Star Wars Being Readied for Blu-ray

[stockstar1138]

This probably looks really fishy, but I'm the last person on this site that wants another Star Wars thread, so you're just going to have to trust me on this one.

A friend of the family was in town this weekend, he works for ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) and knows George Lucas personally. I asked him about Star Wars and blu-ray and he confirmed to me that the transfers are nearly complete.

Here's the bad part, the movies probably aren't coming out for a while.

Lucas doesn't know how fast blu-ray is going to take off, but just wants to be ready, if he underestimates blu-rays growth.

The absolute earliest he confirmed that Star Wars would be coming out is with the start of the Live Action TV series, which is at least a year away. (Don't get this mixed up with the cartoon network CGI series). The chances of it coming out with the TV series is very, very slim and blu-ray better have an absolutely amazing Xmas if its going to be released that early.

There are two other release dates that it could be. One is with the release of the 3D Star Wars restorations, the other is when the 3D restorations are coming out on DVD (and also blu-ray then). Look for the 3D movies to come out in May of 2012, which would be the 35th anniversary of the original movie.

Lucas is actually listening to his fans and realizes people are a little upset with all the different "editions" of Star Wars. He most likely does not want to release the blu-ray and then come out with the 3D version less than a year later. Also, waiting gives him the advantage of putting out the BD right next to the 2012 xmas season.

The only other chance is if blu-ray just absolutely dominates the home movie market, if blu-ray catches DVD in terms of market share by 2010, then we might get to see them a tad early, once again very doubtful.

So, yeah, he is going to have the transfers done and most likely just let them sit there for 4 years.

Okay, so one of the big questions is if these movies will be the Special Editions or Theatrical releases.

Fans will be disappointed to know it is the Speical Editions. The 3D movies that he is doing is the SE cuts and that will definately be coming to blu-ray. The issue with blu-ray and the Theatricals is that the original rolls of film that he has of the theatrical movies are not in the best shape and thats not too big of an issue, however the quality is very, very volitale and Lucas wants it to be consistant. Imagine watching one scene and it looking litterly worse than DVD and then the next scene looks like a blu-ray.

For all the blu-ray fans here on blu-ray.com Lucas is a fan of blu-ray and actually owns blu-ray himself. He just wants to release Star Wars at an opportune and strategic time. Look for Star Wars on blu-ray in a few years.