Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[Vlad Draculi]

If the really were to put these out on BD, then I would want the cover art to actually be either the original poster art or the updated re-enactment of the original poster are like the DVDs from 2006 had.

So this:

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by Jumpman

You're right. Rereading online this weekend got my details mixed up so yeah, this deal will happen. The question remains the price.

Personally, don't really care. Love the Saga set out now. If Fox and LucasFilm make a deal to release the theatrical cuts of the trilogy, they only way I'd buy the set is if the set includes every cut of each film and all of the supplement material that's been released on disc.

I'll never watch the theatrical cuts again but it would nice to have them.

What personally interests me is if Lucas is consulted on this. I get it. The majority hate the guy but he should be consulted on this particular issue.

Mr. Lucas is and will be a consultant for LucasFilm until the day he dies. Contrary to what some may believe or want to believe, he's heavily involved in the new SW films. The original treatments for 7, 8, and 9 were created and planned by him and he hired Michael Arndt to flesh them out. Iger wanted to see these treatments before he agreed to the LucasFilm acquisition and Lucas balked, saying the studio should just trust him (ironically, Walt Disney felt insulted when ABC asked him to shoot a pilot for the Disneyland TV show back in 1955, feeling ABC should trust him as he had over 30 years of experience in filmmaking with terrific results). Lucas relented, though, and Iger and two others at Disney were allowed to read the treatments before the sale. Iger said he was excited over the storytelling possibilities in those treatments, and the sale went through.

Long story short, if SW7 comes out and everyone loves it, before they give all the credit to Abrams and Kasdan, they should give some credit to Lucas as well. The flaws in the prequels are mainly due to the writing, the story concepts were pretty sound.

[Jumpman]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Mr. Lucas is and will be a consultant for LucasFilm until the day he dies. Contrary to what some may believe or want to believe, he's heavily involved in the new SW films. The original treatments for 7, 8, and 9 were created and planned by him and he hired Michael Arndt to flesh them out. Iger wanted to see these treatments before he agreed to the LucasFilm acquisition and Lucas balked, saying the studio should just trust him (ironically, Walt Disney felt insulted when ABC asked him to shoot a pilot for the Disneyland TV show back in 1955, feeling ABC should trust him as he had over 30 years of experience in filmmaking with terrific results). Lucas relented, though, and Iger and two others at Disney were allowed to read the treatments before the sale. Iger said he was excited over the storytelling possibilities in those treatments, and the sale went through.

Long story short, if SW7 comes out and everyone loves it, before they give all the credit to Abrams and Kasdan, they should give some credit to Lucas as well. The flaws in the prequels are mainly due to the writing, the story concepts were pretty sound.

Haven't you learn? Lucas will never get positive credit for this series. It's very rare these days.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I still like the 'Faces' laserdisc covers. They're clean and simple and wonderfully effective, those glossy gatefold covers were gorgeous. Wish I'd never sold mine.

I have a THX VHS boxed set edition that uses those same covers.

[kristoffer]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I still like the 'Faces' laserdisc covers. They're clean and simple and wonderfully effective, those glossy gatefold covers were gorgeous. Wish I'd never sold mine.

These were the best.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

I have a THX VHS boxed set edition that uses those same covers.

Yep, and the individual VHS releases used them as well.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by wormraper

that myth was debunked years ago. he has the original splices and there are SEVERAL people with negatives and prints who have offered it for restoration. Lucas just didn't want to spend the effort

Several people with negatives? Unless each has part of the film, that's not possible. There's only one negative and if it's the camera negative, that's not especially useful as that won't contain the finished optical effects, wipes, dissolves, etc.

[popeflick]

Originally Posted by kristoffer

These were the best.

They're nice looking I just never understood why you'd have a generic stormtrooper elevated to Vader and Yoda. Kenobi-Vader-Yoda seems to be a better trio. Or swap the trooper with Fett at least.

[Joshitaka]

I expect that if this were to happen if would be because Disney, knowing that re-releasing the theatrical cuts on blu will help win back older fans for the upcoming sequels and that they (Disney) will take 100% of the profits from said sequels, would offer to spend the money to provide the restoration and blu ray transfer for the films so 20th Century Fox can actually produce the discs. They would have to agree on some sort of split percentage of profit. I don't think there is any reason why 20th Century Fox would turn something like that down, if they put minimal resources into transferring and provided that Disney would not ask for too high of a percentage of the profits. Disney's motives, however, I would question. They may just want to focus on spending money on THEIR movies that they are producing... But they must know how alienated so many fans are (like myself), and they must know how skeptical a lot of us were when they acquired the rights to SW. Many of us thought they were bound to ruin it even more. They must also realize what a good idea it is to win back the alienated fans to make the upcoming sequels the greatest possible success. I'm sure they don't want to hear fans dishing out the same ultra negative criticism to episode 7 that episodes 1, 2, and 3 got (deservedly). So I think they know it is in their best interest to win back the many people like myself who just want to see our favorite movies the way we remember them, and I can't think of a better gesture to do so on their part than granting the one wish so many of us have been asking for for years. Here's hoping.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by Jumpman

You're right. Rereading online this weekend got my details mixed up so yeah, this deal will happen. The question remains the price.

Personally, don't really care. Love the Saga set out now. If Fox and LucasFilm make a deal to release the theatrical cuts of the trilogy, they only way I'd buy the set is if the set includes every cut of each film and all of the supplement material that's been released on disc.

I'll never watch the theatrical cuts again but it would nice to have them.

What personally interests me is if Lucas is consulted on this. I get it. The majority hate the guy but he should be consulted on this particular issue.

Overall the original versions are my "preferred" versions. And if that is what is being restored now and will be released, I will be happy with that.


That said, I would love it if they (Diseny/Lucasfilm/Fox) would go the "full 9" and really give us the ultimate of ultimate releases...

If they are going back to the original negatives and so forth to restore the originals, it would be cool if they went well beyond that...

They could restore each cut of the movie that has existed since then. The 1997 SE's, the 2004 DVD verions, and the 2011 Blu-Ray editions (similar to the Blade Runner Blu-Ray release with all of the cuts of the movie).

The latter two (the 2004 and 2011 versions) are still in need of some work. The color timing is off on both versions. They tried to do half-assed corrections to the most obvious offending scenes (i.e. Luke and Vader's lightsabers crossing in front of the Emperor in ROTJ), but with the overall color timing of the films still being off and problems existing as a result.

They should make the ultimate set, giving all versions in the best quality possible.

They could even work with Lucas to make some kind of finalized ultimate versions as well. Some of the changes have always looked rather rough. For instance, the Jabba scene in A New Hope. They did improve the look of Jabba in the 2004 version over how he appeared in 1997, but something is still off about him (I really liked how he looked in Phantom Menace). Plus the effect of Han stepping up on his tail and back down (which was done by manipulating the footage of Harrison walking on normal ground) has never looked right. He looks very choppy and blurry during that scene.

And that's just one example. One of the problems with the further changes that Lucas made for the DVD release and the later Blu-Ray release is that he was clearly budget conscious with a lot of what he did (which is why the redone Jabba's animation is still questionable looking). He was still compromising his "vision" in the name of being business and budget conscious.


I say have them make as ultimate of an OT release as they can. Let them really go all-out with it. All versions, all cuts in the best quality possible. Let them put some money into it. Work with Lucas to let him make some kind of ultimate finalized cut. That will be a nice gift to him in exchange for also releasing the versions that he does not prefer.

I would see each film having 2 to 3 discs (so a total of 6 to 9 discs for all three movies). The original versions would have to be on their own discs, as the changes in 1997 were too substantial for seamless branching to work.
The 2004 and 2011 versions are similar enough that seamless branching could definitely cover that editions (possibly with any further updated version being on the same disc as well). I'm not sure if the changes from 1997 to 2004 are minimal enough that the '97 versions could be handled via another branching option on the same disc. So that's the gray area of going from 2 to 3 discs.

I would happily buy a set like this, even though I significantly prefer the original editions.

[Joshitaka]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

Several people with negatives? Unless each has part of the film, that's not possible. There's only one negative and if it's the camera negative, that's not especially useful as that won't contain the finished optical effects, wipes, dissolves, etc.

Possibly several people with PRINTS is probably a better way to say it. I know that Star Wars (episode IV) was submitted to the American Film Institute before the special editions were made, and that whenever a film was submitted to the AFI, a print was given to them. So they MUST have one.

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

The original treatments for 7, 8, and 9 were created and planned by him and he hired Michael Arndt to flesh them out.

Then it only makes sense that the entire script was scrapped and re-written by someone else.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Joshitaka

Possibly several people with PRINTS is probably a better way to say it. I know that Star Wars (episode IV) was submitted to the American Film Institute before the special editions were made, and that whenever a film was submitted to the AFI, a print was given to them. So they MUST have one.

I think you mean the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, not the AFI. And the LoC has been very dodgy when asked whether they have an original or an SE version. They refuse to answer the question.

As for the prints, they're now 37 years old and probably quite faded. If they were used as projection prints, they're also probably quite damaged.

[Joshitaka]

I should clarify:

Years ago when the "World Almanac" was still relevant, they had a list of about a hundred or so films recognized by the National Film Registry. Those films were considered to be culturally and historically significant in some way above other films. One of the requirements of films on that list was to have a print of the film submitted to the NFR to be archived. I remember distinctly reading this, which is why I always scoffed at the George Lucas quote that the source material might not still exist.

[singhcr]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

I think you mean the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, not the AFI. And the LoC has been very dodgy when asked whether they have an original or an SE version. They refuse to answer the question.

As for the prints, they're now 37 years old and probably quite faded. If they were used as projection prints, they're also probably quite damaged.

If they were Technicolor IB prints they would be fade free since they are dye-based colors rather than chemical based ones.

In any event, the negatives are still good, even if they are conformed to the SE edit. All you have to do is take that stuff out and slug in the original shots (negative, YCR separation masters, IB print) and go back to the original color timing that was done for the '97 restoration. It is not incredibly difficult to do this, so I'm confident that it will happen eventually.

As long as we are on this path, a proper transfer for Episode I should be struck as the original is riddled with DNR. I am not sure if the softening on ATOC was intentional, or added for the BD.

[Joshitaka]

Thanks for the correction Zoet MB. Maybe they wouldn't provide the print for use if they have it. If they don't want to answer they question if they have it, it's probably because they don't want to give it up for it to be used OR in the past Lucas told them not to admit they have it because he didn't want anyone to think a copy existed. conspiracies….

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by IndyMLVC

Then it only makes sense that the entire script was scrapped and re-written by someone else.

The entire script? Or the same story, with a re-shifted focus on certain characters? Pretty sure Michael Arndt is going to receive story credit, even if he is no longer involved with writing the actual screenplay.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

I think you mean the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, not the AFI. And the LoC has been very dodgy when asked whether they have an original or an SE version. They refuse to answer the question.

As for the prints, they're now 37 years old and probably quite faded. If they were used as projection prints, they're also probably quite damaged.

Well, the LoC may have answered it this way...in the documentary about the National Film Registry, "These Amazing Shadows", they show footage of films in their archives. All the footage from Star Wars shown in the doc is from the original release version, not the SE (no ring around the Death Star explosion, explosion doesn't turn to black and white with that hideous blue fuzzy noise around it). You can watch it for yourself on Netflix.

[Gold Ranger]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I still like the 'Faces' laserdisc covers. They're clean and simple and wonderfully effective, those glossy gatefold covers were gorgeous. Wish I'd never sold mine.

My HardCover Books use these images as well.

[Blu Myers]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I still like the 'Faces' laserdisc covers. They're clean and simple and wonderfully effective, those glossy gatefold covers were gorgeous. Wish I'd never sold mine.

My current toilet paper also uses these images.