La versión original en 35mm de Star Wars fue restaurada por un grupo de fanáticos

Para los fanáticos de antaño de Star Wars, que tuvieron la oportunidad ver la trilogía original en el cine, lo que hizo George Lucas con sus “ediciones especiales” llenas de CGI, escenas de relleno y corrección de color no fue sino una aberración a su obra y una manera vil de llenarse (mas) sus bolsillos de dinero.

Por desgracia, los negativos originales de la primer trilogía fueron modificados de forma estable por las posteriores ediciones especiales. Esto ha impedido que se remastericen para obtener ediciones apoyadas en aquellas peliculas de finales de los 1970s y mediados de los 1980s. Los DVD y Blu-ray que han salido a la venta, están apoyadas en ediciones que incluyen estas “correcciones” que lejos de entregarle realismo a las escenas, parecen de caricatura.

Según reporta ArsTechnica, gracias al equipo denominado Team Negative 1, hicieron una versión actualizada en alta definición de Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, obtenida del filme de 35mm. Se desconoce cómo este equipo obtuvo la cinta de 35mm, pero se trata de la primer reedición obtenida enteramente de esta manera.

Esta versión de la cinta de 1977 de Star Wars, resplandece según se esperaría de un filme de esa época, con unos incovenientes en los colores, chicos brincos y rayones. Pero así era el cine de los 1970s y los 1980s. Y estoy seguro que, para muchos, tiene más coste que cualquiera de las ediciones modernas de George Lucas. Además, es en esta inicial versión que vemos según Han Solo sí dispara primero.

El labor de Team Negative 1 no es legal así que muy probablemente Disney empiece una cacería para quitar las copias disponibles apoyadas en esta edición.

Mide casi 22 Gigas por cierto:
http://179.43.146.133/torrent/13245821/Star_Wars_-_A_New_Hope_-_Team_Negative_1_35mm_Silver_Screen

A continuación el texto que el propio grupo ha hecho publico con algunas respuestas: (en ingles)

GOALS

Our philosophy was to restore the print back to what it would have been viewed like
theatrically. It is not a pristine cleaned version. We have cleaned major dust and dirt,
stabilized, deflickered, and color corrected it. It is also cropped theatrically,
although there is slightly more image in the original scans which was not intended
to be viewed in the theater.

SOURCE INFORMATION AND DETAILS

Q : What is this sourced from?
A : This version is a digital recreation of Star Wars sourced from different 35mm prints.

Q : What was used from which print?
A : The primary source was a Spanish 35 mm LPP print.
The intro and crawl were from a faded English Eastman Kodak print. (Does not have Episode 4 in it)
The Han shoots first scene was sourced from a faded Eastman Kodak print.
There are also several replacement shots throughout the movie from faded Eastman Kodak prints.

Q : What was it scanned at?
A : The majority of it was taken from 2k scans, but some sections were scanned in 4k,
and downsampled to 2k.

Q : What is an LPP print.
A : It is a type of print that is Low fade Positive Print, and retains colors better than
the Eastman Kodak types that fade.

Q : Some shots look blurry and lower resolution?
A : Any shot with effects will have lower resolution, due to multiple copies for that process.

Q : There are dirt and some shots with marks on them?
A : For our restoration, we chose to leave original marks, matte lines, and boxes in the film.
So keep an eye out for those, along with the reel change marks.

Q : The bluray has more detail.
A : Yes, the scans of these prints, will never be able to match that clarity due to multiple
process used to produce a release print. However, many scenes are still as sharp or sharper.

Q : How authentic are the colors.
A : Although not a Technicolor, which is a different process. This version accurately matches
the colors of the print if it were being projected. We have compared this with projected versions,
and the match is fairly close. Shots were color corrected scene by scene in a lot of the film.

Q : How long did it take to do this?
A : The project started 7 years ago, but 4 years is when the bulk of the work was done. With
the fine tuning and quality checks in the last year.

Q : How many releases are there?
A : Currently we have 1) MKV 1080p 2) Bluray 1080p ISO file versions. There may be more
downconverts, and a few updates, on the audio, images, and other items released
later on. We do not currently have plans for a Grindhouse version of this.

Q : Do I have to pay for this?
A : NO, this is a free fanedit restoration. Just make sure you support Disney, and Lucasfilm.

Q : Where can I find it?
A : Usenet groups(eventually), and private trackers like Myspleen, sharing site tehparadox.

Thanks for checking this out, and also look for the previously released Empire Strikes Back
Grindhouse series (3 releases).

FUTURE PLANS

Return of the Jedi, and a few more surprises are being worked on currently.

OTHER RELEASES

Star Wars 8mm
Star Wars EIAJ tape
Star Wars CED trilogy (pre-laserdisc)
May the Force be with You

Team Negative1