Disney/Lucasfilm is planning to re-release the original Star Wars trilogy, without any of the subsequent alterations, on Blu-ray, according to a report on ComicBook.com.

Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi will be packed up in a release prior to the theatrical release of Star Wars Episode VII late next year, according to the report.

"Our sources indicate that the project has been under way for quite some time, but it's been challenging because of some damage to the original negatives they are utilizing," states the report. "The goal is to release A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of Jedi in their complete, unaltered, original form without the redone special edition SFX."

Should this prove to be true, I'd applaud such an effort. My primary gripe with the current Special Edition versions available is that they are now the ONLY ones you can watch. The Special Editions have been altered in ways that fundamentally change the nature of the stories themselves.

More importantly from a film preservationist point of view the unaltered versions represent a unique time in both cinema, pop-cultural and visual effects history. The techniques developed on those films were groundbreaking and should be preserved, warts and all.