For years, there have been rumours about the original Star Wars trilogy getting a re-release in HD, but George Lucas appears to have been the one responsible for it not happening. Well, with Lucasfilm now owned by Disney after they paid a cool $4 billion for it, it sounds like that might be about to change. During a Q&A session last week at Universal Studios Orlando, legendary director John Landis dropped a very interesting titbit when one fan asked if he has any inerest in going back to a movie like American Werewolf in London and using today's effects to touch it up in any way.
"First of all, they wouldn’t let me. George owns his movies, so he can do what he wants … My personal opinion is George hurt his movies by doing what he did. However, George said to me, ‘But they’re my movies.’ I thought, ‘That’s fair.’ Did you know Disney, by the way, is putting out the original Star Wars the way it was? So, Disney, they’re like, money on the floor."
So, while it's not confirmed just yet, it sounds like it's definitely on the cards. The first time I watched Star Wars was with the special editions in the late '90s (which are arguably much better than the Blu-ray versions which featured some good alterations, some baffling ones, and one truly terrible one; Vader's "Nooooo!"), so I wouldn't have too much interest in these, but there's no denying that the original theatrical cuts would do big business for Disney.
What do you guys think about this news?