Lucas has already stated that the deleted scenes are not incorporated into the films themselves. They are on 2 separate discs, according to the specs we have so far:

DISC SEVEN – NEW! STAR WARS ARCHIVES: EPISODES I-III
• Including: deleted, extended and alternate scenes; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; matte paintings and concept art; supplementary interviews with cast and crew; a flythrough of the Lucasfilm Archives and more

DISC EIGHT – NEW! STAR WARS ARCHIVES: EPISODES IV-VI
• Including: deleted, extended and alternate scenes; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; matte paintings and concept art; supplementary interviews with cast and crew; and more

So help me out here, Is the blu-ray versions NOT newly remastered in HD? I´ve read somewhere that a lot of complaining about this since there is no info on that on the press release for the Blu-ray box set.

It sounds very strange that Lucasfilm don´t want to give us the best possible HI-DEF transfers of each film.

The press release says "in gorgeous high definition."

Lucas could de-age the actors and re-create all of the films in people's homes, and they would still bitch.

For me, I'm just gonna youtube the deleted scenes after the discs drop. I've already owned so many versions of these movies I'm just really not ready to slam down big bucks for them in yet another format. And I consider myself to be a huge SW head. As for the rest of the extra features, I'm honestly not excited after seeing how much the prequel DVD's lacked in that department.

The ROTS probably has some of the worst bonus features and behind the scenes content of any big budget film I've seen in recent time. I mean, it was the final SW movie which ties all of these motifs and loose ends together, not to mention whispers of Speilberg involvement amongst other things, and the extra disc basically contained nothing interesting and no peek real into the film's creation at all.

Way I see, by buying that dvd I'm already entitled and payed the gipper for some decent behind the scene content, so I have no qualms about downloading a pirated version if any of the new features from the BR are worth watching.

Yeah, gotta say, apart from the deleted scenes, there's pretty much nothing in the bonus features which is particularly attractive - it was a pretty stunning revalation of crap actually when the specifications were released - old documentaries I've had since VHS, and some reach around for those freaks who dress up as stormtroopers for shopping mall openings? Really?

High-def presentation for the first time and it's all 30 year old archived shit? Couple this with all signs (so far) pointing to the same shitty transfer we saw on the DVD set, and I'm starting to think "why bother, I should cancel my pre-order".

More previews: http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com & http://www.bryanreesman.com

Thanks for the links, Alex. Looks like a nice set. I'm sure there is more to the extras than the press release states. 40+ hours is a lot of stuff to get through, and what they listed on May 4th does not add up to 40+ hours.

Wow.. that actually looks fantastic!

"Two clips were played (one from a classic film, one from a prequel) to demonstrate the quality of the brand-new 1080p/DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 remasters, on a Panasonic plasma and over a Panasonic HTiB system. It was really just enough to whet our appetites (as if we weren't drooling enough already), but I am now very optimistic:
the clips that we saw of films both of the original trilogy flavor and the newer prequels were stunning."

"more than 100 HD mini-documentaries (two to five minutes each) are accessible along the way, boasting fascinating new creator interviews combined with behind-the-scenes footage"

I'd like to read a preview from someone who actually is aware of how problematic the DVD transfers were and can at least tell if it's the same version in HD or a total visual remaster.

Agreed. And I find it interesting that no major DVD review sites attended this brief "Star Wars Media Day," other than these two bloggers, who I'm sure aren't lying about what they saw, but didn't really get to see enough to tell if it's a HD remaster or not.
I'm assuming it is, but I could be wrong. I mean why remaster the audio and not the picture?

Indeed. Saying "and we know that George Lucas will be quite adamant about QC" shows how much they know about the problems of the 2004 transfers.

More info about the set is supposed to be unveiled at Comic Con in a couple of weeks. I'm buying it no matter what, so I'll let you know if it sucks.





Looking at this link again, it looks like they have posted more info and ratings. It appears to show that each of the films has a new 30 - 35 min. documentary. Or if they aren't new, then perhaps they're the old mini-webdocs?

I get the nitpickery some people have, to a point, but that is some funny shit right there.

Some people just can´t stop bitching:

Amazon comments

How anyone can comment on a product that hasn´t even been released is beyond me actually.

I wouldn't bother reading through that garbage. It's as you say - how can anyone pass judgement on an item that isn't released yet?
That first guy who thinks he's got all the answers, will probably end up buying 15 copies of the set.

Holy fucking God... I just made the mistake of reading some of those comments. Wow. Just fucking wow.

This is the reason why I don't read Amazon reviews with something like this. 99% of the time it's nothing but a major bitch fest. So I quit reading reviews from Amazon.

Am I the only one who did the right thing and e-mailed Amazon reporting the innacurancy of this feature, and asking it to be removed until the boxset is released?

I'd say yes, you are the only one. I will be the 2nd to do this very shortly...

Their response:



Maybe I'll send the same message to Amazon.co.uk if they eventually take care of it on Amazon.com.

Wow... "select Amazon.com customers?" That's a bunch of crap. There is clearly a place on products that have not yet been released for anyone, "select" or not, to write reviews. So the moron who lied and wrote that he saw the BluRay already and claimed it was "the same muddy 2004 release" is a "select customer?"

And one would think that it's in their interest to not have negative feedback on a yet to be released item...

So many of those comments characterize this set as a pure money-grab by Lucas, he's ripping us off, blah blah...

Wonder if they said the same thing about the initial blu-ray release of the LOTR trilogy.

Assholes like those commenters can't handle their own hypocricy being thrown back in their faces.

I think it would be funny if they tracked which of those folks ended up buying it anyways. The amazon situation seems pretty insane, that they allow "pre-reviews" of as of yet unreleased products. Something about an applecart and a horse comes to mind. Advertising failure, to be sure.

As I am still too broke to rise above the level of "cheapskate", I still haven't bought a blu-ray player. Correct me if I'm wrong, don't blu-ray discs, regardless of transfer/edition/version of a film, have a crisper and clearer picture, and typically other features not found on standard DVD's? That's what I thought I had been missing this whole time being a techno-peasant. I had been looking forward to at least that much when I decide to finally upgrade. Wouldn't that alone make this worthy of a purchase? Because it would for me, but I'm kind of easy once I'm interested. Someone set me straight.

I'll still be getting this set regardless. It'll be a birthday present myself since I'll receive it the day of its release on September 16th and my birthday is on September 5th.

I have always think it's been bullshit that Amazon has allowed certain people to post reviews for an item that has not been released yet. The review feature should be disabled until the said item has started shipping.

I've always been sick of seeing these type of reviews for products before having it released.



It depends on how well the transfer was done. Take "Predator" for example. The transfer to Blu-Ray really wasn't all that great and the sound suffered a bit. If you do a google search for Predator Blu-Ray review you'll find quite a few reviews out there. Even a movie like "Robocop" doesn't look that great on Blu-Ray, at least I don't think it does. However there are movies from the 90's on that look better in their HD/Blu-Ray format compared to their regular DVD version.

I've seen the HD version of Star Trek II and that looks bad ass. They did a great job at the HD restoration job. Terminator 2: Judgement Day also looks bad ass on Blu-Ray.

Hopefully with ILM having been reworking the transfer for all six Star Wars films and for how long they've been working on them, they will look better than their DVD releases. We'll know for sure when people start getting their copies in September.

Do we know for sure that is ILM who is working on the transfer?

I don't think we've heard that officially.

Also, here's something more about Comic Con from www.starwars.com

"Join the Band of Rebels and Get a First Look at the Star Wars Saga on Blu-ray -- For the first time, witness some of the exciting features from the more than 40 hours of bonus material on the upcoming Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray and experience one of the Saga's most iconic moments from a unique, in-universe vantage point. This and additional surprises along the way can be found at booth #3528."




www.pocket-lint.com

Ugh. Why does nobody speaks about colour correction?

Probably because they've only been shown a few seconds here and there. Maybe not enough to tell yet? But they sure sound impressed with the PQ they've seen so far.

I was sure as hell impressed upon my first viewing of the HDTV rips that are out there. Technical flaws aside, there's still enough detail in these pictures to send some jaws gaping.

It's all there in the very first shot of the movie. If only one of these press screenings would yield a comment on that shot we'd have something. As it is, with the demo clearly using the opening shot of the movie, I'm very nervous that the only comment is about how bright and shiny Threepio is

Very first major sign of trouble on the OT DVDs is in the first shot as the SD flies over.

That's the first time the destruction Lowry's algorithm caused is visible, as is the bizarre colour timing -first star field is dull and lifeless; dark half of the moon is crushed; Tatooine is blue shifted and dull; the green lasers are grey streaks with no glow around them; the T4s engine glow is gone; the red lasers are a dull burgundy colour; and the markings on the T4 are insanely pumped candy-apple red due to the nutty saturation and contrast boost.

Again, W.T.F.? Why are no actual HD or home video pros or reliable websites being invited to these sneak peaks?

LOTR did. They added at least an hour to each film for a director's cut in DVD release. And it's BluRay box set is epic, just as their DVD releases were.

CoGro is right on - at this point, Lucas half-asses everything Star Wars related b/c he knows we're junkies and will pay for it anyway. The Clone Wars cartoons have been executed well (from what I've seen) probably b/c he keeps enough distance from them and the creative team are younger, hungrier people than he.

The reality is that, as CoGro points out, there is a boatload of things that they didn't have time to do right for the theatrical releases and have had plenty of time to correct.

That was the entire point of the Special Edition films. They could've done likewise for the prequels. Most notably, finally properly scoring the final act of Attack of the Clones, which, to this point, was scored like a video game by having some douchebag (Matt Wood or whoever) go and grab pieces of existing music and stitch them together like an amateur.

Some re-use of score is acceptable and expected, but what happened in Attack of the Clones was not professional, and not acceptable. Lucas should probably be embarrassed.

To please fans? Neither LotR nor Star Wars were to please fans, but the director.

You're wrong. The extended editions were absolutely niche marketed to the LOTR fans who cared enough about the longer story to shell out $90 for the set. Not that I have a problem with that, but it is a business decision to release an extended cut.

Didn't part of Lucas' motivation for the SE release in 1997 have to do with him helping to get himself out from under the financial strain caused by his divorce? I am no attorney, and I may not be putting this properly, but here's how I understood part of that deal.

Marcia Lucas, in her role as editor, was considered not only a major contributor to the original ANH, but was entitled to a huge percentage of the profits from the films as part of California's fucked-up divorce laws (by that, I mean even though her infidelity ended the marriage, she got half, and then some). By making enough changes to ANH as part of its 1997 re-release, I think Lucas was able to re-copyright the movie as an original work, with a "divorce-proof" means of making profits from this "new" movie. Lucas is nothing if not a sharp businessman, and a move like this makes perfect business sense.

Again, I may be recalling this all wrong, but it kind of makes sense. I don't doubt that Lucas used the SEs as a test-bed for effects he needed to tell the PT, but I believe other motives were also at work. Could further releases of the O-OT also put more cash in Marcia Lucas' pocket? That could be another motive as to why GL wants minimal exposure to those versions of the films.

That sounds like total bullshit to me. Film editors do not get residuals for their work. She being the director's wife, would have gotten whatever percentage she was personally entitled to. Then they split, and whatever transpired between them is nobody's business. The SE's still list her as an editor. Making some editing changes, FX changes, additions, etc. doesn't change that. Who knows if she, or any of the original crew got anything from the SE release?

It may very well be bullshit. I just remember hearing that conspiracy theory, and in a twisted kind of way, it made sense.

Either way, the ANH: SE re-release alone paid for the making of TPM. TPM's profits then paid for the making of both AOTC and ROTS.

I'm sure this blu-ray release will also help deflect costs for future 3D releases.

I don't know if it's total bullshit. I heard that rumor years ago too, forget where exactly, but in some ways it makes sense. Courts, judges, and attorneys come up with some crazy agreements for people. My own personal 'conspiracy theory' is more interested in how Lucas' divorce impacted his writing.

In LOTR's case that's just part of the marketing - the 3 films were released year after year each Christmas so having a number of different DVD releases between the main events helped keeping the interest high. The extra effort BluRay box set makes sense too - you need to refresh people's memory before The Hobbit. Actually Lucas does pretty much the same with the regular re-releases.

However, what I meant in the quoted fragment were specifically the more subtle issues that only fans would care about being improved. Editing (especially audio editing) is not an aspect many cinema goers analyze beyond if a scene (or dialog line) is left in or got cut out.

Anyway, we'll see. Some improvements in color saturation and even some new 'typical Lucas' unexpected modifications (The Dooku/Yoda duel!) seem to have been confirmed by now.

Someone over at was able to get Lucasfilm to confirm lightsaber fixes and other changes:

Great news! To be honest already the information that someone from Lucasfilm had a critical look at the previous transfer is very satisfying to me, regardless of the end results.

Fantastic news! Thanks for posting that info.
Perhaps that will give those fuckers on Amazons review page something positive to masticate on.

Also, I just noticed there's been a price reduction on all three sets!

Yeah, they went in and made all the good saber shots match the bad ones now...

(Badum-ching)

Kenkraly is a mental patient.

Do not believe his lies.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Lucasfilm isn’t being forthcoming about alterations. After all, they didn’t promote the 2004 changes.

Didn’t the prior DVD’s leak around this timeframe?

The 2004 DVDs leaked the last week of July with Return Of The Jedi being first - sourced from European PAL Discs. In terms of leaks I don't see BDRips leaking until two or three weeks before the release date which I guess means any day now.

Lucasfilm has been forthcoming in terms of trailers, screenshots, information, and video. The only thing unclear is scene and sound additions, deletions, and alterations. If there were major additions there would have been major leaks by now.

In 2004 there was much more excitement over them because the only versions out there were VHS and Laser Discs transcoded to DVD. Lucas wanted to wait till Revenge Of The Sith was out before releasing the Original Trilogy on DVD but was "forced over piracy" for a early release.

Piracy also factored into the 2006 DVDs with the ORIGINAL UNALTERED TRILOGY featured as "Bonus Discs". Despite being non-anamorphic the OUT Bonus Discs were vastly superior to any and all of the "anamorphic" Laser Disc transcodes - since the OUT Discs were sourced from original elements. The interesting thing about the 2006 DVDs was that it's main selling point was that the movies were available now as "Singles" for the first time.

When it comes to lack of inside information, one of our insiders died of brain cancer, another one is not only out of the "business" but also has brain cancer, the other - Darth First actually still comes to MF once a month.

Darth First came over here from because none of them over there believed First acquired the 2004 set early because.... First was the first to reveal the subpar visual and audio work done which caused to say First had "works in progress".

Hopefully the info regarding the lightsaber fixes in the Original Trilogy is true. Either way we're 1 months and 12 days from owning the set. I've got it on pre-order from Amazon. Not sure if it'll come before September 16th or after. Even though I do have 2-Day shipping selected but will have to wait and see. Either way I'm really looking forward to this set.

Who knows what the story is regarding the OUT and if Lucas' ex-wife is the reason why he won't give them a pure digital restoration and release them on Blu-Ray is true. Perhaps it is, I wouldn't put it past it if it is.

the uk dvd review magazine has an interview with matthew wood and to paraphrase it he now says that due to new sound additions he and the other sound editor have been working on the new mixes since 2004 trying to make them sound like they did originally and they are now along with 3p0 the only people to be heard in all 6 movies due to new additions (we know the kraayt dragon is new but thats all so far)