OT Star Wars Speculation from Comic Con

[Borsk]

From thedigitalbits.com ...

Last but not least, a particularly interesting topic of conversation among our industry friends at Comic-Con this year was the likelihood that the original unaltered Star Wars trilogy will finally be released on disc in high quality now that Disney is in the driver’s seat on the franchise. The expert consensus was that it’s quite possible. In fact, it’s almost unthinkable that it won’t happen. Disney has the best marketing machine in the business, and what better way to instantly spark fan enthusiasm and good feelings for the studio’s planned Episodes 7, 8 and 9 feature films than by giving fans what they’ve always wanted too: the unaltered theatrical cuts of Episodes 4, 5 and 6 on Blu-ray? Again, this is just somewhat informed speculation, so consider it Rumor Mill worthy. But every time jaded fans think they’re finally done with this franchise, the Empire finds new ways to pull them back in. The Saga continues, folks.

Nothing earth-shattering, but somewhat interesting nevertheless.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

I doubt there'd be enough people who would bother to buy it. Non-fans don't care about the changes, most fans already have multiple copies so are unlikely to spend more money on yet another one, so that only leaves the few hardcore "Original Triology ONLY" nutters ... and it's unlikely they are going to bother watching the new Sequel Trilogy anyway.

There's still lots of the existing Blu-ray sets around down here in New Zealand.

 

[Borsk]

I doubt there'd be enough people who would bother to buy it. Non-fans don't care about the changes, most fans already have multiple copies so are unlikely to spend more money on yet another one, so that only leaves the few hardcore "Original Triology ONLY" nutters ... and it's unlikely they are going to bother watching the new Sequel Trilogy anyway.

There's still lots of the existing Blu-ray sets around down here in New Zealand.

You'll be pleased to know that J.J. Abrams is NOT leaving Episode VII. Apparently that was the rumor at Comic Con as well.

As to the unaltered originals:

Personally, I'll see Episode VII regardless. I'm expecting it to be on par with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So, my expectations are relatively low, but I don't expect it to be completely without merit.

While I don't 'hate' the added/re-created material in the existing blu-ray versions of the OT movies, I do find those scenes to be jarring. They take you out of the movie a bit. In particular, the scene where Han steps on Jabba's "tail" in ANH is super cheesy and the CGI looks very out of place.

I would probably buy a version of the OT movies on blu-ray that felt a little more seamless (whether that's without the extra scenes (ie unaltered version) or with those scenes reworked to look better).

I was somewhat disappointed that Lucas seemed to focus so much on changing/adding new things to the movies and not directing those resources towards making the existing movies look as good as they possibly could. People loved the movies as they originally existed. It's not like he was re-releasing Howard the Duck.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

Damn!! I thought I'd managed to convince LucasFilm to fire that Abrams idiot. I'll have to get the Rancor brothers to pay them another visit.


I agree that the added Han-Jabba scene is a bit silly and is one I could do without, but the rest of the changes aren't that big a deal to me and they do make the now-ancient Original Trilogy look a bit more fitting with the newer Prequel Trilogy ... of course they'll both probably look old next to the Sequel Trilogy. Most of the changes were simply how George Lucas wanted to do them originally if he'd had the time, money, and technology.

If they do re-release Howard the Duck, they can completely cut the idiotic second half of the movie ... that's the only way that one would be worth watching.

 

[Borsk]

http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/16/60...rs-trilogy-unaltered-may-be-coming-to-blu-ray