Last month, it was announced that Disney was planning to release a remastered 4K edition of what many consider to be the greatest Star Wars movie of all time, The Empire Strikes Back, in VUE Cinemas around the United Kingdom in an effort to entice fans back into theaters, but that's no longer happening.
According to Variety, the Mouse House has decided not to go ahead with the release, which would have marked the first time a Star Wars movie from the original trilogy had been screened to cinema audiences in 4K.
This has less to do with the COVID-19 pandemic than you might think, however, as a standard 2K version of the movie is still scheduled for next month. Apparently, talks broke down with exhibitors in the last few weeks which resulted in plans to show the UHD version of the film being scrapped.
Empire - which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary - is said to be the first of a number of titles Disney has offered to UK exhibitors, but with everything up in the air thanks to a recent spike in coronavirus cases, it's impossible to predict how things are going to play out.
What do you guys make of this change? Any interest in checking out the standard version of The Empire Strikes Back again in theaters? Let us know in the comments.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.