The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

When George Lucas announced that the original Star Wars trilogy was coming to DVD, most fans let out a "finally" as DVD technology by this point was already seven-eight years old and it seemed to be some sort of ploy by Lucas to saturate demand as much as possible. Of course, some couldn't wait eight years and decided to buy or download pirated copies. Lucas didn't appreciate not getting paid for the work he did, but most didn't sympathize with him since he simply didn't provide the DVDs to purchase when the public WANTED to give him their money.

Regardless, when the DVDs were given a release date back in 2004, the first question everyone asked was if the original editions would be included on the discs. George Lucas stated only the special editions would be available, as those were his true "vision" as the older versions fans saw in theatres was not the intended final cut. Indeed, claiming "art" was his motive was a good defense but for true die-hard Star Wars fans, all this did was piss them off and continue to find bootleg copies of the originals they fondly remember in theatres. Everyone knows DVD has the capability of carrying multiple versions of films so both the original and special editions could have been put on one disc with ease. Most sensed that Mr. Lucas was doing this just so he could release a separate DVD release later, and cash in on that.

Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. September 12, 2006 will see the release of the original versions of the Star Wars trilogy released on DVD, and of course Lucas and company are simply catering to public demand when they do this. Fans love the originals so much, hey, they're only doing what they want.

But cynical fans like me know too well George is simply doing this as part of his pre-determined marketing strategy to maximize revenues for his movies. Yeah, it's his property and he can do whatever he wants to do with it. He'll cater to what the fanbase asks so long as he gets paid for it. With the 30th anniversary of Star Wars coming next year and a talked about six disc "super set" rumoured to be in development, I think fans are going to get screwed if they decided to fork over more dough for the original cuts. But hey, at least someone is making a profit.

By the way, that photo above....I can guaranteed you that ain't George writing out a cheque to someone.