Calibrated 1997 Scan of Star Wars: A New Hope - Special Edition

Just what we need, another 35mm scan of Star Wars! But this time, it’s the 1997 THX restored Special Edition! I have access to a calibrated European scanner, and mint condition prints of the whole trilogy.

Say what you want about the CGI added to the Special Editions but the photochemical restoration was well worth the effort. If you’ve only seen the mediocre UHD (DNR, windowing, and desaturation) and HD masters (less DNR, low resolution, blue blanket skew), you don’t know what you’re missing! The actual Special Edition restoration was very nice when THX certification used to mean something, and in fact, the color timing was much more consistent shot-to-shot than would have been expected in 1977/1980/1983. (I saw the recent 70mm screening of the original Star Wars in LA and can attest to this).

Screenshots below so, for context, you can see the brilliant restoration work done by THX on Empire in 1997.

Already have fully scanned Empire Strikes Back with private funds, so now moving on to Star Wars but need the donations to cover scanning costs for this project. A calibrated LUT using an IT-8 target has been designed for use with this specific scanner, and I will be using it during encoding to ensure that the scanned image matches a projected image.

I’m paying for hard drive costs out of pocket, and my labor, of course, is free 😃

I have successfully fundraised several other titles on this site, including EVIL DEAD 2, BACK TO THE FUTURE 1, BACK TO THE FUTURE 2, and HALLOWEEN .

For A NEW HOPE, we have a little over 40% funded but we can’t proceed unless we have 100%. So I hope people can help.

PLEDGES ($656.51/$796 - 82% FUNDED!)

-The Aluminum Falcon - $50
-TR2N - $10 + $20
-hot noodles - $10
-The Bull’s Eyed Womprat - $20
-Collipso - $5
-Laozi - $10
-pathustler85 - $10 + $20
-forcefreak - $19.95
-Beebop - $20
-shiftyeyes - $20
-Rogue Trooper - $20
-AD1138 - $100
-nekochip - $50
-trimaxion - $10
-Anonymous DD - $30
-Anonymous OJ - $26.12
-Anonymous BJF - $50
-Anonymous CB - $15
-Anonymous DS - $10.44
-Anonymous MF70 - $25
-Anonymous EPHX - $20
-Anonymous CTA - $25
-Anonymous CBTK - $40
-Anonymous HSGT - $50

If you donate to help Star Wars/A New Hope, then next month, I’ll send you a free copy of The Empire Strikes Back: Special Edition (1997) , scanned from the same set (screenshots above).

Hope there’s some love for a 35mm preservation of this cut. Releasing this with the German crawl on the print and also a version with English crawl. Both will have Cinema DTS 5.1 audio in English and German.

I know as the BD/UHD transfers and the CGI transfers have gotten progressively worse, there has been growing nostalgia for these versions! And, IMO, the Special Editions were the most consistent that the films ever looked color-wise and grain-wise (thanks to the digital recompositing work).

I’m very pleased with Empire and I can’t wait to see how Star Wars looks. PM me or comment below if interested!

Like I said in a PM, this looks amazing! Great work!

Thanks! Made great progress in the span of a day - we jumped from 42% funded up to 54% funded.

Good job, all! Door’s still very much open for anyone interested in donating.

Mark me down for $20.

Thanks! I sent you a message with details. If you didn’t get it, feel free to PM me.

Hi, I wrote You a PM. Could You take a look?

I responded already @hankus 😉

Interested in pledging.

Being born in 95’ I grew up with special editions of Empire and Jedi on recorded VHS tapes, that’s my preferred version for the most part. Needless to say I’m interested in donating.

Sorry for the delay @Xhicrastin and @Sideburns of BoShek I’m PM’ing you tonight!

ANH and ROTJ have both been scanned actually! Now waiting for the DNG master files (should get them in the next few weeks).

An update! I’m getting the DNGs for this pretty soon. ROTJ had a sizeable chunk funded out of pocket.

Please PM if anyone is interested in helping with scan and storage costs.

Up next we’re eyeing a 35mm calibrated scan of The Phantom Menace!

I’d love a link to ANH and RoTJ - any word on the file sizes?

Looks like I’m really late to the party but are you still raising donations for this? I’m very interested in the 97 SE trilogy… Thanks!

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Hi

I sent a pm, I be interested in this project.

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@ATAT316 and @Rebelwedgie97 sent you both PMs. Anyone interested can PM me!

Hello

I sent a pm, I be interested in StarWars Ep I project.
Thanks

Now these are my Star Wars! Count me in for the remaining amount and let’s make it 100% right now.

I’ve been going down a rabbit hole tonight exploring just how much was modified even between the SE versions, I’d spotted a fair few things but that sense of a lack of consistency is what I couldn’t put my finger on til now.

Registered to say I’d love to help support this effort as well. I rather liked most (not all, but most) of the special edition tweaks in '97 and very interested in seeing a fresh scan of it! Would happily donate, just say how.

For me, please also info on which films are now possible, Star Wars I-VI? How and where can I donate?