DATELINE -- Monday, 10 May 1999
Lucas speaks: Been wondering about the Star Wars trilogy on DVD? Of course you have, nutsacks. All of us want the goddam thing. But here's what George Lucas told Leonard Maltin last night on "Entertainment Tonight" (and by the way, the DVD question was the most-asked of 5,000 viewer inquiries that Maltin fielded from Star Wars fans):
"We have been kind of waiting on the DVD because I've been trying to make sure that the DVD is the ultimate 'repository' of the Star Wars saga, and primarily what we're trying to do is wait until I have all six of them before we release them on DVD."
There's the word from the man himself. Our prediction for Star Wars on DVD? 2006 -- at the earliest. So relax, kids. We're gonna keep our widescreen VHS boxed set in the freezer.
(Editor's note: In a subsequent interview with the Fox News Channel's Bill McCuddy, Lucas said that the six-DVD Star Wars box-set will appear in "2005.")
DATELINE -- Tuesday, 11 May 1999
The Day After: We've received plenty of e-mail from DVD Journal readers who are understandably upset that George Lucas apparently has no plans to release the Star Wars saga to DVD until all of the Star Wars prequels are complete (see yesterday's update). However, we've also heard from a few conspiracy theorists who claim that Lucas's peculiar choice of words in his brief statement to Leonard Maltin last weekend indicates that he didn't really say what we all heard. In particular, some have focused on how the DVD plan is only the "primary" plan, and that Lucas was not definitive enough, claiming that waiting until around 2006 is merely "what we're trying to do."
With all due respect, we think it's time to let go kids. Hanging on to all of the films until he can release a six-DVD boxed set sounds a whole lot like George Lucas to us, and this isn't a guy who really needs the home-video revenue anyway. Moreover, when Lucas said that the THX remastered editions of the original trilogy, released a few years back, were your opportunity to "own them again for the last time," he wasn't joking. The original Star Wars trilogy is as missing as Jimmy Hoffa. George Lucas doesn't play by the normal rules. He doesn't have to.
If Star Wars shows up on DVD by some miracle in the next year or two, we will be just as pleasantly surprised as the rest of you. But we're going to drop the matter and focus on all of the other great films that are arriving on DVD right now. If a hi-res Star Wars trilogy is really important to some people, it should be noted that they were all released on Laserdisc, including the THX-remastered originals. And considering how cheap Laserdiscs and used Laserdisc players are currently selling, now is a good time to make the investment.