That's one of my favorite Rifftrax (Rifftraxes?) so I'm psyched to hear this. They riff the commercials, which is amazing. I guess I'm not that surprised that Disney okayed this.

lolno

Nothing ever becomes public domain anymore -- incidentally, due to heavy political influence from Disney.

Pretty sure Fox still owns the distribution rights to those.

I'm not so sure - there has to be enough demand to make doing it worthwhile.  One of the first things Disney did was pull the plug on the rest of the 3D conversions of the old stuff, presumably because they didn't think it was a good investment.

There's a big difference between creating and marketing a release, and just licensing some old property in your vault to someone else (a la Rifftrax) who will do the marketing and releasing.   The first is a risk, the second is pretty much pure gravy.

Disney's focus is on the new movies - the old ones are already available in every format that ever existed.  I don't know how motivated they'd be to put together yet another re-release. 

"It's like the version you already have - just with less stuff!"

Well, that's the real trick, isn't it? And it's probably going to cost us something extra...

IIRC, the petition at http://originaltrilogy.com had "only" about 70,000 signatures. And as far as I know, most casual Star Wars viewers simply don't care which version they're watching. The distributors seem to think there's still a market for old Star Wars films, 'cause last month they re-released the 2011 versions in DVD + Blu-Ray combo packs. Convincing them to pay for a full restoration of the original versions (if good sources still exist) is the hard part.

Last edited by MartyJ (2013-11-17 23:45:16)

Weren't the original negatives restored for the Special Editions?

"Life is about movies; anything else is a bonus!"- Me   

I doubt Lucas would be that callous towards ANY film.

Last edited by Doctor Submarine (2013-11-18 01:29:43)

I thought they touched up the original film, and that was why Luke's blade in Star Wars appeared green 

I have a feeling that the super bonus edition of all nine movies will be the pack to end all packs. Maybe Disney will release the unedited OT then

Don't you worry, Disney will continue to release new editions of Star Wars and charge for them until the end of civilization itself. I wouldn't be surprised if there's another 10 re-releases just in my lifetime alone. We'll have the originals untouched released, then they'll release 3d conversions, then 4k, then whatever the next format is, not to mention probably another anniversary edition at every major milestone date. If you like Star Wars, corporations will find a way to get your money

Yeah, there's no conceivable way, including temporary insanity, that the negs got ruined for the reason claimed. It's so absurd on its face that the mere act of claiming that is itself a kind of "fuck you" to the fans who've broken George's balls about stuff. You don't tell whoppers like that to people you respect.

In a sense, it's actually a pretty clever way to tell someone "fuck you." George knew he was BS-ing, and he knew that we knew he was BS-ing — but he also knew that we had no way to prove he was full of it, since he had total control over the very information in question. Hence the effect of an F-you without having to actually say "F-you." (Remember when Bush made that guy Scott McClellan press secretary? McClellan was a spectacularly unimpressive deer-in-the-headlights. Some people felt it was the administration's way of saying "F-you" to the press without having to say those words. Clever, in an asshole-y way.)

Bringing it back on topic, I hope the first thing restored is the Holiday Special

Right, but remember that the special editions were not done at very high res. With 4k TVs available already, I'd be very surprised if Disney thought a 4k version that old fans and film historians don't like is good enough for the long haul. I think they'll look for the next round-numbered anniversary--the 40th in 2017--and do a full restoration, like they've done with many old Disney films. They MAY wait to do it in 2027 for the 50th, tho, but I'm very confident that they'll do it.

On second thought, they'll definitely wait for the 50th. There's way more money to be had with Ep 7, 8, and 9.

Last edited by Zarban (2013-11-18 06:13:20)