Rumor: Disney Ad Fuels Speculation Of ‘Star Wars’ Digital Re-Release
By Russ Fischer/Oct. 8, 2014 4:30 pm EST
But still, a new Italian ad for Disney’s digital portal service is bringing the rumor back up again. Is there any more reason to believe it now than there was the last time this concept cropped up?
Before we go any further here’s the ad, followed by a translation of the Italian voice-over, from FilmDivider:
Clear evidence of an impending Star Wars re-release, right? Didn’t you see the clips? There’s footage from the ‘77 Star Wars! So, um, well… something. Granted, those clips are shown played on portable digital devices, and that isn’t a method by which the Star Wars films can be legally purchased or rented at this time.
But those Star Wars clips could mean anything, especially since they’re not used in a way that suggests customers will be able to purchase the films digitally. If they appeared earlier in the ad, during the portion clearly meant to show off digital film purchases and rentals, it might be more compelling.
In fact, they can’t mean quite anything, as they almost certainly do not promise the opportunity to buy the original trilogy from Disney. And Disney acquiring distribution rights to the original trilogy would be massive industry news. We’ll give Disney the benefit of the doubt and say it’s not something that would be allowed to leak through an ad such as this.
Perhaps this ad campaign is simply playing things a bit loose, using clips from Star Wars to suggest that there will be SW content of some form available via the portal. Maybe it’s just being used to attact fans. (That worked!)
