Help Wanted: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Cinerama and 6.0 Stereo Sound

Hello, everyone!

Let me introduce you to my next project. I want to create a CINERAMA version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. This movie was shown on a big curved screen all over the world. All 70mm prints carried 6 magnetic tracks, with 5 discrete channels behind the screen and one mono effects channel. I want to create a Smilebox version with the same audio channels, but not in 5.1 (without LFE) but in 6.0.

For this project I need:

WARNER 1999 DVD

The first thing to modify will be the color correction. I wonder if the original look of this film was really like the remastered version:

REMASTERED BLU-RAY

PREVIOUS BLU-RAY

The MGM 1998 DVD was supervised by Stanley Kubrick, so it would be perfect to use as a reference for picture, but not for audio. In this release one line of dialogue is missing “I read you”. The remastered DVD release includes that line but does not have the dialogue panned, as it should be in some scenes, it is centered. But there is a third option, the Warner 1999 DVD (not remastered and also supervised by Stanley Kubrick himself). This release includes the line “I read you” and the dialog is panned when it should be.

In this scene there should be a yellowish tint and the chairs should not be completely red but close to pink/purple. So, I think the ideal would be to get something close to this:

Christopher Nolan also made his own 2001 version, called “Unrestored.” But it has been harshly criticized and they say it looks like he used Instagram filters. I haven’t seen it, I don’t know if it’s really close or not to the look of the director-supervised version. Anyone seen it?

In my opinion, the remastered DVDs and Blu-rays don’t look the way a film shot in 1968 should look. But that’s just my opinion, I imagine nowadays no one will have that old 1999 Warner DVD to use as a reference anymore. If anyone still has it, please let me know here or send me a PM.

I have the MGM DVD. If you like, I’ll send you the video without audio via DM, and then once I acquire the 1999 Warner DVD, I’ll send you the audio track as well.

Christopher Nolan also made his own 2001 version, called “Unrestored.” But it has been harshly criticized and they say it looks like he used Instagram filters. I haven’t seen it, I don’t know if it’s really close or not to the look of the director-supervised version. Anyone seen it?

There’s a trailer for this release on youtube, but apparently the recent 4K UHD release is taken from that print.
Edit: I should have finished researching first, dvdbeaver claim the UHD version is not based on the Nolan print. I stand by the colours not quite being right to my eye, but still based on inaccurate recollection.

The few times I’ve been lucky enough to see this projected have been from older prints so my recollection of the colour is inaccurate at best, but things definitely seemed a little off to me on demoing the disc so haven’t watched it all yet.

Very excited to follow your progress on this!

Hello 😃 I think I found what you are looking for - I have this DVD in my collection, is it the WB one? I have a few “stanley kurbrick collection” DVDs I found at a second hand store a few years ago and this is one of them. 😃 You would need the audio only ? pm me if this is what you are looking for.

Cheers from Canada!

I had a feeling it was decades of accrued bias from home video watches. The print I got to see a few times has a lot of fading, and I last saw it several years ago!

Very excited about this project! I guess what you’re looking for is this 1999 release with Bowman on the cover.

This one does not have “Digitally restored and remastered” on it. The MGM DVD master is different and does not include a line of dialogue. I’ll see if I still have it and if so I’ll send you an ISO copy of that Warner 1999 DVD.

The Nolan version sucks!

a_purist said:

Very excited about this project! I guess what you’re looking for is this 1999 release with Bowman on the cover.

This one does not have “Digitally restored and remastered” on it. The MGM DVD master is different and does not include a line of dialogue. I’ll see if I still have it and if so I’ll send you an ISO copy of that Warner 1999 DVD.

The Nolan version sucks!

Sorry for the delay, I don’t have that 2001 DVD anymore. Everyone has probably gotten rid of all those non-remastered Kubrick DVDs by now.

The remastered Blu-ray suffers from bad SDR conversion with areas of near nuclear blue and teal. The UHD disc is a better point of reference and far more accurate. The DVD is probably wrong like many are.

That’s all the encouragement I need, my copy of the 4k is ready by the player for my next viewing.

2001: A Space Odyssey (Laserdisc):

This transfer was supervised and corrected by Stanley Kubrick himself.

https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/00997/CC1160L/2001:-A-Space-Odyssey:-Special-Edition

Laserdisc:

Now:

I don’t have the Laserdisc. I don’t have the Warner 1999 DVD either. This project aims to recover the original colors, the same ones that Mr. Kubrick approved.