An Open Letter to George Lucas

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An Open Letter to George Lucas

Over the past twenty years, audiences around the world have thrilled to the exciting adventures and filmmaking wizardry of the Star Wars saga. Through the combined talents of Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic and THX, your vision has advanced the quality of motion picture exhibition and pioneered the art of digital technology. But beyond being just an incredible worldwide box office sensation and a crowning technical achievement, Star Wars became a cultural phenomenon with a passionate, devoted and loyal fan following unmatched in the history of cinema.

When it came time to present the Star Wars saga on home video, you continued to support the highest of standards by utilizing the latest advances in video technology. Past VHS and Laserdisc releases of The Star Wars Trilogy have earned well-justified praise from consumers and the industry alike for their superior picture, sound and value-added content. By refusing to deliver anything but the best, you have honored the passion and dedication of the filmmakers, artisans and fans that have made Star Wars what it is today.

But with the recent announcement of the April 4, 2000 VHS-only release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, you have chosen to bypass, for the foreseeable future, the highest quality home video medium currently available. Since its launch in early 1997, DVD has become the most successful new product introduction in the history of the consumer electronics industry, with nearly 5 million DVD players in U.S. homes to prove it, and twice that many computer DVD-ROM drives. With the advent of High-Definition television and the crossing-over to a digital-based standard, consumers want to know that the movies they are buying today will still deliver the highest quality on new equipment in the future. DVD gives them that option.

As editors of the leading DVD web sites on the Internet, with many thousands of unique visitors each month, we receive a constant flood of feedback from our readers. And in light of your decision to delay the DVD release of your greatest films, the outpouring from loyal Star Wars fans has been overwhelming and unanimously negative. By withholding a DVD release from the marketplace, fans have told us that they feel you are ignoring the millions of DVD owners who appreciate the unsurpassed video and audio quality that the format offers them. Instead, many will be forced to choose between buying your film on either an inferior format like VHS, or on one of the many illegal digital bootleg discs that are becoming widely available online.

Over the course of your distinguished career, you've clearly demonstrated your commitment to setting the highest standards of quality for your fans. With that in mind, we hope that you will reconsider your lack of support for the DVD format, and will continue to lead the way in bringing motion picture entertainment into the digital age. There can be no better way to experience the Star Wars saga at home than on DVD.

The fans have asked for it, and we think the films deserve it. Don't you?

EDITOR'S NOTE: This letter was published in the Monday, January 24, 2000 issue of Daily Variety, and was signed by the editors of The Digital Bits, DVD File.com, and Digital Man Interactive.

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