September 14 Lift-off for Star Wars Box Sets

The Star Wars movies will go on sale in three different box-set configurations from September 14.

Whereas the various Blu-ray editions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy were drip-fed into the NZ market, 20^th Century Fox is giving Luke Skywalker stalwarts all the options from day one.

The original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, with audio commentaries and archival interviews, can be bought separately, for $80 each, or together as a $160 nine-disc colossus with new extras.

In addition to the trilogy commentaries, The Complete Saga will include:

• Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III: deleted, extended and alternate scenes; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; matte paintings and concept art; supplementary interviews with cast and crew; a flythrough of the Lucasfilm Archives.
• Star Wars Archives: Episodes IV-VI: deleted, extended and alternate scenes; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; matte paintings and concept art; supplementary interviews with cast and crew.
• Star Warriors: A tribute to the 501st Legion, a global organisation of Star Wars costume enthusiasts.
• A Conversation with the Masters — The Empire Strikes Back 30 Years Later: George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan and John Williams look back on the making of The Empire Strikes Back to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the movie.
• Star Wars Spoofs: a collection of Star Wars spoofs and parodies that have been created over the years, including clips from Family Guy, The Simpsons and How I Met Your Mother and “Weird Al” Yankovic’s music video tribute to The Phantom Menace.
• The Making of Star Wars: the behind-the-scenes story of how the original Star Wars movie was brought to the big screen.
• The Empire Strikes Back: SPFX: Mark Hamill reveals the how the special effects were achieved for Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.
• Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi: production footage from Return of the Jedi is interspersed with vintage monster movie clips to show how George Lucas created the classic creatures and characters.
• Anatomy of a Dewback: George Lucas demonstrates how his team transformed the original dewback creatures from immovable rubber puppets (in the original 1977 release) to seemingly living, breathing creatures for the Star Wars 1997 Special Edition update.
• Star Wars Tech: leading scientists in the fields of physics, prosthetics, lasers, engineering and astronomy explore the technical aspects of Star Wars vehicles, weapons and gadgetry to test the plausibility of Star Wars technology.