The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

The following article was posted on blu-ray.com. Neither I nor this website should be held accountable for any misrepresentation that the article my present: http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4996

George Lucas himself announced today that the Star Wars films will be released on Blu-ray in 2011, in a six-movie box set. Speaking at the Celebration V convention in Orlando, Lucas said: "I wish I could say it was coming out this year, but it will come out next year." New, extensive special features will be featured, including documentaries, vintage behind-the-scenes moments, interviews, retrospectives and never-before-seen footage from the Lucasfilm archives.

One of those special features, a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi, premiered at the convention. In it, Luke Skywalker is seen assembling his new lightsaber before going to the palace of Jabba the Hutt.

"Blu-ray is the absolute best way to experience Star Wars at home – in pristine high definition," said George Lucas. "The films have never looked or sounded better."

In an interview with the New York Times, Lucas said that the saga hadn't been announced before because he was waiting for mass adoption of the Blu-ray format. "We've been wanting to do it as soon as we possibly could, but we just wanted to do it when enough people would be able to buy it and see it," said the filmmaker.

Lucas also clarified that the original trilogy movies will be included as they were shown theatrically in 1997 and released on DVD in 2004 - i.e., the original versions will not be included. "You have to go through and do a whole restoration on it, and you have to do that digitally," he said. "It's a very, very expensive process to do it. So when we did the transfer to digital, we only transferred really the upgraded version."

_________________
Jaws3dfan®
Follow me on Twitter

Poor George Lucas... he doesn't have enough money for the "very, very expensive process" that would be transferring the original theatrical versions and selling them by the millions to eager, nostalgic fans.

It's sad that this egomaniacal idiot basically wants these versions to be gone for good. Even sadder still that Lawrence Kasdan, Irvin Kershner, and Richard Marquand don't have any say so over how their work is potentially distributed.

Granted, even these details could be somewhat forgiven if the 1997 "special editions" were available individually...
...but if that nincompoop forces me to buy episodes I through III when these are released, then I'm out.

_________________
Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

I was shock that the Clone Wars movie not part of the set. It was released into theaters.

Lucas can afford to put the original unedited trilogy on Blu Ray. All we get is the revisionist cut of the OT.

Watch down the road the OT will be available as two disc set of the original unedited OT and the revisionist cut. This time the laserdisc masters will be used again but this time it will be anamorphic for 16:9 sets.

You have to remember the directors for Empire and Jedi were employees. They directed the movies and moved on. They have no say.

I don't see the orignal cuts being offically released until after he dies.

_________________
The wages of sin are royalties.

Speaking of which I think it's great that he can still make a profit from the Star Wars franchise and here is why:

http://givingpledge.org/#george_lucas

1 of 40 billionaires that have pledged to donate the majority of their wealth to charities during their lifetime or upon their death.

Live long and prosper George!

_________________
mmmmm....cryptobiosis

You still won't see me buy them. The only thing of benefit that they did right was to clean up the sound mix and to equalize the masking on the original effects shots. Everything else looks terrible. Most (if not all) of the adds either add nothing or seriously detract from the pacing of what is arguably one of the best edited films ever. Plus, the obvious ...

1. Ghost Anakin does NOT have hair
2. Luke does NOT scream when he jumps at Bespin
3. HAN SHOT FIRST

It's one thing to clean up the technical snags from your masterpiece ... it's another thing to actually change character actions, motivations, and arc stories in the process. Lucas won't see another dime from me, in any format, as long as it's the craptacular Special Editions.

_________________
David A. Zecchini; Creature of the Wheel, Lord of the Infernal Engines
"Damnati Im Ludum" (VitruvianZeke@att.net)