A while ago I heard that THX 1138 might be appearing on DVD this year. It seemed that Lucas and American Zoetrope (Francis Ford Coppola’s studio) on one side and Warner (the original distributed) on the other had buried their differences and decided to release it. I guess this is because all rights were due to revert to Lucas and Zoetrope soon and they could put out the disk they’d always wanted and Warner would get no money.

The official site looked really promising. It offered a restored directors cut (Warner cut the release) with a 5.1 soundtrack, some new featurettes about the movie and a rare(ish) one that was made at the time of filming. The real cherry on top was ‘Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138:4EB’. George Lucas’ original student film. The thing that started his career in movies.

One thing seemed out of place. In the picture gallery there was a shot of the police robot factory that THX worked in that seemed wrong. It was way too big. I could have sworn that it was quite a small set.

Then I saw the trailer.

HE’S DONE IT AGAIN! He’s ‘Special Editioned’ THX 1138 and added new effects. I’m sure he’ll say that he’s just trying to realise his original vision for the movie (again) but this really turning into that episode of South Park.

Put the film down and step away George.