lamphorn

I'd rather have new stuff, honestly. I already have the DVD's and don't need disc space wasted on a bunch of docs I already have. I don't understand the anger over this.

Breather

Min,

I know that you were probably talking to droidguy but I'll respond anyway.

I only asked them about "Empire of Dreams" and "From Star Wars to Jedi" in my initial email. I should have asked about the three prequel docs as well. That was a dumb error on my part. Whether one likes the prequels or not, "The Beginning", "From Puppets to Pixels", and "Within a Minute" were all well done and deserved to be on this set. My followup email inquired about those. I'll post any response that I get.

I had already assumed that EOD and FSWTJ weren't going to be on the set based on the May 4th press release. Typically, documentaries should be on the Documentaries disc but I wanted to be sure. I don't assume the absence of the three prequel docs based on the email reply that I received from Lucasfilm. I assume their absence due to no mention of them in the initial press release. I hope I'm wrong.

Personally, I don't think we'll ever see the often talked about "ultimate" set that many of us want. I would have liked two sets for this release. A six film, one bonus disc release, priced for the casual, everyday fans and families that want the Star Wars films on blu-ray, and an ultimate set with everything, including the UOT, for the more hardcore among us. I have a feeling no such set will ever come. If they give us everything at once, we'd have no reason to purchase the same films again in a few years. Good for them and bad for us.

Even in the absence of an "ultimate" set, they could have substantially improved this release with the addition of a tenth disc, in my opinion. A waste to mention since it's already set in stone, but why not? A better set, for me, would have had the following:

• Remove the 221 minutes of the 501st, Spoofs, and SW Tech docs from Disc 9.
• Put the 216 minutes of "Empire of Dreams" and "From Star Wars to Jedi" on Disc 9, where they belong.
• Create a tenth disc and start it out with the three prequel docs we mentioned above.
• For the rest of Disc 10, choose among more OT material, PT material for the prequel fans, SW:The Legacy Revealed, Lucas A&E Biography special, SW Tech, Spoofs, or a new documentary on the six films.

In my opinion, those changes would have made a much better set.

Breather

I'd like new stuff too. On the other hand, the new features they're giving us here, at least in terms of disc 9, are pretty weak, in my opinion. Almost four hours used on the 501st, Spoofs, and Star Wars Tech? The film series ended six years ago and with the exception of a nice, new documentary on the six films and more archival material, there isn't that much to say that hasn't already been said.

Blu-ray is an archival format. The massive storage space that BD allows afforded them the opportunity to really load up a set for the fans. They had the chance to give us plenty of new stuff and the older material. I want the old features because much of it was good and informative and it would be nice to have everything under the same roof, so to speak. Blu-ray gives them this opportunity and they didn't take advantage of it. With Blu-ray in full swing, I don't want to have to go back to official DVDs from 6-10 years ago and dvd-r rips to view that stuff.

Artman

Yeah, but when 90% of current blu-ray releases carry over the majority of dvd extras it can't be seen as anything other than a disappointment. You may care about disc space but a lot folks are thinking about shelf space. Being able to sell/trade in the dvd version is a selling point for upgrading. It's a shame this Star Wars set so far isn't meeting even the bare minimum of expectations. It's possible it could blow us away with it's audio/video presentation, but given Lucasfilm's track record, I doubt it.

Fok

Extras aside, I'm really hoping that the picture quality will blow me away. Maybe they should have used two Blu rays per movie like LOTR

yoshimi

I hope Luke's lightsaber is orange this time on the Millennium Falcon when he is training.

Super56K

I don't understand all these complaints. I mean, this is only the first time around on blu-ray. I'm thinking by the 2nd or 3rd re-release it will be a stellar collection.

Breather

I received a reply to my followup email to Lucasfilm, in which I asked about the three prequel docs and if there was a possibility of FSWTJ and EOD getting a separate release. In the first email I posted here, she mentioned that the press release didn't reflect the the set in its entirety. She did confirm that the two OT docs weren't there. In this one, she says that everything that will be presented in the set is listed in the press release. Here's the followup response from LFL:


---------




Dear -----,



Thanks for your follow up e-mail.



Regarding the special features on the upcoming Star Wars Saga Blu-ray release, all the features that will be presented in the set are listed on the official press release. It’s quite a comprehensive collection. The three discs of behind-the-scenes content and documentaries are over 40 hours of material and deep discs of archival material, some never seen before.



Outside of that, I can say that I am looking forward to this September and watching the Saga when it is released on the 16th too!



Sincerely,

Connie



Publicity | Lucasfilm Ltd.


------



Not much there, really. Basically, a polite way of telling me that "I've told you everything I can. Now, please go away." In case any of you want to email them, it's:

[email protected]

PopcornTreeCt

I'm just curious, for Star Wars fans, could there possibly be anything in the special features that you didn't already know or have seen before? This isn't some obscure movie, this is Star Wars.

TK-421

The deleted scenes for me. Hoping for some more new ones like the Luke building his lightsaber scene we're getting from ROTJ.

applesandrice

So, "new" as in "recently filmed specifically for this release"?

RD1973

What's with this new conspiracy theory. The scene looked genuine to me. And even if they are reconstructions based on the shooting script, thats cool too.

mcnabb

As for the Deleted Scenes, wont they all eventually show up on Youtube (or can Lucas legally block them?) or some website after the release? I think the extras are pretty lame, and the only thing that interests me is the deleted scenes, so I may just wait for them to pop up on the internet.

MBoyd

But can we expect deleted scenes
From the original trilogy to have FX finished digitally? Like the prequels?

milo bloom

If you've ever looked through the massive hardcover "Making of Star Wars/Empire Strikes Back" book for more than a minute, you'll run across a dozen things you've never seen before. Some of it starts to get into minutia, but for the dedicated fan it can still be interesting.

And yes, the deleted scenes. I'm sure they'll be on and off Youtube every other day for a while after this is released.

Mabuse

I would hope not. I'd like to see them as originally filmed.

As for something I'd love to see:

I'd love to see some attempt made at aproximating what the first 20 minutes of ESB was like as originally edited. Even if it had to resort to story boards or put in some new animation to fill in the gaps.

(FYI, all the Hoth stuff was originally edited in a different order with more Wampa activity and it even had a different score. It was all re-edited and rescored at the 11th hour; very successfully I might ad. But I'd like to see what it was originally like.)

applesandrice

The conspiracy theory comes from video of Mark Hamill stating they'd never filmed that scene.

RD1973

Well, that looks like Mark Hamill to me in the deleted scene. And again, even if they are reconstructions, doesn't that beat looking at storyboards?

I know a couple of scenes from Jaws I'd like to see reconstructed.

Travis McClain

This reminds me, one of my favorite DVD bonus features was on the 2-disc release of Batman, where they presented storyboards of a scene that wasn't filmed, but to spruce it up they brought in Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to voice Batman and the Joker.

milo bloom

Didn't I read somewhere they actually had a 90 minutes "fast" cut of Empire somewhat completed at one point? I'd sell a kidney to see that. I've also read that there's so much alternate footage of ANH that you can construct a completely different movie. That'd be an extra worth buying the big set for.

applesandrice

What's wrong with storyboards?

My issue isn't with the scene itself, it's with the dishonest marketing behind it. What if Warner Bros. had tried to pass off Peter Jackson's recreation of the lost "Spider Pit" sequence from the 1933 "King Kong" as "recently discovered original footage"? A newly fabricated sequence for a 30-year-old film doesn't qualify as a "deleted scene". It's just more revisionist history.

Here's a link to the video I mentioned.

PopcornTreeCt

I can't believe that if that's true. That is unbelievable that they would go and film a scene and make it like it was a lost scene.

Jay G.

My problem with the video "testimony" is that there's seems to be a bit of a breakdown in communication between the interviewer, Mark Hamill, and the scene in question.

First off, the interviewer asks about specifically constructing the lightsaber, which the deleted scene doesn't show. In the deleted scene, we see Luke adjusting something on the lightsaber, which may be the last tweaks after construction, but we don't see any actual construction.

Then Mark Hamill, after saying "I don't recall that" makes specific mention of insert shots of hands and such, which is an odd thing to mention if the entire scene didn't exist. But perhaps Mark was referring to specifically not remembering constructing the lightsaber, instead of the cave scene altogether. Again, the interviewer specifically mentions the constructing of the lightsaber, which isn't seen in the deleted scene, and thus likely not shot with Hamill either. So Hamill remembers the cave, but not constructing the lightsaber, just fiddling with it.

So the Hamill interview isn't the "slam dunk" evidence of a conspiracy some make it out to be.

tylergfoster

The simpler answer is it comes down to the person asking the question effectively describing the scene. Since the interviewer was talking before the video was recorded and is essentially having Mark repeat his answer, who knows if Mark is picturing the actual scene. I mean, it's a really short scene.

I think it's a little crazy to suggest they filmed it recently to try to get fans to buy the Blu-Rays. I mean, unless the technology used to add the actors in is flawless, people are going to figure it out, and I don't think the technology required to do that exists quite yet.

georgec

You guys might like this:

http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/A-...-to-Town.shtml