[In progress] Fright Night Part 2 (1988) Full 4K UHD Restoration (Help Needed)

[NewNightmare]

Damn, that's gonna take a lot of work and effort. However, I have faith that you'll be able to make it work. As of right now, I don't have any funding either to contribute, but I'll certainly investigate around if I have anything that could be helpful. Out of curiosity though, how will you be working with the copyright holders and the filmmaker, have you already contacted them?

We are reaching out to the copyright holders at this time.  Once we hear back from them, we would like to clear the rights and discuss release details which may include access to the original camera negative and much more.  This process can be fairly lengthy, from what I am told.

I'm also curious as to how you'll approach making a new audio mix. I'm certainly curious if you'd be able to somehow involve Brad Fiedel for the score, especially since you state that you hope to also release the score for the movie as a bonus feature.

We would love to work with Brad Fiedel as well as the cast and crew once this gets going.  First things first.  Creating a mix from Stereo to 5.1 is possible, but is a lot of work (at least a full-time week) for creating a new mix, which then has to be checked and trialed multiple times.  Getting a good 5.1 mix is a lot of work.  We need to watch the film multiple times and make notes as to where the various sounds should be positioned, and then go through and try and isolate the elements to get a good mix. It is much easier if the original sound recordings are available, that often have the isolated vocals and sound effects - it is much harder working from just a stereo track.

Also, how did you even happen to come across these film reels???

The film was found in a closed down movie theatre.  I had created an inquiry to locate the 35mm and as luck would have it, received a response.  A response I didn’t read and respond to until 2 years later.  Luck, pure and simple.

I am just one person in this world full of people. I do not work for any studio or company. I have, however, been pointed in the right direction to a team of professionals that will help this project become a reality.

[NewNightmare]

Sounds very interesting and like a hell of work, but you seem to be very passionate about this which is something the studios are lacking for most films. So very best of luck and I'm looking forward to see how this is going on!

However (and you already know this as it's mentioned in the first post), there is an official Blu-ray available in Germany: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Fright-Ni...ay/158445/
It's currently OOP, but there'll surely be a re-release sometime. I haven't seen it yet, but from what I read this release isn't bad at all - and 84 Entertainment is definitely not a Bootleg-label.

I have mentioned that release in my original posting. Yes, I am very aware of it. My posting, however, is for a 4K UHD release in 2160p using original film elements, not just another 1080p Bluray release from an old master from 2009.

[Valeyard]

Not an expert, but this is A LOT of money, for a film print that appears to be in good condition. What services does this price include?

I hadn't seen this thread until now. Anyway I can confirm the OP is in contact with professionals and in good hands with this. It's a lot of money yes, but it's not a "scan" he's doing it's a restoration, the scanning itself is a fraction of the total cost, even though I'm sure everyone knows the going rate for scanning on a Scanstation (let alone a Director) is $45 per minute. The rate for a scan alone on a Director (1-2fps or something as opposed to 15fps on a scanstation) is something like 3-4x that cost.

The terminology in the OP is a bit clunky, let me clear it up. 5K Director scan, cropped to 4K full aperture I would expect. Full restoration - digital cleanup, etc. End product can be mastered to 2K/4K DCP, Bluray, or Bluray UHD, etc.

[Buddusky]

Hi there, just wondering if there have been any further developments in this restoration.

[LucasGodzilla]

I sort of wondered recently: Whatever happened to this project? Last I heard of the guy behind this was last year it seems.

[EvilJames]

I hate to be negative, but as someone who works in distribution, the idea of a) being able to get an answer out of the rights holder (or even determine who exactly it is!) when actual companies have tried and failed, b) convincing them to hand over the ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE (!!!!), c) raising the tens of thousands of dollars to restore it, is all incredibly unlikely - but if there's a scan of the 35mm print to be done, that's potentially interesting (if slightly redundant because of the Paramount HD master, which isn't that bad at all).