding out hope it's going to happen as a surprise. Making Star Wars doesn't usually make this stuff up or have bad sources.

 

Here's a direct comparison between the current bluray, and photos of a set of 1977 Technicolor frames I own.

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1977 Technicolor frames:



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1977 Technicolor frames:



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1977 Technicolor frames:



Bluray:



1977 Technicolor frames:

 

Yeah, there are a few events/dates/milestones that could conceivably give Disney/Lucasfilm reason to have held off thus far.

Generally speaking, it's pretty normal for classic films that are far more obscure than Star Wars, relatively speaking, to get restorations and legacy reissues. I don't think that there's any real question of whether it would be worth the time and investment to do the same for Star Wars; like so many things, it's only *not* happened because of George Lucas and his very unusual approach to these things.

Look at how many releases The Force Awakens received. Granted, this is a different matter, but I'm sure that Disney would love to tempt fans with new repackaging of the classic trilogy, and as far as the theatrical cuts go, it's a mainstream product that there is a market for, demand but virtually no supply. So unless there's a legal block on it, I can't imagine that we won't see this happen in the near future.

 

I just pray that when the inevitable (it's bound to happen at some point) 4k restoration of the original theatrical trilogy is released, they put a lot more care into getting the colour balance and saturation accurate, compared to what is currently on the blu-ray. There are scenes on the blu ray where the colour is just in a completely different world to what exists on technicolor prints, or where certain colours are totally blown out from over saturation. There are things that are supposed to look white, yet have a strange pink cast to them, and there are times when Threepio looks more green than gold. I also hope they resist the urge to start meddling with the look of the film, as has happened with various remastered classic films in recent years. For example, the weird green-cast that exists on the blu ray of Alien, or the crazy yellow tint on The Good The Bad and The Ugly's most recent home media release.

 

Well, in about a week, we'll finally see if that rumor from MSW comes to fruition. If it doesn't, I'm just gonna expect them not to release the OOT until after 2020. Still, I'm hoping for the best, but expecting nothing.

 

The Star Wars Show on YouTube is again strongly hinting at something big happening at the "40 years of Star Wars" panel. They stress that we should definitely "watch the panel" live, that "this panel is not to be missed", and that we should actually try to be in the room if we're going to Celebration. The panel starts at 11am on Thursday April 13th. Let's hope that this is it folks.

 

If that's what you want it to be, okay. I'd rather hear about them continuing the theatrical re-release of the movies myself.

 

We're getting new Star Wars films in theaters every year, so there's really no point, especially if they're the SE of the OT. I could see them making a genuine event of re-releasing the OOT in theaters for a limited run, followed by a Blu-ray release, since the OOT is a genuine commodity; it's been off the market for two decades and there's a high demand for it. I don't think there's nearly as high of a demand to see AotC, RotS, or the special editions of the OOT re-released in theaters in 3D. Especially since we had full Saga marathons at AMC theaters when TFA came out, and the SE of the OT got a limited theatrical marathon run hosted by Alamo Drafthouse last year. And here's the thing: when that marathon was announced last year, everyone complained that they were screening the special editions instead of the original versions. Every time these movies are released in any capacity, people get hopeful for like five seconds and then get annoyed that they're not the versions they've been asking for. They have caped out on releasing those versions of the films.

For how much they've been hyping that panel (two individuals episodes of The Star Wars Show have stressed that is shouldn't be missed), I think an announcement as simple as "Yeah, you're going to get to see Episodes II-VI in theaters again. Yeah, they're the versions you know and complain about, but they're in 3D!" would be underwhelming for most. On the other hand, "Hey, you know that thing you've been asking for for literally twenty years? That thing that really honors the 40 year legacy of this series? Well, you're finally going to be getting it!" would generate a huge amount of hype and excitement from most people. Hell, it's the thing that would get articles posted on mainstream non-geek sites. Those same sites have published articles already on the OOT being out of print, so they'd definitely report on it if they were finally released. It would be treated as a big deal.

 

Okay, look, this's where I'm coming from. I never got a chance to see most of the Star Wars movies on the big screen (only times were the ANH re-release in the '90s that I barely remember since I was a kid at the time and TFA and R1 in more recent years). I was really happy when they announced the re-release of the movies, and getting to see TMP in theaters, as opposed to a dinky TV screen was a blast. I was really looking forward to getting to do that with my favorites from the series and then they just cut it. So, that is a sore point for me. (Also, who cares about the 3D part? Its the theatrical experience that made it worth while.)

Also, I saw the theatrical editions, my first exposure was through the the "last time" VHS releases and honestly, I find them to be one of the most grossly overrated things in the fandom. I find that the updated versions generally improved the movies (barring a few missteps) and also made the whole Saga fit together a lot better. I marathon these things chronologically on an annual basis, so when I say that the Special Editions made the series a heckuva lot more enjoyable for me, I'm not just being a counter-hipster. (Also, the theatrical cuts aren't even the canonical version anymore, which, for someone who follows the whole mulitmedia story, is not a point in its favor.)

On top of that, if I ever wanted to watch the theatrical cuts, I got the boxed DVD set that included them, so I'm covered. I do understand that the theatrical cuts are the holy grail to some and that it would be a more fitting announcement for this year and that there's no way in heck that we're getting the Saga 3D release continued. The point is, we don't all have the same priorities or touchstones to all this. For some, getting another home video release of the theatrical cuts would be a dream come true. For me, it would be the most anticlimatic part of the anniversary. (Frankly, the things I've been looking forward to from Star Wars this year above all else are the Rogue One BluRay, the Rebel Rising novel, the Doctor Aphra trade paperbacks, and the release of The Last Jedi. That stuff is easily worth more to me than yet another release of the old versions of the movies that I already have and don't even like watching that much.)

(Yeah, I do know that this thread is geared towards people who want to see the theatrical cuts on BluRay, so this might not be the place to be explaining that you're not so hot about them, but there it is. Hope you get what you're looking for, though, even if I remain skeptical of it happening.)

 

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I understand where you're coming from, and I appreciate the sentiment at the end. I also get why you'd want to see them theatrically; I take it you must be a few years older than me, because my very first memory is of seeing the SE of A New Hope in theaters. It's literally the first thing I remember, I was so young. I did however see the PT as they were released, so I have a few more notches on the "how many Star Wars films have you seen projected on the silver screen?" belt than you, so I understand why that'd be a sore point. However, I would love to see the OT in theaters. Hell, I'd settle for just the original, so I get it.

 

Honestly, the "canon" and "the saga" are the very last things on my priority list when it comes to Star Wars. "Canon" is really just an artificial construct because all of Star Wars is fiction anyway. The only difference between something canon vs. non-canon is that somebody has declared the canon thing to have....actually happened...in the fictional world? And why exactly should I care what that someone thinks? The whole issue seems so trivial to me. And if someone really cares about canon that much, didn't Pablo Hidalgo say something about both versions (OOT & SE) being canon?

As for making the saga fit better, I think I-VI are fundamentally disconnected from each other and no amount of SE padding really changes that. Like there's nothing in ANH SE that would make me believe that the plot & characters are progressing from ROTS. I mean, if we really want to make it fit better, then there should be a change to ROTS where it explains how Leia remembers her mother and how she died when Leia was very young (i.e. not a 2-minute-old newborn). But, like I said, I don't really care about what fits where and that's been true ever since the PT finished coming out.

 

There's nothing that profoundly keeps them from both being canon; at their core, they tell the same story. It's pretty much entirely non-story things that have been altered. I'm not going to watch The Force Awakens and think, "Yes, but is this the universe where a Jawa fell of a Ronto that one time 34 years ago?" The only thing I can think of is Anakin's ghost, which, if it never shows up again, doesn't really matter in the long run anyway. At that point, it might as well have been the Shaw ghost, as long as it's Anakin.

You also bring up an interesting point about the disconnectedness of I-VI. I actually think they flow very well in sequence, but in release sequence. You can very clearly see how the original film leads to TESB, how that leads to RotJ, how that leads to TPM, and so forth. Each builds on the formers' music, themes, narrative focus (unrelated people to "I am your father!" to "Leia's my sister!" to "He is the Chosen One!"), special effects, stylistic deviations, world building and so on and so forth. A New Hope by simple virtue of being released 22, 25, and 28 years respectively before Episodes I, II, and III, cannot possibly build on those three films the way you would expect a fourth film to. Not narratively, not thematically, not in any conceivable way. In release order, though, (and particularly with the OOT) I can see how the series (including the story, which is the core part of canon for those who care about canon) evolved over forty years, changing from film-to-film and building on itself in every respect. That's far more satisfying to me than thinking, "Okay, Yoda said to use the Force for defense, never for attack, but I straight up saw him murdering some dudes with a lightsaber like, two movies ago. Oh well, at least everything is happening linearly and the X-Wings were CGI sometimes in the last movie."

I am interested in the canon, by the way, but as something fun that's derived by the films (ancillary material such as the comics, novels, video games, animated series, all those guide books with the proper names for everything and backstories for everything, etc.) as opposed to something that governs the films and requires them to be amended. And don't get me wrong, I care about the story. A lot. The story is extremely important, and I care about how the stories of subsequent films build on what's come before, but I also accept that this is all made up and won't always be 100% consistent. For instance, when I was a little kid my assumption for why Obi-Wan disappeared when he died and Qui-Gon didn't (this is before RotS gave us a proper explanation) was that they couldn't realistically film Obi-Wan getting killed with a lightsaber in 1977. I literally just assumed it was a matter of "They couldn't do it then, but they can do it now." At the end of the day, certain inconsistencies (even bigger ones like "Do you remember your mother? Your real mother?") aren't that big of a deal. I think the fact that this series is as consistent as it is, filmed across over forty decades, is impressive without any tinkering to make the films sorta-kinda more consistent with each other, to the detriment of the films themselves individually.

 

This is exactly the kind of flow that I care about. So many things have evolved and progressed from the original movie including characters, plot points, lore, and even movie-making technology. As a fan of lightsabers, I love seeing how they progressed from a rotating reflective rod with optical rotoscoping in the first movie, to digitally rotoscoped in 2D in the PT, to finally being fully rendered in 3D & with glowy props in TFA. And, like you mentioned, Williams' musical progression is also quite the experience.

Absolutely, and that's definitely a more positive way to frame all this. And a lot of these minor inconsistencies are even somewhat understandable when viewed within that context. Like in ROTS the decision to have Padme's death contradict what Leia said is made more understandable when realizing that it works somewhat better for a movie to have her story end where Anakin's does. Ultimately, this kind of approach makes me appreciate the Star Wars movies more rather than trying to force the I-VI story to work in my head.

 

Whatever it is that's going to happen at the "40 Years of Star Wars" panel, I do hope George is there to support it.
I wouldn't like a situation where LFL decides to do something that makes him go "If that's the way it's gonna be, I'll sit this one out".

 

My guess is the big news at the "40 Years of Star Wars" panel will be the premier of the The Last Jedi trailer.