Big news from the Star Wars Celebration V. George Lucas has announced that the film series that made him a household name is going high def in 2011.
Now there is good news and bad news with this. The good news is that the plaid one said that the movies will have extensive special features, such as a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi where Luke is making his new lightsaber. You know, its neat little things like this that make me love the DVD/Blu-Ray format. I love me some special features, as the hours wasted watching every documentary and listening to every commentary track on the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions prove.
Unfortunately, we now come to the bad news. As of right now there is no confirmation that the original trilogy will be, well, the original trilogy. We don’t know if Lucas is going to let us buy the original theatrical versions along with his updated abomin-I mean, versions of the films. However, knowing how long Lucas waited in the first place to give us the theatrical cuts on DVD, I’d guess that the chances aren’t good.
Still, Star Wars being on Blu-Ray at all is a good thing. The most successful film series of all time has been long overdue for some HD lovin’.
UPDATE: And I guess its official. No theatricals on the original trilogy. Engadget reports, “While the ‘highest picture and audio quality’ and extensive special features are promised, what won’t make it to Blu-ray are the original versions of the movies; Lucas told the New York Times that only the special editions will be included, since restoring the original versions in high enough quality would cost too much.”
Well narts.
Would cost too much? The guy has MILLIONS of dollars! And it costs too much? Well basically what he just said is a big “fuck you” to Star Wars fans. I hate you George Lucas. May you and Jar Jar Binks burn in the depths of Hell for all eternity.
I am currently sitting here, looking at my Close Encounters of the Third Kind blu-ray set. It has three disks packed with special features. It looks amazing, with hardly any wear showing in the film. Oh yeah, it also came out the same year as Star Wars.
Oh hey, look over there! Its my Superman blu-ray! That came out only a year after Star Wars! Once again, the movie looks great.
So…what was your point about it being so expensive to do this George? Remember, you’re one of the richest men in the world, this is perhaps the most popular film franchise in the world, and several other movies from that time have gotten great HD transfers. Think carefully before you answer, o man of the plaid shirt.