Rumor: Restored theatrical print of Star Wars for the 40th anniversary this year.

[Werewolf]

And in 4k. Sounds really promising and makes sense for the 40th anniversary.

http://4k.com/news/is-a-4k-theatrical-restoration-of-the-true-original-star-wars-coming-in-2017-18040/

[emeraldknight47]

As long as it's the original, original, original version (the one 12 year-old me went to see in theaters), that'll be cool, but likely also be a precursor to re-re-re-re-releasing all the films now mastered in "4K" (and yet another return to those teats by Disney; man, those things have got to be pretty chafed by now! ).

My only question is this: how do you remaster something up to 4K that was shot on film using cameras and lenses that were around forty years before anyone even knew what 4K was? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for seeing movies (original versions, please) back on the big screen in all their glory, and I'm not expert when it comes to film ratios and all the other technical jargon they use when describing what a film is originally shot it, but I AM a graphic designer and I run into situations on a daily basis where people want to take an old image (or an image with low resolution) and shine it up and make it purty and, while that might fly as fiction on screen, in the cold, hard world of reality, most of the time, it just can't be done, at least not with the original material as it exists; the visual information just simply isn't there. People call us all the time saying they've got a 72 dpi (or ppi, as I like to refer to it) image they want to make high res and blow up to poster size. It simply cannot be done because the pixels to support it aren't there to begin with. They like to take the images into Photoshop and "up" the resolution, but it's really not doing anything but increasing the file size. If you've got a low res, native image, not all the digital magic tricks in the world are going to make it "hires." The analogy we have to use most of the time to try to get folks to understand the limitations is the fact that you can take a colored image and convert it to black-and-white (or grayscale) without any issues at all, but to convert a grayscale image to color is the next thing to impossible without it looking very fake because the colored information is not there to work with in the first place.

I'm sure the digital magicians out in Silicon Valley or Hollywood definitely have SOME ways of improving a native images quality, sharpness and color gamut/depth, but likely not without doctoring that material to add in information. If you're very skilled at this, you can likely produce a pretty nice looking final product, but to bring it up to 4K resolution, of that I'm going to have my doubts.

[Werewolf]

was shot on film using cameras and lenses that were around forty years before anyone even knew what 4K was?

Star Wars was shot on 70mm film. Which is, from what I understand, roughly equivalent to 8K resolution and 35mm is 4k. That's why it is so important to restore and preserve the original masters. Native high definition video wouldn't be possible without them.

[emeraldknight47]

Kool. Thanks for that info; gives me restored hope. BTW, don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I do SO love your signature line! Takes me back to Halloween every single time I read it!

[Werewolf]

BTW, don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I do SO love your signature line! Takes me back to Halloween every single time I read it!

Oh, cool. Thank you.

[YoungOnce]

Kool. Thanks for that info; gives me restored hope. BTW, don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I do SO love your signature line! Takes me back to Halloween every single time I read it!

A "restored hope" or perhaps.... A new hope ?

[Hedji]

I too have heard whispers in the Senate regarding this. I think everyone out there hopes that it is one of the 1977 versions, prior to the 1997 changes.

[Werewolf]

I think everyone out there hopes that it is one of the 1977 versions, prior to the 1997 changes.

It would pretty much have to be at this point. The Special Editions have been reissued to death on DVD and Blu Ray. I can't imagine anyone getting excited for yet another Special Edition release. Even in 4k. In fact I think it would really tick people off just to have another Special Edition release for the 40th anniversary of Star Wars.

[phil]

I thought Fox still had some sort of ownership interest in the original film.

[Werewolf]

I thought Fox still had some sort of ownership interest in the original film.

Only distribution rights.

[phil]

[QUOTE=Werewolf;1314728]Only distribution

Maybe there will be a theatrical release of some sort since Fox still has a chance to make money off it. It would be nice to see the film in a theatre again.

[Hedji]

I think the iron is hot right now, with the runaway success of Rogue One, and its story leading right up to Star Wars. If I were Disney, I'd fast track it for a theatrical run in Feb or March, which was when the Special Editions made a ton of bank 20 years ago.

[pmwasson]

I watch a New Hope right after seeing Rogue One, and the new "special" features really took me out of it. So I agree with Hedji that this would be a good time to release the un-special version.

[palitoy]

I have some sort of fan edit of Star Wars on my hard drive, not sure when I got it but I watched it shortly before I saw Rogue one. It was refreshing.

[Klosterheim]

Theatrical Star Wars would be cool.


I noticed that the old laserdiscs are selling more now. People want the original.