George Lucas Announces Original Trilogy on DVD
Posted by: Big E 04.02.03 12:01am
The announcement that fans of George Lucas’ Star Wars have been waiting for has finally come; the original trilogy of Star Wars movies will be released on DVD in November of 2003.

The press release from Skywalker Ranch on Tuesday was a surprise.  Previously Lucas had made statements that he would wait to finish his prequel trilogy of films before releasing the original trilogy, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi to DVD.

Although light on details, the press release stated that Lucas has decided to release the movies after seeing "the success of last years Attack of the Clones with fans both old and new." 

Thought by many to be a stop-gap measure until a comprehensive release of all six movies in the trilogy can be released together, the set coming this fall is believed to contain the Special Edition cut of the movies, not the original. 

Some fans wish that wasn't the case.  Says video store clerk Andrew, "I'd like to see the movies the way they were shown in 1977.  Part of the fun in those movies was how good the special effects were for that time period.  And Han shoots first!"

Movie analyst John Rutherford wasn't surprised by the announcement.  "Lucas has reversed himself on decisions like this before.  And after the success of Clones last year, it's a good time to capitalize.  Besides this being the 20th anniversary of Return of the Jedi, this fall will be about the half-way point between Clones and the third movie in the new trilogy.  Perfect to keep fans interested."

Speculating on a collector edition after the third prequel, Rutherford had this to say, "I wouldn't be surprised to see it.  Rumor has it that Lucas is continuing to work on the original trilogy and may be shooting new footage to be added to it later to tie all six movies together.  I think any way you look at it, the fans win."

Calls to Lucasfilm producer Rick McCallum, who is in Australia doing pre-production work on Episode 3, were unreturned by this writing.