Breaking News: George Lucas Still a Jerk

Over the weekend, George Lucas announced at the Star Wars Celebration V convention in Orlando that the entire series of ‘Star Wars’ films will be released on Blu-ray late next year. Fans from across the galaxy erupted in joyous frenzy… until the realization set in that he’s still only releasing the craptastic “Special Edition” versions of the original trilogy with Greedo shooting at Han Solo first and the stupid CGI Jabba making googly eyes at the camera. To make up for this, supplements on the ‘Return of the Jedi’ disc will include a never-before-seen deleted scene… that looks totally fake. This guy really just hates his fans, doesn’t he?

Here’s some crummy cellphone video footage from the convention of Lucas making the announcement and Mark Hamill pretending that he actually shot the deleted scene. (Warning: the audio in this clip is terrible. You’ll want to ride the volume control or the screaming fans will blow your eardrums out.)

And here’s a better look at that so-called deleted scene, which allegedly is supposed to take place near the beginning of ‘Return of the Jedi’ and shows Luke building his green lightsaber.

Notice how all of the footage of Vader appears to be recycled from ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, the audio was all sampled from dialogue spoken elsewhere in the trilogy, and Luke Skywalker’s mostly-obscured face looks nothing like Mark Hamill.

[Lucasfilm keeps yanking these video clips off YouTube. Sorry.]

Also, in an interview at last year’s Comic-Con, Hamill explicitly said that he never shot such a scene.

Whoops.

Prior to the official announcement, Lucas gave an interview to the ‘New York Times’ pre-announcing the Blu-ray announcement, in which he confirmed the following:

Mr. Lucas said the versions of the first three “Star Wars” films – “Star Wars,” “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” – included in the Blu-ray boxed set will be the special-edition releases that were shown theatrically in 1997 and digitally restored for a 2004 standard-definition DVD boxed set.

Perhaps bracing for the reactions of fans who decried some of the changes made to the special-edition films – like, say, an exchange of gunfire between Han Solo and a certain green-skinned bounty hunter – Mr. Lucas said that to release the original versions of these films on Blu-ray was “kind of an oxymoron because the quality of the original is not very good.”

“You have to go through and do a whole restoration on it, and you have to do that digitally,” he added. “It’s a very, very expensive process to do it. So when we did the transfer to digital, we only transferred really the upgraded version.”

So now his excuse for not restoring the original versions of the trilogy is that doing so would be too expensive. This from the guy who keeps $1 billion in walking-around cash in his wallet at any given moment.

I call bullshit on this. The diamond-encrusted toilet in Lucas’ solid gold bathroom cost more than it would take to properly restore the original ‘Star Wars’ movies. And he would absolutely make that money back in sales. Plain and simple, he doesn’t want to restore those versions because he hates them, and he holds any fans who prefer them in contempt.

In related news, producer Gary Kurtz recently gave an interview to the ‘L.A. Times’ where he explains why he left the ‘Star Wars’ franchise after ‘Empire Strikes Back’. As he tells it, he grew increasingly disillusioned with the series as he witnessed George Lucas shift priorities from good storytelling to marketing and toy sales. While I don’t personally think that his description of plans for a dark and downbeat ‘Return of the Jedi’ in which Han Solo dies and the Rebels lose to the Empire sounds like a great idea either, the interview is a good read and helps to shed some light on how and why the series eventually came to its current state.

67 comments

  1. I don’t know if the scene is fake or not (I’m also not sure that I care), but if memory serves me correctly, the ROTJ novelization that I read way back when opened with that scene.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      I can believe that the scene was in the original script (as was the scene in the first movie with Han Solo meeting Jabba). But, from what was shown here, I don’t believe that the scene was shot during the production. It looks cobbled-together after the fact.

      • Brad

        When the SPEDs came out, The Empire Strikes Back, had added footage that came from original sequence ( After Vader asks for his shuttle at Bespin, we see the shuttle that originally appeared first in ROTJ. When the Shuttle arrives on the Star Destroyer, the landing bay is the same as the one used in the opening of ROTJ aboard the Death Star II but some of the charachters were erased from the film print so all we saw was Vader strolling along) The point is that the footage that was used was probably not all shot during production but some elements were so they can recycle some footage to have it blend seemlessly into the story. Other websites add that the Sandstorm scene in ROTJ was shot but never used and will appear on the Blue Ray as well. …The novel did NOT have this scene it, not as it appears to be shown anyway. The script, (3rd draft) that I had did not have it either, but it also had the ending where the Falcon was destroyed before the Death Star exploded and I heard that the shooting script was the 4th draft so it may have made it to that draft….who knows.

  2. If George really and truly cared about his fans, he’d at the very least make up for the unforgivable event where Greedo shoots first. He doesn’t have to re-do the original in its entirety, just that scene. But he won’t, because he’s the kid with the only football who won’t budge, and keeps threatening to take his football home. That it’s expensive to restore the original is common knowledge, but for him to use money as an excuse is beyond BS. Thing is, it just takes a lot of time. Though, I’m still not sure as to why it takes them so long to get the already restored and most likely already fully high definition trilogy put to blu ray…

    The man has ENDLESS money and resources at his disposal. He’s just being a stubborn child and is only sharing his football when HE wants to.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      #1) I weakens the Han Solo character. In the original version of the movie, Han makes a cold blooded decision to shoot Greedo and walk away. In the new version, he only reacts in self defense after Greedo shoots at him first.

      #2) It just looks stupid. Greedo is sitting two feet away from Han and has a blaster leveled dead at his chest, but somehow shoots wide and hits the wall. And the CGI manipulation of the two characters’ arms looks incredibly fake.

      • Chad

        #1. No it doesn’t. Greedo had a gun out and had already stuck it in Han’s chest. This is western rules, it’s not who shoots first but who draws first. Also, with his gun pointed at him, Grredo basically says he’s about to shoot Han. The original scene was never about Han being “cold-blooded”. It was about him being “cool headed”. And it still is.

        #2. Yeah, it does look stupid. That I will give you.

        • Josh Zyber
          Author

          If you were right about this, why would Lucas feel the need to change the scene at all? By your own logic, there’s absolutely no need to change the scene to make it look like Greedo shot first, because in either case Han is just being cool-headed.

          Lucas changed it, of course, because he was afraid that shooting first made Han look like a bad guy. After the kid-friendly direction the series took, he decided to go back and retroactively soften the character.

          • Chad

            He probably changed it to clarify the fact that Han was just being cool-headed, and not cold blooded, because so many people had misinterpreted it. If he were really the “cold blooded killer” people think he was then it’s quite a quick, radical shift in character that he doesn’t just turn Luke and Ben in to the Imperials to save his own neck at the several points the opportunity is available to him. The change is akin to adding a comma to a sentence to clarify a point, not completely rewriting the sentence.

          • Josh Zyber
            Author

            @Chad. What that means is that Lucas thinks very lowly of his audience’s intelligence, that he had to “clarify” this point that nobody other than himself ever felt needed clarifying. That’s not exactly a commendable trait in a storyteller.

            Even in a best case scenario, this change is unnecessary and looks incredibly stupid. It’s a bad filmmaking decision, plain and simple.

        • Um, yes it does weaken Han’s character. Whether or not Greedo was really going to kill Solo is beside the point. Han is looking out for number one, and is also sneaky. He wasn’t about to go down like a bitch, or let this scumbag get the better of him. By blowing Greedo’s head off before he could get his glory, Han firmly established himself as a bad-ass that you don’t want to mess with, and he looked damn awesome doing it. Screw western rules, Han is too bad-ass for that, and by making Greedo shoot first and having Han do some kooky head bob, Lucas took all the awesomeness out of the scene and made it utterly laughable.

  3. Lahrs

    I am not understanding Lucas’ argument to begin with. The original is already remastered in hi-def, all that needs to happen is remove the added scenes, the fact it is in digital form should make this a quick and easy change. The other changes, such as returning to Han shooting first should take a minimal amount of time and money.

    • Brad

      Lahrs, that wouldn’t work for any of the films because the digital enhancements done to some of the scenes would make it so that just the extended or added scenes would be eliminated.
      For Example: – Episode IV A New Hope – Both the Death star and Alderran had a shock wave added to the explosions that were not in the original. Also some of the dogfight sequences were redone. – Episode V – Empire Strikes Back the scenes on cloud city were redone so some of the white walls became windows where you could see outside of cloud city. Also the sequence with the Emperor was redone with Ian McDiarmid (original actor was Clyde Revill) and some of the dialogue was changed as well. and finally, in Episode VI – Return A Jedi; The Sarlacc had a “mouth/beak” added ( kind of reminiscent of Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors) and again, the Death Star had a shock wave when it exploded, and the end celebration song was different, included celebrations on Naboo, Cloud City and Coruscant. So just editing those parts out would not be so easy…

  4. besch64

    I don’t even have any words for how much this breaks my heart.

    I’m not going to be buying this fucking travesty, but that shouldn’t even have to be said. NOBODY should buy these. Make Lucas give us the goods, people.

  5. SamBeckett

    I agree with some and disagree with some. After all they are G.L. films and he can do what he wants. For the most part I don’t mind what he did with the special editions – but the Jabba scene was poorly done, and I still don’t know why the Greedo scene was changed.
    Over all it was a trilogy that turned me on to movies and still enjoy it to this day. I can’t wait to see it on Blu ray

  6. Brad

    Heard this all before with the DVD release.

    Bought the entire redone trilogy because the original would ‘never be released’.

    Then guess what happened a few years later – original trilogy was released! Despite personal protests about the having to spend $ on buying it again, I eventually did.

    More $$$$$ to George.

    I can guarantee the same will happen with blu-ray.

  7. EM

    The empire strikes back, indeed.

    I’m no psychologist, but I’m convinced that Lucas has some pathological problem with telling the truth. Whether it’s fair to label him a pathological liar in general or to give some other diagnosis, I don‘t know. Over the years he’s changed his ideas on the course of the Saga—and that’s fine—but when he discusses those changes, he usually pretends that his newer ideas were part of his master plan all along. If I had to guess, I’d say he is a perfectionist to the point of having trouble admitting (whether just to others or, more sadly, even to himself) that he even *used* to have lesser ideas—another motive to eliminate the evidence that are the original theatrical cuts. (Of course, whether his current ideas are really his best is another issue…)

  8. Henry

    i was all happy for this release next year but after re reading this…. it broke my heart to hear that it will be the crappy 97 verson . and not the 2004 version with the better jabba, the 97 release of star wars was crap all because of the cgi jabba……..

    I won’t be getting the blu rays after all, not if LUCA$ decides to give us the oringnal or the 2004 versions on blu ray….

    • I’m pretty sure it will be the 2004 version. Even with slightly better CGI, Jabba still looks terrible, and the scene is completely redudant to the earlier conversation Han had with Greedo (which contains nearly identical dialogue).

  9. I have to admit, the announcement of the saga on Blu-Ray has just left me cold and apathetic…something I’ve never really experienced with Star Wars before. My opinion of the prequels has eroded further and further with each passing year, and the OT will probably be altered even FURTHER just for the sake of it.

    It won’t mean much, but I’m taking a personal stand and…not buying it.

    Now, when the first three ‘Indiana Jones’ movies are announced, I’ll be all over that 🙂

  10. I actaully talked about this back on the release page, http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/5256

    Which is getting a LOT of activity in the forums. I actually like the SE of Empire (which seems to be the least effed with of the trilogy), and I LOVE Star Wars – as long as we can get rid of the Jabba scene. Return of the Jedi was just a horrible hack job, and the SE should be burned and burried, never to be revived.

    That being said, I call tons of BS on Lucas. Close Encounters of the Third Kind gave us 3 or 4 versions of the movie, and Blade Runner gave us 5, all of which had to be restored and digitally remastered. I doubt these sold anywhere as near as well on BD (and HD-DVD) as Star Wars will sell.

    Shoot, Lucas would not even have to restore the whole movie. He could just restore scenes that were changed or cut, then use seamless branching.

    However, if Lucas was not an idiot in 1997, he would have kept the original digital master (the one that was originally scanned BEFORE he started effing with it), and then we would not have this issue at all.

    • Liqwid

      I bet he has it. He just doesn’t want to bother with it.

      Me, I’ll stick with my VHSs and the DVD re-releases. I really can not stand watching the “remasters”.

  11. Tim

    Josh:

    Do you have a ballpark figure as to how much it’d cost to remaster these films? Are we talking a couple million dollars? Ten million?

    I think Lucas is being kind of a jerk about this. It’s obvious what the true fans want. However, if it’s going to cost him ten million dollars to remaster what he deems to be an “inferior” version, I can kind of understand it. A bit…

    • Consider this – Funimation, a relatively small (I have toured them, roughly 40 workers) anime house, remasters their Blu-Rays from original film sources. It could be argued that Star Wars is in much worse condition than Dragonball, but the argument is weak. Lucas is being a duche, that is all there is to it.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      I don’t have an exact figure. As I recall, the 1997 “Special Edition” restoration cost $10 million (for the whole trilogy).

      Now, of course, a lot of that work is already done. Lucas really just needs to restore the scenes with alternate footage and splice them in. That should be a significantly smaller expense. A couple million? I don’t know.

      That sounds like a lot of money to you or me. However, keep in mind that the 1997 restoration was paid for by Fox, not Lucas himself. He made that a condition of their distribution deal for the prequel trilogy. He didn’t spend a dime himself on restoring the movies. And Fox’s expense was more than recovered through sales. The same would certainly happen here. Fans will scoop up anything with the Star Wars name on it in droves.

      There’s really no financial risk in this for George Lucas. He just doesn’t want to do it.

  12. Ian Whitcombe

    Funimation’s not a good studio to make your point , William. Their 2006 DVD remaster of Dragonball Z was widely considered to be a distaster. For the recent “Dragonbox” releases FUNi simply licensed Toei’s superior masters from 2003-2004, to much better results.

    The studio has also had a bad track record of, until recently, passing off crummy DNR’d upscales as “remastered”.

    For better examples of remastered anime, the native JP releases that Toei and Bandai Visual put out are consistently superior.

    • I was refering to this:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sox36BaO8jg

      I think the reason that it was considered to be such an atrocity is that Funimation elected to crop the native 4×3 frame to 16×9. The restoration itself is actually pretty good, considering it was done by a small studio.

      My point was, if a small studio can do a restoration (we won’t go into how good or bad it was), then Lucas and Fox really have no excuse, and claiming that it will cost an exhorborate amount of money is BS.

      • Ian Whitcombe

        It might not cost an exhorborate amount of money for Lucasfilm, but it would still be expensive. Especially since it would mean a total photochemical processs. It would be at least as expernsive as the resotrations that Warner bestowed on A Star Is Born and Blade Runner.

        We agree that Lucas certainly does have the money. But it does not mean that theoretically a small studio like FUNi could do a decent job and videophiles would even be remotely satisfied.

  13. I am overjoyed at this announcement. I love the special editions, except for a few small things, the additions are all wonderful! The extra shots of ships in various scenes are fantastic. The Greedo thing is way overblown fanboy stuff. I am psyched, I have my original cuts on DVD, that is good enough for me, George did come through and give them to us, I think it is fine that he is not giving them to us AGAIN. As for the new scene, even if it is pieced together, it is AWESOME! Very cool. When it comes to Star Wars, which I love dearly, people are just too nit picky. Just watch them and enjoy them for what they are, good fun sci fi entertainment.

    • EM

      Your order notwithstanding, I can’t change my likes and dislikes on command, being neither a lemming nor an idiot.

    • besch64

      Bill Howard, you have the name of a 40 year old and the opinion of a 13 year old. You are an enigma.

  14. lucas is not a jerk for wanting to release his movie the way he always wanted. he’s a jerk for putting in the guy from transformers as indy’s son. sure there are cringe worthy moments in a new hope i never had a problem with the cgi jaba , the problem with it is it doesnt work in the movie , doesnt further the plot and is a distraction. the “new scene” is total BS and lets say that they filmed it 30 years ago , doesnt add to the story. wow luke can fix a lightsaber. who gives a crap.

    • “Lucas is not a jerk for wanting to release his movie the way he always wanted.”

      The problem is that what he “always wanted” changes every time he looks at the movies. I have a hard time believing that Lucas “always wanted” Hayden Christensen (who was 1-year-old in 1982) to appear as the ghost of Anakin in Return of the Jedi. Even giving him the benefit of the doubt that he “always wanted” a young version of Anakin (non-specific to any actor) to appear as the ghost, why did he cast an old man like Sebastian Shaw?

      Now he’s telling us that he “always wanted” the movies to be in 3-D. Next year he will have “always wanted” something else entirely that he hasn’t even thought up yet.

      • but he’s not a jerk. egomaniac. yes. i dont think he wanted hayden exactly. i think he wanted anikin when he died. and he feels anikin died when he became vader which is a stupid notion since there was always a part of anikin in vader. im calling bullshit on the 3D part. he never wanted a 3D star wars.he’s ful of crap. the always wanted part was in 97. since then it’s become tired.

  15. Jane Morgan

    Poor George Lucas. The guy is a cautionary tale. He made too much money, too young, and never learned his craft. Everything we love about the Star Wars movies is because of the craftsmanship of other people. Other writers, other directors, other producers. George wrote the Star Wars bible, and his peers made two and a half magic sausages. The Phantom Menace is 95% GL. This is why Hollywood works so hard to control the IP. No one wants George Lucas Syndrome to take the life of another young talent.

    • I work under the theory that he’s an accidental genius, stumbling upon brilliance and then having absolutely no idea what do to about it.

  16. Josh Zyber
    Author

    So, apparently Lucas did an hour-long sit-down interview with Jon Stewart at Celebration V. Videos of it were available on YouTube for a while, but have since been pulled by Lucasfilm due to a copyright claim.

    I didn’t get a chance to watch, but I’m told that, sadly, Stewart doesn’t take Lucas to task about restoring the original trilogy. He basically just spends the hour sucking up.

    Not that I really expected otherwise, but I certainly feel that this was a missed opportunity. Too bad.

  17. Brad

    Just for clarification here. When Lucas said he will never release the original versions of the first trilogy on DVD, he was speaking in a half-truth. The Special Edition part of the titles were dropped when the DVD set release came out and while he said he would never release the originals. But what he did do was clever and actually pleased all the purists by including the original films as an “extra” on the 2 disc sets. Jedi was released as the first film in THX and it has the THX trailer on it before it starts, and Star Wars, is from the original print ( a very clean print) of the pre- A NEW HOPE addition. But true to his word, he never advertised them on DVD as the original cut. The only way people knew that they were on the 2nd disk was either by reading the press releases or articles, or by putting the bonus disk in the player. Its inevitible that every time a new video technology comes out that all the movies will be re-released in the newest format. Heck, I am still waiting to complete my James Bond Blu ray collection now that all are out on DVD. So those of you who said you’ll stop buying Lucas’s films as he keeps releasing them…rest assured, he will not release another Star Wars film on VHS or Laserdisc, or even DVD at this point. By the way, there is strong indication (yet still a rumor) that the remaining Indiana Jones movies will be out next year as it will coincide with the 30th anniv of the release of Raiders…

    • EM

      Actually, many (if not all) the purists were displeased by the “extras”’ non-anamorphic transfer.

  18. marios

    personally ,i dont expect too much!i have all of them in hdtv rip and from the lord of the rings release on bluray i saw very few improvements.not to say none!so in that case too i expect to see a little better than LOTR due to Lucas digital labs that he owns and nothing more.as for the scenes ?who really cares in a story so many times seen and all the hypes around it?its getting a little bit tiring,the same and the same all over again!

  19. Josh Zyber
    Author

    Looks like Lucasfilm is scouring YouTube to pull down clips from Celebration V due to “copyright claims.” What, are they planning to release these interviews on DVD? I doubt it. Just more evidence that George Lucas is a jerk.

    The video of Lucas introducing the deleted scene is gone. If someone finds another copy, let me know.

    The deleted scene itself was also pulled, but someone else promptly put up another copy, so I’ve updated the post. Watch it while you can.

  20. Harry Potter

    yes….Josh Zyber! The man who invented and created the whole consept of STAR WARS (That you seem to love in one way or another) is a JERK……Clearly. Do you think you would have watched these films if it wasn`t for George Lucas? NOOOOOOOOOOOO! If the creator of a strong series of films feels he need to “upgrade” the movies…let him do that….He created it…HE can do what he wants with them. GET over it! As for the whole “Ooooooohhh Hayden appears as a ghost!” thing…its really simple: After the whole saga was complete, the face we remember as “DARTH VADER” is NOT the face of a 70 year old dude we never really saw anyway….It was Haydens portrayal of Anakin. THAT IS why HE appears as the ghost in the remastered version. It makes TEN TIMES more sense….I just can`t believe you fanboys. Bitching and moaning over everything….I`m so sick of it! If you dont like the remastered versions….dont watch them. If you think part 1-3 are crap….Well….HANG ON: DONT WATCH THEM!

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Believe me, I will never watch the “Special Edition” versions of the first three movies again. Even so, I’d be perfectly fine with Lucas making as many changes as he wants — hell, he should just totally remake the movies entirely in Clone Wars style CG animation and get it over with — so long as he also restores the original versions too. His refusal to do so is a desecration of film history. Yes, that makes him a jerk.

    • EM

      Harry, maybe it would make A HUNDRED TIMES more sense if, instead of flashing a smile of recognition, Luke made a face as though to say, “Who the hell is that skinny kid with Ben and Master Yoda?!?”

  21. honestly, if he were to “remake” the film in CW-esque CG, at least then his constant revisions for the rest of his life wouldn’t look so fucking jarring next to the classic footage that has yet to be bastardized. that would be better than jabba the awkward, loneliest mongo of a hutt getting his tail stepped on, feeling like a cyborg dancing with cavemen.

    i’m a lifer when it comes to SW, but josh is on the money here. there is no defending lucas these days. it IS open season, and for a reason. the man has made a mockery of what he once was, and the fact that his toys show more effort than some of his films is telling.

    sorry to say it, but lucas is, indeed, a jerk. he gives permissions to shows to parody his works, but more often than not these creations are even worse than his visions.

    he is 100% about the money, and whatever is tickling his delusional ego whatever day it is, whether its 3d, a new scene incorporating “freshers” (EU fans, worst idea ever), or more tentacles in the sarlacc for our japanese hentai loving friends.

  22. doomius

    This was exactly what I was afraid of!

    Why does Lucas hate us so much that he is unwilling to spend the time and money to restore the original theatrical releases for the sake of restoration.

    The money excuse is blatant bullshit coming from a man that can probably buy many small nations!

    I am conflicted, I have not bought the original trilogy on home media since the VHS remastered release in 1995 (which I still own). Should I bite the bullet and buy the special editions in HD or should I wait till I’m a frail old man because I’m sure that’s how long I will be waiting!

  23. Arkadin

    well the video of the scene is gone now so guess we can’t see what you’re referring to anymore unfortunately.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Yeah, Lucasfilm keeps taking copies down as soon as people put them up. Basically, it shows a guy in a Jedi robe whose mostly-obscured face looks nothing like Mark Hammill tinkering with a lightsaber. He turns it on and it’s green. Ooooh…

      This is intercut with footage of Vader obviously recycled from Empire Strikes Back. He says “Luuuuke… Luuuuuuke…” a couple of times in audio clips borrowed from other parts of the trilogy as well.

      It lasts about a minute. That’s the whole thing. Whoop-de-doo.

      Here’s another site with the clip. Watch it while you can:

      http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xegocg_return-of-the-jedi-deleted-scene-re_shortfilms

  24. Gerorge Lucas is a good filmmaker he is not a bad guy. He is not what you say he is just because he won’t release the original verions of EP 4, 5 and 6 on blu-ray. Have some resepct for filmmakers and how they release their films if they want to.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      It has just been announced that Lucas has made some additional changes to Star Wars for the Blu-ray release. In the new version, the movie no longer opens with the famous shot of the Star Destroyer flying overhead. Instead, the movie will open on Naboo. Jar Jar Binks walks into the scene, drops his pants, bends over, and lets loose a giant fart right into the camera. The fart lasts approximately 5 solid minutes. It’s a lot like the peeing gag in Austin Powers. Every time you think he’s tapering off, he just starts up again, his butt cheeks flapping like crazy the whole time. At the conclusion, Jar Jar says: “Meesa gonna make-a poo poo now!”

      Respect that.

      It’s how the filmmaker wants to release the movie, right? In fact, according to Lucas, this has always been his plan for how the movie should start all along. He sadly lacked the ability to create a convincing CGI alien fart in 1977. Technology has only now caught up with his vision for the material.

  25. So what if Lucas want to release only the SE’s on blu-ray bottom line is all 6 Star Wars Films are coming to blu-ray. Some people like the changes like me others like you don’t and complan way too much. That’s the way it is.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      No, you are incorrect. There are actually 9 Star Wars films. There’s the original trilogy, the craptastic “Special Edition” trilogy, and the prequel trilogy. These are all separate things.

      The original trilogy is not being released on Blu-ray. That’s the problem. George can do whatever the hell he wants to the “Special Editions.” All we ask is that he also release the original trilogy.

  26. people are upset because those are the original versions , the ones we grew up with. it’s film history. were used to seeing a tighter version of a new hope. not a version where it stops so Han can talk to Steven segal from machete.oops jaba. forget the cgi. the scene doesn’t work. like Luke fixing a saber. you why he’s fixing that saber? shoved it up jar jars ass.