Via www.denofgeek.com:
Rumours have surfaced on and off since Disney
acquired Lucasfilm back in 2012 that it would eventually release the non-tinkered with original cuts of the Star Wars trilogy. George Lucas has long considered whatever the latest altered version was of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi as the official versions of the films, and whilst he owned them, a high-definition release of the original cuts was off the cards.
But perhaps the biggest hint yet has now landed that Disney may be putting things right.
It’s come via John Landis, who has been promoting the American Werewolf In London maze that’s opening at Universal Studios in Orlando. When asked whether he’d ever consider going back to any of his old films and using fresh technology on the effects in them, he said that “first of all, they wouldn’t let me”.
He added that “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'”.
And then Landis dropped the news. “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”.
Obviously, nothing has been confirmed here, and Disney also has to wrestle with the fact that 20th Century Fox owns the home distribution rights to the original trilogy until 2020, and to A New Hope ongoing beyond that. Disney would thus need to make some kind of deal with Fox to cement the release of the films in home formats.
But the signs are it may well do so. We’ll wait and see if this comes to pass…