George Lucas names Star Wars Blu-ray release date

All six Star Wars movies will be released on Blu-ray, George Lucas has confirmed, but not until October... 2011. The release will bundle all six films into a single box set, the Skywalker Supremo said this weekend at a gathering of fanboys in Florida. Why wait? Lucas doesn't appear to have said, but the wait gives him plenty …

[Anonymous Coward]

Time to milk the punters again!

Will this be the ultimate, definitive collection? (until the next time!)

Yet we still keep buying them :(

[Kevin7]

Sounds good :-)

Given the almost peerless technical quality of Lucas's releases the long wait is hardly surprising. Converting the original saga to HD will probably be quite an epic job in itself and no doubt Lucas will tinker with them yet again. Given the greater portion of the original saga is more than 30 years old whether they stand up to HD scrutiny is another question. The chances are most fans will be buying them for the extra stuff rather than films which by this stage are probably a bit over familiar.

[Anonymous Coward]

70mm

I understand they were all shot in 70mm, so I would sincerely hope 1920 x 1080 resoution should not be a problem... of course, they are in a different aspect ratio, so tinkering will be required...

[Anonymous Coward]

Peerless?

"Peerleess technical quality"? This is a joke right? Have you seen the DVDs? Incorrect colour timing, crushed blacks, surround channels swapped left-to-right, missing music, the list goes on.

[Mark 65]

Re:Peerless

Just a guess, but maybe he's referring to the master not the compressed retail version

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Peerless

"Just a guess, but maybe he's referring to the master not the compressed retail version"

Eh?

The issues mentioned above will be present on the master and have nothing to do with DVD compression. Lucas/Lowry made a monumental pig's ear of remastering for the DVDs.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah...

Yeah, but some of us don't give a monkey's or have that much time to sit and nitpick to such a sad degree!

You need to open the front door and get out in the fresh air a little more!

[stucs201]

@kevin7

"Given the greater portion of the original saga is more than 30 years old whether they stand up to HD scrutiny is another question."

So 40ish years more recent than the wizard of oz, generally considered a really good film for showing off blu-ray...

[Sampler]

Any chance

To get the original trilogy in a non-fucked-about-with version, seeing the size of the Blu-ray disc you could easily include both version.

[Bob Bobson]

Aaaaargh

Meanwhile us freetards already have 1080p .mkv copies, without the latest heretical revisions

[RichyS]

How

So, where did you get these magic 1080p copies from?

Has someone somewhere managed to get hold of the digital or print originals, and converted them themselves? Doubtful.

So, what you probably have is the 576p (at best) DVD release up-converted to 1080p.

Nothing worth bragging about, really.

[Anonymous Coward]

HDTV

What it says in the title. Not sure if the original-originals were broadcast in 1080, but the special editions certainly were - and trust me, they're HD.

[Jolyon Ralph]

Perhaps...

Perhaps these are off-air broadcasts from an HD movie channel somewhere in the world.

[RichyS]

Perhaps not...

But I doubt the HD broadcasts (and they'll probably be in 1080i anyway) came from the originals. Otherwise, why would Lucas need to 'tidy them up' to get the 1080p BluRay release?

There's a logic failure there somewhere. Face it, the HD broadcasts are just upscaled from SD.

[Paul RND*1000]

"tidy them up"

For "tidy them up" read: "it's taking longer than expected to render the newer, improved-er end sequence for RotJ. The scenes where Jar-Jar dances with the Ewoks are proving particularly vexing, but fear not, we'll have them sorted in time for the BluRay release!"

[Thomas 4]

Hmmm

I have nothing against him improving the picture quality or adding small minor scenes, like the stormtroopers in the desert. What I do take umbrage with is screwing around with important details, like the Emperor's face in Empire Strikes Back, losing the "Yub-Nub" song at the end of RotJ, replacing with it victory shots of Naboo, etc and the replacement of the old Vader with Mannequin Skywalker.

Not that the old scenes were particularly good but letting those..things...from the prequel trilogy infect the old Star Wars films almost seems like sacrilege.

[Daniel B.]

Don't forget...

Greedo shoots first!

This nonsense is as stupid as Spielberg's switch on E.T., changing shotguns into walkie-talkies. Geeze!

[Pascal Monett]

I still have the VHS

Quite worn out, I admit, but there is still enough detail to notice that HAN SHOT FIRST.

And, as has been outlined in quite a good argument somewhere else, making Greedo shoot first is a disastrous decision for Han's character. In the original version, Han went from being a true selfish smuggler to an actual good person.

With Greedo shooting first, Han goes from semi-innocent good guy to . . good guy, with a bit of selfishness in between that, all of a sudden, is not so comprehensible.

Way to screw up your own story, Lucas.

[mt1]

Clever

Up the price because ythere are 6 filsm even though 3 are trash

[Code Monkey]

3 films

If he released the two trilogies separately the huge disparity would finally convince him that the last 3 (or first, as it were) films are utter shite.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately...

...the first three were utter shite too. The difference is that all of us were kids when we saw them. C3PO is honestly incredibly grating, R2D2 is cheesy as hell, and the acting is generally atrocious. That's exactly as it -should- be, but saying that the original three were good and the later three were bad is just rose colored glasses.

[jason 7]

Must have....more money........

So great George, putting in crap that wasnt considered good enough at the time by you (or the real directors that did a better job) to boost an already very tarnished legacy.

Just like Cuppola did with the Apocalypse Now Redux. All the stuff he added in at the time he swore would never be seen as it was (to quote)..."shit!"

But when you need the cash...........

All the folks that were between the ages of 5 and 15 when they saw Star Wars for the first time in 77 will tell you..."less is more".

All you had to do was clean and tidy up the prints, re-composite the optical effects shots, re-do the scene fades and use a smidgin of CGI to tidy up some other shots.

Thats all.

Saying that sorting out the original trilogy prints would be too expensive is pure BS as he knows full well that version would outsell the (not so) Special editions.

[Anonymous Coward]

Please oh please...

Do not let him tinker anymore with the originals, I mean Han not shooting the bounty hunter Gredo (was it Gredo? not really that sure or bothered to wiki it) in Star Wars was an absolute joke...

Maybe a lawsuit to block Lucas from changing anything, I mean its America where everything and everyone can be sued, right?

[DrXym]

Star Wars extra money edition

No one should be surprised that Star Wars is coming to Blu Ray. The series gets reissued every 5 years or so, each time touting some dubious reason why its better than the last. Collectors edition, digitally remastered edition, special edition etc. You can bet that after next year's Star Wars there will be another one. Perhaps they'll revamp the shitty CGI effects in the special editions for example and dump that out. Money for old rope.

[Andy 115]

A Title

I wonder if Oct 2011 will also see the release of Mac's with Bluray drives? Perhaps it wont be such a "bag of hurt" when Star wars is available on Bluray? Don't Apple and Lucasfilm have some sort of history?

BTW, I have an iMac and I'm not in the least bit bothered it doesn't do Bluray films but some people seem to get all hot and bothered by the fact.

[Anonymous Coward]

The core of Pixar was originally Lucasfilm's digital studio

which he sold to Jobs when he ran out of wives, money and the ability to make good movies. That's about all the history between the two of them. I don't know what the state of relations are between them these days.

[Doug 14]

Can we please give this a rest .. ?

Look these films were great when they first came out ( the first 3 that is ) , but for crying out loud just how many times can Lucas keep going back to the well on this? I'm begging you all please leave this on the shelf , it only encourages him.

Our childhood has been and gone people , it's sad but there it is .. you can't buy it back.

[LuMan]

Sigh

I suppose we're all entitled to our own opinion and, Doug 14, your opinion is somewhat echoed throughout this forum. However, while there are grown men (and women) alive who claim that their religion is Jedi (please, DON'T get me started on this one!) and wander around dressed like Friar Tuck with a glowing sword, there will be countless numbers of Star Wars Special edition re-releases flying off shelves quicker than a modified YT1300 Correllian Freighter from Docking Bay 94. Love it or hate it, SW will keep Lucas' money-well well-stocked for many generations to come.

For the record, as an avid SW fan (who ISN'T a f**king Jedi!) I'll be buying the box-set and adding it to my ever-growing collection (cue: downvotes...) </sigh>

[Sooty]

Victim of his own success

My theory is that for the original trilogy, the people working with him were prepared to slap him and say "No, that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard". Unfortunately he got famous enough that people stopped saying it to him.

This would be a perfect opportunity though, to release a version that had a "pure" option, that lets you watch the same film as when you were a child. And then, if you choose to, you could watch it with the "enhancements"

Although, I wouldn't be surprised if this blu-ray version had all the blasters replaced with walkie-talkies!

[Paul RND*1000]

Nailed it...

...I think you have.

[Goat Jam]

Stupid Patrol

is what you are talking about.

[envmod]

title

D'you know what?

Start Wars is shit.

[Matthew 17]

Good job he released it as one big boxed set

If no-one bought the 1-3 box and everyone bought the 4-6 then it would be further proof of how shit the new films are.

I like the original trilogy, I even liked the tweaked versions but I've seen them so many times can't really be arsed to watch them again.

[DB2k]

DVDActive

Kudos to Chris for his article at DVDActive - stil lbeing linked to in news items because it's so thorough

[Mr Brush]

Coming in 2012

Star Wars, the complete 6 part story, in 3D!!!!!

[Wize]

That was the first thought that crossed my mind

He'll wait till he gets a good sale of the blurays before he announces anything to do with 3D versions.

[Ian Ferguson]

Enhancements

The original 70mm video is awfully blurry and fake-looking. I think the HD version should replace all the silly models and cheap sets with CGI.

And you know what else the original trilogy lacked? Comedy. More hilarious background capers by bendy aliens, please.

[Thomas 4]

Exqueeeeeze me

Meesa likin' dis idea!

[Dan 55]

Star Wars: A New Title

I want to see the cut scene with the Ewoks flogging a dead horse.

[Winkypop]

As a kid in 1977...

..I watched the original SW (A new hope) over 20 times at the cinema. Kids tickets were like $1.50 then.

I much later watched the 1st of the next 3....left after 30 minutes.

Utter shite.

Repackage the first 2 and I'd be happy....

[Jelliphiish]

But!.. i like the first thr..

no.. i can't type it.. i tried.. fnigers seizde..

[jason 7]

Star Wars wasnt shot in 70mm.

Star Wars were all shot on 35mm negative (except for the last two prequels which were digital).

The effects shots were shot on defunct Vistavision cameras which allowed different optical effects to be used.

The original negatives suffered from poor color retention and are in bad way. Nothing that time and money cant fix however.

Unfortunately, Lucas scrimped on the HD transfers done for the DVD boxset. He only gave limited time to Lowery digital and only scanned them at 2K maximum rather than 4K.

The real bummer (but actually no great loss) is that the last two digital movies were shot at around 1080p fixed. So in effect they can never be improved going forward.

Lucas really makes some daft decisions. I still feel he's a chancer that got lucky with one (quite frankly not that original) idea and has been riding the wave ever since.

[Pirate Dave]

Free Hat!

Need I say more? Quit fucking around with the old movies or an angry spirit will come out of the ark and destroy you all.

[Peter Clarke 1]

Release date

October 2011?? October? Surely the only date for all things Star Wars is May the Fourth! (Yeah, I know, October for Xmas sales)

Mines the one with the Light Sabre in the pocket

[John 62]

The pizza rolls told him to do it

epic 7-part youtube review is epic. http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/12/17/watch-this-70-minute-video-review-of-star-wars-the-phantom-menace/

arstechnica's recent article is also informative: http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2010/05/star-wars.ars

Now where are my pizza rolls?

[Angus 2]

ahhh

Mr Plinkets classic reviews. Great deconstruction of the Massive Fail that is the first of the prequels. Could have done without the Serial Killer subplot though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Have the 1080p MKVs, I'll still buy the box set

I'd like to know the retail cost if Lucas did re-master the original originals. I think I'd want them whatever the cost!

[Anonymous Coward]

They're upscaled...

They may be 1080p (if not 1080i) but they were upscalled for SD broadcast versions. They are not 1080p versions taken from the originals.

I'll get them, along with the BR versions of the Extended LOTR which, of course, couldn't be released at the same time as the theatrical versions...

[Anonymous Coward]

1080P version exist and are available at the Mos Eisley Market*

They exist, they're not upscaled and I have no idea what extra crap is going to be layered in the official BluRays.

I still have a Laserdisc player and all 3 of the Original un mucked about with Trilogy since that's the best domestic quality version that exists of them.

If the upcoming release undoes the stupid changes and goes back to the original cut but with shiny bells I'll be first in line, otherwise Lucas can Sod off.

By having Greedo shoot first totally destroys the redemption arc of Han Solo starting out as being a nasty piece of work and ending as a true hero.

What's next? Vader kissing Captain Antilles?

*The location of which should be well known to El Reg Readers...

[Anonymous Coward]

Please Mr Lucas

Stop the madness.

[A 31]

prepare ...

for dashing new effects on menus, and "extra" content with ewoks flogging a dead wookee (not horse). Flashing buttons that goes "ping" , and of course a state of the art scroll in/out page system !!

O George, will it ever end !