George Lucas is throwing his fans a bone.
Lucas, the man who refuses to acknowledge the original prints of his beloved "Star Wars" trilogy, has announced his epic saga will get a Fall 2011 Blu-ray release.
At the Celebration V event in Orlando, FL, Lucas showed a packed crowd a new deleted scene from "Return of the Jedi," featuring Darth Vader reaching out to Luke via The Force as the young Jedi master constructs his green lightsaber.
It’s one of a handful of never-before-seen moments that will appear on the discs, which will also include a bunch of documentaries, interviews and other bonuses.
The much-maligned prequel trilogy will be released at the same time.
Lucas told the New York Times that releasing the original versions of the classic trilogy would be, "an oxymoron, because the quality of the original is not very good.”
The director has never been impressed with fans' pleas for the classic trilogy in a digital format, though he's always been a powerful critic of the not-dissimilar colorization of classic black-and-white pictures.
Still, the prospect of any version of the 'Star Wars' saga hitting Blu-ray is a fairly thrilling one for any fan of X-wings and Force powers. The high-def sound and vision provided by the format promise a perfect match with the epic canvas against which Lucas sets his space opera.
It's hard not to be critical of the tide of missteps Lucas has unleashed since 1997’s Special Edition trilogy... but we can't think of a better franchise to show off what HD does best.
