Last week the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences hosted a presentation contrasting the analog technologies developed for the first Star Wars film released in 1977 with the all-digital toolsets used to create Rogue One: A Star Wars Story released in 2016.
The event was followed by screenings of both films which included a rare opportunity to see a pre Special Edition version of Star Wars: A New Hope in 70mm. The Academy got permission from George Lucas to show this version of the film.
The Academy got special permission from George Lucas to screen it in a double bill with ROGUE ONE, and that’s huge, because this is the first time Lucas has signed off on a public screening of the original version of the film since before 1997.
— David Daut (@DavidMDaut) June 29, 2019
What does this mean for future releases of the film? Will the expected 4K releases of the all nine films in the Skywalker saga feature a bonus of this 1981 print of A New Hope? Fans around the galaxy would welcome such a release and we live in hope.
