British Film Institute to Publicly Screen Star Wars‘ Original Cut for First Time in Decades

We may be coming up on nearly 30 years since George Lucas first remixed the original Star Wars trilogy in the special editions, but despite years of rumors and hopes, it’s still been a very, very long time since public access to the original theatrical cuts of A New Hope (or rather simply Star Wars as it was back then), Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi was readily available. But now, for one night in the UK at least, that’s going to change.

This morning the British Film Institute announced that its second Film on Film Festival, celebrating the medium of print film itself, will be headlined by the first public screening of one of a handful of remaining dye transfer IB Technicolor prints made for Star Wars‘ original release in the UK in produced for the first British release in December 1977, and since kept for preservation in the Institute’s national film archive. The screening, which will take place on the festival’s opening night on June 12, marks one of the first times the original cut of Star Wars has been screened publicly for decades.

Contemporary access to the original Star Wars cuts hasn’t been readily available since the 2006 DVD release of both the 2004 editions of the films (featuring further controversial changes to the films to align them with the prequel trilogy), and a bonus re-issue of the original cuts last released on Laser Disc in 1993. Although fan-restored versions of the film have proliferated online for many years, rumors have swirled over the last decade-plus since Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm that officially-remastered versions of the original cuts could see some form of release, but that’s yet to happen. More recently, in an an incredibly bizarre move, the original cut of Star Wars was made available for streaming last month on Roku through the Cinema Box for a handful of days before it was promptly pulled from access.

Star Wars isn’t the only intriguing genre release at the festival, either. The BFI also announced that Kyle MacLachlan will introduce a screening of the original 35mm print of the Twin Peaks pilot, marking the first time ever that the US version of the pilot will be screened in the country.

Tickets for the BFI Film on Film Festival will start releasing from May 6, ahead of its beginning on June 12.

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