The Special Editions Turn Twenty

[Jedman67]

It's a rumour that got started recently when Edwards mentioned he saw a 4K print of ANH at LF. However, contrary to what the clickbaiters have been saying, it's not something new Disney have on the go, it was actually just Lucas's master print from several years back.

yikes, this is from two years ago. anyway, this article is the source of the rumor based on the demo reel on the bottom.
Hopefully whenever it is done, they stay faithful to the original.

from Gareth Edward's interview:

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.

This is from 2012, when Edwards started production on Rogue One, but I find it unlikely that George Lucas would own or want to make a 4K restoration when he has a copy of the original technicolor print in his vault (it's what they used to color correct the first Special Editions since the O-Negs had significant color degradation).
While his interview suggests that it's a restoration of the original theatrical editions that's just speculation.

 

[Reverend]

yikes, this is from two years ago. anyway, this article is the source of the rumor based on the demo reel on the bottom.
Hopefully whenever it is done, they stay faithful to the original.

Don't hold your breath. Those prints would have been the same cut that appeared on the Bluray.
In order to do a 4K print of the original cut, they'd have to go back the the original negatives *again*, clean them up *again* since no doubt they'd have deteriorated again since '97, reassemble the edit from scratch, re-composite all of the model footage elements and redo all of the optical effects.

Those last two are a problem since it's unclear if the quality of film stock they shot the models with is suitable for 4K resolution or if the negatives are even in a fit state. Celluloid naturally breaks down over time even under the most favourable of conditions and back in '77 nobody thought there'd be any reason to take any special measures to preserve the raw footage.

And that's just for ANH which had relatively simple shots (by modern standards.) There's a good reason why Lucas never really messed with the Endor space battle footage to clean up all of those matte lines. There are so many overlapping elements in those shots, trying to recreate it for a 4K conversion would be like untangling a box full of Xmas lights, replacing all bulbs with the exact same colours in the exact same sockets and then *re-tangling* the leads in exactly the same configuration as before, down to every knot and twist.

The best you can hope for is a half-way decent "warts & all" upscale from an old cinema reel print.

 

[Jedman67]

@Reverend there are a number of different potential sources. Lucas himself has a technicolor print of all three originals, which were used to properly color time the 1997 SE releases. The O-Neg itself is currently conformed to the SE release and is hopefully stored better than when it was first tossed into the vault in 1981. A 4K scan of the SE O-Neg (or a likely backup master printed on 90's film stock that keeps better) would provide the primary footage for the Original Edition (OE). This is also assuming that when they restored the O-Neg for SE that an archival copy was not printed before cutting the O-Neg to the SE version. I don't know if such exists, but it's possible.
With the resources of Disney available to Lucasfilm, I think it would be relatively simple to reconstruct the original versions digitally even if the only available film is the SE Master.

 

[LJones41]

Aside from one scene in "The Empire Strikes Back" involving Luke, I never had a problem with the Special Editions. In fact, I prefer to watch them instead of the original versions.


Happy anniversary, Special Editions.

 

[Tosk]

I think it'd be a stretch to imagine that music being played in the forest anyway. The Ewoks were probably drunk on bark beer or whatever and just dancing to the music in their fuzzy little heads.

This seems about right...

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[Tallguy]

The silent Vader pyre scene there actually gave me chills.

I liked the one they did for the Throne Room from Star Wars. But this is dumb. (Sorry.) I mean, Yub Nub is meant to be source music. (Although the soundtrack version sounds more like Ewoks than the film verstion.) Chewie seems unusually quiet. At the very least there should be the Ewok and Rebel equivalent of "watermelon watermelon watermelon".

Boy, I hated the "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" montage at the end of Jedi SE. Yub Nub or no Yub Nub.

 

[Tosk]

It's not meant to be taken seriously.

Yub Nub is meant to be source music.

And yet we never see any wind instruments.

 

[The Wormhole]

Seeing that clip reminded me, it sure is amusing that Wedge attended the party in flight suit, carrying his helmet. I mean, yeah, I get it, the flight suit is the only costume on hand that they knew would fit Dennis Lawson, but did he need to be carrying the helmet around? Is there some reason Wedge couldn't have just left the helmet in his X-Wing and gone to the party?

 

[Set Harth]

He was probably drinking out of it.

 

[Ithekro]

Maybe he was on call in case some Imperials arrived in system, but was worried the local might try to jack his helmet like they did with all the Imperial helmets, so he kept it with him, instead of risking it being stolen from his fighter.

 

[Tallguy]

He's surrounded by Ewoks. Those little buggers are fiends for helmets.

 

[Lowdarzz]

This seems about right...

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I don't know why but I find this completely hilarious. I shouldn't have watched it at work.

As for the special editions, they were the ones I saw in theaters. I don't have a problem with the original special editions, though Han did shoot first, but I do prefer the original releases. I used to have them on VHS but my mother threw them away when she bough the special editions. I haven't seen the originals since as the only copies I have are the 2004 DVDs.

 

[JD]

The silent Vader pyre scene there actually gave me chills.

I liked the one they did for the Throne Room from Star Wars. But this is dumb. (Sorry.) I mean, Yub Nub is meant to be source music. (Although the soundtrack version sounds more like Ewoks than the film verstion.) Chewie seems unusually quiet. At the very least there should be the Ewok and Rebel equivalent of "watermelon watermelon watermelon".

Boy, I hated the "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" montage at the end of Jedi SE. Yub Nub or no Yub Nub.

Yeah, this just bugged me. Even if they weren't hearing exactly what we heard in the movie, it's pretty clear there were listening to some kind of music that was more than just the few bits of drums and helmets we saw here.

It's not meant to be taken seriously.

I understand that, but it bugged me to much for me to even find it funny.

 

[marillion]

My brain is hurting trying to think about how many "special editions" there have been...

Wasn't there a remastered set released before the SE with all the CGI that basically cleaned up the film, removed the boxes and strings and such? Then the SE came out with the CGI additions, new Death Star explosion and Greedo's first shot?

I know I still have the VHS tapes somewhere.. I really need to get rid of those...

 

[Venardhi]

The unaltered remaster was used for the laserdisc release but had no changes. The special edition itself actually does very little to fix any of those artifacts of the early effects tools.

 

[Tallguy]

Greedo shoots, but Ben's lightsaber still is missing its rotoscope!