Anything on TFN is highly suspect. There's been a report on the site about a supposed anniversary set with a detailed list of features for a few years now.
When and if a DVD set is being released, you will see the announcement on the official site (starwars.com) and in the official magazine (Star Wars Insider). Until then, don't believe anything you read on TFN or anywhere else, for that matter.
A much better fan-site than TFN is originaltrilogy.com. False rumors get shot down pretty quick there:
I think it's pretty much been confirmed that a 30th Anniversary set is on the way this year and I expect the announcement to be made at Celebration IV in May. The big question is what will actually be in the set.
Since the guy who runs TFN is the official SW Fan Club president this year, I'd say he's got some credibility. Sure they may post rumors- but I consider them a bit more trustworthy than most other sites.
It's a given that there will be some sort of release to commemorate the 30th anniversary, but as Lucasfilm hasn't confirmed anything yet, it's all speculation even if it's reported by an otherwise credible source.
Right now the only release that's for sure is that new 300+ page "making of" Star Wars book, which looks like it will be pretty interesting.
My prediction: Lucas will suddenly "find" some film elements of the original original trilogy, but it'll only be available in a super-expensive set that forces you to (re)buy the new trilogy, the Ewok movies, and the Droids, Ewoks, and Clone Wars cartoons.
Maybe I'm hallucinating, but I could've sworn I read somewhere that Steve Sansweet(the head of Lucasfilm's fan relations dept.) had pretty much confirmed that a 30th Anniv. DVD release was a certainty. I'd try harder to find an exact quote, but honestly I'm too lazy to do the research.
I don't remember seeing anyone connected with LFL saying that. That doesn't mean it wasn't said though.
Either way, logic dictates that if they're marketing alot of SW 30th Anniversary stuff, the DVD set will be another 30th anniversary item especially since it's the most obvious item to release. They've been getting an influx of money every year from DVDs since 2001 and they're not going to stop when they can re-release SW for its 30th anniversary. As far as I'm concerned, nothing in life is a sure thing but a 30th anniversary SW DVD set is about as close as it gets.
I have a feeling we will see a pretty definitive 6 film DVD set in September. With anamorphic transfers of the original unaltered trilogy. Of course they could have done it for the last release, but why would they when they can fleece us diehards one more time? I know that I bought them.
Too bad we'll have to buy the prequels to get them.
I'm wondering though--if these are coming out fall or winter this year, you'd think we'd have heard some word from SOMEBODY somewhere. We found out about the 2004 set sometime in 2003, if I remember right. At the latest, it was at this time in 2004. A full saga retrospective box set would, I think, be a much larger project overall, and I'm wondering why apparently nobody has heard anything about it one way or the other.
or have all the people who used to leak this stuff just kinda stopped caring?
I remember an interview with Rick McCallum or Lucas saying that they intended to release all the films chronologically with extras, this was probably aorund the time of episode 1 or 2 I think.
I think it was March when the announcement was made about the September '04 OT release. I'm expecting they'll hold the announcement until May this time(so it can be made at Celebration IV) and the DVD release date will be late Oct. or early Nov. The timeline would be just about right if that's in fact their plan.
I don't think the 30th anniversary set is going to be a mega-set like the Alien Quadrilogy or the Superman set. I'd be surprised if it was more than eight discs- six for the movies (presumably with new tranfers) and a bonus disc devoted to each trilogy. While there's always something more they can do in the way of extras, it's not like they have the same amount of material for the OT that they have for the prequels (unless they cover alot of the same ground that Empire Of Dreams covered). And the prequels have been pretty thoroughly covered so it's not like there's tons more for that either.
And I'd be f***ing flabbergasted if there was an anamorphic OT in it.
If we get new transfers of all 6 films I hope they do something to A New Hope to make the picture brighter. yesterday I watched the original version of Episode 4 and after it was over I watched the 2004 DVD edition of A New Hope, It was definitely clearer then the original version but the image was too dark when compared to the original's brighter contrast.
I'm hoping for a boxset of just the original theatrical versions of the original trilogy... preferably in anamorphic widescreen this time. I'm really not interested in a mega-set including the prequels! Waiting to find out more about this anniversary edition before deciding whether to just cave in and buy the non-anamorphic trilogy sold individually...
Maybe George Lucas can sneak "Howard The Duck" on there too... Easter egg?
I would be as well, but I certainly don't expect it to happen. In fact, I'd be willing to wager a VERY LARGE sum of money that we won't see that in this release.
I doubt it, too, but they have to throw something in there to get me to buy again. I can't imagine what it would be, because it won't be extras. I don't even care if it's deleted scenes that were left off the previous releases. I don't watch them enough for it to make a difference. In fact, I think it will take something major for the average DVD buyer to say anything besides, "We already have Star Wars!"
The main thing that would get my dollar, outside of the originals properly restored with an anamorphic transfer, would be if they fixed the audio and video problems of the OT. And, that's kind of a dicey thing for the marketing department. How do you sell that to the general public? "Newly remastered AGAIN!" I'm just skeptical that the mass market continues to be a slave to Star Wars releases, but I'll admit I haven't seen the sales numbers.
If the OT discs remain the same, and the major change is a retransferred TPM with a digital Yoda, I'll stay away. I'd like to own that, but I won't buy five other movies for the privilege.