thxita

Don’t worry, we’ll have proper samples soon enough

The guy who sold it to me had shaky hands, or rather he was photographing in poor light.

The day has indeed arrived when we can finally say that we are able to recreate the American theatrical version of the film from 35mm! With correct colors and missing scenes (Pleasance with the kids)… along with the Italian version of the same film which is of course a great additional feature for me, being from Italy and all.

Colors are phenomenally preserved, the scan will be done in 4k and released in 1080p (eventually also in 4K when that technology will become more widespread). We will get a grindhouse version first and then a definitive and digitally cleaned-up version shortly after. There are more great plans for this project in the future, which at the time I cannot divulge but, trust me, it’s great stuff.
The hell with Lucas’ director’s cut. We finally got the original film, unaltered and well preserved!

Any economical help to make it happen is highly appreciated. We have top men working on it already but, like SilverWook correctly stated, I still need around 600 euro (624 to be exact, but say 600) for the needed HDDs and to cover some of the shipping. If you want to help out, PM me for my PayPal address. Once I have the full amount, this whole thing can be done very quickly.

Wouldn’t mind having the audio from Laserdisc though! (sorry to dig out an old thread)

This is interesting, it could have really done with 20 minutes less! I’d be curious to watch your version if it’s already available. Feel free to send me a message

We don’t publish links around here, you may want to write a direct message to those who mentioned where the download is for further information

I highly doubt there is a stereo mix around that is not just a double mono. The original film was released in mono and the first time they attempted (I say “attempted” because I consider the results a failure) to create a new mix it was for the DVD release (5.1).
But I’ll be glad to be proven wrong!

A long time ago I caught on Italian TV an odd broadcast of Alien: it was clearly from the bluray version (as people confirmed here on OT), but it had 1979 localized titles and end credits (in Italian). The odd thing is that Blurays, just like DVDs, all come from the American master of the films, so seeing the titles and credits translated as they appeared in theaters in Italy in 1979 is a thing that does not happen on HD media (only VHS versions came from film transfer with the italian credits).

You might wonder… who gives a s**it, right? Turns out that Italian TV channels (a friend of mine works in one) received a copy of Alien from FOX, this copy was made by stitching the intro titles and the end credits of the film onto the well-known Bluray version (so the film itself is actually from BR but the titles and credits from 1979 film).
That’s why when I asked confirmation by posting screengrabs of the film, people here told me “that’s a BR version”. The interesting part is that, while the end credits are on black background (therefore useless for color regrading purposes), the intro with the panning on the planet has (as you well know) colors, and since some of you are trying to regrade the BR to the original look, I thought that you might be interested in having a look at the intro scene from the TV broadcast version I recorded since it comes from 1979 print (for the planet scene and the first shot of the Nostromo, which is very blue by the way).

Anyway, some screenshots
https://img42.com/collection/qLVd7
and more here
https://img42.com/collection/zeWPP

MrBrown said:

thxita said:

I remember reading that the 5.1 mix of Terminator was not the first attempt by Cameron to “better” his 1984 low budget movie. Does anyone remember which other home video versions had alteration prior to the 5.1 DVD in 2001?

There was a LD with the so called Chace Fake Stereo Mix.

http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/30336/2535/Terminator-The

Some Discussion on that mix occured here: http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Look-of-Terminator-2/id/17850

Edit😄iscussion regarding the fake Stereo Mix (it is indeed Mono, but altered) starts at page 6.

Is it fake because it’s just a double mono or did Cameron attempt to make further changes to the original sounds? Were sound effects changed only for the early DVD “remastered” audio?
I’m trying to make a timeline of the main audio changes and I remember somebody saying (not sure if here or elsewhere) that Cameron’s tinkering started already in the 90s when he was clumsly trying to give Terminator a better audio than the original flat “mono”

I remember reading that the 5.1 mix of Terminator was not the first attempt by Cameron to “better” his 1984 low budget movie. Does anyone remember which other home video versions had alteration prior to the 5.1 DVD in 2001?

Forgive my intrusion to this thread, I was once a regular on a forum about Indiana Jones gear and one of the biggest issues discussed in that forum (and for “biggest” I mean that there was actual fights, down to verbal abuse, as you know it happens in forums) was about the correct color of Indy’s “grey hat”. I’m talking about the hat that Ford wears when he boards the clipper plane. For a long time some people said it was just the same hat, just in a different light, the other (honestly larger) faction was convinced that it was a proper grey hat.
It has long been confirmed that it was indeed a grey hat in that scene (and it’s the same hat that one of the nazi spies wears in the Cairo chase), still, it would be nice to see that hat in a “color-corrected” scene.

Oh, and if it can be of any interest, I do own the same cigar box that you see in Marion’s bar in Nepal, however, due to different lighting on the set and color correction in post production it’s hard to use these props as reference even if you own one with the same colors.

We need a place where to update all the confirmed info on all the releases as they come out. A wiki or a googledoc, something like that!

What do you think?

poita said:

I am more excited about this than TFA :)

 Tell me about it!!!

It seems like an obvious fan question that nobody ever asked the actors... What were they eating in those scenes? 

Looks like a goofy outtake! Ahah

I also voted, THX along with Salem's Lot.

Meanwhile I bought this Italian poster http://www.benitomovieposter.com/catalog/images/movieposter/37090.jpg (not this specifically but one identical to this)

Look at those colors! 

Meanwhile I acquired original Italian posters and a lobby card for dvd and bluray custom covers

Unfortunately I won't have a scanner at hand. I'll have to buy them

In a couple of weeks I'll have access to THX-1138 original lobby cards from Italy, anyone interested in that? An acquaintance of mine used to own a cinema in the 70s and has plenty of print material at very accessible prices (unfortunately he didn't manage to keep the 35mm film!).
A side from that, is there any useful information we could gather from those? I guess the Italian release date? (newer members might not know that Italy had the only existing release with a totally different cut where the whole story appears as a flashback of THX while he's escaping with the police car).

I don't believe that either (!) but I didn't want always to bring "no" to the discussion, since I already doubted plenty for The Last Crusade.

The Bluray, from what I've heard, removed those idiotic CGI touch-ups, like the background in the scene when the jeep falls off the cliff (these were made for the second DVD release I think).

The change of sound on such a minor detail like the staff falling is certainly curious and makes you wonder if more was changed (and why).

I might have a digital transfer of that making of of Raiders, I'll see if anything can be seen there from the Sherpa scene.

Ronster said:

Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg) - The theatrical cut has some bad language that was removed and also a scene in the bar fight where a guy get's shot in the head I think.

It's never been released in it's theatrical form but again was on TV and VHS in Pan & Scan.

On imdb it also says that the laserdisc featured a different sound when the staff is dropped into the map room.

From theindyexerience (not always the most reliable of the sources but still...)

• In the original 1981 theatrical version of Raiders, there are a few additional seconds during the Raven Bar fight where the Giant Sherpa (played by Pat Roach) shoves Indy against several walls while one of the Nazi henchman laughs. This footage was deleted in all re-release prints and video releases.
• In the theatrical version of Raiders of the Lost Ark with Indiana Jones, an additional scene takes place immediately after the credits roll. The camera cuts back to Ark of the Covenant in the wooden crate inside the government warehouse where we last left it. In this scene, the Army intelligence stencil on the crate is slowly burned away by the power of the Ark. This scene was cut from the DVD release of the film.

You can see some of Pat Roach scenes in the Making of (not released in DVD).
Unfortunately I don't have the VHS of Raiders anymore to check if it can be found there. Anything on Laserdisc?

Not to mention that for The Shining each country had their own version of the famous line on the typewriter, each different "saying" was personally chosen by Kubrick himself. As far as I know, they are all lost... or at least they are in the hands of collectors of the reels, not to be seen again.

I didn't know about Highlander and, darn it, now I want to see the extra footage that was lost! 

Can anyone remind me what's the current plan for THX preservation? I kinda got lost again in this 90 pages-long thread ahah

They are not decisive proof but there is little reason to believe the legend of these two alterations. I'll copy here what has been said so far by some:

the number on the side of the prop is D-138, whilst the Hindenburg was D-LZ129

(this at least prooves that there was no intention to make it the "famous" Hindenburg to begin with, if it was decided later in the post-production who knows... but there is nothing in the archives suggesting a different version)

_

Something about the first look at the zeppelin immediately made me laugh, because things have a habit of blowing up around Indy and people knew the eventual fate of the airship. I also remember I wasn't the only one in the theater to make that connection and laugh.

_

I saw Last Crusade during the first week or so of its release. I have a pretty good memory and would definitely recall if the zeppelin in the movie was named Hindenburg. 
I do have a pretty specific recollection of the "donated by" line because of its calculation to get a "yeah right" reaction, and there was no mention of the ethnicity of the "donors."

_

I saw this when it first came out and remember expecting it to be the Hindenburg and then being surprised that it wasn’t. Though I bet it was supposed to be at one point in the creative process.

The script also says nothing about Jewish families (nor Zeppelin model)

  DONOVAN
		Precious valuables, Your Highness,
		"donated" by some of the finest
		families in all of Germany.

The inverted commas around the word donated are self-explanatory and required no further underlining. "Jewish" would have been an over-kill to the whole dialogue. In any case, considering that here is more evidence towards the non-existance of an alternate theatrical version, I find it hard to hypothesize a different version just based on recollections from people who more than likely expected to hear that line or see that name then their immagination filled the gaps becoming a memory. Especially when there are accounts of people expecting to hear/see those elements and being disappointed for not finding them in the film.