Star Wars Original Trilogy Gets DVD Release Date

Angry Black Man writes "The Digital Bits is reporting that there is finally some official information from Lucasfilm regarding the release of the Star Wars OT (episodes IV, V, and VI) on DVD. The movies are coming to DVD in September of 2004. The animated series of Clone Wars shorts appearing soon on the Cartoon Network will also be released on DVD, possibly before the end of this year. The teaser campaign for Episode III will begin in January of 2005, leading up to the May theatrical release. Finally... Episode III will hit DVD in November of 2005."

Nifty.

[kikensei]

About time. Too bad they'll likely never release the original theatrical release cut on DVD.

Please please please let it be the original!!

[tstoneman]

I hope Lucas has come to his senses and will offer the original, non-CGI version of Star Wars!

Please, please please please . . .

[Momomoto]

Tell me that Han shoots first in the new DVD.

DVD

[Delphix]

Is this going to be the special edition versions or the original?

Having seen the original release in the theaters as a kid, I would love to have a copy of them on DVD, my VHS ones are starting to give up.

Heck, I wouldn't mind a six disc set with both. I think there's still a lot of people out there who like them in their original form.

ANTICIPATION

[andyring]

I'm willing to bet that this will be one of the most hotly desired DVD releases in the history of DVDs, and movie releases in general.

Time to start checking Amazon for pre-orders!

Re:Nifty.

[Liselle]

Have people forgotten how George Lucas works? How many VHS releases of the flipping original trilogy did we have? Keep an eye out for endless special editions and reworks until the day you die, conveniently spaced out and with enough extra materials to keep you coming back every time.

On another note, I'm glad to hear he finally buried the hatchet over that damned Laserdisc business.

Re:ANTICIPATION

[WankersRevenge]

yeah ... until the next big thing comes out, or a new viewing medium is invented.

Yeah, i know this is star wars and this is the first time it is gracing this new playback medium and everyone is throwing flowers. Dancing in the streets. But look, its just a dvd. I mean, better quality sure. But the still same-old same-old.

I'm just so burnt out on marketing speak these days. Anticipated DVDs. Box office smashers. Its all just talk to push product. And at the end of the day, it's all pointless.

Yes - I'm having server problems today.

That's easy.

[RatBastard]

He was waiting until he had enough of Episodes 1 - 3 done so he could rework the real originals to correct all of the errors in the historical continuity he brought in with Episodes 1 - 3.

Re:Nifty.

[Anonymous Coward]

...and so it goes. Hollywood releases a product that consumers don't want. Consumers go to video "pirates" to get what they want. Hollywood tries to shut down the "pirates" because they are supposedly selling cheap, poor-quality knock-offs.

Meanwhile, in the real world, consumers continue to be willing to spend more than the cost of the "official" DVD to get the "good" DVD.

Sad, really.

Uh, incidentally. Anyone know where I can buy a DVD copy of something that's out there on laserdisc? Nothing particular in mind.

Re:That's easy.

[ConceptJunkie]

In other words, he probably putting more work into modifying the original movies than he actually put into making the originals.

It's a shame he keeps trying to improve the original trilogy while completely screwing up on the new one.

This is rumor, and should be treated as such.

[Dunkelzahn]

The source of this is Aint-It-Cool-News, which has been a major source of false rumors since the prequels began to come out.

Aint-It-Cool-News is the source of such things as the Grando Calrissian rumors... entertaining, and surely a contribution to Star Wars fandom, but hardly a source of definitive reporting.

I would suggest that the editors do not place such things on the front page until they are confirmed from such places at the Official Site [starwars.com].

I am taking this story with a grain of salt.

A very good explanation as to why that won't work.

[Dimensio]

I could go on about how the special edition had so many little changes that it's impossible to squeeze both versions onto a disc with seamless branching, but honestly I don't think that there were that many extensive changes, and some of them might not be very noticable (like cleaning up some of the special effects -- it's not a drastic change, so why have two shots?), so that's not what I think the issue is.

Lucas is so arrogant and egotistical that he will never admit that there are Star Wars fans who prefer the movies as they were presented originally. As such, he sees no need to ever release the original trilogy in their original format, ever. There's no demand in his mind, because his ego won't let him see that a lot of the people don't like the changes.

Re:or Malaysia

[Chasing Amy]

There are many different pirated versions. The best one is available for free over USENET or P2P, and has very nice cover artwork as an optional download.

Piracy isn't nice--but for people who want the un-fucked-around-with versions of classics, it can be a necessity. The *original* SW trilogy will probably never make it to official DVD. Politically incorrect films and cartoons that we remember from our youth (*Song of the South*, some WW2 era cartoons including some classic Bugs Bunny, even some "too violent" now-edited Tom & Jerry and others) will likely never make it to DVD. Many TV shows are also never making it to DVD in their full and original versions due to music licensing issues and RIAA greed.

It seems like the content industry promotes piracy by not just offering to sell us what we want, at equitable market rates.

Re:HAN SHOT FIRST!!!

[NMerriam]

In the Star Wars, Han Solo kills Greedo in the Cantina while Greedo is holding a gun on him (Greedo is a bounty hunter trying to shake down Han for money he owes Jabba the Hut). Han shoots him under the table.

This is, of course, perfectly in character for a scoundrel and smuggler who has to get by in the criminal underworld -- if he didn't shoot Greedo, he'd have been killed (or worse).

During the "enhancements" that Lucas made to the movies a few years ago they added in a quick laser blast from Greedo so that he shoots first, because Han Solo is a "hero" who would never shoot someone except in self-defense.

Not only is it stupid for characterization reasons, it also looks stupid because Greedo has been holding a gun 6 inches away from Han's face for the past few minutes and then misses by about 3 feet when he pulls the trigger.

It was just a pointless change that represents in a fraction of a second of film everything stupid Lucas has done over the past 20 years to diminish the work that he was once so respected for.

George Lucas.....

[methangel]

Is a cock. Why the hell has he waited so long to release the original DVDs of the movies that made him a demi-God to the geeks?

I know that there was a laser-disc edition released a while-back. Was he waiting for the DVD standard to die??

George Lucas has really made me a sad geek with his last two Starwars episodes. I think for a lot of people when I say that they should never have been made.

Yes, George Lucas is a cock.

Re:Nifty.

[Mark_in_Brazil]

Stevie, not wanting to kill his own tech, never released his male-Lara Croft movies on DVD, and got his good pal Georgie to keep his space opera off as well.

Setting aside the lameness of trying to look cool by calling Spielberg "Stevie" and referring to the Indiana Jones movies as "male-Lara (sic) Croft movies," there's still a big hole in this theory: the Indiana Jones movies were a joint project between Lucas and Spielberg, and were more Lucas's than they were Spielberg's.
All three films were written by Lucas (and others, but not Spielberg) and directed by Spielberg, with Lucas as executive producer and as an uncredited editor. If you consider the original Star Wars trilogy to be Lucas's, it's not that hard to consider the Indiana Jones series his too, since 2/3 of the original Star Wars trilogy had non-Lucas directors. As with the Star Wars movies, Lucas was the main creative force behind the Indiana Jones movies. He just used a director for the Indiana Jones movies who is more famous than Kershner and Marquand and, much as it pains me to say it, is a better director than Lucas (but is still highly overrated).
Maybe you noticed that Lucasfilm's logo appears at the beginning of the movies, but Amblin Entertainments's does not (nor does that of Dreamworks SKG). That's because the Indiana Jones movies were Lucasfilm productions and Spielberg was only involved as the director. That's why George Lucas had the rights to make The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (released on VHS as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones) without Spielberg. It's also why Lucasfilm made a deal with Disney to develop the "Indiana Jones Adventure" attraction (and "Star Tours--" I believe it was a single deal for developing attractions based on both the Star Wars movies and the Indiana Jones movies) without Spielberg being involved.
Anyway, getting back to the point, it seems to me the decision about the release of the Indiana Jones movies would be at least as much Lucas's as Spielberg's, and probably a lot more. So that kinda blows away the theory that Spielberg was holding off the release of "his" Indiana Jones movies on DVD because of a large investment in a rival compact videodisc standard.

Did I just fall for a troll? I hope not.

--Mark