LucasFilms says no Star Wars on BD or HD DVD in the near future. (1 Viewer)

[dailW]

i am glad that lucas has not put them on HD format.i am still waiting on the HD-DVD/BLU to work things out in both format and working wise i still read where this disc doesn't work you need this part to play the movie.all six have played on either cinemax or HBO since november.last vets.day weekend , they played all of them around the clock all weekend long and on demand had them on for two months.great pictures but the dvd do me just fine.

 

[Edwin-S]

Gentlemen, we have crossed some strange boundary here. The world has taken a turn for the surreal.......(with apologies to Tom Hanks AKA Capt. Miller)

Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Too funny!

 

[Dave Moritz]

While I prefer the originals untouched the way I saw them when they where first seen in the theater. I also like the SE's and the prequels as well. George has done a great job on the movies. But it still does not change the fact that I hate that he will not release the originals with an updated anamorphic transfer or HD tranfer!

Eventually George will put out the SE versions with the prequels in HD and it will most likely contain a Dolby True HD track. I do not allways agree with what George Lucas has done but he did a great job with the Star Wars movies. And he has had a big impact on the industry and will most likely continue to provide top end effects and sound mixing. While the movies will not make it fast enough to HD I will be more than happy to buy them as soon as George decides to make them available in HD.

 

[Douglas Monce]

I think there is still some debate if episode 4 even exists on film in a transferable state. The original camera neg is supposedly all but gone at this point. It's possible that a decent quality Technicolor print could be found in England (as far as I know this is the only place that had Technicolor dye transfer prints of the film). But short of that you are talking about a MAJOR project to recreate a film that Lucas himself always considered unfinished. So an anamorphic transfer of Ep 4 may not even be possible.

Doug

 

[Lou Sytsma]

You are most welcome - just going in on the party!

Perplexed as to how being burnt out on a movie equates to SW and Lucas bashing. Methinks thou dost protest too much.

 

[ScottR]

Why wouldn't they have made digital files of the original negatives before tampering with them, like Disney did with Snow White?

 

[Tim Glover]

Good question Scott.

 

[Grant H]

When I asked that before, the answer always cropped up that the technology circa 1996 made it more cost-effective to just scan the parts they needed to do effects work on.

Also, nothing would have been of the quality film scanners could produce today. So maybe not the best way to archive the film.

Though when doing the physical resoration, it certainly would have made sense to preserve a copy of the original film, not just cut it up. But supposedly, some shots were in such bad condition they had to be digitally re-created or refilmed, so now you're talking making a separate copy that includes newly created sequences just for archiving's sake.

Could all be a line of BS though.

And we know private collectors have prints that could be worked from, but it's still a significant undertaking from that point to get the quality people would expect.

EDIT: Suddently I'm imagining a film in the vein of Bourne films with Lucas running around assasinating all the private collectors so he can steal and/or destroy those prints.

 

[Douglas Monce]

They probably did. But that would still involve reconstructing the film from scratch, not an inexpensive proposition for a film that the director wasn't particularly happy with. Also at this point it would also involve re-compositing every effects shot in the movie.

Doug

 

[Douglas Monce]

The Lucas Identity!!! Awsome!

 

[Douglas Monce]

As I said if a good quality Technicolor print could be found in england that might be the way to go. But that print is still going to be in some cases 6 or 7 generations away from the original camera negative and the final results probably aren't going to be what most fans would expect in terms of quality.

Doug

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

Prints need not come into it, as Robert Harris explained in an e-mail to Lucasfilm last year when the whole non-anamorphic DVD brouhaha kicked off:

"we must believe that acceptable Pre-print elements survive in the form of interpositives, dupe negatives and / or separation masters. If this is the case, then Fox would be totally capable of creating a new anamorphic video master. This is what their archival staff does on a daily basis, and they do it exceedingly well."

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/....php?p=2871130

 

[Douglas Monce]

The problem is it's not entirely clear that those element HAVE survived. Or if they have the seem to be missing. The other problem is that Lucas is simply not interested in doing it. He doesn't like that version of the film, so thats the end of it.

Doug