Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The original, unaltered Star Wars trilogy is rumored to be re-released this year to mark the 40th anniversary of A New Hope. While fans have speculated for years that George Lucas will finally release the first edits of the iconic 1977, 1980 and 1983 films to the public in a variety of formats, a concrete announcement appears imminent. Numerous industry sources have informed fan site Making Star Wars that the original edits are on their way. This is a big deal for diehard fans, many of whom argue the versions they saw in cinemas during the late 70s and early 80s are far superior to the versions later released to the public.
[...] The 40th anniversary of A New Hope occurs on May 22.
Source: http://thathashtagshow.com/2017/02/unaltered-original-star-wars-trilogy-released-year/
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Celestial on Sunday February 26 2017, @08:53AM
The title is a wee bit misleading. As the summary states, it is rumored that Disney will re-release the original edits of the original Star Wars trilogy on Blu-Ray. This has been rumored off and on for ten years now. I personally will believe it when I see it, and not a moment before.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by aristarchus on Sunday February 26 2017, @09:34AM
Whether it is, or is not, a rumour is of very little consequence, since they plan to release on blu-ray. I have nothing that can play a blu-ray, so I guess I will just have to wait until it comes out on BetaMax tape cassette.
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Sunday February 26 2017, @11:07AM
I'll wait until it will be posted on pinterest as a series of animated GIFs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @12:20PM
Long wait for new betamax but if you want to know what happens:
Darth Vader turns away from the dark side and kills the emperor to save his son
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Sunday February 26 2017, @07:21PM
I can see this new spoiler thing is going to be big. But are you kidding? Darth Vader has a son? Who is it?
Not enough of a plot to base an entire trilogy on.
(Score: 2) by Bogsnoticus on Monday February 27 2017, @06:05AM
He got it on with Chewy's mum, and spawned Wicket.
Genius by birth. Evil by choice.
(Score: 2) by MadTinfoilHatter on Sunday February 26 2017, @07:08PM
I guess I will just have to wait until someone puts a torrent on TPB the day after they're released.
FTFY.
So it's a good thing to finally get a good quality release, as Team Negative 1 [soylentnews.org] has only released Episode IV yet. Do use a VPN when torrenting, though. Disney has a reputation for aggressively going after file sharers.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday February 27 2017, @08:35AM
Should not be a problem, since even if renewed after 14 years, the copyright should have expired by now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @06:00PM
As long as the copies necessary to make this happen exist, I'm sure that Disney will do it. They don't have the emotional attachment that George does to the version of the film he envisioned. I'm sure the only considerations they'll make are whether it's possible to do this and whether there's a market for it.
So, they haven't announced it, but I would be surprised if it doesn't happen eventually. Disney is just too interested in profits to ignore this excuse to sell another copy of the trilogy.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @06:46PM
This current 'rumor' probably is just fishing by them to see if anyone wants it.
Will they use one of the existing restoration projects? Or re-do the whole thing? Or just do a sloppy master copy or upscale laserdisc dump?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmy's_Despecialized_Edition [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @09:19PM
there's no profit in disney. nothing is created and nothing is destroyed.
if you wipe disney from the earth today there's no gain and no lose. so how can there be a profit (or lose)?
maybe you are misrepresenting "profit" for " wealth re-distribution" as in "money from many hands into less hands" with an overall gain of ... nothing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @03:19AM
Hi Aristarchus, ignorant as always, I see.
They paid something for the franchise and the money they make on top of their expenses is profit.