4K UHD Star Wars print has been created

[Marc]

With the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars coming this year, a 4K UHD print of the original release has been created and according o Garth Edwards (director of Rogue One) it's quite spectacular.

It's described as restoration print so it could be that while ILM did the work, Lucas wasn't involved so it could be the original cinematic release.

The multi-million dollar question - is what sort of release it will have.

On day one, we were in Lucasfilm in San Francisco with Industrial Light and Magic and John Knoll, our supervisor, he said that they’ve got a brand new 4K restoration print of A New Hope – it had literally just been finished. He suggested we sit and watch it. Obviously, I was up for that. Me, the writer, lots of the story people and John all sat down, we all had our little notepads, we were all ready for this. I’ll add that I’ve seen A New Hope hundreds of times. So I was sat there, ready to take notes and really delve under the surface of the film. You have the Fox fanfare, then scrolling text with ‘A long time ago…’, and then the main music begins. Next thing we knew it had ended, and we looked around to one another and just thought – shit, we didn’t take any notes. You can’t watch it without getting carried away. It’s really hard to get into an analytical filmmaker headspace with this film. It just turns you into a child.

http://lwlies.com/interviews/gareth-edwards-rogue-one-a-star-wars-story/

 

[Peach Wookiee]

AWESOME!!! I'm willing to double-dip if they've made a Blu-Ray release.

 

[TRON JA307020]

With the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars coming this year, a 4K UHD print of the original release has been created and according o Garth Edwards (director of Rogue One) it's quite spectacular.

It's described as restoration print so it could be that while ILM did the work, Lucas wasn't involved so it could be the original cinematic release.

The multi-million dollar question - is what sort of release it will have.


http://lwlies.com/interviews/gareth-edwards-rogue-one-a-star-wars-story/

A 4K release of the original print without the dumb CGI changes would be excellent. I am cautiously excited that they did this. I'm not holding my breath on this one though.

 

[JoeZhang]

AWESOME!!! I'm willing to double-dip if they've made a Blu-Ray release.

Most 4K UHD releases seem to also come with a Bluray copy included.

 

[Relayer1]

I'm excited by a top quality upgrade of the original versions, but will probably miss a few of the 'improvements' from Georges tinkering.

Whilst there can be no doubt that a lot of the changes were either unnecessary or actually made the films worse, a few were good.

 

[kirk55555]

Yeah, for all the bad reputation they get, I honestly prefer some of the changes. Honestly, I find the first special edition versions of the OT to be, on the whole, superior to the "original" versions of the movie, to the point that I'll still watch the even more edited special editions over the vanilla movies. That said, for the people who want the original movies, I hope they get them eventually. With Lucas gone there is no reason not to put out the old versions, assuming that they are able to do it. It would make them money and get them some more goodwill from a lot of fans. Seems like a win-win scenario for them.

 

[Relayer1]

Maybe they could do 'branching' versions - you can pick which versions of redone scenes to play.

 

[dahj]

Maybe they could do 'branching' versions - you can pick which versions of redone scenes to play.

They should totally have pop up Jar Jar when you have to choose:
"Pressa one to see the original scene,
pressa twos to see the special edishun,
pressa threes to see mesa dance gungan style... weeeee!"

 

[Tom Hendricks]

Most 4K UHD releases seem to also come with a Bluray copy included.

Yes, I started buying 4K UHD disk even though I don't own a 4K tv or player. I figured I'm still buying physical media, I may as well future proof a little bit.

 

[Kahless the Unforgettable]

They should totally have pop up Jar Jar when you have to choose:
"Pressa one to see the original scene,
pressa twos to see the special edishun,
pressa threes to see mesa dance gungan style... weeeee!"

<face punch>

Sorry, instinctive reaction.

 

[Gepard]

Seems unlikely that they would go to the trouble of redoing all the special edition changes in 4K given that a) none of the new effects (so far as we know) were done in 4K to begin with, and b) Disney knows damn well the world is frothing at the mouth for the original, unaltered trilogy to see a proper restoration. I'd wager large sums of cash that this is an original theatrical version restoration.

Whether or not this restoration will ever see the light if day id another question entirely.

 

[Relayer1]

Seems unlikely that they would go to the trouble of redoing all the special edition changes in 4K given that a) none of the new effects (so far as we know) were done in 4K to begin with, and b) Disney knows damn well the world is frothing at the mouth for the original, unaltered trilogy to see a proper restoration. I'd wager large sums of cash that this is an original theatrical version restoration.

Whether or not this restoration will ever see the light if day id another question entirely.

It seems likely that the earlier work was done in higher resolution than what was required for Bluray, even if it wasn't 4K.

They should totally have pop up Jar Jar when you have to choose:
"Pressa one to see the original scene,
pressa twos to see the special edishun,
pressa threes to see mesa dance gungan style... weeeee!"

You are a very disturbed individual.

 

[Kor]

Well, the 1997 effects were in a high enough resolution for theatrical release. Maybe the same as the prequel trilogy?

Kor

 

[Gepard]

The information I can find online says the negatives were scanned at 2K for the Special Edition, which implies that the VFX were as well.

I also know that the prequels were done in 2K, except AOTC which was only 1080p due to limitations of digital cameras at the time.

That being said, even if the special edition was done in 4K, that would mean Disney already has a 4K worthy print of the movie, making any new restoration pointless unless it was of the original theatrical print.

 

[Timby]

With Lucas gone there is no reason not to put out the old versions

There's actually a fairly big reason, called "Fox owns the distribution rights to A New Hope until the end of time, and to the other five original movies until 2020." There's nothing stopping Disney and Fox from working out a licensing agreement -- heck, Disney traded Al Michaels to NBC Universal in exchange for all of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons that Walt produced -- but the unchanged Star Wars movie are one of the HD holy grails, so I imagine it would take a pretty big incentive for Fox to give Disney that license to print cash.

That being said, even if the special edition was done in 4K, that would mean Disney already has a 4K worthy print of the movie, making any new restoration pointless unless it was of the original theatrical print.

You can't restore the film in 4K without going back to the original elements, as all of the 1997 stuff was rendered at 2K or less. Given that they've reworked parts piecemeal in the past (the Kenobi / Vader fight was totally rotoscoped from scratch for the 2004 master, meaning they had to use the camera negative), it seems likely they would have a source -- possibly even Lucas' own Technicolor dye print, since the prints of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi that were deposited with the Library of Congress are unusable due to degradation and color fading.

 

[Marc]

but the unchanged Star Wars movie are one of the HD holy grails, so I imagine it would take a pretty big incentive for Fox to give Disney that license to print cash.

I'm sure fox would be happy to do a profit sharing deal. some-one else has carried the costs for the processing work, if Disney handle's the production and distribution, it's pretty much all profit for Fox and no risk (well it's Star Wars - what risk?).

The other option is Fox plays hardball, Disney says fuck you and sits on the new print for 3 years and then makes a shitload.

TLDR it's in Fox's best interests to do a agreement now because this will be their last chance to make a real chunk of change on the first Star Wars movie.

 

[Ithekro]

Best guess it had something to do with the Marvel deal.

 

[Timby]

The other option is Fox plays hardball, Disney says fuck you and sits on the new print for 3 years and then makes a shitload.

Three years? Again, Fox owns the distribution rights to the first movie in perpetuity; there's no 2020 expiration date on that one. The company has no reason to do anything but sit and wait until Disney meets its asking price.

Best guess it had something to do with the Marvel deal.

The Negasonic Teenage Warhead / Ego thing? Highly doubt any of that would have played into Star Wars. It's also worth noting that Fox and Disney have an extremely chilly relationship due to the X-Men movies.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

<face punch>

Sorry, instinctive reaction.

How wuuuuude!

 

[Venardhi]

There's actually a fairly big reason, called "Fox owns the distribution rights to A New Hope until the end of time, and to the other five original movies until 2020."

Fox is already taking that cut on the current releases though, so what is the downside for Disney?