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2017-12-14, 04:50 PM
(This post was last modified: 2017-12-14, 04:56 PM by disco4000.)
Believe it or not, german public television ARD airs it tonight at 2AM.
I already set a timer on my box. ARDs 720p signal is absolutely superior compared to all other channels I can cap, so this should result in a very nice copy. Fingers crossed no bitstream errors will screw it up.
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FYI a Blu-ray release in Japan claimed it had a new HD master. It was released in April 20-7. Not found any reviews of it yet though.
I’m sketchy about the claim after the fiasco with The Crow. Japanese studio claimed it was a new 4K scan. It was the US transfer with DNR added
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Apparently if rumors are true Universal only has one print that gets shown occasionally in arthouses.
Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader
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2017-12-15, 02:24 AM
(This post was last modified: 2017-12-15, 04:36 AM by TServo2049.)
It would not be surprising. Universal's entire repertory print archive supposedly went up in the 2008 backlot fire, meaning that nearly every 35mm print they have available for repertory screenings today would have had to have been newly struck after the fire. They probably only made one print per film (actually, most studios only have one or two repertory prints anyway, if that).
The reason I'm convinced that Universal has gone back and made a bunch of new prints since the fire is that whenever I see a Universal film in 35mm, it looks near-mint. It's no contest, the best prints I've seen have consistently been of Universal movies (including stuff they don't own but still have theatrical rights for, like The Dark Crystal). I can name at least a dozen killer Uni 35mm prints I've seen over the last five years - Jaws, E.T., Blues Brothers, American Graffiti (1978 cut), The Thing, They Live, Weird Science, Legend, The Dark Crystal, Streets of Fire, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and I could well be forgetting others. Even obscure stuff like I Wanna Hold Your Hand or Streets of Fire looked amazing, and not regraded or tampered with whatsoever - if these were all printed within the last decade, they must have come from existing fully-timed intermediates.
I am Googling and found that right after the fire, Universal went back and struck new prints of films as varied and obscure as Three O'Clock High (which was booked for a screening before the fire destroyed the only print, so Universal made a new one) and King Kong vs. Godzilla (same thing IIRC, the existing print was booked for a Halloween event, so when said print was destroyed they made a new one). I saw an amazing print of Jaws in 2014, and have found an announcement for an earlier screening somewhere else back in 2011 which touted that Jaws was a new print - it was probably the same one I saw (and the last Castro 35mm screening I missed was likely that print once again).
I'm wondering if the Flash print was one of these theoretical recent reprints. We know a print of Flash was lost in the fire, an article said as much, so this would either be a backup that already existed, or it was struck within the last nine years. I'd love to see it.
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Question, do the StudioCanal BD releases use the UK print opening with EMI or is sourced from a US 35mm element with Universal?
