Original Star Wars to be released on DVD

[King of Snake]

link (http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/release/video/news20060503.html)

looks like Lucasfilm finally caved in to the pressure from the fans. (and their bankaccounts ;))


in any case we'll get to see Han shoot first again \o/

[big screen satellite]

link (http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/release/video/news20060503.html)

looks like Lucasfilm finally caved in to the pressure from the fans. (and their bankaccounts ;))


in any case we'll get to see Han shoot first again \o/

wow - i was just gonna post the same thing....from my empire source

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=18689

well it is 'May the Fourth' Be With You day - so its a good news day...to announce this

yep its a money making exercise but at least goes to show that the fans pressure does pay off - and plenty of people will buy this - me for one...

i don't want the special edition crap cgi'd Jabba in my episode IV...or Greedo shooting first, all we as fans wanted was the versions as released originally in DVD format...no additions, just plain and simple as we saw it versions...

nayway, depite Lucas saying this would never happen all i can say is Kerr-Ching!

[negative1]

looks like i'll be getting it again..

(but not the HD DVD versions)
or whatever those will be for
the 30th anniversary..

later
-1

[kid cue]

This release will only be available for a limited time: from September 12th to December 31st.

Ah, the fine print.... Added incentive for me to finally own these films, then.

[negative1]

This release will only be available for a limited time: from September 12th to December 31st.

Ah, the fine print.... Added incentive for me to finally own these films, then.

dont be too worried about that..
i'm sure they'll be repackaged and resold
(yet again) in some other form..

maybe without the special editions..
(i don't need those again)..

later
-1

[dubman]

han shot first lol

nah, i might get it finally

[big screen satellite]

there will always be more coming our way...

wait til they go back and revist the prequels...

well they need something to tide us over until the next series (the 3D animation) is released on TV, then on DVD...and that will be at least two years away...

Lucas must be feeling the pinch eh? ;)

[stimpee]

in any case we'll get to see Han shoot first again \o/i don't want the special edition crap cgi'd Jabba in my episode IV...or Greedo shooting firsthan shot first lol. nah, i might get it finallyto be utterly nerdy about it, its not a case of Han shooting first but only Han shooting. Greedo doesnt shoot at all.

As for a Classic edition, i've already downloaded OCPmovie's version (http://www.originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=9&threadid=2270&STARTPAGE=1) which has restored the movies to as close as its theatrical release anyway, with cleaned up patches coming from the Laserdisc where necessary. This is the same guy that did Deleted Magic which reveals the original Star Wars storyline. You can snag all of this stuff over at myspleen.net.

[grady]

to be utterly nerdy about it, its not a case of Han shooting first but only Han shooting. Greedo doesnt shoot at all.

As for a Classic edition, i've already downloaded OCPmovie's version (http://www.originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=9&threadid=2270&STARTPAGE=1) which has restored the movies to as close as its theatrical release anyway, with cleaned up patches coming from the Laserdisc where necessary. This is the same guy that did Deleted Magic which reveals the original Star Wars storyline. You can snag all of this stuff over at myspleen.net.

Stimpee's right, there are some great editions that people have assembled over at myspleen.net in addition to other editions floating around at other torrent sites and on usenet where people have taken various LD releases of the film and done their own mastering of the audio and video and assembled bonus discs of the supplements that were included on the laserdisc Definitive Collection (http://www.blam1.com/StarWars/PILF-2071.htm) release from the early 90s. The supplements weren't anything terribly special when compared to the LDs Criterion was releasing and releases like James Cameron's longer cut of Aliens and The Abyss.

What I find interesting to note about the flanneled one's, Lucasfilm, and the marketing people at FOX too is the double dip of getting fans to buy yet another edition of Star Wars. This is nothing new of course though, I have three versions on Laserdisc. But this DVD release will be coming up on the two year anniversary(if you want to call it that) of when they released the original trilogy on DVD in the Fall of 2004

But having only a Dolby Surround 2.0 soundtrack on these new DVDs as the press release states is a copout on Lucasfilm's part. Perhaps it will change for the next release to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars next year.

Additionally, this seems to be something to tide the mass over for the remainder of the year as with the coming year of 2007 also brings the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. Is that when they release the souped up 3D version of the film thats been mentioned since Showest last year and has cropped up in conversations with ILM gurus like Dennis Murren?

[grady]

Here is a good link to some reviews of the various bootleg versions of the original trilogy that Stimpee mentioned earlier.

link (http://www.prillaman.net/starwarsdvdreview-bootleg5.html)

[adam]

What breaks my heart is that the other version of Blade Runner remains unseen and unreleased. I fucking love that movie and I'd like to punch the guy who's stopping it from coming out (again, me with the punching).

[stimpee]

I dont know what this is gonna mean for those guys doing the ultimate transfer of the Laserdiscs called the x0project (http://www.x0project.com/welcome.php), named after the world's best commercially available laserdisc player the Pioneer X0 with which they are doing a frame by frame transfer and clean up. Check the URL for some videos of the work.

Lucas will fuck up with these 2006 DVD releases just as he did with the 2004 DVD releases (way too much red/blue, and dodgy rotoscoping for a start), so the fans will be re-doing it all again anyhow.

The real nutters wont be satisfied but it will be a new source with which to make their new modifications. They'll want isolated scores (in stereo and mono), Dolby 5.1, alternative opening crawl (original one didnt have Episode IV), original voice for Aunt Beru (she was dubbed over!), 35mm/70mm audio mixes etc. (and other stuff they rant about on originaltrilogy.com)

[stimpee]

What breaks my heart is that the other version of Blade Runner remains unseen and unreleased. I fucking love that movie and I'd like to punch the guy who's stopping it from coming out (again, me with the punching).I grabbed a laserdisc transfer of the international pre-directors cut Criterion version from myspleen.net already and there are rumours of another release next year:

As reported by thedigitalbits here:

"And finally, here's a bit of news that's going to get a lot of you excited... Ridley Scott's blade runner (1982) is currently on track for release as a multi-disc special edition in time for its 25th anniversary in 2007. The release is far from certain but Warner says that work is proceeding, most of the key players are involved and things are "looking good" for release next year. We'll see."

and theres a fan box set coming as read about on the originaltrilogy.com (http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=11&threadid=4503) forums too.

[adam]

I prefer the director's cut to the original, but Ridley Scott supposedly did a third version for DVD release and the guy who owns the rights to it is refusing its release. I'm sure he was just holding out for more money, so maybe for the anniversary WB gave him what he was asking for. That's great news. I haven't seen it in a long time, so that the anticipation builds for the long-pending release. I actually haven't seen it in six years or so, and it's one of my all-time favorite movies.

[big screen satellite]

I prefer the director's cut to the original, but Ridley Scott supposedly did a third version for DVD release and the guy who owns the rights to it is refusing its release. I'm sure he was just holding out for more money, so maybe for the anniversary WB gave him what he was asking for. That's great news. I haven't seen it in a long time, so that the anticipation builds for the long-pending release. I actually haven't seen it in six years or so, and it's one of my all-time favorite movies.


been trying to get any version of Bladerunner on DVD and its impossible...well no High Street retailers have it....and i have seached a few online...and either its really expensive or not in stock, unless someone else knows better...

i have the video still, but no player so thats pointlss really... :)

[King of Snake]

What breaks my heart is that the other version of Blade Runner remains unseen and unreleased. I fucking love that movie and I'd like to punch the guy who's stopping it from coming out (again, me with the punching).
I think i have the director's cut, what's the differences with the "other version"?

anyway, my version is a cheapo dvd release and I'd love to have a cool special edition box set of this.

[grady]

The long and short of the Blade Runner SE is a man name Jerry Perincho, who was a producer on the film is a very spiteful and hateful man and has been deliberately holding up the release for god knows how many years.

Ridley's idea of a SE has been spoken about before and there is a video clip floating around where Ridley was talking about the DVD SE. From the way he was describing it, it was shaping up to be something similar to the Brazil set put together by the Criterion Collection first on LD and then ported to DVD.

Over at this site (http://www.brmovie.com/BR_Special_Edition.htm). It's a good collection of talk and discussion about the potential release of the film on DVD though some of the links are a bit old now. There is also Bladezone (http://www.bladezone.com/), another valuable Blade Runner website.

Perhaps the coolest addition they could put on the eventual Special Ediion DVD would be the Work Print of Blade Runner. Over at Bladezone they have a detailed analysis of the work print. It's been let out of the Warner Brother's vaults once or twice over the years. In January of 1999 I had the opportunity to see this cut up in Seattle at the Egyptian Theater. The work print had been sent there by mistake as the theater had booked a 70MM print of the original cut of Blade Runner and got the work print instead. I learned about it via the Blade Runner newsgroup and made the drive from Portland to Seattle to see and it was totally worth it and was one of the best cinematic experiences I've had.

Here is some info on the infamous work print (http://www.bladezone.com/contents/film/workprint/).

It's the same film, but it's full of lots of little differences and the last half of the film's score is Jerry Goldsmith' score from Alien as Vangelis hadn't completed the film's soundtrack yet. It was used to test screen the film in early 1982 in Denver and I believe. When it was later unearthed in a vault, it became the basis for Director's Cut release.

For those interested in all things Blade Runner there is the book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon. It's definently worth a read if you're an obsessive fan.

[negative1]

been trying to get any version of Bladerunner on DVD and its impossible...well no High Street retailers have it....and i have seached a few online...and either its really expensive or not in stock, unless someone else knows better...


well if you're not too averse to downloading it..
there are torrent sites that have a dvd transfer from laserdisc..

if you need information, let me know..

later
-1

[big screen satellite]

well if you're not too averse to downloading it..
there are torrent sites that have a dvd transfer from laserdisc..

if you need information, let me know..

later
-1

nah i want it on DVD...thanks anyway

they did release it a while back, on a cheapo disc, but now its nigh on impossible to track down...i'm kinda hoping they re-relase it on a CE / SE disc set or something in the very near future...

i'll find it (any version) but its not that easy, as far as i can see...

[grady]

There are even a few torrents floating around out there of a really shoddy, but somewhat watchable cam recording of the Work Print that was made at one of the Seattle screenings in 1999.

[negative1]

nah i want it on DVD...thanks anyway

they did release it a while back, on a cheapo disc, but now its nigh on impossible to track down...i'm kinda hoping they re-relase it on a CE / SE disc set or something in the very near future...

i'll find it (any version) but its not that easy, as far as i can see...

ok, i'm taking it that you looked on ebay (us and uk)..
i see a lot of copies there, even for 'reasonable' prices..

is there something about these versions that isn't
right? there's even a boxed set out...(which i hadn't
seen before)

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=so&sbrftog=1&catref=C12&from=R10&satitle=%22blade+runner%22&sacat=617%26catref%3DC6&fsop=3%26fsoo%3D2&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search&fgtp=&floc=1&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=77082&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&so=Show+Items

later
-1

[myrrh]

I got that cheap director's cut version of Blade Runner on DVD about 8 years ago at a Wal-Mart. I kinda think that I still see copies of it there.

I didn't know that this was so hard to find. I assumed everyone had a copy.

[grady]

I think the Director's Cut is still readily available anywhere. It's one of those standard Warner Brother's titles. That was also the first DVD I ever purchased in the December of 1997.

[b.miller]

...he's a replicant!!!!!!!




heh heh

[grady]

He is?! BAH!?! This is all starting to make sense.


SPOILERS AHEAD













This is all making sense now. Deckard is a replicant. Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father. Bruce Willis is really dead. And Brad Pitt and Ed Norton are the same person. And Verbal Kint is Keyser Soze.

Does HAL 9000 actually exist too?

[adam]

I think the Director's Cut is still readily available anywhere. It's one of those standard Warner Brother's titles. That was also the first DVD I ever purchased in the December of 1997.

No, there's another one. That's the why the only DVD release of the movie has no special features. They made a super-DVD of it, but the guy who controls it won't allow it to be released. And my understanding is that it has a third cut of the movie.

Basically, when they were making the movie, they went way over budget so the movie became property of their bondsman (or something like that). Apparently he hates the movie, or WB, or Ridley Scott because of conflicts they had when the movie was going over budget, so he's making it really difficult for them to release this super-DVD. I imagine he wants more points on it.

I can't recall the story of why Ridley Scott wanted to do another cut of it, but it's out there if you're curious. Anyway, this cut has never been screened for the public, nor been commercially available.

[b.miller]

I can't recall the story of why Ridley Scott wanted to do another cut of it, but it's out there if you're curious. Anyway, this cut has never been screened for the public, nor been commercially available.

this actually makes some sense. Didn't Scott do a DVD cut of Alien for that quadrology? maybe he just went DVD cut crazy around that time...

[big screen satellite]

I think the Director's Cut is still readily available anywhere. It's one of those standard Warner Brother's titles. That was also the first DVD I ever purchased in the December of 1997.


well maybe on region one in the good ole US of... but here in the UK on region two...

i'll look on tinternet now to see what i can find

[big screen satellite]

new - expensive ones on amazon - but not from amazon, but their sellers here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004CZXU/qid=1146945213/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_26_3/202-3738160-8011018

i'm not paying £34 for a new copy and not paying £17 for a used copy!!!

at play

http://www.play.com/Search.aspx?searchtype=r2title&searchstring=bladerunner&page=search&pa=search

and on ebay the cheapest directors cut copy is £15...

one is selling for £25+

its just a hard to find DVD, that i might have to fork out a little bit for...and i do want a new copy on Region 2

[grady]

Oh I know there is the super DVD cut. In my post a couple pages back I mentioned this person you're referring to. The guy holding everything up is Jerry Perincho. He was brought into the project back in 1980-81 to infuse it with some cash. Then the guy became a dick even firing Ridley from the film, who refused to budge and continued working.

The entire details and ins and outs of the fight your describing adam is transcribed in the book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul Sammon.

In the book you learn that after the work print was discovered and Warner Brother's decided they wanted to release it after it was doing so well in a few limited showings in LA and SF. Ridley wanted to go back and tinker with a few things as it was the workprint, but WB was impatient and wanted to make money NOW and not wait for Ridley to finish post-production on Thelma and Louise so they went ahead and had this supervising editor whip the thing into shape.

As talk of the DVD started growing Ridley has been openingly decribing what he wanted to see on the Special Edition. Below is a transcript of sorts from an interview Ridley did on Sweedish TV. I have the actual quicktime file somewhere and will try and and find and post it somewhere.

link (http://www.brmovie.com/BR_Special_Edition.htm)

On Swedish TV4 movie review programme "Bionytt" (16 FEB 2002), they showed part of an interview with Ridley Scott. This clip can now be seen on-line (http://hem.passagen.se/replikant/scott/scott_interview.htm). The section included the following:
Some grainy, evidently old footage from the film: a spinner passing by a video billboard with a geisha. The scene can be found in both the OV and DC.
Harrison Ford, dressed up as Deckard, is chatting with Ridley Scott. They are standing in front of a kiosk, news stand or similar; Ridleyville? The footage is grainy, evidently old.
An extract from an interview with Ridley Scott. Scott says the following:
"We're looking at a view to...a possibility of three discs, which is basically showing a rough cut version with temp track from the original... *Ehm* Then '82 version, '92 version, then a clipped down version where we are now. Plus a lot of interviews, artwork."Could we really be getting Workprint, OV, DC and SE versions? Certainly seems to imply that the art section from the laserdisc may either be reproduced or recreated for the DVD - cool. Thanks to Niclas for passing on the information and for putting the clip on-line.

SO what a box set that would be if it sees the light of day. I'd always imagine it would modeled after Criterion's box for the film Brazil. The only thing to contemplate regarding Ridley's new cut is his view of Deckard as a replicant. Would he start trimming scenes that lent ambiguity to the debate of whether or not Deckard is a replicant?


Also, adam, have you seen the documentary by Mark Kermode and the BBC called On the Edge of Blade Runner? It was produced 2000 and I don't believe it ever aired in the states. However, it's readily available via bit torrent site.



No, there's another one. That's the why the only DVD release of the movie has no special features. They made a super-DVD of it, but the guy who controls it won't allow it to be released. And my understanding is that it has a third cut of the movie.

Basically, when they were making the movie, they went way over budget so the movie became property of their bondsman (or something like that). Apparently he hates the movie, or WB, or Ridley Scott because of conflicts they had when the movie was going over budget, so he's making it really difficult for them to release this super-DVD. I imagine he wants more points on it.

I can't recall the story of why Ridley Scott wanted to do another cut of it, but it's out there if you're curious. Anyway, this cut has never been screened for the public, nor been commercially available.

[negative1]

apparently the dvds will be non-anamorphic,
and 2.0 sound..

so it will be about the quality of the 1993
laserdiscs (i have those too), but i'll probably
end up getting it for convenience..

i guess they're probably saving up for the
30th anniversary next year...

also, there is new cover art for the discs,
it's ok..

more information about the transfer,
what it means etc:
http://www.thedigitalbits.com

later
-1

[myrrh]

Hopefully, for the 30th, they will release episodes 1-6 in one super-cool boxed set. That is what I am really waiting for.