When will Star Wars movies appear on 4K Blu-Ray?

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We've got confirmation that Lucasfilm have recently finished a 4K master of A New Hope when Gareth Edwards recently visited them.

over time, I'm sure they'll release then films on disc but what versions do we really think we are going to get? Lucasfilm know there's a huge demand for the originals but do we think they'll go with it?

I'd love a 4K remaster with Dobly Atmos yet keep a lot of what was added in the special editions.

Sort Han shooting first. Completely cut the Jabba scene as well as the longer Mos Eisley arrival and I think I'll be happy. Not sure if I could stomach them redoing the Jabba scene again and using the latest tech, make him like Jabba from ROTJ.

In terms of a box set, I'd prefer them without the Prequels but I'll probably just pick up individual releases if they do them.
 
It's Disney so we will get a drip fed approach I until finally every iteration of everything is released , and then just when they couldn't wring anymore money out of us there will be the ultimate collection boxset.

And I will bite as always :laugh:.
 
Said this before - I hope they do what Spielberg did with Close Encounters (there's also a similar effort for Bladerunner) which is release the films with multiple versions so we can choose which version we watch. I really don't want to watch these tinkered with versions any more.
 
As much as I completely appreciate the distain for changes like Greedo shooting han I think there is a lot of misty eyed nostalgia for the 'pre special edition' un tinkered star wars - alot of the optical effects are ropey and quite literally see through - any type of HD release let alone 4k release would really show these up.

A 4k release will also be a challenge for Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith as they where shot in 1080p
 
As much as I completely appreciate the distain for changes like Greedo shooting han I think there is a lot of misty eyed nostalgia for the 'pre special edition' un tinkered star wars - alot of the optical effects are ropey and quite literally see through - any type of HD release let alone 4k release would really show these up.

A 4k release will also be a challenge for Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith as they where shot in 1080p
It's not a challenge when about 90% of current UHD titles are from 2K upscales anyway ;)
 
They havnt even released a 4k version of TFA yet...
I couldn't care less anymore TBH.
 
Change the heading man.. massive bloody click bait :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
 
I would bite Disney's hand off for everything bar the prequels in 4K - as long as the transfers are done well.

I would prefer Star Wars to A New Hope (because I originally saw it as such in the cinema) but would take any release they chose to do
 
As it's Christmas, is it too much to hope/wish Disney hired Harmy and he's been busy working away on despecialised-4K in secret for the past year? :)
 
It's Disney so we will get a drip fed approach I until finally every iteration of everything is released , and then just when they couldn't wring anymore money out of us there will be the ultimate collection boxset.

And I will bite as always :laugh:.
Is it Disney though? I thought the home releases of the original films remained with Fox until 2020 (or something like that?), and then the rights get passed to Disney.
 
Change the heading man.. massive bloody click bait :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Not really as Gareth Edwards has said in an interview that he has actually watched the new 4k remaster of ANH before he started filming Rogue One.

That's a lot of time and effort ( hopefully ) that Disney will want to cash in on.r
 
Not really as Gareth Edwards has said in an interview that he has actually watched the new 4k remaster of ANH before he started filming Rogue One.

That's a lot of time and effort ( hopefully ) that Disney will want to cash in on.r
The old heading was definitely click bait lmao :rotfl:
 
Is it Disney though? I thought the home releases of the original films remained with Fox until 2020 (or something like that?), and then the rights get passed to Disney.
2020 doesn't apply to A New Hope though. Fox has the rights for ANH in perpetuity.
 
Interesting that ANH is staying with fox. If it is im actually surprised they didn't release it to tie in with the theatrical release of rogue one. Unless of course they are really taking their time with all 3 4K remasters (hopefully) and getting them ready to release along with disneys home video release of rogue one instead.

Funny that the majority of you guys are actually praying on disney to hurry up with the original trilogy, when your prayers should really be directed at fox :rotfl:
 
ANH is definitely staying at Fox (unless they chose to sell the rights for big, big $$$ in the future) as they financed ANH.

ESB (& the later films) was financed by Lucas himself & it nearly bankrupted him, but it paid off for him in the long term as the distribution rights transfer back to Lucasfilm after they run out.
 
It's been known that Reliance Media did a 4k restoration of all three for several years now as they had some clips and screenshots on their website back in 2014, which would roughly tally with when Edwards would have sat and watched the first film so it's quite likely it was that same restoration he saw. Of course it's never been known which versions of the films Reliance worked on, and all evidence they had on their website was ultimately removed.

As much as I completely appreciate the distain for changes like Greedo shooting han I think there is a lot of misty eyed nostalgia for the 'pre special edition' un tinkered star wars - alot of the optical effects are ropey and quite literally see through - any type of HD release let alone 4k release would really show these up.

I find each release so far removed from the films I grew up with that I've had no desire to own the trilogy since the laserdisc days. That may sound dramatic, but the disruptions to pacing, the jarring music edits, the inconsistent effects work (that draw far more attention to themselves and the original effects work than the originals alone do), and the colour timing that seems to get sloppier with each incarnation, just prohibit my ability to enjoy the films anymore. I've since turned to fan restorations as that's as close as there is to a high quality release of the original trilogy.

Aside from personal reasons anyone may have, however, there should not be any argument that the originals don't deserve preservation. I don't think anyone minds the alternate releases, just that they have erased the originals from public existence. No matter how ropey some of the old effects may look today, they were still miraculous multi-award winning technological achievements for their time, and a lot of that original work hasn't actually been visible for the last two decades.

Funny that the majority of you guys are actually praying on disney to hurry up with the original trilogy, when your prayers should really be directed at fox :rotfl:

It's the responsibility of both, really. Lucasfilm still have a controlling interest in the original film to some degree (it was always up to them to dictate when Fox could release any of the films on DVD and Blu-ray back in the day), and Disney/Lucasfilm and Fox work together in handling it now as was evidenced when all the films went onto iTunes.
 
Surely the 40th anniversary of ANH is the perfect time for fox, disney et al to cash in and hopefully the happy coincidence is us fans being rewarded.
 
Surely the 40th anniversary of ANH is the perfect time for fox, disney et al to cash in and hopefully the happy coincidence is us fans being rewarded.
Hopefully a 40th ANH UHD next year yeah, if your going with the USA 1977 release anyway. Poor UK guys back then didn't have it til 1978 :rotfl:

Still think they may tie it in with the blu release of rogue one now. Unless they are really drawing it out and remaster and hdr grade the original trilogy (possibly the other 4 as well) and give you a big spanking release to tie in with theatrical release of ep8. - eughh so long.
 
We're probably counting chickens before they hatch somewhat, as it'd be nice to have Disney's support of UHD in place first. :) I'm sure they will do something for the anniversary, whether it be directly re-releasing the classic trilogy at home (whatever versions have been remastered) on DVD and regular Blu at the very least, or perhaps beginning with a limited theatrical re-release first, then home video ahead of Episode 8's release.

The Star Wars Celebration event is on the 13th of April, so if we don't hear anniversary re-release plans before then that'll be the place to expect any announcement I'd wager. That would be quite late for announcements if they were looking to time anything to the actual anniversary at the end of May though, but they may instead view 2017 as a celebratory year in general with plans throughout, culminating with the release of the new film.

Even if Disney do finally announce UHD support this year, I'd still be prepared for them to limit any potential remasters of the classic trilogy to regular DVD, Blu and download given how studios tend to hold back their most profitable catalogue titles on fledgling formats until there is greater market penetration of hardware. As market share of physical formats diminishes in general however, it becomes a little harder to hold stuff back for as long as they might have in the past though, so it'd be interesting to see when they might feel the time is right. Again, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves as we're still waiting for Disney to commit to UHD Blu in general.
 
100% chicken counting :rotfl:
However i don't really think disney being ready to jump into UHD or not has total reliance on the original trilogy being released, as they will be produced, distributed and probably HDR/4K mastered by fox anyway. - aware they still need the go ahead from lucasfilm, but still.

Honestly i think lots of people will have a bitch about how, well "not great" they'll end up looking anyway. The same crowd who think ghostbusters looks shit i imagine.
 
However i don't really think disney being ready to jump into UHD or not has total reliance on the original trilogy being released, as they will be produced, distributed and probably HDR/4K mastered by fox anyway. - aware they still need the go ahead from lucasfilm, but still.

Possibly, yes. I believe the the cut off is in three years when Fox lose the physical distribution rights to the five sequels, but beyond authoring/replication and distribution I would actually expect everything else to be produced under Lucasfilm (as has been the case with the DVD and Blu-ray releases in the past).

I still don't think Disney would approve a UHD release via Fox without Disney being committed to UHD themselves, however. It would make little business sense if they were not prepared to also get Force Awakens out there in 2017, but even then (again going back to studios love of sitting on their most prestigious catalogue titles when new formats emerge), we could see Disney on UHD next year and at best only get Force Awakens and Rogue One while another classic trilogy re-issue is left to DVD, Blu-ray and download. Then, in three years time when Disney might be more satisfied with UHD Blu's adoption numbers they might see fit to have the original trilogy released... and conveniently for them that'd be when they obtain full physical distribution rights.

Again though, the big question on my mind is whether three years is now potentially too long for any studio to sit on major catalogue titles now that streaming is becoming increasingly accessible and eating into the physical market share. The market is changing so quickly. It's definitely a little harder for studios to be pragmatic with their golden eggs, but maybe 3yrs will be the new 5 (it took five years for Star Wars to hit Blu-ray).
 
Mhmm. All this analysing and guesswork is so open to opinion it's ridiculous. I'd be surprised if they didn't do something for ANH 40th anyway. Even if its just a 4k remastered blu.. unless that alreasy exists?

Personally in terms of how i imagine they all will actually look in uhd, especially the original 3 and especially if fox are lazy and don't add dtsx, I'm only really interested in owning ep7 and rogue one on uhd at this point. Im just interested in general with what they are planning, or not planning, for the rest if the series.
 
I'd tend to agree that only the Force Awakens onwards would look good on UHD. Even 2K resolution is starting to show up the originals imo. They looked 'better' on my VHS box set and 21 inch CRT. Better in that I enjoyed them more than the subsequent DVD and Blu-ray triple dipping :(

The disenchantment set in after buying The Phantom Menance DVD at midnight on release day, rushing it home to watch and going oh! at around 02.30 am. That Tesco was completely empty of other customers should have been a warning...
 
I think the OT can definitely look much better than any release currently available (inc. despecialised). Obviously I'd never expect it to look like a Transformers film or such like, but aspects of the OT look dreadful in places on the current Blus, which you have to expect given they weren't even specially prepared for that release.

There's an old video Reliance Media Works uploaded which includes some footage from a 4K rescanned/remastered ANH here (00:43+)

Comparison between the despecialised and that remaster:

sw1.jpg

sw2.jpg



sw3.jpg
sw4.jpg
 
I think the OT can definitely look much better than any release currently available (inc. despecialised). Obviously I'd never expect it to look like a Transformers film or such like, but aspects of the OT look dreadful in places on the current Blus, which you have to expect given they weren't even specially prepared for that release.

There's an old video Reliance Media Works uploaded which includes some footage from a 4K rescanned/remastered ANH here (00:43+)

Comparison between the despecialised and that remaster:

View attachment 805480
View attachment 805481


View attachment 805484 View attachment 805485


They need to do a bit more work on Vaders Lightsaber overlapping his clothing, but Kenobi looks loads better.
 

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