I agree with pretty much everything you've posted in this thread(especially how you compare this debate to unlicensed prop replicas), but I think it should be pointed out that Harmy doesn't recreate anything....that is more in line with what Adywan does with the Revisited films. What Harmy does is take the best possible sources of the OT and remove all the Special Edition nonsense that Uncle George added in. With regards to color, he restores it exactly to how the films looked in the theater rather than the botched job done by Lowry Digital on the DVDs in 2004.
My understanding is that Lowry itself didn't botch the job. LucasFilm did after they got the stuff from Lowry. Lowry has done some AMAZING restorations. If you look at the recent James Bond blu-rays, or the blu-ray of North by Northwest, that's all Lowry's work, and it is stunning. So, the issue isn't that Lowry is (well, was, I think they were bought out) fly-by-night crappy restoration company. They're a top-shelf company, but they're a top-shelf company that follows the customer's orders.
I'm always standing with my card ready saying, "Take my money, Lucasfilm! I am ready to buy a copy of your OOT Blur-Rays! Give them to me I have your money RIGHT HERE!!"
And then they just stand there, "Don't care. Go away"
It's not a lack of willingness to buy one, but that they just won't make it available for us to having the option to buy!
From a legal standpoint I get it. I just don't get why they sit on something that would be almost free money.
Welllll...if you want to really dig into the debate, check out this thread from a little while ago:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=213335
It's a long thread, but it pretty much covers the issues surrounding why it's not going to happen before 2020.
The short version is:
Fox owns the rights to ANH forever. Fox owns the rights to ESB and ROTJ until about 2020. Ergo, Disney has no reason to negotiate a deal NOW to do anything with the OOT, because they'll get ESB and ROTJ back for free in 2020. After that, it's a question of finding the right price to pay Fox.
BUT, all of that presupposes that there's enough of a market out there to make it worthwhile for Disney to do this. And that's...questionable. I have friends who are serious Star Wars fans...and they don't actually care much about the SEs vs. OOT issue. They've bought the blurays because they just wanna have the films to show their kids and they don't wanna pirate. If they could get the OOT, maybe they'd buy it, but maybe not because they've already bought the SEs and it might not be worth the double-dip (because it's highly unlikely they'd sell the OOT as a standalone package).
On the "pro" side of doing a remaster is the fact that there's no digital master that's higher resolution than 1080P right now. There's no 2K or 4K or higher master out there. So, if by 2020 you're seeing 4K displays as the new standard, LFL/Disney might want to remaster the films. The SE stuff is all in 1080P, so it'd have to be totally redone (as in, the digital f/x would have to be redone), whereas the OOT stuff could be scanned and cleaned up. It might actually result in the SE being done away with, since it'd cost more to scan the OOT and re-do the SE f/x than it would to just scan the OOT and call it a day.
On the "con" side of doing a remaster is the fact that the physical disc industry is going to be phased out in the next 20 years or so, if not sooner. Rights holders far prefer streaming content (which they retain control of) over selling physical discs to people. But, broadband streaming can't handle 2K, let alone 4K streams right now. The broadband infrastructure will have to dramatically change across the nation. All of that slows down 4K adoption as a standard, which means rightsholders are less likely in general to embrace it. Ergo, there may be no need to remaster the films...yet.
Personally, I think the remaster of the OOT will happen
in our lifetimes, but it'll probably be closer to, like, a decade, maybe 15 years or so before it happens. The 4K thing will eventually occur, which will likely spell the death of the SEs, but it won't occur until 4K (or higher) is the standard, and there are several other things that have to happen before that occurs.
All I want is a cleaned up, remastered versions of the OT where Han shoots first, and no added or altered footage beyond fixing things like uncolored lightsabers and removing of matte lines. I don't want to see what amounts to a VHS version of the OT but on modern media, that's what would appeal to a majority of people, I think, but it wouldn't exactly be free money. at the very least they'd need to remaster it in terms of creating a clean (no SE changes and additions) to burn from. This is assuming, of course, that there's a remastered/cleaned up master with no SE changes to it, something I'm convinced has to exist since I don't believe that they made all of the SE changes to an original master that wasn't cleaned up first and created all of the new FX either to match the unaltered master and changed it after re-mastering or that they did all of the lighting and coloring for the new FX first and then tried to change the master to match.
There are masters out there, I'm certain. The line about "the originals have been destroyed" is nonsense. At worst, there are probably some clean prints from which you could pull an almost-as-good transfer, I'm guessing. But...there has to be a reason to do so.
Without becoming too deeply entrenched in the debate, which I have little to offer (others already checked off most of the specifics), I do have one straight question;
What exactly are these options that we have to view the unmolested OT?
These "options" are about as weak as I had suspected, but at least I didn't miss out on a release worth purchasing back there somewhere. Thanks both for the very specific information!
Yeah, you didn't. The rough timeline, starting around 1993 or so, is as follows:
- Laserdisc versions.
- THX VHS edition (three heads on box). The "One last time" edition that predates the SEs.
- 2006 DVD "bonus disc" which is literally a ripped laserdisc. The theory is that this one was released to combat the sale of
literally the exact same thing on ebay.
aaaaaand that's it. There hasn't been an OOT release above 580x480. That is literally the highest res legal version out there, and it's letterboxed for 4:3 displays.
Yep. The only legit legal options suck.
Hence the widespread piracy, and the ongoing debates about it.
pirating the OOT -
Disney & Fox would release the OT in black & white, and never do another home video release in color again, if that's what the buying public demanded. They functionally do not give a crap about any of the loftier creative & moral issues here.
George Lucas originally did have the right to an opinion on principle. But he traded it for 4 billion dollars. He traded his creative rights away formally. Officially. He looked over a big contract that said "I voluntarily give up my rights to SW" and signed his name on it.
Yup. While there are certain "moral rights" that I think still attach overseas, at least in the U.S., Lucas has zero
legal right to control the way that Star Wars is released, filmed, edited, etc. He is 100% out of the game
from a legal standpoint. Any preservation of the SEs and such is purely due to LucasFilm/Disney
choosing to respect George's wishes. But, legally speaking, they can do with it whatever the hell they want. It's not George's anymore. At all.
We are the only ones making this about anything other than money now. We can debate the morality & principles but there is no longer anyone on the losing end with any feelings about that stuff either way.
We might as well be debating whether we have the right to embarrass our male dog by giving him a female human name. The dog, Does. Not. Care.
Therefore, IMO the only parts of this OOT piracy issue worth considering are the financial ones. At least when making a personal decision about it.
The courts should still always be considering the principles involved just because their actions will set legal precedents.
Pretty much, yeah. It's not longer legally about fidelity to the artist's work. The artist himself has said "Eh. I don't care anymore." I mean, he may still personally care and want his stuff shown a particular way, but nobody is obligated to do what he says.
