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

That's the revisited version, right? It sounds intriguing and I may have to check it out. I just love seeing the originals again as I did when I was a kid in the 80's.

 

No, Revisited is different. Revisited uses new effects created by Adywan, the editor. Semi-specialised only uses the officially released material, editing the 2011 and theatrical versions together. I haven't seen either version myself, but I would like to check out semi-specialised, as there are aspects of both the theatrical and updated versions that I love.

 

I think a change we can all agree on is the Emperor in ESB.

 

Nah, I prefer the original, as well as the old dialogue. Ian Mcdiarmid is great, and his rendition of the Emperor is my all time favorite Star Wars character, but he just looked off in the SE. Probably because he looks like how he did in ROTS, when really he should look as he did in ROTJ (especially when ROTJ happens not even a year after ESB). Rather than using test footage from ROTS, they really should have used archived footage from ROTJ and a new voice over from Ian to do the changed scene.

 

I actually don't like the Emperor change in TESB. My issue with it is that it's a half-measure. I appreciate that it was trying to strengthen the continuity, but using the ROTS Emperor in a movie where he should look really close to the ROTJ Emperor doesn't fully fix the issue. And so, in the absence of an option that 100% fixes the continuity, I'd go with the more historically important version any day.

That being said, if they used digital technology to make the Emperor look like he does in ROTJ, that would be my preferred version. In fact, Adywan did just that in his upcoming TESB Revisited:

Spoiler

 

I always thought the original emperor in ESb looked goofy as hell.
And I am glad they changed that.

 

The updated dialogue is goofy as hell.

 

The visual change for the Emperor is fine, but the dialogue change doesn't really make sense. Vader acts like he has no idea who Luke Skywalker is... yet the crawl of the film says;

The evil lord Darth Vader,
obsessed with finding young
Skywalker, has dispatched
thousands of remote probes into
the far reaches of space....

So either Vader is an idiot - or he's playing dumb for the Emperor. The original dialogue made more sense and didn't contradict anything, so I don't know why it was changed.

 

My guess is Vader was playing dumb, which is reinforced by the canon Darth Vader comic series if I remember right.

 

It's Sith duplicity.

Vader has been hiding the existence of Luke from the Emperor. At some point he found out and now he's letting Vader know that he knows that he's been hiding it from him but Vader pretends that it's all news to him. Each knows the other is lying but that is the way of the Sith. They know that there can only be two and Luke means the end of one of them is now very possible. For the first time this duo's relationship is testing the Rule of Two since Anakin took Dooku's place.

You'll note thought that they drop Luke's name for Anakin's and Anakin is like another person that neither of them acknowledge is Vader.

 

Wow, the Revisited Emperor looks fantastic!

 

Nope. One of the worst changes for me. It doesn't even look good and the dialogue changes are absolutely horrible.

 

This guy has been a member here since 2014 so i'm pretty sure he's troll-baiting us all.

 

I don't know, I found the revised Emperor to be one of the better changes.

 

Really you don't like the revised Emperor? I don't post in the classic trilogy section like almost at all. So I don't have a clue what you guys like.

I am mistaken then.

 

Let's be honest, George was the de facto director. He hired Marquand because he didn't want to be on set every day but that pretty much ended up happening anyway.

 

Yep, rightfully so after the ESB disaster with Gary Kurtz

 

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as Empire is widely regarded as the best Star Wars film. It was a happy little disaster.

 

You mean the disaster that resulted in arguably the greatest science-fiction/science-fantasy film ever made?

In all seriousness IIRC Kershner was offered the job for ROTJ but declined.

Interesting article about Marquand here:

http://uproxx.com/movies/return-of-the-jedi-richard-marquand/

 

I'm not sure how happy a disaster it was or how little it felt in the moment. More like a walk on a razor. It almost broke Lucasfilm and George Lucas. 20th Century Fox had their knives sharpened for the kill. George Lucas was completely broke - again - out of money as the production ran over by months and nearly double the planned budget.

Lucasfilm borrowed money from banks to cover the production - and as that ran out Fox was more than happy to step in and foot the bill to finish the film. That cost Lucasfilm profits for Empire but kept the production going. The accountants at Lucasfilm did the math and they weren't going to have enough money to last the production. All Lucas's allies at Fox were forced out after the success of the first Star Wars - revenge for Star Wars being a mega hit that Fox didn't outright own the future of and all revenue streams for. It was not a friendly relationship with the studio. To get the money to finish the movie would cost Lucas all the freedom and control he had over Star Wars.

And then Lucasfilm unexpectedly had a bit more money than predicted - enough to keep going another month. And then more money. It was the action figure money and other merchandise profits. Star Wars was huge at the box office in 1977 - but there wasn't much merchandise. Most things, including the action figures weren't released until 1978 and it took months to see the profit from that. It came in just in time to save the production and pay for the rest of Empire without Fox's help.

After that George Lucas took a more hands on role with producing Return of the Jedi. And due to further shake ups at Fox - was able to make a deal with the studio for Jedi to ensure his complete control of Star Wars going forward.

 

Yes. The movie was great because of the near total disaster brought on in large by Kurtz because Lucas made the mistake in keeping him on after ANH.

Hardly!

It's all well and good after the fact but without lots of work it would not have happened.

I find it bizarre all the congratulations that people give Kurtz for not being able to handle the production of the movies.

 

Or he didn't know he was chasing a Skywalker. Perhaps he was under the impression that the rebel who destroyed the DS was just some no-name pilot.

 

Agreed. Ultimately the responsibility for the delays and skyrocketing production costs fell on Kurtz and then Lucas. Lucas wanted to be the sort of Executive Producer he would want to work under and took a hands off approach. That extra freedom almost sunk everything. It sounds like a lot of the problems were beyond human control - but it's the producer's job to step up at some point and wrap things up. After the fact you can say it was all worth it with Empire - but it was too much of a gamble. I'd say they got lucky more than it was some genius move. It seems everyone involved knew they couldn't pull it off like that a second time. It almost cost them everything professionally - and it did for some of their personal lives.

From Return of the Jedi on the movies seem to be run much more like a TV series.

 

Vader said earlier in the film, "No, the Rebels are there, and I'm sure Skywalker is with them."

Edit: It occurred to me that you were probably specifically referring to the trench run.

 

If Lucasfilm doesn't make the OT unaltered versions available in 2020 I don't see it happening.