Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[blonde_devil]

regardless of who actually owns the films right now, there is no way in the foreseeable future that we are going to get an original version of the original trilogy in HD. I would imagine at some point all rights would revert to Lucas(now Disney) but that is far down the road. It is almost turning into a Bond thing where 2 different companies can claim ownership of it. I can see Fox releasing the movies into theatres when Disney releases their sequel movie.

[The Fallen Deity]

It would be nice if Disney ever released The Phantom Menace without the heavy DNR that's on the Fox disc. It could easily have had the 2nd best transfer in the set after Revenge Of Sith but alas it was not meant to be.

An excellent HD Master ruined by unnecessary filtering.

[NicofromFrance]

Remember that Fox will lose "theatrical, nontheatrical and home video rights worldwide" for episodes 1 to 3 and 5 to 6. Fox will retain distribution rights for episode 4. The Hollywood reporter released an article on that matter back in october.

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by The Fallen Deity

It would be nice if Disney ever released The Phantom Menace without the heavy DNR that's on the Fox disc. It could easily have had the 2nd best transfer in the set after Revenge Of Sith but alas it was not meant to be.

An excellent HD Master ruined by unnecessary filtering.

I doubt Disney will go to a lot of effort as far as SW's older films are concerned, you just KNOW they want to do 2 new full trilogies though, if not more.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by The Fallen Deity

It would be nice if Disney ever released The Phantom Menace without the heavy DNR that's on the Fox disc. It could easily have had the 2nd best transfer in the set after Revenge Of Sith but alas it was not meant to be.

An excellent HD Master ruined by unnecessary filtering.

As mentioned before, I think it was intended to make it look more like the digitally filmed II and III. They could have gone about it a bit more judiciously, but Lucasfilm has never been so precise with care on home video releases.

[Adam_WM]

Originally Posted by NicofromFrance

Remember that Fox will lose "theatrical, nontheatrical and home video rights worldwide" for episodes 1 to 3 and 5 to 6. Fox will retain distribution rights for episode 4. The Hollywood reporter released an article on that matter back in october.

You are correct. All the Star Wars movies will belong to Disney EXCEPT A NEW HOPE. That will remain with FOX in perpetuity. I can only imagine how much Disney would have to pay to the get that away from them.

[GuruAskew]

The original Star Wars becomes a lot less valuable to Fox when it's the only thing left in their catalog and Disney literally has everything else Star Wars under their umbrella.

It wouldn't surprise me to see Fox unload the original film on Disney in exchange for some kind of concession on a co-production or as a deciding factor in a case of a contested property, kinda like how Sony agreed to stopping another McClory Bond if MGM would give up their lawsuits over Spider-Man rights.

[PUsokrJosh305]

I just talked to one of my friends who works at Disney. He knows a few people who work in the legal department down there and he was told that Disney is already working on owning the rights to the entire saga that Fox owns as of right now. So, it's only a matter of time before we hear that Disney will buy the distribution rights to all 6 saga films! I give them 1-2 years for an announcement!

[The Fallen Deity]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

I just talked to one of my friends who works at Disney. He knows a few people who work in the legal department down there and he was told that Disney is already working on owning the rights to the entire saga that Fox owns as of right now. So, it's only a matter of time before we hear that Disney will buy the distribution rights to all 6 saga films! I give them 1-2 years for an announcement!

Awesome. Does he know if Disney will get the rights to the Theatrical Cuts of the Original Trilogy if they actually get the rights to distribute the films?

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by The Fallen Deity

Awesome. Does he know if Disney will get the rights to the Theatrical Cuts of the Original Trilogy if they actually get the rights to distribute the films?

No idea, I doubt he can get that much info from his friend, since all of this is probably "kept under close doors." Honestly, I could see Disney owning all editions of each film, Fox can't do much more with the movies, especially since Disney has control over everything that is Star Wars, besides those 6 films

[blonde_devil]

Originally Posted by Adam_WM

You are correct. All the Star Wars movies will belong to Disney EXCEPT A NEW HOPE. That will remain with FOX in perpetuity. I can only imagine how much Disney would have to pay to the get that away from them.

I wonder though if there is a way around that. I was reading something on wikipedia(I know, you need to take it with a grain of salt) but there was one movie was no longer under copyright but the original studio that made it did something to it - can't remember if it was colorize it or what - but according to the law, the changes were enough that is was now considered a new/different work and they could claim a new copyright on that version. with all the changes Lucas made on this, it wouldn't surprise me if they were able to work around the law that way and claim ownership of at least the bluray version. I mean, look at the original version and the bluray release and they are very different in some major ways. granted it would be a huge court battle if they tried but you never know.

[Adam_WM]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

I just talked to one of my friends who works at Disney. He knows a few people who work in the legal department down there and he was told that Disney is already working on owning the rights to the entire saga that Fox owns as of right now. So, it's only a matter of time before we hear that Disney will buy the distribution rights to all 6 saga films! I give them 1-2 years for an announcement!

You'd have to figure they would want to get them so they could eventually release some type of box set. I can't wait for the Disney "no extras" Edition!

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by Adam_WM

You'd have to figure they would want to get them so they could eventually release some type of box set. I can't wait for the Disney "no extras" Edition!

Exactly! And I wouldn't mind having a boxed set with more special features, or special features that were previously released but put in one place rather than getting out ur old VHS and DVD copies of the films just to look at the old special features, of course there will be new special features for the making of episodes 7-9, it will be an interesting next couple of years to see what Disney does with the Star Wars Saga and it's Universe, so far they have done an ok job, it's worst decision was canceling The Clone Wars, that was a great tv series, I understand they want to do "Star Wars: Rebels" but they should have fully finished The Clone Wars first!

[stvn1974]

I would settle for bare bones discs of the original original trilogy.

[Monolithium]

Originally Posted by stvn1974

I would settle for bare bones discs of the original original trilogy.

Although I would kill for a commentary on all three originals by George. Has there ever been a commentary consisting entirely of heavy sighs?

[ObiTrentKenobi]

Fox would be dumb to release a "Star Wars: A New Hope ONLY edition", and put funds into that... it wouldn't sell if the public knew they weren't going to be getting a 1-3 and 5-6 individual release as well. They would probably just break even or make a slightly modest amount on the release, making it barely worth the effort. Fox should be smart and GO TO Disney to sell it to them.

A deal WILL be made. Lucas sold the entire franchise to Disney for just under 5 billion right? I think Disney can afford another Billion or 2 to pay off Fox for complete rights to distribute all star wars related items, period. Then Disney can just sit back and watch the money roll in on a gold plated millenium falcon.

OR, what I wouldn't mind even seeing if that can't happen between fox/disney soon enough is one last final Fox bluray release of the saga, Original Unaltered Trilogy included (bonus material or not, they can leave out the spoofs this time though and create smoother menus) - THIS would be the greatest Bluray event since Bluray was invented.

-Notice: I said that they WOULD make money on it, but probably just a little more than breaking even on distribution so it would barely be worth it. i know some of you like to harp on what movie releases will make.

[JavaJulien]

Originally Posted by kemcha

I imagine that 20th Century Fox is going to move forward and start capitalizing on the rights they have left for those films. For those who have been waiting for single Blu-ray releases of those films, I also imagine that Fox Home Video will schedule individual releases of all six films within the next few years in order to capitalize on those distribution rights before they lose them altogether. After all, Fox has seven more years before their distribution rights expire to those five films.

If that's the case, isn't it well within their legal right to do a "Original Cut" release?

[RyanPom]

I just want the 3D version of TPM and Clones.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by RyanPom

I just want the 3D version of TPM and Clones.

The conversions?

[kemcha]

I wouldn't count on Disney releasing any "theatrical versions" of the Star Wars films on home video. Disney is looking at recouping the money they paid out to acquire Lucasfilm. They're not going to be willing to dump even more money into the process to go back and release what Lucas himself said is "an unfinished" product.

Despite the fact that Disney owns the right to the Star Wars films, they're not going to be willing to tarnish the very image that Lucas created for Star Wars just to appease some fanboy purists out there who are throwing a temper tantrum over the "unedited" versions of the trilogy.

No, I'm not trying to stir up that debate, but once Disney gets the rights to the five Star Wars that Fox currently has, I do think that they'll probably take the masters for each film and do a better restoration job for those films. The one thing I have to give credit to Disney for is that they seem to always hit the mark when producing high quality Blu-ray disks.

As far as Disney investigating about getting their hands on "A New Hope"? Unless they plan on throwing a lot of money at 20th Century Fox, there's no way that they're going to get their hands on that film. First, Fox funded that film out of their own pocket and Lucas made a bad deal to begin with but it's hardly grounds for taking the film away from Fox. It would be like Disney trying to revoke the rights to to the Indiana Jones series, even though it was produced and distributed by Paramount.

I just don't see Disney getting their hands on that filmn and 20th Century Fox is probably going to want a lot for the rights to that film, unless Disney decided to make some kind distribution deal with Fox. I think we might end up seeing 20th Century Fox licensing "A New Hope" to Disney in exchange for something but I just don't see Fox giving up their perpetual rights to that film. Fox knows what they have and they're not going to let that go. I suspect that not even the courts will be able to force Fox to relinquish that film.

I'm sure Disney will try but in the end, that film belongs to Fox, not Disney.

I think we'll see Disney trying to make the argument that "A New Hope" belongs to them since they purchased Lucasfilm but that argument is flawed since "A New Hope", while it was produced by Lucasfilm, was actually financed and owned by 20th Century Fox. It's sort of like how Star Trek was produced by Paramount, even though it was created by Gene Roddenberry. It wasn't until after CBS acquired Paramount that the rightds issues started getting a little fuzzy. Even after they acquired Paramount, it wasn't until after Paramount decided to sign over the rights to the previously released Star Trek shows and movies that CBS gained control of the previously produced content, leaving Paramount ot produce the new movies.

It's just going to turn into an ugly fight but I think we'll either see some kind of joint distribution deal between the two companies or see Fox licensing the distribution rights to Disney for a percentage of the sales on the two trilogies. Say what you want, but Fox will most likely be involved in some type of joint distribution deal with Disney, which could still serve to profit both companies.