Theatrical Cuts Of Original ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy May Finally Be Released On Blu-Ray
Fans have wanted more Star Wars for a very long time, and they are finally getting it with the beginning of the first part of a third trilogy this Christmas. Still, fans love the originals more than anything and more of them is always good. Well, now the rumor has started up again that theatrical cuts of the original Star Wars trilogy will be coming to Blu-ray, but no-one really knows when that will actually happen.
Collider is reporting that iconic director John Landis did a Q&A session this past week at Halloween Horror Nights, and may have dropped some big-time info. Star Wars came up as a topic of conversation and he dropped the bombshell that everyone has wanted to hear for a long time.
“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.”
Of course, there is no real way of knowing where Landis got this info, or how concrete it is, but it’s hard to think that he came up with it out of nowhere. Sure, it’s great news, but just how possible is it at this point in time?
Slashfilm brought up the point that it will be hard for Disney to release a theatrical cut Blu-ray set of the original Star Wars trilogy because of the rights. 20th Century Fox still owns those release rights until 2020.
They also have the release rights for the prequel trilogy until 2020, as well.
Making this even more impossible at this time is that Fox actually has the rights for Star Wars: A New Hope in “perpetuity in all media worldwide.” That means they could technically never lose the rights to the original Episode IV unless a deal is struck with Disney.
Whether John Landis actually knows something or was just speaking out of his head, he’s certainly caused a lot of excitement.
Apparently George mentioned it when last they spoke. Somebody put Yub Nub on. Let the celebrations commence!
— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) September 19, 2015
Rumors of the theatrical cuts landing on Blu-ray have been around for years, but nothing has ever come of them. John Landis dropping this info is extremely credible, but still hard to picture it being able to happen unless Disney and Fox have struck a deal on the release rights for Star Wars.
[Image via IMPAwards]
