4K Restoration of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ Returns to Theaters

Hope it's coming to my neck of the woods.

YES!!!!

I have seen a number of 4k theater releases... they are usually wonderful. I CAN NOT wait.

It's my favorite movie of all time. I hope it comes to my town or within driving distance. The bluray is an automatic buy no matter what.

Bladerunner1959, totally agree! I live in OKC and if it isn't showing here, I will *GLADLY* drive to Dallas to see this particular version "on the big screen" there. Can't wait for the Blu-ray to come out (I've delayed adding this movie to my collection expressly for that reason)--enjoy!

Have seen LoA 3X in 70mm. When it first came out in theaters and 2X in NYC when it was restored. I doubt it will play in ABQ, NM in 4K. I am happy with my memories of those 3X and will buy it on BD when it is released. Been looking forward to LoA on HDM for 6+years.

Wonder if my local Imax has a 4K projector in it??

I know mine does... I have seen a couple 4k movies. they look superb.

What IMAX theater is that?

Anyone knows if this is true:
Quote from Creative Cow article The Truth About 2K, 4K and The Future of Pixels.

That demonstration probably happened. (IMAX has never published what they wanted to demonstrate and why)
But as IMAX has been a all about high resolution and big screens. The purpose and conclusion of the demonstration from IMAX side was probably very different than what John Galt present. He only want to argue against the necessity of 4K and used any argument he can "cough up" to do so.

Example; his "love affair" with CCD sensors and arguments against CMOS sensors have by all camera makers shown to have no validity by the fact that all high resolution camera makers have ditched CCD for CMOS sensors.
Just see this as John Galt's attempt on saving some part of his legacy of influence in camera and image development where he certainly backed the wrong technology.

He has been doing this since 2004, and all his arguments has been thoroughly debunked both on technical grounds and in real life demonstrations with 4K cameras and 4K displays.

So the article "The Truth" About 2K, 4K and The Future of Pixels" doesn't have much Truth in it.

The the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency, has just approved the UHDTV 8K format as the broadcast format of the future. If any of John Galt's arguments had any value we would not have seen 4K cameras, 4K TV's, 4K projectors or a 8K broadcast format.

Sadly, this article is posted regularly by people who think it has any value in the unnecessary 2K vs. 4K, >"2K is good enough" debate.
Edited by coolscan - 9/3/12 at 4:35am

Those in Melbourne Australia can see it in 4k at the Astor Theatre between September 23rd and October 8th. Not to be missed. The Astor uses Barco's top of the range 32B 4K projector so it should look amazing.

Cheers
Michael.

I believe we'll benefit from 4K and even 8K. However, question remains - can all "4K" projectors really project 4K content clearly?
If above mentioned "experiment" happened and if screen really was gray from close up - it means that, on that particular projector - 4K content wouldn't actually be shown in its true glory.
I don't know what might be the reason for gray projection - color misalignment or something else but the fact remains that it couldn't happen on an LCD display.

Yes, in principle because they have 4K (aproxematly 8 megapixel) resolution.
But there are two different projection technologies that might make a difference in how good the reproduction is. Reflective LCD (Lcos>JVC & SXRD>Sony, RED laser projector) and DLP (Barco, Christie, Nec) both lamp and coming laser projectors, and IMAX's coming DLP laser projector (buildt by Barco based on an Kodak patent).

Remember; Displaying an image is the last chain in a long event starting with the motive and lighting of such, camera used and the settings used, post production and the correct treatment of the files (which are more often than not treated wrong for obtaining best quality, surprising enough), and the calibration quality of the projector and screen used (silver screens for 3D passive projection is derogatory to image quality) at the day one attends a screening.
We don't know the purpose of the demonstration or how high pixel count they got before the screen turned grey. Fact is that at some point the screen should turn grey. Same if they had used Red, Blue & Green pixels, the screen should at some point turn white'ish.

We also don't know how long ago this was.
Did they have a 4K projector?
Was it so long ago that it was the first Sony SXRD 4K projector (which was not very good)?
Was the whole purpose from IMAX to demonstrate how much better their Very High Resolution Film (quoted as 80 or 120 megapixel, depending whom you ask) and much superior to digital projection (and then you know how honest the demo results where), before IMAX later found that IMAX 2K projection was "good enough" to continue expanding the IMAX brand.

Much speculation, but that is the best anybody can come up with in response to John Galt's arguments.

I agree with you and thank you for the info.

However, if black & white checkerboard pattern is projected at native resolution (pixel one: R:0% G:0% B:0%, pixel two: R:100% G:100% B:100%, pixel three: R:0% G:0% B:0%...) screen shouldn't be gray at close up inspection. Pattern should be clearly visible.

Good news indeed!

LoA will be part of my BD collection, no matter what

You can buy tickets now: http://www.fathomevents.com/classics/event/lawrenceofarabia.aspx

I don't see anything that would indicate that this will be projected in 4K resolution. Fathom Events seems to show stuff that is available on Blu-ray or is about to be. Most likely it is just the blu-ray. It would be great if I am wrong, but I am very skeptical at this point. I am sure the Blu-ray will look fantastic, but it is only 1920x1080 minus some of the 1080 for the black bars.

I'm a little worried about this too. When they started talking about the restoration and a theatrical release, I felt sure that it would be a 4K presentation in theaters. I bought a ticket for the matinee at an out of town theater with a Sony 4K projector. It wasn't until a couple of days ago that I found out Fathom is handling things. I'm not even sure that they use the same projectors normally used to show a digital feature. I've read reports that they use the preshow advertising projectors instead. If that's the case, I may decide to stay home and wait for the BD release.

Funny, I would've thought that your favorite movie would be... I don't know... Blade Runner, maybe?

So it's pretty much only those theaters that have a Sony 4K Digital Cinema Projector that will show LoA in 4K.

Does Chrisite or Barco even have working 4K projectors in theaters yet?

They have been selling Series-2 projectors since beginning of 2011.
How many of them are 4K equipped from the start only they can answer.
But all Series-2 projectors can easily be upgraded to 4K and Laser Light Engine.

Sony announced in April they had installed 13000 4K projectors worldwide.

Can't see that there is a reason to watch LoA in a Cinema that isn't equipped with a 4K projector.
Side by Side tests has shown that 4K DLP (Barco & Christie) match the quality of 70mm film.
Sony has never published a side by side, so nobody knows if SXRD is as good.

I was going to see the premiere in NYC, but at nearly $30, I am going to pass. Hopefully it will hot a 4k theater sometime after that.

@coolscan - no reply to my last message?

Sony says they have over 10,000 4K projectors in the USA

Click on Sony Digital Cinema 4K Update - Spring 2012

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/mkt-digitalcinema/resource.solutions.bbsccms-assets-mkt-digicinema-solutions-SonyDigitalCinema4KTheFacts.shtml
..

Digital Cinema's Special K

http://digitalcontentproducer.com/mag/video_digital_cinemas_special/index.html

Sorry. I didn't have much to add.

You are right about "at close up inspection" and that "pattern should be clearly visible". But what I think John Galt referred to is a demo viewed at normal seating distance. When you move away from the screen so the pattern is no more visible the screen will turn grey.

Sony's projectors are largely responsible for the problem of 2D films projected via a 3D setup, dropping light output by 70%. AMC Theaters in NYC is in the process of dumping all Sony projectors because of this.

From TDB

My best guess would be that Tinseltown would show it here. Lately, they have been showing the classic films restored and rereleased by TCM. I would love to see the Lawrence of Arabia rerelease on the Moore Warren's gigantic IMAX screen but that would be a long shot at best. Of course, there's also the worst case scenario that they won't show it anywhere in the OKC metro. Wouldn't be the first time, would it?

Here is the list of theaters that will be showing LoA for that one night (10/4/12):

http://www.fathomevents.com/upcoming/alllocations.aspx?eventid=1134