Tom Spina has a personal account on Facebook you could try messaging, he’s also active in the Blast Points Super Live Super Star Wars Chill Group where you could also try asking.
The ORIGINAL THEATRICAL version of Empire Strikes Back is here! - Project 4K80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12xpgmLk5YM - 7 minute video from Evan’s Media
It would be cool to try to restore the 70MM version as well now that more information about it has been confirmed.
Oh yeah! Do the TN1 guys have a scan? Or are they busy doing the 1997SEs and theatrical Prequels?
There’s a print floating around but not sure who has it. Blast Points was able to view it for their podcast and you can see some clips in this video: https://youtu.be/FbezmT4crf8?si=3eRpjZsr7egdyLpN
And technically Spielberg is STILL revising his films on home video. Maybe not to full on Lucas level but the idea that the versions of his movies available right now are fully true to the theatrical versions is false. There’s been recompositing, minor digital tweaks to correct matting and other things, changes in color timing, changes to audio. So if anything he’s not really proving himself to be any better than his buddy George when it comes to preserving his work as is. Yes the changes might be minor in comparison but they’re still changes.
Also the ET Special Edition is only available on DVD i saw that in cinema on 35mm it should be available in HD whether one likes the changes or not.
Not to mention the fact that the majority of ET’s deleted scenes haven’t been released in HD either. Most were only released on the Laserdisc with the only HD scenes being clipped in their altered state from the Special Edition for the post 2011 DVD releases.
The ORIGINAL THEATRICAL version of Empire Strikes Back is here! - Project 4K80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12xpgmLk5YM - 7 minute video from Evan’s Media
It would be cool to try to restore the 70MM version as well now that more information about it has been confirmed.
I was curious if any recordings of the international broadcasts of the Holiday Special exist?
The most well known of these is the Canadian CTV broadcast which aired an hour earlier than the common American one. This is probably the holy grail to me personally and I’d love to find it.
It is likely that the Canadian broadcast at least contained different commercials and bumpers similar to the different American feed recordings we already have.
Wikipedia also lists several other international broadcasts with sourcing although I’m not entirely sure whether these are legitimate airings or were simply dubbed later for bootlegs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special
Any information regarding these broadcasts would be greatly appreciated.
Are these comparisons still being posted somewhere? I’ve heard Doubleofive migrated to Threads but I’m not on that app nor am interested in joining. Twitter/X was much more easily accessible for everyone to view the content.
It would be cool to see some ESB 70MM comparisons posted now that more information regarding the differences (and more footage) has come to light.
There’s actually a good number of lost Kenner SW commercials out there. It’s unfortunate not much effort has gone into finding them. Here’s a more complete list: https://lostmediaarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Kenner_Star_Wars_Commercials_(Lost_Commercials_Of_Toy_Line)
For those unaware a while ago the Blast Points podcast was able to view a print of the 70mm version and confirm the differences:
https://blastpointspodcast.com/2024/01/30/episode-387-the-70mm-empire-strikes-back-experience/
I also came across this video discussing some of the changes and it seems to show some legitimate footage:
https://youtu.be/FbezmT4crf8?si=iXGhH9wa_nYl0guC
