Re: Star Wars OT UNALTERED Bluray!!!
I think this is a kind of defeatist way of looking at it. The "vast majority of the public" consists of drooling subhumans who are happy to watch Will Ferrell drive racecars or whatever. And yet, we get five versions of Blade Runner. Too mainstream? Let's get more out there: we get Kurosawa's Throne of Blood with TWO translations. Hell, Kurosawa's Ikiru just got high def treatment. If Criterion can find a way to turn a buck making Ikiru, which is obscure even to people who are art school enough to know who Kurosawa is in passing, then there is no way in hell Disney can't turn a buck with the OOT. No. Chance. It can be done, and profitably. How many people do you think bought Ikiru? Seven? Eight? How many do you think will buy the OOT?
If you reread my most recent post, I do think Disney can turn a profit on the OOT, but it has to be done in a particular way (or rather, that's the only way I can see it working. There may be others, of course).
Criterion is, by design, a company for niche collectors. Their discs tend to sell for (if memory serves) anywhere from double to triple what a mainstream released disc costs. They're priced and designed and produced to appeal to collectors. I would venture that Criterion also is set up in terms of its production chain to function specifically so that they
can do smaller runs of discs.
Disney, on the other hand, might actually find it
cost prohibitive to do a smaller run of discs. Like, if the contract says that you have to buy your disc runs in the millions, rather than, say, under 10,000, then you're stuck with that. I don't know if Disney owns its entire production chain, or if it handles that through subsidiaries or independent contractors, but that's a factor to consider.
As for Blade Runner, I think you need to consider
what was released. The 5-version set contained:
- The American theatrical cut
- The international theatrical cut
- The "Director's Cut" that was released on DVD in the 90s
- The "Rough" cut or workprint cut (I forget)
- The Final Cut overseen by Scott himself (allegedly).
However, of those versions released, my understanding is that ONLY the "Final Cut" was remastered or rescanned and cleaned up. Everything else was basically treated like the "bonus discs" that came with the '06 release of the SEs. In other words, whatever condition they were last left in was the condition you got. There was no cleanup done for any of the others.
So, to compare Star Wars, it'd be like releasing a cleaned up version of the SEs...alongside lower-def versions of all the previous releases from the LD rips to the '97 SEs in glorious VHS-quality resolution, to the '04 DVD versions. In other words, it's easy to take your old, out of date versions and stick 'em on a disc. That requires no work. You already have them.
Let's also not forget that the 5-disc version of the film was sold at a premium. Initially, if memory serves, it was ONLY available in the VK case (which sits in my basement now...) and which sold for something like $70. Eventually that dropped in price to around $40, but that's still Criterion-level price points for a single film.
Lastly, unlike either Criterion discs or the Blade Runner films, the rights involved in the OOT are split. That creates an extra hurdle.
I think it'll happen. I just don't think it'll happen immediately or for the reasons fans tend to think. Or at least not
solely for those reasons.
