starwarsmania said:
GARY KURTZ (PRODUCER-STAR WARS AND THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK)
For the re-mastering of STAR WARS for the SPECIAL EDITION, Kurtz recalls that scenes on the negative were so badly scratched that they had to use the best quality material possible from the remaining worldwide theatrical prints used in cinemas twenty years early. It was a difficult job finding good quality prints and Kurtz was heavily involved in this work-even loaning LUCASFILM his own personal print of the movie for one scene which was heavily damaged on the original.
GARY KURTZ (PRODUCER-STAR WARS AND THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK)
For the re-mastering of STAR WARS for the SPECIAL EDITION, Kurtz recalls that scenes on the negative were so badly scratched that they had to use the best quality material possible from the remaining worldwide theatrical prints used in cinemas twenty years early. It was a difficult job finding good quality prints and Kurtz was heavily involved in this work-even loaning LUCASFILM his own personal print of the movie for one scene which was heavily damaged on the original.
This would support the claim that the negatives have either been destroyed or are way too damaged to be useful in any future restoration but the fact that they used theatrical prints when they remasterd the '97 SE means thay could do that again.
Anyway, lets hope that somewhere a rich collecter has a 70mm print of Empire.