Han Shoots First—Again!
It's a slow week—the perfect time to break the best news in DVD history.
Even though George Lucas adamantly declared 2004's digitally restored Star Wars Trilogy DVDs the definitive versions of his movies, fans have held out hope for DVDs of the originals.
Their wishes will be granted Sept. 12 when Fox releases new two-disc DVDs ($30 each) of Star Wars (since retitled as Episode IV: A New Hope), The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi that include the films as they first appeared in theaters, along with the new, restored versions (now available in the four-disc $70 Star Wars Trilogy).
George Lucas was not the first director to make substantial "corrections" to his movies, but his strategy of force-feeding the new editions to fans and basically deleting the old ones threatened to inspire a trend. If Lucas is willing to backtrack, even for purely market-driven reasons (new DVDs + nerds with money = new yacht for George), cineastes can look forward to more choice in which editions of their favorite films they can watch and own.