Lucas confirms Star Wars for Blu Ray

Roar

in 2011, at Christmas. Wuooop!

http://starwars.com/themovies/saga/mebd/bluray/index.html

The Star Wars saga will at long last be released in a high-definition home video format as all six movies come to Blu-Ray in a Box Set in Fall 2011, as announced by George Lucas this morning at Celebration V. At the fan convention's Main Event, thousands of Star Wars fans braved the muggy heat of an Orlando morning to queue for a one-time only stage session between George Lucas and The Daily Show's Jon Stewart. Stewart asked Lucas questions submitted from the fan community, and one of the most frequently asked questions submitted online prior to the Main Event was about the saga's release on Blu-Ray.

"I wish I could say it was coming out this year," said Lucas, "but it will come out next year."

The set will feature all six live-action Star Wars feature films, with the highest picture and audio quality, along with extensive special features.

Star Wars fans were treated to a glimpse of bonus material, in the form of a long-lost deleted scene from Return of the Jedi. The scene has long been talked about online -- a sequence that depicts Luke Skywalker assembling his new, green-bladed lightsaber prior to infiltrating Jabba the Hutt's palace. After completing the Jedi weapon, Luke stashes it in R2-D2's dome. What makes the Jedi deleted clip so remarkable is that it made it all the way to postproduction before it was cut, so it is a rare example of a cut scene with completed visual effects and music.

Actor Mark Hamill came out to describe the scene, remarking that once again his original introduction in a Star Wars film was cut out (his Anchorhead introduction was, of course, cut from A New Hope). Luke's intro is purposely played as ominous, with his face cowled in shadows and his intentions unclear."I had the black cloak, the glove, and I thought, wow, this time around I get to be the antagonist. Little did I know I was predicting the path of the prequels," said Hamill, noting the similarities to Luke in this scene and Anakin Skywalker's appearance.

Keep checking StarWars.com for more updates from Celebration V as the weekend continues.

and here's the vid..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdJ0E7HbTKc

i want it to be 2011!

bonerm

It's funny. Truth be told that "missing" lightsabre scene has probably been sitting in the vault for 28 years and it's only seeing the light of day because of this release. You gotta wonder what other stuff is available but will only be released in piecemeal purely to get the maximum profit from fans who have to resort to double-dipping.

49ers fan

Savage.....is it Christmas yet??

Mr. K

I'll be all over this. Hopefully the packaging will be like the OT's first DVD boxset:



Not:

http://www.starwars.com/img/movies/saga/20080826news/dvd_saga.jpg

49ers fan

yeah, agree about packaging, have the first dvd box, looks way better than later dvd release box sets

Roar

hopefully the packaging is nothing like either and they give us something different.

Another thing..

Will it be one big six movie box set (at a price of say, 80 euros), or will it be split up into two, at a price of say 50 euro dollars each, therefore making lucasfilm more money?

Tordelback

Deep sigh. I really thought Lucas was going to skip the nonsense that is BluRay, at least for the movies. Although it pains me greatly, I'll be missing this edition, the first since LaserDisc. I'm not buying a player and another copy of those six movies just for this.

Amazing as it is to see it now, that scene would have added nothing to RotJ. The Jabba's Palace sequence is an overlong series of re-introductions as it is, this would just have added another. Much like Jabba in ANH, seeing it only makes you realise that there was a good reason this stayed on the cutting room floor - if it doesn't contribute, it doesn't belong. Could Luke's actual entrance in RoJ have been bettered as a parallel for Anakin/Vader?