George Lucas just keeps milking his cash cow (to death), and we just keep drinking his milk(shake). I love mixed metaphors.
Anyhow, Lucasfilm today announced that the entire Star Wars saga will arrive on high-definition Blu-ray on September 12th all over the world, except for North America, which will be getting it on September 16th. And there’s more than 40 hours of bonus features. Here’s the breakdown.
As Noemi pointed out a few hours ago, today is “May the Fourth,” aka Star Wars Day. Lucasfilm used this auspicious date to announce the full list of features for the Blu-ray releases of Star Wars, revealing pretty much everything but pricing, including the lovely, original box art.
The saga is being presented in full 1080p high-definition video, and 6.1 DTS Surround Sound audio. You can choose to buy the complete saga, or just collections of the classic trilogy or the prequel trilogy. The special features include tons of content newly dug-up from the Lucasfilm archives and never before seen by the public. They include:
- Cast & Crew commentaries for all 6 films, including brand new commentaries compiled from archival interviews with the cast and crew (nifty!)
- One Blu-ray disc is devoted entirely to archival material for the prequels, including the deleted and extended scenes from the DVDs, concept art, cast & crew interviews, a fly-through of the Lucasfilm Archives, and more. Another Blu-ray disc contains the same materials for the original trilogy.
- An additional disc 8 documentaries — some new, some old — which range from 26 minutes up to 91 minutes in length. There’s the original “Making of Star Wars” from 1977; “The Empire Strikes Back: SPFX,” from 1980, about the effects used in the first two films; “Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi,” from 1983, which chronicles the film’s production and techniques used to create creatures like Jabba the Hutt; 1977′s “Anatomy of a Dewback,” a look into the making of the Special Editions; 2007′s “Star Wars Tech,” which originally aired on the History Channel; “Star Warriors,” a 2007 docu about the saga’s costumed fans; “A Conversation with the Masters: The Empire Strikes Back 30 Years Later,” a 2010 retrospective starring George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan, and John Williams; and 2011′s”Star Wars Spoofs,” a collection of satire clips from TV shows and Internet videos.
Lucasfilm will be showing off some of these special features at Comic-Con International in San Diego this year.
The one shot they put of Leia on the cover has her in the bikini? LAME.
I like the simplicity of the Complete Saga artwork. I just hate that kid so much. Just terrible the way he so easily ruins things.
Do you know will IV V VI be the original versions, or the lame versions that are on DVD currently with added CGI poop smeared all over? (Gosh, I hate George Lucas!) I think we should kidnap him if he doesn’t give us original HD Star Wars. He’s such a tool.
Sorry man, it’s the Special Editions. You’d think that with all the space Blu-ray provides, they could squeeze both versions on there, but I guess not. On the other hand, since they’ve released the original editions on DVD now, I’m sure Blu-ray versions of those are only a matter of time.
The original version no longer exists, at least in the form of the original negatives. Lucas destroyed them when he made the special edition. The version of the original trilogy that made it to DVD was the laserdisc master that predated DVD technology and it would look awful in HD. Your only hope for an HD version of the original trilogy would be for Lucas to rent a fine grain positive print from a collector somewhere in the world, and he’s not going to do that.
The original versions exist, but are in pieces. They were completely restored for the SE but then pieces of the original negative were cut out and replaced with the SE scenes, but the original scenes cut out were not destroyed. It can still be re-conformed to its original configuration using the original pieces if Lucas ever decides to allow it. Apparently he says it would be really expensive, as if he wouldn’t make a killing in profits if he ever actually did it…
i think star wars is the best movie in the world by george lucas
Anybody know the Aspect Ratio Of These Flicks?