|
|
|
August 28, 2011 THE CIRCLE IS NOW COMPLETE... It's been nearly 4 years since the last update here, mainly because there simply was no major cut scenes news to report. The hoped-for mega-set DVD with deleted scenes from the original trilogy never materialized. The next generation format for home video was decided in favor of Blu-ray over HD-DVD, but no word went out of Star Wars coming to that format. Time continued to pass with the status of the cut scenes remaining the same... Well, all that is now about to change. With the announcement at Star Wars Celebration V in August 2010 that Star Wars was coming to Blu-ray came a sneak preview of a deleted scene we all wanted to see: Luke Skywalker, constructing his own lightsaber in Return of the Jedi! This was announced as just one of the deleted scenes that were slated to appear as extras on the upcoming Blu-ray set. At last, an official release of the cut scenes...coming September 16th, 2011! What can we expect to see? Word has it there are over 40 cut scenes spanning all 6 films, and that even the deleted material from Episodes I, II and III is all new material we haven't seen before. We will definitely see the Biggs scenes, at last, and from a teaser trailer shown on StarWars.com (view it here) it looks like we will get the Luke & Treadwell scene IN COLOR now. It's been a long time coming, but hopefully it will be worth it at last. Now, since the cut scenes will finally be released, what will the future hold for this site, which has been online for over 12 years now? Starwarscutscenes.com will continue to remain online, only now our focus will shift to more specifically cover all the remaining cut scenes still out there (you didn't really think they were going to give us all of them in one shot, did you?). Chances are, there will always be more missing pieces of the Star Wars galaxy that we will continue to seek out and attempt to track down in the future for years to come. ***** December 7, 2007 We are back again! After some domain name and webserver issues, the site is now back online as part of T'bone's Starwarz.com family. Many thanks to T'bone for his continued help and friendship. So now 2007 is drawing to a close, and the 30th anniversary of Star Wars has nearly passed. And still the original trilogy cut scenes remain unreleased, with no sign of a mega-set DVD on the horizon. So it seems this site (as well as the other cut scene sites) still can serve a very good purpose in showing you what is still at this point largelly unseen. We plan to remain online long into the future. There are at least a couple of projects we'd like to point out that are very much worth checking out. The first one is the incredible Berndt Doetzer's Final Cut(s), which is an attempt to create fan-edits of the Star Wars films that contain as much extra footage as possible... even to the point of creating new footage! All known cut scenes are added back in, along with many other bits and pieces, creating a super extended version of each film. The website for details can be found here at the Star Wars Union pages in Germany. Secondly, there are the excellent fan documentaries by Jambe Davdar, Building Empire and Returning To Jedi. Picking up where Deleted Magic left off, they incorporate as much lost and behind-the-scenes footage as possible, as well as a wealth of little-known information. You have to see them to believe them. Jambe is currently working on his third documentary called Beginning Star Wars. His blog can be found here. Amazing work, folks. That's it for the moment, but more to come later... * * * * * September 2, 2006 Time has passed, and not a lot of news has happened on the cut scenes front. The final film in the Star Wars saga has now come and gone, and the DVD was released with the expected batch of cut scenes. Very shortly, the Original Unaltered Trilogy will be released on DVD at last (though unfortunately not in great quality or anamorphic widescreen), which is a welcome gift to purists and those who wanted to own the films as they were originally released. And now 2007 is around the corner, marking the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, and with that milestone we expect to see some new things come to light. Of greatest interest has been the strong rumors of an all-inclusive boxed set to be released with all 6 Star Wars films that will include cut scenes for the original trilogy. Cross your fingers and hope for the best. It's been a long time coming. * * * * * April 14, 2005 Finally we return with an update! As some of you may know, our Holiday Special site was launched a little over two years ago now. It was immensely successful, and this site was kind of on hiatus (but not forgotten!) while the focus was on the other one. But now there are far too many exciting things afoot to keep quiet over here... First of all, probably the most significant recent event last year was the release of the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD at last. But even better than that, in some ways, was the extras disc that came with the set. Clocking in at around 2 hours, it was chock full of behind the scenes footage and even some deleted material and Lost Cut footage. We'll be covering that on this site down the road. Secondly, you'd have to be living under a rock to not know that the release of the FINAL Star Wars film is just around the corner... Revenge of the Sith. From what we know so far, this movie feels more like the Star Wars we remember. The excitement is in the air... Third, we are just about a week away from the biggest Star Wars gathering ever... Celebration 3 in Indianapolis. A lot of you will probably be there. It's also usually a good place for picking up little tidbits of cut scene information, so hopefully we can bring something back from that. Finally, some really big news for the cut scenes community: a new unofficial documentary has been completed called Deleted Magic, by Garrett Gilchrist. This is basically like the annotated Star Wars, featuring cut scenes, behind the scenes, alternate shots and angles, and running text commentary throughout. It's a fantastic look at the first film that any fan can appreciate, especially anyone interested in the cut scenes. So in the meantime, we have some site updates to be added in the coming days. First off will be larger, upgraded videos of the Biggs and Treadwell scenes from Star Wars. We'll also be adding some more stills that have come to light recently. So keep your eyes open! * * * * * November 8, 2003 Once again it's time for a news update, and a few things have happened since the last one. This site was down and offline for a little while due to the loss of the old server space, but we are now up and running in a new location, with periodic updates planned. First of all, the biggest news: because the full glory could not be contained within this site, we have a brand new site to unveil to you: http://www.starwarsholidayspecial.com In collaboration with T'bone at www.starwarz.com, and to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Star Wars Holiday Special, we have created a place for everything you'd ever want to know about it. Enjoy! On the cut scenes front, the biggest thing has been the opening of the premium content area called Hyperspace at the official site. It began with an exclusive video of a cut scene from Attack Of The Clones featuring the Droid Control Ship Raid. Also there have been numerous exclusive unseen photos featured there, many of which are from scenes cut from the films. Well worth the cost for anyone who loves cut scenes. Last but not least, it has just been announced at a Lucasfilm retail meeting that the classic trilogy will finally see release on DVD in September of 2004. It sounds like it will be the Special Edition versions, with additional enhancements. No word yet as to what extras we might expect, but we can certainly hope for a dose of deleted scenes. Happy Life Day, everyone! * * * * * October 20, 2002 This news is a bit late; however, it's certainly of interest. We are pleased to report that the Episode II DVD release is right around the corner, and along with it come yet another round of cut scene goodies just like we had with the Episode I DVD. Here are the cut scenes featured: 1. Padmé Addresses
the Senate Of course, this is far from everything we know about that was cut from the film... and so this is why our cut scenes sites exist, to document all that is undocumented! Keep your eyes open for upcoming details on this site and on our (twin) sister sites listed in the Links section. * * * *
* May 20, 2002 One more film to go. So now Episode II is out and the secrets have been revealed. Star Wars Celebration II has happened, and excitement reached its peak once again. Now we've seen the film and we can't wait for Episode III. Along with this new film comes a whole new batch of cut scenes. Already there are stills and shots from the trailers that didn't show up in the theater. While this site has focused only on the cut scenes from the original trilogy so far, we will be expanding with sections for Episode I and II, and for Episode III as well when that day finally arrives. The Episode I DVD was definitely packed full of material originally cut from the theatrical release of the film. In addition to the promised 7 cut scenes are a couple of easter eggs featuring some further cut material and a few outtakes. On top of all this, the DVD version of the film features some extra bits not included on the videotape or theatrical versions. All in all an incredible package, and hopefully a sign of what is to come when the rest of the movies hit DVD as well. In the meantime, we will continue to search for more of the missing pieces to the Star Wars universe. Enjoy! * * * * * June 26, 2001 It's hard to believe it's been a year since the last news update here. True, things have been very quiet on the cut scenes front in the last year... until now. One week ago, on June 19th, www.starwars.com announced some big news on their website: the first of the Star Wars movies to hit DVD (Episode I) will be released on October 16th. It will be a special 2-disc set with loads of extra features. Amongst those extras? 7 fully-completed cut scenes from Episode I: 1. Complete Podrace Grid Sequence These scenes, most of them previously consisting of a lot of empty bluescreen, were specially completed for this release. Though as of this writing the Episode I cut scenes section here is not complete, you should check out T-Bone's excellent coverage at www.starwarz.com, as well as Greg Rossiter's amazing website (truly the best!), Star Wars Obscurities. Whether you're a big fan of Episode I or not, the release on DVD is great news as it should hopefully herald similar upcoming releases of the original trilogy on DVD. Let's hope for all the cut scenes to show up on those as well! In the meantime, we continue to wait for Episode II to arrive... * * * * * June 10, 2000 20 years ago, the much-anticipated sequel to the first Star Wars film was released...The Empire Strikes Back. To this day, it remains the strongest film in the entire saga so far. The Star Wars Insider magazine issue #49 has a commemoration for The Empire Strikes Back, with nearly the entire issue devoted to the film. In addition to this, it features a nice section on the cut scenes of ESB, along with a fair number of pictures. Some of these pictures had never been published elsewhere. I highly recommend picking up a copy of this issue, and not just for the cut scenes... it's a nice breath of fresh air after the admittedly suffocating barrage of Episode I information. Official web site www.starwars.com has a new section entitled "The Urban Legends of Star Wars". This is an excellent addition to the site, and should settle some long-standing questions once and for all. The section is also of great interest to cut scenes enthusiasts, since it includes answers about whether the famed "Luke and Biggs" scenes from A New Hope were ever included in the film, as well as putting to rest the rumor about an earlier version of Return of the Jedi featuring Lando's death along with the Falcon in a fiery explosion near the end of the film. This site continues to be updated and upgraded as time allows. Expect to see some new photos added to the collection soon, especially for The Empire Strikes Back. * * * * * May 2, 2000 It is now a year since the Denver Celebration. At this time last year, we were all awaiting the release of Episode I, hoping for another glimpse of that galaxy far, far away. Two things in particular that were highlights for me at the Celebration were: a chance to talk to archival archaelogist David West Reynolds about the cut scenes and the Lost Cut (if only briefly--many thanks to David for the tidbits of information), and a rare opportunity to see the famed "Return of the Ewok" short film, which features a number of alternate takes and joke scenes from ROTJ with most of the main actors in full costume. It was a wonderful time. The DVD rumors continue, with word having it that Lucasfilm is at least doing initial work on releasing the films in this format. Rumor also has it that they may come along sooner than originally thought, but not this year. And still we are hearing that extra material/cut scenes will be included on the DVD releases most likely separate from the rest of the film. At the moment the question is: will these scenes be cleaned up/edited/finished in the way that the Special Editions were, or will they be presented just as they are? My hope is that they will at least be cleaned up, but that they will be presented as they originally were even if new "finished" versions of the scenes are included as well. The Bigg(s)est news lately is that I had a chance to speak with Garrick Hagon, who played Biggs in Episode IV, and had perhaps the most important role in the all the cut scenes. He was able to recall the answer to an oft-wondered question of who played the cut scene characters Camie, Fixer, Deak, and Windy. Many of us knew already that Camie was played by actress Koo Stark, but Garrick confirmed that Fixer was played by Anthony Forrest (who also played a stormtrooper in Episode IV according to IMDB), and Deak was played by Jay Benedict (who can be seen in another cut but restored scene in the Aliens Special Edition as Newt's father). And though Garrick didn't recall the character of Windy, another source informed me that it was Warren Berlinger who played that role. I have not been able to confirm this, however, and that actor seems to have been a bit too old to have played the young Windy. Many thanks to Garrick Hagon for his kind help. There is still a lot to be done with this site. Keep an eye out for more pictures and more detailed information to be added, along with some cosmetic reworking. May the Force be with you, and may all your cut scenes be restored. * * * * * Oct. 7, 1999 The latest news revolves mainly around the rumbling DVD rumors. We may have to wait 6 years for these to come out, but every new quote from Lucasfilm seems to support more and more the idea that cut scenes will be included on the DVDs when they finally are released. The latest rumor says that there will be various different versions of the films in "layers" that can be watched from the earliest version to the final release (i.e. a rough cut/Lost Cut version with no effects and no sound, then a version with effects and sound but no music, then a finished version, etc.) so that you can see the entire process of what went into the making of the films. And cut scenes are supposed to be included but not inserted back into the film - so probably they'll be added as supplemental material, I would imagine. But do remember: this is all rumor and speculation, based on what we've heard officially. * * * * * |
