"THX 1138: The George Lucas Director's Cut" to Street 09/14/04 (3 Viewers)

[TravisR]

That was my understanding of it too. I don't know if that would make it impossible to get the 'original' originals but that's why I thought they meant.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Yes, that’s the case. There is no misunderstanding. I was real sad when I heard that. Seemed like an attempt from Lucas to erase the originals. I guess to obtain the original cut; they have to scan (if not already) the original effects cut out of the negative and edit them back in digitally. For the tinkered effects shots, they went back to the original elements. Meaning they didn’t use the original final effects shots.

I do have a vague memory from around 8 years ago where they said before tinkering anything, they scanned the complete original photochemically restored negative. So they might have the entire original version scanned somewhere, but don’t quote me on that!

 

[Elijah Sullivan]

Any scan made of the original trilogy in 1996 probably looks pretty pathetic next to today's DVD images. I'm sorry to say, it sounds like the original editions of these films are lost, at least as far as George Lucas is concerned.

And I bet that Lucas has made it very clear with his custodians that so long as his estate retains the rights to Star Wars (read: to the ends of our lifetimes) there won't be a home video version of the original editions made availible.

Unless someone actually gets a gun to Lucas's head, this is never, ever happening. That might be more painful for some to hear than others, but I'm not so much displeased as plain ol' surprised at this news.

 

[Patrick McCart]

As far as I know, the only two "reference" original prints of Star Wars are Lucas's personal special order dye-transfer Technicolor 35mm's. UCLA's prints have faded to green and the LoC's is probably the same. The 1985 interpositive was used for the videos between 1985 and 1995.

However, it's not like George Lucas would throw away one frame of the films. The only thing keeping the original versions from wide availability on DVD is his consent. I'm quite certain that the o-negs for all three films are untouched without digital effects... it's more likely that once the negs were restored, the interpositives had the digital shots cut-in and a dupe negative was made from which prints would be struck. Remember, the reason Star Wars was in such bad condition had to do with so many prints being made from the negative. Today, everything's off a dupe negative since the stocks are much better.

Honestly, I still think we'll eventually see both versions. Technically, as it stands now, putting both editions would not be a financially wise decision. If the trilogy box did have both cuts, it would have meant each film has two discs. This was increase the price of the set, thus possibly not have as good sales. For THX 1138, I'm amazed Lucas was able to put so much into a DVD given how poorly it originally did.

Honestly, I think when it's economically feasible for both cuts to be in one package while being cheap, we'll see both. Obviously Lucas isn't THAT against the originals being seen since he allowed clips in the documentary. And if he ever did allow them on video again, they need to be THE originals. Warts and all, perhaps just with the same type of Lowry Digital Images cleanup on grain, dirt, scratches, and other scars.