**Official Thread** The unaltered Original Trilogy to be released on DVD

Close the blast doors is not in this mix, and neither is 3PO's tractor beam line. What isback is "You're lucky you don't taste very good."

 

What is back is "You're lucky you don't taste very good."

Yes!!! As Sean Connery from the Saturday Night Live Jeopardy skits would say,"The day is mine Trebek!"

I just saw a commercial on t.v. of the DVDs. They do mention the original theatrical versions and even show the opening crawl without the "A New Hope" title.

 

I noticed on the TFN news there has been screen shots of the dvd menus. Any one know what the special features might be??? it's not other languages, as that would be under options.
Does this mean we're getting old school documentaries, behind the scenes, or, dare i say.. DELETED scenes???
Any confirmations on this? Rumors? Speculation??

Let me know because i can't plop down more $$ for these 2004 releases with "bonus discs" until i've read reviews AFTER the release. My money is extremely limited right now.

 

Don't wet yourself, it's just a trailer for LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, and a playable XBOX demo.

 

There are no bonus docs with this one. They missed an opportunity to go completely retro and include "The Making of Star Wars as told by R2-D2 and C3PO", "SPFX:The Making of ESB" and "Classic Creatures ROTJ." That would have been cool.

 

I'd like to know the exact contents of the Best Buy tin set. $59.99 on sale ($89.99 regularly) seems a little much considering the seperately sold DVD's will average $15.99-$19.99 per film. Regardless, I'm anxiously eying that set.

 

I've seen a couple of commercials, too. They each feature a 'family' talking about how much they love watching the movies. Trouble is, for me at least, that these are very clearly actors reciting a script, and not in a terribly convincing manner. It almost seems like a parody of 'real people' commercials, down to the ending of the ANH one where the young girl asks (with supposed sincerity), "Can we have a Wookiee?" It's just a little too phony-real, for my tastes, I guess. And it says nothing about the original cuts being included, just that the films are available separately for a limited time.

By the way, what happened with the big publicity push with the costumed actors going around? Did that happen? I haven't heard anything about it...

 

Is it correct that Best Buy is going to offer the exclusive metal box Star Wars DVD set on sale for $60 on September 12th?

I've seen reports that the tour is already underway, they are going to several cities apparently.

 

Yes, I've seen that first commercial a few times, maybe twice.

Oh, they're saving that for some mega huge 12-disc anniversary box set. I wouldn't be surprised if such a thing came around. While, the vision I have is like the Alien Quadrilogy set, I don't think it could meeasure up to it. That's the most comprehensive film franchise box set I've ever seen. With the volume of Star Wars official filmed media out there, it would hard to make a comprehensive set for the saga - something's gonna get left out. I'm kind of waiting for "From Star Wars to Jedi" to make a DVD debut with a hopeful remaster since it always looked pretty poor. Granted, "Empire of Dreams" is by far superior, I love the simple charm of that original doc.

-NJM

 

I'm kind of waiting for "From Star Wars to Jedi" to make a DVD debut with a hopeful remaster since it always looked pretty poor.

I don't know. Lucas is so hell bent on burying the past, I seriously doubt any of those old documentaries will ever get put on DVD. I could see small pieces of them being extracted for use in future documentaries but not the entire programs from start to finish.

 

From Wikipedia:

For many years, Lucas has stated that the original, unaltered versions of the trilogy would never be released again, having been released for the last time on VHS and Laserdisc in 1995. However, on May 3, 2006, Lucasfilm announced on the official Star Wars site that due to "overwhelming demand", the original versions would be released on DVD on September 12, 2006. Each film will be released as a two-disc set with the 2004 versions of the films on one disc, and the original, unaltered film on the second disc. The set would only be available until December 31, 2006, then withdrawn from the market. The DVD trailer can be downloaded here.

There has been great controversy surrounding this release, however, since it has been revealed that the DVDs will feature non-anamorphic versions of the original, unaltered films based on laserdisc releases from 1993 (as opposed to newly-remastered, film-based transfers). Since non-anamorphic transfers fail to make full use of the resolution available on widescreen sets, many fans were upset over this choice.

In response to fan outcry over the perceived mis-treament of the original cuts, Lucasfilm representatives stated that new, anamorphic transfers of the original cuts cannot be made because the original negatives of the theatrical cuts (from which the anamorphic transfers would typically be made) no longer exist. This created further anger when fans worldwide discovered that George Lucas himself had during the 1990s ordered that as many of the existing 35 millimeter copies of the film as could be found be destroyed.

In a May 2006 posting, the editor of The Digital Bits, a DVD enthusiast website, noted that one of the supposedly lost 35 millimeter copies is owned by Robert A. Harris, one of the world's renowned film archivists and the owner of Film Preserve, a highly lauded company specializing in the digital transfer and restoration of 35 millimeter film stock. Harris, who is a contributor to the site, submitted a letter stating that he is positive that anamorphic, high definition transfers of the films can be made along with a "master" presentation negative from which new 35 millimeter reels can be made. The letter (a copy of which was sent directly to Lucasfilm) has gone unanswered.
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As for future releases of the O-OT being remastered, either Lucas is a big fat liar, or he is telling the truth.

It isn't about 'you are getting what you deserve' as many have stated here, it is about Lucas saying that that he can't make an anamorphic transfer from the O-OT, but film achivists Robert Harris disagrees, and Lucasfilm has never has never answered the letter to rebutt Mr. Harris.

It all comes down to this for every fan who wants the O-OT remastered in a future release: Who do you believe? For my money, I will go with Mr. Harris on this one, I mean can we believe anything Lucas says anymore?

 

Yes. The tin set is in this weeks ad. It will be $59.99 through Saturday the 16th. Minimum 20 per store. $89.99 after the 16th. I'm going early to get one.

 

Watching NFL Sunday Countdown this morning and there was a commercial for the Trilogy DVD's again. This time it made a quick mention that it includes the original theatrical versions. Haven't seen any other commercial yet that even acknowleged this, so that was nice to see!

 

Haha. I'm watching Countdown too. I missed the commercial though. I've seen them air the last few days.

 

A much better source than a theatrical print are ANH's Technicolor seperation masters.

It's not clear who is in possession of them though, or if any were made for ESB and ROTJ.

One thing I'm not sure about though. Were those masters made from the o-neg, or a copy?

 

I don't think technicolor "existed" anymore for empire and jedi. On a side note, David Lynch restored Eraserhead out of his own pocket. It was done using an interpositive. That movie is roughly the same age as Star Wars, and was in very bad shape. It looks amazing now.

 

True, there were no dye-transfer (IB) Technicolor prints made of ESB or ROTJ, but B&W separation masters can be made of any color film, regardless of whether the prints were IB Technicolor or chemical-based Eastmancolor, etc. When it was discovered in the 1970s that all of the Eastmancolor prints were starting to fade, many film-makers (like Spielberg, Scorcese, etc.) had separations made of their movies, to preserve the color record/information before it totally faded away. I'm sure Lucas did as well- he would have been really stupid not to.

Separations have to be done properly, though, or they can't be used to make future prints. I believe it was Robert Harris who said that the separations for Spartacus were done incorrectly, and they couldn't be used when they went to do the restoration of the film.

 

Well, at least two dye transfer prints were made from the ANH sep masters, so they must have been made correctly.

 

Circuit City's got them for $14.99 each. Anybody know how much Best Buy is selling them individually? Or any other deals?

 

Best Buy will have them marked at $16.99 individually so you are better off price wise with Circuit City. To my knowledge, that is the best deal out there.

 

Well Circut City has the lithographs (very cool) and Best Buy has the collector's tin that all three come in.

Wasn't there a third special offer? Like at Taget or Wal*Mart or something.. anyone know?

 

Target will have exclusive original concept art mini-poster's in each DVD. They are viewable at the main site in the weekly ad. As for Wal-mart, I think they are offering either concept art or comic sheets. I prefer the Best Buy tin case even though it will cost more at $59.99.

 

Anybody undecided about getting them all? I'm getting Star Wars on day one, no question. But I might be holding off on the others. Not sure yet.

 

Anybody undecided about getting them all?

That would be me. For obvious reasons, I went back and forth a bunch of times as to whether or not I?ll be purchasing any of this set. Finally came to the conclusion to resist ? that is, until another thread reminded me of how I absolutely loathe the ?Alert my star destroyer to prepare for my return? line. Might have to give into the dark side and purchase Empire after all.

 

I just need to see some official side-by-side 1993laserdisk vs 2006DVD screenshots. But they're saying that they did a pretty decent job with the DVDs.