...but only the Special Editions. Guess I'm stuck with DVD =\
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ray-next-year/
Very very expensive process? I'm sure Mr. Lucas said this from the solid-gold office chair that Star Wars revenue paid for =\
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ray-next-year/
‘Star Wars’ Films Coming to Blu-ray Next Year
Though nearly 35 years of “Star Wars†fandom have yielded all kinds of memorabilia inspired by George Lucas’s outer-space epic, including light saber lookalikes and wearable replicas of Princess Leia’s slave costume, one holy grail has lately eluded fans: a video version of the “Star Wars†films that takes the fullest advantage of their top-of-the-line home theater systems.
That’s a Death Star-sized void that Lucasfilm plans to fill shortly. On Saturday, the studio is to announce that it will release all six live-action “Star Wars†features on Blu-ray DVD in fall 2011. A boxed set containing the Blu-ray versions of the movies, spanning from 1977’s “Star Wars†through the final 2005 prequel, “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith,†will mark the first time the films have been offered in a high-definition home format, and will include documentary features and previously unseen footage.
...
Mr. Lucas said the versions of the first three “Star Wars†films – “Star Wars,†“The Empire Strikes Back†and “Return of the Jedi†– included in the Blu-ray boxed set will be the special-edition releases that were shown theatrically in 1997 and digitally restored for a 2004 standard-definition DVD boxed set.
Perhaps bracing for the reactions of fans who decried some of the changes made to the special-edition films – like, say, an exchange of gunfire between Han Solo and a certain green-skinned bounty hunter – Mr. Lucas said that to release the original versions of these films on Blu-ray was “kind of an oxymoron because the quality of the original is not very good.â€
“You have to go through and do a whole restoration on it, and you have to do that digitally,†he added. “It’s a very, very expensive process to do it. So when we did the transfer to digital, we only transferred really the upgraded version.â€
Though nearly 35 years of “Star Wars†fandom have yielded all kinds of memorabilia inspired by George Lucas’s outer-space epic, including light saber lookalikes and wearable replicas of Princess Leia’s slave costume, one holy grail has lately eluded fans: a video version of the “Star Wars†films that takes the fullest advantage of their top-of-the-line home theater systems.
That’s a Death Star-sized void that Lucasfilm plans to fill shortly. On Saturday, the studio is to announce that it will release all six live-action “Star Wars†features on Blu-ray DVD in fall 2011. A boxed set containing the Blu-ray versions of the movies, spanning from 1977’s “Star Wars†through the final 2005 prequel, “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith,†will mark the first time the films have been offered in a high-definition home format, and will include documentary features and previously unseen footage.
...
Mr. Lucas said the versions of the first three “Star Wars†films – “Star Wars,†“The Empire Strikes Back†and “Return of the Jedi†– included in the Blu-ray boxed set will be the special-edition releases that were shown theatrically in 1997 and digitally restored for a 2004 standard-definition DVD boxed set.
Perhaps bracing for the reactions of fans who decried some of the changes made to the special-edition films – like, say, an exchange of gunfire between Han Solo and a certain green-skinned bounty hunter – Mr. Lucas said that to release the original versions of these films on Blu-ray was “kind of an oxymoron because the quality of the original is not very good.â€
“You have to go through and do a whole restoration on it, and you have to do that digitally,†he added. “It’s a very, very expensive process to do it. So when we did the transfer to digital, we only transferred really the upgraded version.â€
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