Nash, TN Star Wars DVD Thread

Thanks Jay for making the pictures work. I agree Dylan that the gold boxes are sweeter. Guess they're going with the same color scheme as the VHS release years ago.

 

Yeah, I was expecting something NEW regarding the packaging and all they could come up with was revamping the logo from the 25th anniversary poster. I wish they could have at least reused the drew struzan poster artwork montage he did for the Special Editions & maybe tri-folded it around the packaging & then had the STAR WARS TRILOGY TEXT & MOVIE TITLES on the end of the 4th side..

[image=http://www.theforce.net/collecting/posters/swse/images/drew-setrilogy.jpg]
However, beggers can't be choosers and at least they are FINALLY releasing them together on DVD alot earlier than expected. Its too bad that Greedo will FOREVER shoot first & miss at point blank range(unless you have the old editions).

 

News from starwars.com today.....
Star Wars Trilogy DVD Details
April 20, 2004


When the Star Wars trilogy arrives on DVD on September 21, the digitally remastered and restored films will be accompanied by over 10 hours of bonus material that goes inside the making of these classic movies.
Each film resides on its own disc, with sharp, pristene imagery restored and remastered by Lowry Digital Images, and the rich sound experience of the saga presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX. The films also include new commentary tracks, featuring insights from George Lucas, director Irvin Kershner, actress Carrie Fisher, sound designer Ben Burtt, and Industrial Light & Magic's Dennis Muren.

The fourth disc is packed with bonus material, the most notable being Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy. This two-and-a-half hour documentary traces the evolution of the saga, from a low-budget labor-of-love space saga to the movie phenomenon that defied the odds and reinvented the rules.

This comprehensive documentary features all new interviews with George Lucas and more than 40 members of the cast and crew from the original trilogy, as well as a host of filmmakers and media personalities. Empire of Dreams includes some never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the three films.

Other material on the fourth disc includes:

Episode III Behind the Scenes Preview: The Return of Darth Vader: Finally, Star Wars: Episode III will reveal just how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, the most iconic villain in film history. In this exclusive preview, George Lucas discusses Anakin's descent, with a first look at the new Vader costume forged for Episode III. Also, experience how Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor have prepared for the epic lightsaber battle that has been anticipated for more than two decades: the climactic showdown between Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The Birth of the Lightsaber: Its unforgettable hum and scintillating glow are instantly recognizable around the world. Now, viewers will discover the origins of this elegant weapon from a more civilized age in this documentary devoted to the lightsaber.

The Characters of Star Wars: An in-depth look at how favorite characters came to be, featuring rare concept art, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with George Lucas and the cast and crew who shaped the screen's favorite heroes.

The Force Is With Them: The Legacy of Star Wars: Star Wars opened up a galaxy of possibilities to a generation of filmmakers and creative talents. Hear from some of the most notable filmmakers of our time about how influential the Star Wars movies have been to their lives.

Star Wars Battlefront Trailer and Playable Demo: The fourth disc will offer a trailer featuring an exciting look at the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront video game from LucasArts, along with a special demo for Xbox users that lets players fight the Battle of Endor as a Rebel or Imperial soldier and drive AT-STs, ride speeder bikes and use different weapons to lead their side to victory. The full version of Star Wars Battlefront will also be released Sept. 21 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC.

Star Wars: Episode III Making the Game Preview: Video-game players will be able to experience the stunning Jedi action of Episode III themselves in the new Star Wars: Episode III game, due out in Spring 2005 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. This special feature shows how game developers at LucasArts worked behind-the-scenes and on the set to create the most authentic Jedi experience ever.

Original Trailers and TV Spots: The original theatrical teaser, launch and re-release trailers for each film, plus TV spots, are featured on the DVD.

Never-Before-Seen Production Gallery: Delve into an unseen corners of the Lucasfilm Archives with exclusive photos from the making of the trilogy, with hundreds of rare behind-the-scene images.

Posters and Print Campaigns: The original releases of the Star Wars films came at a time when international campaigns produced a weal

 

It appears that GL is messing with his product once again. It's been reported (& there's a screenshoot on the link below) that Sebastian Shaw as Ani's ghost during the Ewok celebration will be replaced by Hayden Christensen. A young Ani, how lame is that? They might as well replace Sir Alec with Ewan McGreggor.

The link is: Digital Bits Rumor Mill Scroll down to the entry for 5/19/04. Sorry, but I don't know how to post most pictures from other sites.

 

News came out Friday about the Clone Wars DVD and the 3rd season of CW. From tvshowsondvd.com:

This morning, The Digital Bits posted this little tidbit in their Rumor Mill section:

Also today, we can't vouch for the source, but a Star Wars fan website has information that reportedly leaked from someone who attended a recent Lucasfilm marketing meeting. Among the interesting bits of information is word that the first and second series of Star Wars: Clone Wars animated shorts will hit DVD in the first quarter of 2005.

We took a look at the fansite, thanks to the provided link at The Bits, and here's exactly how this info was stated at "Yakface.com":
Great info from a source in the retail industry who attended an official briefing on Episode III merchandising...

Clone Wars Series 1 & 2 DVD coming in Q1 of 05

Clone Wars Series 3 to air April 05 (Ten 12 minute chapters)

We presume that the 3rd "micro-series" of shorts that Cartoon Network will air is also going to be on DVD at some point. Yakface.com had a much longer list of info than that for Star Wars fans to read up on, but this is the only TV-on-DVD news there.

 

DVDMaster wrote:
Clone Wars Series 3 to air April 05 (Ten 12 minute chapters)

I say:
Official reports are that the FIVE episode series will air March 21 to March 25.

Since the episodes will be 12 minutes each instead of 3 minutes, I believe "micro-series" will no longer be accurate. "Mini-series" is the correct moniker.

 

From TFN:

"According to our sources, Lucasfilm hosted a press day today for long lead publications like magazines and international papers. The focus of the day's events were to give them an exclusive preview of the Classic Star Wars Trilogy on DVD. The official 4-disc set debuts in September with online and short-lead having their preview sometime next month or early August.
While we've yet to hear anything substantial about the days events as of yet, this post is just to let you know that people out there have now seen Star Wars on DVD, they've witnessed some of the changes themselves and we'll all know soon enough all of the intricate details of the release. So far we believe we can confirm Hayden being added to ROJ (this will only be O.K. if they make Obi Wan young as well - Yoda of course will have to be the CG version) and Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor in the Trilogy. Naboo is also included in the ending celebrations and there's another pass on Jabba in ANH ."

 

Hayden in ROTJ? This sounds a little fishy. I've never seen "flashbacks" in a Star Wars movie before. I suppose there's always a first though. George could also possibly place HC in the 4th disc for other purposes, i.e. commentary, etc. Interesting tid-bit of info there, Scott.

 

Its not a flashback. Supposedly they inserted him in the scene where the spirits of Obi Wan, Yoda, & Anakin are looking on at Luke & the rest of the Rebels celebrating the end of the Empire.
[image=http://www.aintitcool.com/image/HaydenJedi.jpg]

The only way that it going to work is if they give the same treatement to Obi Wan's & CG Yoda's spirits. However, this has a catch 22. If Obi Wan is his younger self in spirit form in this scene, that means that they have to go back & doctor up both Empire & the parts of Jedi where he appears in spirit form to Luke. If Lucas is in fact planning on making this change w/ Hayden as the spirit of Anakin rather than the late Sebastian Shaw, than he is just going to stir up more controversy & make the general public respect his work even less. If he does it, I doubt he will even explain it in the prequels. It will end up being seen as a result of a perfectionist film maker gone amok and just one more of Lucas' wacky and unecessary changes to a classic film .

It almost sounds like my boss, who waits until after everything is submitted to the city, approved and beginning construction & then he wants to go back and have things redesigned. I guess if you have the money, you can do whatever you want, but it causes people to not have much faith or confidence in your judgement. In the same way, many fans are beginning to, if they don't already, lose faith in Lucas' judgement.

On the bright side, Lucas may be supposedly going back to the original version of Han & Greedo (Greedo doesn't shoot first & miss from 2 feet away) & fixing the less than great CG Jabba in the reinserted SE scene in Docking bay 94.

This from a May 19th article by TFN:
Our sources tell us that there have been lots of changes to A New Hope, including some tinkering with the Han/Greedo scene. This is also the film with the most significant changes. The Emperor has been replaced with prequel actor Ian McDiarmid in ESB and Hayden Christensen does indeed appear in the final cut of Return of the Jedi. The explanation of his young appearance as a spirit is revealed in Episode III, as (spoiler) the years in the Dark Side don't age the Jedi's spirit form.

We caution you that these are rumors and even this report should be met with some skepticism and prayer that they'll just quit messing with these movies. According to these people though, THESE are the rumored Archival Editions fans were expecting in the future. "


There is also a surprise in Episode III that will be revealed in the revamps of the Special Editions. It regards a certain character that Lucas had secret plans for all along. Those that are sensitive to spoilers cover your eyes.
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[image=http://bbspot.com/Images/News_Features/2004/02/emperor_jar_jar.jpg]
DARTH JAR JAR! OH NO!!!
"Meesa you worsest nightmare bombad Jedi!"

 

It's nice to see that they're keeping each trilogy to a specific color scheme so that the DVDs will look cool on your shelves. See the full story & pictures here.

Inside the Box: Star Wars DVDs
June 24, 2004

On September 21, when it comes time to tear through the shrink-wrap and open the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD, here's what you'll find inside. As described here, the four-disc set is encased in an attractive two-sided package with embossed cover art rendered in platinum for widescreen editions, or gold for full screen editions. Inside, the four discs each feature new artwork for their covers.
The cover art to each Episode features the same photographic art style found on the already available Episode I and II DVDs, unifying the saga as a whole. The art printed on the disc themselves features poster art from the original theatrical release. The disc art for A New Hope is by Tom Jung, Empire by Roger Kastel and Jedi by Kazuhiko Sano.

The bonus disc features a new image of Darth Vader, with his eyes serving as a window to the wealth of behind-the-scenes material found on disc four. As the documentaries on this fourth disc delve into the very origins of the Star Wars saga, the disc art fittingly features a very early poster concept by Ralph McQuarrie.

For those who like their DVD shelves tidy and uniform, the boxed set can be displayed in different ways. The inner box that slides out of the slip case can be placed so that box art faces outwards, or that the individual DVD spines face outward, to properly show the numerical indices of each Episode. Also, care has been taken that all the spines assembled work as a whole, so that your complete library of Episodes I-VI (including Episode III) will have a cohesive design, with prequel and original trilogy delineated by color.

 

From tvshowsondvd.com:

Following up on our news from July, Fox has announced that Droids & Ewoks (There were 35 episodes produced over 2 seasons) series will be released on November 23rd. Each set is priced at $14.98 US and $16.98 CAN. With only 15 episodes in the series the entire run could easily fit on a single double-sided disc. We don't have any information on extras, but with a price that low we don't expect any.

Also coming the same day is the two Ewok TV movies, Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor, both carrying the same SRP as Droids.

 

Maybe we'll get the Christmas special on DVD real soon.

 

That'll be the day Jay. Perhaps Lucas could CGI the crap out of it and make it better. Don't think any of the SW fans would be clammoring for the originals on that one.

Slight update on the Ewoks & Droids news from yesterday, seems that they won't be complete season sets. I'd copy & paste the info here, but the source website has made a special request to post a link, so here she is. The story also includes the cover art for the Droids release. This link is for the Ewoks story.

 

"Maybe we'll get the Christmas special on DVD real soon."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Believe me when I say that you do NOT want this. Its quite unpalatable. Can you say LUMPY?

 

I remember watching that when I was little..it was BAD- Real, real, bad...but maybe worth a laugh?
Dosen't Mike have that on some pireted DVD?

 

Mike has his DVD and I have his VHS copy (feel free to get it back at any time). The best part was an old vintage SW toy commercial at the very end of the broadcast.

I thought it was interesting to see. Especially when you could see that Lucas was thinking of having the Wookies live on Endor (they live in an Ewok hut for crying out loud).

 

Actually, the Wookiees were on Kashyyyk. The painting that they showed depicting their hut was done by Ralph McQuarrie. Hyperspace recently showed some sketches of Kashyyk from Episode III and they looked very similar to what was seen in the Holiday Special.

Too bad they're not releasing the entire series of Droids, since there were only 14 episodes. That show was done by the same animators that did the animated portion of the Holiday Special. Maybe they will at least give us that part as a DVD extra on a future release.

 

I would imagine that the Droid & Ewok releases mentioned above are to test the waters. If sales are good for those limited titles, then there is a good chance that they will then roll out the season sets.

This was the same tactic used by Warner Brothers for the release of "Friends" (which doesn't suck ). WB first brought out 2 sets of "Top 10" episodes and because they sold so well, the suits at WB decided to release each season in box sets because they knew there was a market for the product. Only time will tell.

 

Go here to see images of the new changes made to the Original Trilogy for the DVDs. Notice the side-by-side comparison of the Jedi spirits from the end of ROTJ: only Sabastian Shaw's head has been replaced by Hayden Christiansen's--the bodies are exactly the same. The biggest mystery of asll surrounding this scene? How does Anakin's ghost wind up with an outfit of clothes that he hasn't worn since he was 10 years old???

Also saw in an article from the same site that Anakin's eyebrows have been removed in the scene where Vader's mask is removed to make things sinc up better with Episode 3. Guess there must be some wild party and Anakin wakes up the next morning with his eyebrows gone. Maybe that's what makes him go to the dark side...

Oh yeah, and Greedo still shoots first, dammit.

 

If the change is a result of a better tie-in between the OT & the PT, then I'll bite. Also if they want to fix special effects thats one thing, but changing out actors & the context of scenes is totally different. Someone explain to me why Anakin gets to be young as a spirit & Obi Wan & Yoda who didn't turn to the darkside are old farts! NOBODY EXCEPT DIE HARD STAR WARS FANS IS GOING TO UNDERSTAND THIS. I've heard the explanation & it seems pretty far fetched to me. It seems like Lucas wanted Hayden in that scene no matter what & came up with an explantion to justify it. Maybe McCullum had some influence on the revison of the revions "THAT'S A GREAT IDEA GEORGE! BRILLIANT THINKING BOSS!" I'm so glad I hung on to my original versions on Laser Disc. BUT, you know I have to buy it on DVD anyway So when can we expect the revised version of the prequels? 10 years from now maybe?

 

Actually I've already heard rumors that the Episode 1 Yoda puppet might be replaced with the Episode 2 CG version in the next release.

 

Why don't they just go ahead and remake all the OT movies with new actors and CG?

 

They're also dubbing in a few lines to tie together the OT and PT:

• C-3PO's line "Thank the Maker!" has been changed to "Thank Anakin Skywalker!"


• Obi-Wan Kenobi's line "There you will learn from Yoda -- the Jedi Master who instructed me." has "...before I became the apprentice of Qui-Gon Jinn." added to it.


• Owen Lars' line "I have no need for a protocol droid." has been changed to "No, thanks... had a protocol droid around the farm 20 years ago that looked just like you, only silver."


• Obi-Wan Kenobi's line "Don't seem to remember ever owning a droid." is changed to "Don't seem to remember ever owning a droid. The R4 unit that was hard-wired into my Jedi starfighter was technically property of the Jedi Council, so I never actually owned one."


• Obi-Wan's line "Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together." has "...but you can only feel it if you have a high midichlorian count." added to it.


• Vader's line "When I left you, I was but the learner..." has "...because you wouldn't let me take the trials." added to it.

 

scary...for a second, I was believeing those...

 

Those are pretty good Dylan!
Here are a few more:

*In Star Wars A New Hope, where Beru says, "Luke's just not a farmer Owen. He has too much of his father in him." And Owen says "That's what I'm afraid of." has added to it,"Although if Luke wanted to get rid of those blasted Tusken Raiders for us, I wouldn't complain."

*In STAR WARS A New Hope, where in the Special Edition Greedo shoots first, we now see why Greedo missed. Yup you guessed it, 'ol GL snuck in another fart joke. Look for the smoke, not from the blaster, but 'ol Greedo's seat. That space burrito he had before crossing Han just cost him his life. Also, look in the corner for the alien waving his hand in front of his probosis (nose) & mouthing "PEE YOU SA"

*IN STAR WARS ANH, The blood from Ponda Baba's arm (walrus man) is now green & black instead of red, showing us that some alien's wounds aren't cauterized by a lightsaber. Also look for the new alien selling death sticks at the end of the bar.

*In Star Wars ANH, when Obi Wan shows Luke his father's lightsaber, he also takes a sample of Luke's blood to check his midichlorian count.

*IN STAR WARS ANH In the Special Ed scene where Jabba is re-CGed with Han. At the end of that scene where Boba walks across the screen & looks at the camera. He now lifts his helmet to reveal Daniel Logan with a (fake) mustache who then winks at the camera.

* IN the Empire Strikes Back, the Muppet Yoda is completely gone & replaced with a new CG version. Although the CG artists played a little joke & if you look carefully in the scene where Yoda raised the X-wing fighter, he has snot running out of his nose.

* In the Empire Strikes Back Yoda uses his lightsaber to heat up & stir the stew instead of the fire in the original version. He also evidently claimed his chair fromm the Jedi Council chamber on Coruscant as you can see it sitting over to the side in his hut.