Originally posted by: skyman8081
they COULD, but it would still be stretched vertically.

Anamorphic film prints are 2.35:1

Anamorphic NTSC is 1.78:1

there would still be bars, but they would be the same size as the bars you see on movies that are 1.85:1

I'm afraid you've got some stuff wrong here. Anamorphic film prints are NOT 2.35:1; they're 1.3:1 or thereabouts. When projected, anamorphic lenses stretch the image about two times horizontally, so the final image is about 2.4:1.

If you were to transfer the film without an anamorphic lens, you'd have something that doesn't match any standard DVD ratio. No problem: that's what AviSynth is for. In fact, it would be sorta dumb to transfer the film WITH the anamorphic lens, I'd imagine, since then you'd have to add black bars right at the beginning. Far better to keep as much image information until as late in the mastering process as possible. And to answer SilverWook's question, making a 16:9 friendly version is dead simple.

@Molly: As SilverWook says, film is attainable. It ain't cheap, but it's available. Actually, getting the film digitized (telecined or scanned) is the extremely tough part. No post house I know of will touch copyrighted stuff without a lot of paperwork. A lot of paperwork nobody but Lucasfilm has the authority to sign.