Significant Star Wars Discovery

I've been striving to preserve the OOT in the best possible quality, as many of you know.

Well, I've recently come into contact with a film collector who thinks he can help. He wants to stay safely anonymous, of course.

This collector has managed to assemble a complete 70mm/Dolby set of reels from the original 25-May-1977 run. He claims that most of the reels were used at the Triplex Paramus Theater in Paramus, NJ.

I took a trip up to NJ to meet him and he's definitely interested in telecining his copy of Star Wars.

He let me take a cellphone-camera picture of his collection, but made me promise to post it at a very low resolution. Note: Many of the canisters do not contain Star Wars. This is his entire collection and Star Wars is sitting somewhere in the middle.

We watched the film using his Cinemeccanica Victoria 8 projector (dual 35/70mm) in his home theater and each reel seems to be in tip-top shape. There's so little damage that I think just a bit of FilmGuard solution should do the trick. Honestly, it looks like his copy of the film has never ever been projected!

We have a lead on an 8K 70mm film scanner.

Stay tuned. Word to the spookies.

OK, this is getting weird. He sounds like a Nigerian Scammer, but he neither looks nor sounds like this in person. And now he wants money? WTF?!

Here's his most recent e-mail to me.

On 2013-04-01 14:15, Ahmad Restam wrote:
> Dearest Friend Anthony,
>
> HELLO WISE FRIEND AND STAR WARS FAN!
>
> This is Ahmad Loof-Lirpa Restam, or Adam, as I asked you to call me
> when we met !!!
>
> If you want the telecineplex of my 70 millimeters print, then I must
> ask for the financial assistance. I implore you to please wire
> $4,120.13 USD to my account. This sum is reasonable for
> telecinemaplexing to the digital files and your interweb friends
> should be able to help.
>
> Take a donation.
>
> Your friend, in Christ,
> Ahmad

Wait a second... Something looks fishy.

I think that e-mail was spoofed.

Is it likely that Adam is using his e-mail unencrypted and some kind of scammer is listening on the wire? I know it's possible, but is it likely?!

I'm going to call him on the telephone now. I'll keep ya'll posted.

WTF

HOLY SHIT.

He's in trouble. BIG trouble.

I don't know all of the details yet, as he couldn't speak for very long on the telephone, but he's 100% certain that some kind of law enforcement is monitoring him. It might be the FBI. Who knows?

How does that weird scammer e-mail fit into this?

Does anyone here have any legal experience? I might need a lawyer sometime soon.

*suspicious look*

I'm not sure I trust this. You, I mean. ;-)

Huh. Adam? AWK, maybe? His last hurrah?

bkev said:

Huh. Adam? AWK, maybe? His last hurrah?

Who's AWK?

Happy April Fools' Day, everyone!

Unfortunately, I didn't fool anyone! :-(

You managed to fool me.

For a second.

Seriously though, great thread.

TV's Frink said:

Eh.

I didn't even have to read the thread to know what was going on, given that you posted it in off-topic.  Also, what _ender said.

:-( :-( :-(

I'll try to do better next year.