Star Wars in HD next month! Perhaps on Blu-Ray next year??

1957 Views 31 Replies 22 Participants Last post by GoldenBoy, Oct 7, 2006

TimV

Discussion Starter · Oct 5, 2006

For those of you that don't know, Cinemax HD will be showing all six Star Wars movies next month in Hi-Def. Here's the link:

http://www.cinemax.com/starwars/poster.html

I'm sure that the rabid fans will have their HD-DVRs in high gear recording these. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come. According to this link...

http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/s...ion_100566.asp

...a 30th Anniversary Box set od all six films is due next year. Could it be possible that they will be released on Blu-Ray? Or is that just too soon? What do you all think?

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1 - 20 of 32 Posts

kurtlingle

· #2 · Oct 5, 2006

I think most of us would just love it....

Except, I believe Lucas will only release them once they can make alot of $$$ - at least 10 million copies in a day.... that is just a guess but I think that it will be a couple of years...

BTBuck1

· #3 · Oct 5, 2006

My room mate is a star wars guru and he said at comicon that the question was asked about star wars to an hd optical format.

His reply was, "he'll wait til the dust settles and a victor emerges before SW goes to a high def format"

jmpage2

· #4 · Oct 5, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by [email protected]
My room mate is a star wars guru and he said at comicon that the question was asked about star wars to an hd optical format.

His reply was, "he'll wait til the dust settles and a victor emerges before SW goes to a high def format"

Lucas learned his lesson about releasing early when he released Star Wars IV on BetaMax back in 1987, and got badly burned.

txfilmguy

· #5 · Oct 5, 2006

This topic has been beat to death.

Jeff Lampert

· #6 · Oct 5, 2006

I just don't see any studio, whether supporting either or both formats, releasing their greatest treasures until not only has "the dust settled", but there are TONS of players in peoples houses AND people are buying high volumes of discs. The Star Wars movies, like Disney's greatest (Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, etc.) are worth untold millions (billions?) of pure profits, and it would be an absurd business decision to release these movies in a HighDef disc format when currently only 15% or so of people even own an HD TV set, let alone the pittance of folks who have a HighDef optical disc player of any kind. The fact is, I think we are looking at years before the true treasures of the studios are released.

Jeff Lampert

· #7 · Oct 5, 2006

Quote:

This topic has been beat to death.

Same as about 100 other topics. It's still fun to discuss. Don't be a curmudgeon.

DLPORLCD

· #8 · Oct 5, 2006

Fox can't release the movies on Blu-ray without Lucas' permission. George lucas owns the movies and controls how they are distributed so he can pick whichever format he would want to release it on if he ever chose to release it on one of the 2 new formats. That being said, don't expect to see the movies released on any of the new formats for a while because there is just not enough players in the markets today that woudl allow Lucas to make as much money as he would want to with a HD version of starwars.

DIZ2

· #9 · Oct 5, 2006

That figures. CinemaxHD is the one HD premium channel Dish Network doesn't offer. I would have recorded these to my DVR in a heartbeat.

Nomad817

· #10 · Oct 5, 2006

It wasn't until recently like 2004 I guess that the original trilogy was even on regular DVD, it seems like yesterday that they finally did that, so it will probably be a while.

rlsmith

· #11 · Oct 5, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmpage2
Lucas learned his lesson about releasing early when he released Star Wars IV on BetaMax back in 1987, and got badly burned.

Very poor history in this post.

Star Wars was first released on both VHS and Beta in 1982, originally in a semi-rental-only format. It was released on LD in 1983.

Empire and Jedi were quickly released into all three formats shortly after their theatrical releases.

These releases were all very successful so nobody felt "burned" at all.

I believe (and would have to check) that all three were also released on the RCA CED disk system.

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jmpage2

· #12 · Oct 5, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by rlsmith
Very poor history in this post.

Star Wars was first released on both VHS and Beta in 1982, originally in a semi-rental-only format. It was released on LD in 1983.

Empire and Jedi were quickly released into all three formats shortly after their theatrical releases.

These releases were all very successful so nobody felt "burned" at all.

I believe (and would have to check) that all three were also released on the RCA CED disk system.

Yes, bad data on my part, I clearly remembered it being out for purchase on Beta long before VHS but this site claims otherwise;

http://www.davisdvd.com/misc/starwars/ep4.htm

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txfilmguy

· #13 · Oct 5, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Lampert
Same as about 100 other topics. It's still fun to discuss. Don't be a curmudgeon.

humbug.

rlsmith

· #14 · Oct 6, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmpage2
Yes, bad data on my part, I clearly remembered it being out for purchase on Beta long before VHS but this site claims otherwise;

http://www.davisdvd.com/misc/starwars/ep4.htm

I confess I was reacting a bit negatively to your post, hope you didn't mind.

I hate to see Beta trashed too much. It was in many ways a very successful format that lasted 15 years and opened up a whole new industry.

VHS just stopped being a distribution format this year, so it lasted 30 years altogether.

tsd2005

· #15 · Oct 6, 2006

Lucas doesn't want to wait too long. He is hoping a winner is settled in the next 6 months.

He can force FOX to release on HD-DVD.

It would actually be something he would do too. Force Fox to release on a format they refuse to release on. He stated a few years ago that he would release on HD-DVD in 2007.

TimV

Discussion Starter · #16 · Oct 6, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Lampert
I just don't see any studio, whether supporting either or both formats, releasing their greatest treasures until not only has "the dust settled", but there are TONS of players in peoples houses AND people are buying high volumes of discs. The Star Wars movies, like Disney's greatest (Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, etc.) are worth untold millions (billions?) of pure profits, and it would be an absurd business decision to release these movies in a HighDef disc format when currently only 15% or so of people even own an HD TV set, let alone the pittance of folks who have a HighDef optical disc player of any kind. The fact is, I think we are looking at years before the true treasures of the studios are released.

In general, I agree with you.

The only reason I brought it up in the first place is that showing them in HD on Cinemax gives everyone the chance to record them on their DVRs (or possibly even D-VHS decks). Come November, anyone who wants to could have HD copies of all six episodes at their disposal.

I guess if they're willing to do that, why not put them out on Blu-Ray, since they would kind of already be out there anyway (from a certain point of view

)

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WriteSimple

· #17 · Oct 6, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by tsd2005
Lucas doesn't want to wait too long. He is hoping a winner is settled in the next 6 months.

He can force FOX to release on HD-DVD.

It would actually be something he would do too. Force Fox to release on a format they refuse to release on. He stated a few years ago that he would release on HD-DVD in 2007.

Why would he force Fox to do that? He's a very forward thinking guy and HD-DVD is really not a forward-looking format.

fuad

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Dan Hitchman

· #18 · Oct 6, 2006

Forward thinking to a fault you mean. He absolutely refuses to allow anyone to restore the original 1977/1980/1983 trilogy, even if that someone is a top restorer and willing to do it gratis. Therefore, the original trilogy is released as a 1993 mastered for laserdisc composite, letterboxed mess.

He went to HD digital video before it was perfected (of course, other directors can be faulted for this too, but Lucas pushed for HD video filmmaking) and two of his SW films are stuck in 1080p land forever (I wouldn't mind the prequels stuck in a dumpster, but that's another story).

He'll only release SW on his time table. He never listens to his fans.

Dan

rlsmith

· #19 · Oct 6, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimV
In general, I agree with you.

The only reason I brought it up in the first place is that showing them in HD on Cinemax gives everyone the chance to record them on their DVRs (or possibly even D-VHS decks). Come November, anyone who wants to could have HD copies of all six episodes at their disposal.

I guess if they're willing to do that, why not put them out on Blu-Ray, since they would kind of already be out there anyway (from a certain point of view

)

Great argument, except it applies to hundreds of movies that have already been shown in HD, and the studios aren't considering your argument, apparently.

I have a copy of Star Wars III (OAR) sitting on my HD Tivo right now. Why they won't sell me a hidef disk is beyond me!

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eightninesuited

· #20 · Oct 6, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Hitchman
Forward thinking to a fault you mean. He absolutely refuses to allow anyone to restore the original 1977/1980/1983 trilogy, even if that someone is a top restorer and willing to do it gratis. Therefore, the original trilogy is released as a 1993 mastered for laserdisc composite, letterboxed mess.

He went to HD digital video before it was perfected (of course, other directors can be faulted for this too, but Lucas pushed for HD video filmmaking) and two of his SW films are stuck in 1080p land forever (I wouldn't mind the prequels stuck in a dumpster, but that's another story).

He'll only release SW on his time table. He never listens to his fans.

Dan

Lucas is phenominally talented, but money and fame has certainly ruined him. The premise for the prequels was fine, the execution was not. I would have loved to see James Cameron work with Lucas on the script - something I asked Cameron in 2000 in the midst of some Aliens script talk, and he told me he would have loved to co-write the prequels.

I knew Hayden Christensen. We went to the same HighSchool and were in a couple productions. He is not a terrible actor by any means - watch "higher Ground". But it just goes to show you the difference between what a good director can accomplish and what a bad one (or one motivated by greed over art) can do. Being a director also means managing the actors. Aside from Ewen McGreggor, none of the performances were worth noting.

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