One of the things that 2007 was expected to resolve was the high definition wars between HD DVD and Blu-ray. While the battle lines became more clearly drawn this year, with most studios selecting one format exclusively, neither side really achieved dominance over the other. Personally, I think that’s because the studios aren’t thinking creatively enough, and I have the one solution that will draw one side definitively over the other in the HD wars. Two words: Star Wars.
Fans of George Lucas’s movies have been clamoring for the original trilogy, as they were originally seen, for years now. Even though the original movies have been put out on DVD, the desire to see Han shoot first or Sebastian Shaw as Anakin at the end of Return of the Jedi have turned fans to bootleg copies of laser discs. The only real response to this was the last edition of the original trilogy, which included the original versions of the movies, but in a crappy format that not only wasn’t remastered, but was barely cleaned up.
If George Lucas would put his revisionist pride aside and offer the original Star Wars movies, remastered into 1080p brilliance with true surround sound (if I remember the DVDs only offered stereo), people would buy it. It could be a release notable enough to get people to pick up high definition players just to have access to the movies they remember from their childhood. And, since Fox is on the Blu-ray side of the battle, that could seriously tip the scales in their favor. Imagine: Blu-ray becomes the format for Disney classic animated features and the original Star Wars movies. Now that’s a convincing argument.
Understand, I say all of this from the HD DVD side of things, which means, if this pipe dream came true, I’d have to change formats, but it’s a change I’d be willing to make for the original Star Wars pictures. There’s your proof right there – someone who backs the other side would change to Blu-ray to get these movies. Not that I want to change systems necessarily. I just want to know the library I’m building will have some lasting power.
Frankly, Warner Brothers missed the boat this month with their Blade Runner DVD release. If that had been put out exclusively on one format or another, it could have been a compelling argument to move to one side of the high def battle. Instead they supported both formats, which probably paid off for their bottom line, but didn’t help the war at all. Fox and Lucas now have the ability to make a difference – a difference that possibly no other movies could make.
Help us Obi Wan Kenobi, you’re our only hope.
