Latest Star Wars DVD News (From Celebration II) (1 Viewer)

[Neil Joseph]

George "may" tinker again with 4-6 for the DVD release, but he did mention he didn't know if the original version will be included as well, but at least he knows its wanted...

That's what I figured. I think that Lucas wants Ep4, 5, and 6 to "look" like Ep1, 2 and 3 which means he may even end up "re-doing" the lightsabre battles, among other things, woudn't surprise me.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

THese movies were made 25 years ago and a lot of work will need to be done so that they will not completely suck on DVD.

I'm sorry, but I can't let this go by uncontested.

As we all know, these movies were cleaned-up, restored, and re-released theatrically in 1997 with new scenes and enhanced SFX.

This argument holds no water whatsoever; at least not for a basic DVD release.

BTW,

I want my Star Wars DVDs now!

 

[DanR]

It has become quite clear to me that with both Star Wars and Indiana Jones on DVD, Lucasfilm can only "produce" them one at a time, at a pace of about one per year. This year we get Star Wars Episode II because it is recent and has plenty of added value material available. After this, my feeling is that Lucasfilm will turn its attention to Indiana Jones, and crank those out at a steady pace in the next 2 years. Then in late 2004, they will begin work on Episode III's DVD for late 2005, and then "finish off" Episode IV-VI after that. For everyone saying 2005 for the original trilogy...think again. I think it will be 2006 at the earliest. Of course, by then, who cares about the original trilogy on DVD, as we'll be on to the next format by then (or at least I hope I will be). Then, we'll go through this all again.

Regards,

Dan

 

[Joseph Bolus]

It has become quite clear to me that with both Star Wars and Indiana Jones on DVD, Lucasfilm can only "produce" them one at a time, at a pace of about one per year.

I've had the same horrifying thought; and at that pace, we could be well into the second decade of DVD (and/or HD-DVD) before all these films are released to a home digital format.

As you say, nobody will care by then.

Now, about those Howard the Duck SE rumors ...

 

[Oscar]

I dont understand why Lucas wants to wait till 2006 to release his masterpieces on DVD. I mean by 2006 DVD will already be extinct, many people wont give a damn about it. After DVHS just came along, didnt it? :frowning:

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again

DVD is not going anywhere will at least 2010

Do you REALLY think the studios are going to sabotage a format that they just finally approached getting most of their catalog on recently?

Just because they CAN start making HD-DVD decks in the next year or so, doesn't mean that they WILL. The studios must be behind it, after all, what is hardware without software?

DVHS will be even more of a niche than LD was. If they sell a million decks I'll be shocked. They realize there IS a market for these titles, and they're easy to produce (take HiDef master, press record essentially) so why not keep the enthusiasts happy?

And on the subject of Indy, there is every indication that we will have Indy before we have Episode 3. Lucasfilm is working on the Ep4,5,6 DVDs as we speak, gathering materials (which are apparently buried very well) for uber-SEs. They already have hi-def masters of BOTH versions (after all, they needed a source for the SE!)

Personally, I'm banking on Christmas 2003 for Indy (Supposedly Spielburg decided he wanted to do a theatrical re-release, and that delayed them from this Christmas to next) and Christmas 2006 for the original trilogy.

 

[Oscar]

Thaks for relieving me Jeff

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Personally, I'm banking on Christmas 2003 for Indy

Jeff,

Are you talking about the entire Indy trilogy, or just Raiders?

I thought the poor reception that E.T. just received in the theaters would discourage any Raiders re-release plans ...

In fact, three weeks following the E.T. theatrical re-release I specifically recall a Universal spokesperson stating, "Well ... We are little disappointed in the Theatrical re-release, but we expect the DVD to do quite well ..."

After reading that I thought for sure that any plans for a Raiders theatrical re-release was gone and with it a possible quicker release of the title to DVD.

I need to stop trying to apply logic when trying to determine the DVD releases of these titles.

As far as whether or not DVD will have evolved to HD-DVD by 2006: I think there's at least a 50% chance that will happen. After all, any HD-DVD deck will surely be able to play all the current DVD's, and it really seems as though the studios would like to nudge J6P over to DVD (with this recent spate of P&S exclusive releases of even new films to DVD),while pushing the HT enthusiasts over to HD-DVD which would presumably be a OAR-exclusive format.

I'm afraid it's going to happen much quicker than any of us could have imagined just one year ago.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Any plan of an HD format even beginning to take over DVD by 2006 ignores one very important thing.
Most people with DVD will not benefit from HD.
They are watching on 27" (or smaller) 480i TV sets.
Most people do not upgrade televisions. They replace them. When a 27" HDTV costs $300 and their old set is flaking out, they'll get an HDTV-capable set; one that is likely not capable of resolving half the resolution of HDTV.
And yes, that 27" 480i TV will work fine in 2006 and beyond. Even if analog spectrum gets turned off. It will work with cable, it will work with DBS, and it will work with OTA DTV via some cheap, subsidized, settop box.
As far as Star Wars, Raiders and such; since 'they' don't want to release them on DVD without tons of supplements, that makes releasing them sooner on D-VHS even more logical. D-VHS is not about supplements.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Any plan of an HD format even beginning to take over DVD by 2006 ...

Michael,
That's *not* what I'm saying. I'm saying that HD-DVD will be there as a format for the HT enthusiast by 2006, but will be available in conjunction with DVD.
The way I envision it, by that time, DVD releases will be targeted for the "masses" while HD-DVD releases will be targeted for the HT enthusiast; sorta' like the way things were with VHS and LD for all those years. The difference here, though, is huge: HD-DVD decks will also be able to play DVDs.
Of course, I could be totally wrong.
My track record around here hasn't been too good recently ... *sigh*

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Joseph,

My comments were more of a response to Oscar's comment: 'I mean by 2006 DVD will already be extinct'.

As far as HD-DVD goes, I'm not yet convinced they aren't going to water down the quality compared to D-VHS. I hope not.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

DVHS IS the format for the enthusiast

There will be no HD-DVD before a minimum of 50% of US households have an HDTV, or at least a digital set (probably more like 75%)

There will be no HD-DVD until HD sets are out in foreign countries in more than a handful

There will be no HD-DVD until the studios decide it's time, a minimum of 2010. 2015 is my personal guess

 

[Kajs]

Ok Kurt, spill the frickin' beans. How did that Yoda footage look?

It was all a blur to me, it happened so quickly. But it was sweet!

 

[Dave H]

George "may" tinker again with 4-6 for the DVD release, but he did mention he didn't know if the original version will be included as well, but at least he knows its wanted...

But, I think Lucas could care less about what is wanted by the fans as he would have released them on DVD in 1997 if he did care what fans wanted. Ultimately, Lucas does what he wants to do, and fans have little or no input into his decisions of these matters.

 

[LukeB]

As long as Lucas doesn't put ANY DVDs on the market for the Star Wars film, bootleggers will prosper by selling non-anamorphic barebones discs at the same prices or even higher than Fox/Lucas would be asking.

Put out barebones widescreen ones now, or else people will have no reason not to obtain DVDs of these movies illegally. It ticks me off that people are profitting in great numbers with their barebones DVD because there are no legal discs on the market. Lame!

 

[Terrell]

2007-2008 is my guess Jeff. It's proceeding faster than we think. You watch. And consumers aren't gonna buy an HDTV set until you give them a reason. Most cities have no real HDTV programming, other than a few specialized shows. And nobody is gonna buy HDTV's until you give them a hi-def format. So I think it work the other way.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Luke, if he cared about the bootlegs, then he would have his Stormtroopers scouring Ebay and punishing the guilty faster than a fanboy on a limited toy. I agree it's ludicrous

 

[Joseph Bolus]

As long as Lucas doesn't put ANY DVDs on the market for the Star Wars film, bootleggers will prosper by selling non-anamorphic barebones discs at the same prices or even higher than Fox/Lucas would be asking.

Exactly!

Can you imagine what things might be like in April 2005 (one month before the release of Episode 3) if there are still no Star Wars DVDs' available?

By that time, LD would have been dead for 6 years. Many of today's players will have broken down and/or many of the Star Wars LD's may have gone into a "rot" condition.

Meanwhile, the last home widescreen release of the trilogy was to VHS in November 2000. I shudder to think what those tapes would look like in April 2005 on the typical HDTV, even assuming that consumers were using mostly D-VHS decks by that time.

The bootleggers would stand to make millions upon millions.

They must go to bed every night with a thank you prayer to George Lucas!

 

[Chuck Stephens]

It's a good thing that DVD burners have come along so that i can make a back-up copy for myself. As for the original versions of the films being released on DVD, i for one don't really see a point. If he's gonna still tinker with them for the eventual DVD release then how many different versions of these films will there end up being? I will be quite content to buy whatever version is released and not whine about it. I've had my first LD player since 1994 and it's only needed service once and it's still going strong. Just my two cents.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

By that time, LD would have been dead for 6 years. Many of today's players will have broken down and/or many of the Star Wars LD's may have gone into a "rot" condition.

Very few later discs seem to rot if they don't within 2 years (I even have some rot-free Discovision titles that are 22 years old). Pioneer will be servicing LD players for years to come, and for the most part good players (Pioneer, Panasonic, and those based on them) are very resiliant.

I'm not worried about not being able to play my LDs. Yeah, I'll probably burn a couple of DVD-Rs anyway, but more for convenience of being able to play at different locations than a fear of 'losing' LD. But the situation with Star Wars and Indiana Jones flicks do border on the absurd.

I'm not even a 'fan'. I didn't see 'Phantom Menace' until it was out for a few weeks. I've still only seen it once, in fact. I probably won't see Episode II until it's been out for at least a week or two. I'm not some whining fanboy screaming that it's just not fair; I'm just a movie collector who thinks that George Lucas is being silly.