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George Lucas promises 'Star Wars' on Blu-ray in 2011

This weekend, during the Star Wars Celebration V, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment announced that all six movies from the popular Star Wars series will be released on Blu-ray, in the fall of 2011.

The films will come in The Star Wars Blu-ray Box Set.



Lucas did note that all the movies will be the "special editions," since restoring the original versions (from the 80s) would "cost too much" and take too much time.

The box set will also include a plethora of documentaries, vintage behind-the-scenes moments, interviews, retrospectives and never-before-seen footage from the Lucasfilm archives.

"Blu-ray is the absolute best way to experience Star Wars at home – in pristine high definition," adds George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars Saga. "The films have never looked or sounded better."

As a teaser, the company showed off a deleted scene from "Return of the Jedi:"



Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Aug 2010 17:31

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• 24 comments

• ROMaster2

  Cost too much? Star Wars? Can that even be in the same sentence without a 'won't'?

  15.8.2010 17:47 #1

• themind

  Id get four five and six if it wasn't the special editions. George Lucas must not know what nostalgia is.

  15.8.2010 20:50 #2

• ffocus06

  I WON'T be buying this s@$# that's for sure! It pisses me of that George Lucas' dumb ass would actually say anything like that.# It doesn't surprise me that he wouldn't put the originals on there, even though both versions would easily fit, because he really does not care about the people or what made Star Wars as popular as it is. All he cares about is how much money he can make.
  
  I FU#$IN hate George Lucas!
  

  
  

  15.8.2010 23:16 #3

• DVDBack23

  Originally posted by themind: Id get four five and six if it wasn't the special editions. George Lucas must not know what nostalgia is. The special editions aren't really all that different.
  

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  16.8.2010 01:17 #4

• hikaricor

  Weren't the originals already restored to make the "special" editions?
  Sounds like a load of shit if you ask me. He just doesn't want to offer them.

  16.8.2010 06:13 #5

• dEwMe

  Yeah...I think I own enough copies on this in varying formats. They will re release everytime some new format comes out. Yeah they always clain they are doing something new but in the end it's the same story of an emo boy gone wild...
  
  

  Just my $0.02,
  
  dEwMe
  

  16.8.2010 07:55 #6

• davidike

  so double dipping but not bothering to give ppl fully 1080p picture for movies from the 70's, 80's.
  
  just use the dvd's you already on a dvd up-scaler n save the outlay for these pointless releases!
  

  "The public domain is a dicgrace to the forces of evil"
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo

  16.8.2010 13:26 #7

• jookycola

  Box set? that's hilarious. I'm not paying $200 or more for any box set. Especially when i disliked the prequels. If he offers a half set of 4, 5, and 6 I'll get it but not all 6
  

  
  

  16.8.2010 16:24 #8

• JoeyMT

  I think you can find the originals on LaserDisc if you are really feeling nostalgic. :)

  16.8.2010 17:11 #9

• themind

  Originally posted by DVDBack23: Originally posted by themind: Id get four five and six if it wasn't the special editions. George Lucas must not know what nostalgia is. The special editions aren't really all that different. The special editions took the old movies and added computer effects to allot of the scenes. In short he took out all the old special effects and changed them to computer generated special effects. He also added scenes and added new backgrounds to old scenes. It's not a bad thing but I want the old version, the one I grew up with and George wont give it to us.
  

  16.8.2010 18:38 #10

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by themind: Originally posted by DVDBack23: Originally posted by themind: Id get four five and six if it wasn't the special editions. George Lucas must not know what nostalgia is. The special editions aren't really all that different. The special editions took the old movies and added computer effects to allot of the scenes. In short he took out all the old special effects and changed them to computer generated special effects. He also added scenes and added new backgrounds to old scenes. It's not a bad thing but I want the old version, the one I grew up with and George wont give it to us. There are also several different special editions, some add scenes, but they all seem to remove scenes. A good example is the scene with the man who is controlled by Jaba. The original has a man being controlled by Jaba, the first special edition drops this scene completely, and the second special edition has jaba himself there for some unexplained reason. I guess it does make the movie a lot more complex...or confusing, yeah, that's the word...because now there are a ton of plot holes.
  
  Lucas needs to leave his old movies alone. It is as if Michelangelo came back to David and chiseled some underwear on him.

  16.8.2010 22:37 #11

• xboxdvl2

  Originally posted by JoeyMT: I think you can find the originals on LaserDisc if you are really feeling nostalgic. :) 2 of my brothers have the original 4,5&6 on video tapes.not sure if i have them.I know i got a heap of video tapes at my mums house tryed selling them for $0.50 each at a garage sale but no luck.
  

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  17.8.2010 01:29 #12

• shaffaaf

  man i haven't even watched starwars/trek/ etc
  
  is it really that good?
  

  
  
  
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  17.8.2010 11:36 #13

• JoeyMT

  All joking aside, I would have to agree. I strongly agree with the idea of releasing the original theatrical editions of the Original Starwars Trilogy.
  

  17.8.2010 11:49 #14

• blueboy09

  They should have kept the originals and at least up-converted them to 720p at least. It costs too much money to release the originals? My ass Mr. Lucas. Betcha like wallowing in all that money you have, huh? It especially pissed off people when the original older Anakin was replaced by the younger one. I didn't that was right, imo. Hopefully they'll price it in the reasonable range, but I highly doubt it though. $200 for 11-12 BD discs seems to be the money grubbers language these days.
  

  Life is about walking on thin ice, if you make too much drama, youll crack under pressure. - BLUEBOY

  18.8.2010 19:31 #15

• DVDBack23

  Originally posted by blueboy09: They should have kept the originals and at least up-converted them to 720p at least. It costs too much money to release the originals? My ass Mr. Lucas. Betcha like wallowing in all that money you have, huh? It especially pissed off people when the original older Anakin was replaced by the younger one. I didn't that was right, imo. Hopefully they'll price it in the reasonable range, but I highly doubt it though. $200 for 11-12 BD discs seems to be the money grubbers language these days. No way would retailers price it that high...the LOTR series (granted only 3 movies) is mid-$60s on Amazon, although I do think they may try to push $150 for Star Wars.
  

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  18.8.2010 19:38 #16

• blueboy09

  Originally posted by DVDBack23: Originally posted by blueboy09: They should have kept the originals and at least up-converted them to 720p at least. It costs too much money to release the originals? My ass Mr. Lucas. Betcha like wallowing in all that money you have, huh? It especially pissed off people when the original older Anakin was replaced by the younger one. I didn't that was right, imo. Hopefully they'll price it in the reasonable range, but I highly doubt it though. $200 for 11-12 BD discs seems to be the money grubbers language these days.[/quote
  
  No way would retailers price it that high...the LOTR series (granted only 3 movies) is mid-$60s on Amazon, although I do think they may try to push $150 for Star Wars. True, true. I'm thinking in terms of MSRP though, not the street price, which would be cheaper. Who knows, maybe we'll see it even cheaper than $150 at Amazon.com.
  

  Life is about walking on thin ice, if you make too much drama, youll crack under pressure. - BLUEBOY

  18.8.2010 21:04 #17

• creaky

  I wonder how many different box sets Lucas is going to foist on us this time. Don't get me wrong, i love Star Wars, but like many others, i once got stung buying newer sets. I'll just wait for 720p Bluray rips :)
  

  
  
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  21.8.2010 07:08 #18

• s_c47

  Han. Shot. First.
  
  'Nuff said.
  

  Someone told me once that theres a right and wrong, and that punishment would come to those
  who dare to cross the line.
  But it must not be true for jerk-offs like you.
  Maybe it takes longer to catch a total a__hole.

  28.8.2010 12:22 #19

• ThomasAnderson

  A LOT of IGNORANCE going on in here about the restoration process. Do you people have any idea on how the '97 SEs were created? And then the '04 DVD versions?
  
  The '97 SEs were created by restoring the original film elements to a certain point at the time. Just enough to save the film from the time and ware that they suffered from being on the cheap '70s film stock they were shot on. The newly added scenes and CG effects were added to this, forever changing the film. Yes, I said FOREVER. How so? Because the original scenes that were changed were not restored to that level of restoration.
  
  But you say that the versions that were released with the DVD re-release were the original cuts, yes, but they were nothing but ports of the LD versions. Hence why they were non-anamorphic.
  
  Now then, for the '04 DVD releases, the films were once again restored by Lowry Digital using 4K scans. They of course used the '97 SE prints.
  
  But you say, why can't they just go back and restore the original prints again? OK, geniuses...let's do some math, shall we? The '97 SEs were probably restored in the '95/'96 timeframe. That's 15 years ago now. So that's another 15 years of degradation of those original film elements. And let me remind you that when they were restored in '96, the prints were in such bad shape then that it was already getting dangerously close to losing them forever. So add another 15 years and even if the original unaltered frames still exist, they are probably so bad now, that no amount of restoration could save them for the quality of DVD, let alone BD.
  
  So yes, when Lucas says that it'd cost too much money and time to restore the original prints, he's probably right.

  28.2.2011 18:32 #20

• s_c47

  Originally posted by ThomasAnderson:
  So yes, when Lucas says that it'd cost too much money and time to restore the original prints, he's probably right. 0/10
  
  

  Someone told me once that theres a right and wrong, and that punishment would come to those
  who dare to cross the line.
  But it must not be true for jerk-offs like you.
  Maybe it takes longer to catch a total a__hole.

  1.3.2011 02:09 #21

• themind

  @ ThomasAnderson
  We all know this, we are just pulling your leg. We all know that every movie made prior to the 1980's are lost forever. (Food for thought) After print runs were done, all movie masters were throne into basements all across America. That is why you see books here and there that have the "as seen in film" sticker. Gone with the Wind, Wizard of Oz, they were once movies lost in the ether.

  1.3.2011 03:17 #22

• seabreeze71

  REAL FANS would pay for this!! But i still think that if they bought the price down a bit then people would pirate films and games etc less. REAL star wars fans would pay WHATEVER heehee
  

  1.3.2011 14:54 #23

• Sloak (unverified)

  SASQUATCH

  7.3.2011 20:01 #24