True Lies LPP print preservation funding

[little-endian]

Hello together,

when it comes to movie preservations, I'm normally active in the originaltrilogy forum, but in order to extend the range, I wanna give it a try as suggested by a member there and hope I can gain your interest.

It's about "True Lies" where until today, sadly no decent HD version exists. Although there seem to be a few HDTV recordings and also a rip of the former D-Theater release on D-VHS in 1080i29.97, none of these even closely treats this movie as it would deserve it quality-wise.

So far, shame on Cameron, but that's the usual irony I guess, having fans who care more about a piece of art than the ones who created it - a strange world.

Now there is a copy on eBay for sale for about 650 USD and while I'd be even willing to buy it on my own for further processing and also processing, my first problem is that I reside in Germany and shipping would be expensive and full of customs hassle.

However, I'd have someone who could have the movie scanned in the US for about another 1000 USD plus problably another several hundred for the hard disks as we're talking about 6 to 21 TB depending on the chosen raw format. Since we're not talking about the original here but an (even if allegedly very good) positive copy print, I would assume that a slightly more compressed format would still by far exceed the quality which the source has to offer.

As the details could be further discussed once the necessary amount of people interested in this become apparent, I'd roughly estimate the project of about 2500 USD to have the film scanned without any further adjustments together with the Cinema DTS audio.

As I'd be interested to keep the print copy at the end for collection, I'd be willing to pay more of course, but the total sum I simply can't spend on one single movie alone.

So anyone interested in having a raw cinematic experience of True Lies?

little-endian

[Evit]

Have you tried asking for a lower price first? A "buy now" price usually is the maximum they expect/hope to gain and since True Lies is no Aliens nor Terminator I would first ask the seller if he's willing to lower the price, by a lot! Nobody is rich around here and it's always wise to try spend the minimum amount possible for each print that people want to preserve. I don't think True Lies is worth 600$+postage to be honest but that's me.
Also, who would scan it? How much would you be willing to spend on your own?

[little-endian]

Hello Evit,

thank you for your interest and contribution.

Well of course neither I'm keen on paying the full price and since it's difficult for me to feel too much pity for eBay, I'd be the last one to reject a deal made directly with the seller either.

Actually you don't seem to be the only one thinking that True Lies for more than 600 USD (shipping is free within the US) is too expensive as it has been relisted several times now without having been sold so far, thus the price already dropped from about 750 USD to currently 575 US.

http://ebay.com/itm/291832932294

On the other hand, neither the seller seems to be desperate to sell it as he rather keeps relisting it that sticking to the former price and sent it to Germany which is unfortunately typical for US-sellers. For some reason, they just love to bitch about shipping internationally.

Furthermore we're talking about the cinematic print in 1:2.35 thereas there is an open matte version out there, at least in the form of some HDTV rip. If I had the choice, I'd rather have the open matte one scanned as even if people prefer the movie to be shown in 1:2.35, it could be easily matted afterwards.

Regarding the spending, when in doubt, I'd pay the film print on my own and split the costs for the scanning and hard disks.

As for who will scan it - I don't know him personally either, it's someone from originaltrilogy.com who according to the many posts, already did other scans and seems to be trustworthy. At the end, it won't go without risk. Techncially I can't prove that I'm trustworthy either.

[Evit]

I guess we could consider it when the price will drop considerably, if you could spare that kind of money alone I'm sure people would prefer if it was mostly invested in the scan rather than the print itself since the scan by itself already costs quite a lot, but are you sure something like this hasn't been done already?

As for who will scan it - I don't know him personally either, it's someone from originaltrilogy.com who according to the many posts, already did other scans and seems to be trustworthy.

[Image: RaysOccultBooks8.jpg]

"Whooo?"

[little-endian]

Just to revive and update what I've started - seems that was about a year too late as according to members @originaltrilogy.com, True Lies had been scanned already back in 2015.

Considering the source, 2K will probably more than enough to preserve the resolution so I guess I can settle at hunting down a decent 1080p release for now instead of trying to get a 35mm copy on my own.