well, *some* of us knew about this years ago...like almost 30 years ago...

[acroyear]

Appearantly, someone has (finally) managed to leak a work-print of the Luke & Biggs sequences cut from the first reel of Star Wars.  There's a lot of "oh my god"'ing around it on the blogosphere, but to those of us who were supreme geeks at the time, we knew about these scenes 'cause they were 1) in the novel, 2) in the storybooks, 3) in the comic books, and 4) all over the Topps Star Wars Cards (I still have mine).

not all the audio is available, and some of the prints are black-n-white, but its still interesting.

I wonder if they'll put it as an extra on the upcoming dvds now that its been leaked?

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

btw, there's cut scenes from Empire as well - at one point the Rebels on Hoth accidentally dig their way through the ice/snow of the base into a nest of Wampas (the Yeti thing that got Luke later). A subsequent pan-by shows a "Do Not Open" caution sign on a door in the same hallway.

Then finally, as the snowtroopers invade the base, C-3PO calmly removes the sign on the door, with the troops opening it and promptly getting attacked by a dozen Wampas.

Again, its in the comic books and cards (though not in the novelization, nor the radio show since it was mostly a visual gag and Brian Daley had better things to write into his version).

The Bad News...

[rennfoole.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I wouldn't bet on it. It seems that Lucas is simply porting over to DVD the VHS/LaserDisc transfers from the early 1990's with no extras. And, NO 16X9 anamorphic enhancement just the existing letterboxing. Which means, on a widescreen TV, there will not only be black bands horizontally but also vertically to make the picture in a sort of window box (as opposed to letterboxed). On a normal 4:3 ratio TV you won't be able to tell. Only on a 16:9 widescreen will it be painfully evident. The only "change" confirmed by Lucas and Fox is the deletion of the subtitle "Episode IV - A New Hope". Check out recent columns in The Digital Bits.

Re: The Bad News...

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

the trouble is that 1) prints really do go bad and will require as much or more digital work (*expensive* digital work) to salvage. consider the poor quality of many cartoon collections (like Popeye) out there where the video masters came from prints because the negs were lost.

you want to read how bad things can *really* get, read about the Doctor Who Restoration Team

Now, the real question comes as why didn't they have a copy of the master digitally when they scanned in the frames to make the 1997 special editions in the first place?

in addition, while i love the fact that my tv has a zoom, its not entirely accurate to boosting a 3:4+letterbox into a wide. there's usually still something chopped off bottom and top. i have a dvd of a WW2 film (The Longest Day) in 2.25:1 that's from the laserdisc master (just as Lucasfilm says star wars will be) and zooming it to reduce the bars at top and bottom end up chopping off left and right.

*sigh*

Re: The Bad News...

[rennfoole.livejournal.com]

Now, the real question comes as why didn't they have a copy of the master digitally when they scanned in the frames to make the 1997 special editions in the first place?

The way I understand it is that when Lucas is quoted as saying that the original films no longer exist, he means it. Supposedly, after completing work on the 1997 SE versions he set about destroying everything from the previous versions that he owned or could get his hands on. Prints, negatives, deleted footage...everything! So, what he has left is the 1993 widescreen (letterbox not anamorphic) Laser Disc transfers. These were also used for the simultaneous widescreen & pan-and-scan VHS releases. Without the elements to restore in his possession, he is just having the previous masters transferred to DVD for this release. Pity, too. Bill Hunt of The Digital Bits is fairly sure (in his writings) that there are elements out there that could be used for this purpose but apparently no one is going to do it.

He had a very interesting quote on the website today - "Hhmmmm. This all reminds us of a line from a little art flick we liked back in the day. Lesseeee... we think it went something like...

"Buy more. Buy more now. Buy more and be happy." - THX-1138

Yessss...very interesting!!!