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Full Details Revealed For STAR WARS On Blu-ray. Star Wars Site Crashes, Details Very Lame. Original Trilogy Remains Compromised

by J Hurtado, May 4, 2011 9:20 AM


After a bunch of bullshit on the official Star Wars page that crashed when it was supposed to be "revealing all", I managed to find the somewhat unimpressive looking details elsewhere on the web.  Unfortunately, it looks like we are stuck with Lucas' special editions and the original-Original Trilogy is stuck on hard-matted 4:3 DVD for now.  Here's the rest:
Bring home the adventure and share Star Wars™ with your whole family - when STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA comes to Blu-ray Disc from Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment! To be released beginning on September 12 internationally and on September 16 in North America, the nine-disc collection brings the wonder of the entire Saga direct to your living room, where you can revisit all of your favorite Star Wars moments - in gorgeous high definition and with pristine, 6.1 DTS Surround Sound. Dive deeper into the universe with an unprecedented 40+ hours of special features, highlighted by never-before-seen content sourced from the Lucasfilm archives.
Special Features:

STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA ON BLU-RAY is presented in widescreen with 6.1 DTS Surround Sound. Special features include:

    DISC ONE - STAR WARS: EPISODE I THE PHANTOM MENACE
        Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, John Knoll, Dennis Muren and Scott Squires
        Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
    DISC TWO - STAR WARS: EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES
        Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman, John Knoll and Ben Snow
        Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
    DISC THREE - STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH
        Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Rob Coleman, John Knoll and Roger Guyett
        Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
    DISC FOUR - STAR WARS: EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE
        Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren
        Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
    DISC FIVE - STAR WARS: EPISODE V THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
        Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Carrie Fisher, Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren
        Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
    DISC SIX - STAR WARS: EPISODE VI RETURN OF THE JEDI
        Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren
        Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
    DISC SEVEN - NEW! STAR WARS ARCHIVES: EPISODES I-III
        Including: deleted, extended and alternate scenes; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; matte paintings and concept art; supplementary interviews with cast and crew; a flythrough of the Lucasfilm Archives and more
    DISC EIGHT - NEW! STAR WARS ARCHIVES: EPISODES IV-VI
        Including: deleted, extended and alternate scenes; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; matte paintings and concept art; supplementary interviews with cast and crew; and more
    DISC NINE - THE STAR WARS DOCUMENTARIES
        NEW! Star Warriors (2007, Color, Apx. 84 Minutes) - Some Star Wars fans want to collect action figures...these fans want to be action figures! A tribute to the 501st Legion, a global organization of Star Wars costume enthusiasts, this insightful documentary shows how the super-fan club promotes interest in the films through charity and volunteer work at fundraisers and high-profile special events around the world.
        NEW! A Conversation with the Masters: The Empire Strikes Back 30 Years Later (2010, Color, Apx. 25 Minutes) - George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan and John Williams look back on the making of The Empire Strikes Back in this in-depth retrospective from Lucasfilm created to help commemorate the 30th anniversary of the movie. The masters discuss and reminisce about one of the most beloved films of all time.
        NEW! Star Wars Spoofs (2011, Color, Apx. 91 Minutes) - The farce is strong with this one! Enjoy a hilarious collection of Star Wars spoofs and parodies that have been created over the years, including outrageous clips from Family Guy, The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother and more -- and don't miss "Weird Al" Yankovic's one-of-a-kind music video tribute to The Phantom Menace!
        The Making of Star Wars (1977, Color, Apx. 49 Minutes) - Learn the incredible behind-the-scenes story of how the original Star Wars movie was brought to the big screen in this fascinating documentary hosted by C-3PO and R2-D2. Includes interviews with George Lucas and appearances by Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
        The Empire Strikes Back: SPFX (1980, Color, Apx. 48 Minutes) - Learn the secrets of making movies in a galaxy far, far away. Hosted by Mark Hamill, this revealing documentary offers behind-the-scenes glimpses into the amazing special effects that transformed George Lucas' vision for Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back into reality!
        Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi (1983, Color, Apx. 48 Minutes) - Go behind the scenes -- and into the costumes -- as production footage from Return of the Jedi is interspersed with vintage monster movie clips in this in-depth exploration of the painstaking techniques utilized by George Lucas to create the classic creatures and characters seen in the film. Hosted and narrated by Carrie Fisher and Billie Dee Williams.
        Anatomy of a Dewback (1997, Color, Apx. 26 Minutes) - See how some of the special effects in Star Wars became even more special two decades later! George Lucas explains and demonstrates how his team transformed the original dewback creatures from immovable rubber puppets (in the original 1977 release) to seemingly living, breathing creatures for the Star Wars 1997 Special Edition update.
        Star Wars Tech (2007, Color, Apx. 46 Minutes) - Exploring the technical aspects of Star Wars vehicles, weapons and gadgetry, Star Wars Tech consults leading scientists in the fields of physics, prosthetics, lasers, engineering and astronomy to examine the plausibility of Star Wars technology based on science as we know it today.
I'm going to make a sandwich.

At Mubi

13 Comments

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Yeah, I know there are 40 hours of extras. That probably includes the commentaries. I'm still buying it because I'm sure it will look fantastic. Still lame.

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Couldn't have thrown in the DVD special features just to sweeten the pot? Even though I want that original trilogy I'll probably still buy this just cuz it's Star Wars and I need it. It astounds me how much Lucas doesn't care about the originals. Every year films much older and less popular get DVD/Blu-ray releases treated with much more care. If he's not interested he should just let Criterion handle it or something.

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This is not the Blu ray set I'm looking for

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I could be completely wrong, but doesn't the original negative of the original trilogy exist anymore? My understanding was that Lucasfilm restored the negative and then used it to create the special edition in the mid-1990s. That's why when the original trilogy was finally released on DVD, they had to use the laserdisc transfer.

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According to an article I read on /film when these were first announced Lucas simply believes the whole process of restoring the originals is too expensive and time consuming.

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I think it boils down to the idea that Lucas no longer likes them the way they were, so we shouldn't see them. He's "improved" them, why would we want to see the grubby old ones? Something tells me that money is not the problem.

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I think Lucas doesn't want to be bothered with the older fans because he sees the future of SW with younger ones. I have a friend 2 years younger than me that didn't see Star Wars until the special editions came out so he has no problem with them. "Han shot first" means jack to a whole generation of current fans. When you look at the prequels they're designed to appeal to young stupid kids too. I'll admit it I liked Episode 1 as a kid. Saw it 6 times and little orphan Ani didn't bother me like it does now. Episode 2 was the soapy teen drama we were supposed to like because we got a little older and Episode 3 was supposed to be a kickass action flick for us when were young adults. I think George knows he can depend on the hardcore lifelong fans no matter what he does so he only focuses on capturing new kiddies to keep the empire growing.

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@brbro4--the reason why the process of restoring the originals is because the new 1997 special effect shots were actually physically spliced into the original negative, which had been completely restored at the time. A negative of the original version no longer exists in any form, and restoring the originals would mean trying to locate a dup negative to start from, which unfortunately doesn't appear to exist but other kinds of film elements. Still, Lucas isn't lying when he says trying to create a version of the original trilogy good enough for blu-ray would be incredibly expensive.

http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/savingstarwars.html

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2010/05/star-wars.ars

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Yes, the original master might be no more but as those articles point out several high quality versions still exist. Would it be expensive to reproduce? Sure, but it's Star Wars and would sell well no matter what.

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I actually believe the story that the original negative no longer exists as such. But a good 35 mm copy can still be 4 times as sharp as BluRay, and surely there must be plenty of good 35mm copies still in existence, even privately owned maybe?

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Yeah, but either way, it was destroyed by design. The fact that the original negative no longer exists is not coincidental. Lucas obviously felt as though it was inferior and treated the film that millions of people loved for 20 years like it was a rough edit. His behavior regarding his own films is atrocious.


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