Fans rejoice and jizz in your pants cause Star Wars is coming to Blu-ray in 2011. Although it's the 1997 versions and not the original theatrical versions

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4996


Confirming earlier reports (see blu-ray.com, April 17), George Lucas himself announced today that the Star Wars  films will be released on Blu-ray in 2011, in a six-movie box set. Speaking at the Celebration V convention in Orlando, Lucas said: "I wish I could say it was coming out this year, but it will come out next year." New, extensive special features will be included.

One of those special features, a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi, premiered at the convention. In it, Luke Skywalker is seen asembling his new lightsaber before going to the palace of Jabba the Hutt.


George Lucas Announces Star Wars Blu-ray for 2011
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Posted August 14, 2010 02:54 PM by Juan Calonge


20th Century FoxConfirming earlier reports (see blu-ray.com, April 17), George Lucas himself announced today that the Star Wars films will be released on Blu-ray in 2011, in a six-movie box set. Speaking at the Celebration V convention in Orlando, Lucas said: "I wish I could say it was coming out this year, but it will come out next year." New, extensive special features will be included.

One of those special features, a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi, premiered at the convention. In it, Luke Skywalker is seen asembling his new lightsaber before going to the palace of Jabba the Hutt.



In an interview with the New York Times, Lucas said that the saga hadn't been announced before because he was waiting for mass adoption of the Blu-ray format. "We've been wanting to do it as soon as we possibly could, but we just wanted to do it when enough people would be able to buy it and see it, said the filmmaker.

Lucas also clarified that the original trilogy movies will be included as they were shown theatrically in 1997 and released on DVD in 2004 - i.e., the original versions will not be included. "You have to go through and do a whole restoration on it, and you have to do that digitally," he said. "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."

Thanks to forum member and moderator "Diesel," forum member and disc reviewer Ken Brown, and forum member "uther."

He talks about how the originals will cost to much to master. You think after Fox made about 3 billion Lucas could persuaded them to part with cash and to fund the project and release them separately in some sort of special editions.

Everyone must remember Lucas is infamous for sucking every possible penny out of over single fan.  Hell, he has more than $20,000 of my dollars and he will get more.  Just because there is no theatrical release this time doesn't mean it will never happen.  George will decide he doesn't have enough for a down payment on his new Death Star after all and we'll get treated to a new pressing of the films.  How do you think we got EP I and EP VI probably the two worst films of the franchise.  Star Wars VI Return of George Needs Money and Star Wars I The Phantom Money Spenders ie Georges kids spent too much.  Fear not, one day we will all enjoy the moment, yet again, where Greedo shoots first!

Quoting Lord Of The Sith:

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Lucas is infamous for sucking every possible penny out of over single fan.  Hell, he has more than $20,000 of my dollars and he will get more.

Lucas doesn't need to "suck" money from people who are begging him to take it.

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I didn’t mind the 1997 versions. I think it will be a real treat to finally watch Star Wars in true high definition.

Quoting FilmAlba:

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Fans rejoice and jizz in your pants cause Star Wars is coming to Blu-ray in 2011. Although it's the 1997 versions and not the original theatrical versions

Aaaaaaaaaand I just lost interest.

Quoting SpaceFreakMicha:

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As long as Georgie doesn't add any Jar Jar scenes to the original trilogy... *shudder*

I guess you haven't seen Return of the Jedi in a while...



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Quoting bigdaddyhorse:

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Someone on another board brought up a great point:

Lucas says it will cost too much to remaster the originals and make them HD-suitable. They and I cannot believe that would cost more than putting Hayden into the end of Jedi, or any of the other 20,000 tweaks he's already made. He's just pouring money into remaking these films every 5 years or so, and I'll bet ya something else will be altered for the BD's from the 2004 SE dvds.

That being said, I recently watched the altered dvds upscaled on my blu player and they are very close to HD right now, easily among the best looking dvds I've ever seen. I'll probably pass on this unless it's dirt cheap or somehow has the originals.

Paramount have committed them self to restoring Star Trek The Next Gen eventually. That's going cost as much as making Ironman or some other blockbuster with 100 million odd budget to do.