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Star Trek The Motion Picture 4K UHD on disc

29K views 197 replies 39 participants last post by  PeterTHX 
#1 ·
Paramount Considering 4k ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition’

https://trekmovie.com/2019/07/19/pa...ar-trek-the-motion-picture-directors-edition/

| JULY 19, 2019 | BY: MATT WRIGHT 187 COMMENTS SO FAR

2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the first Star Trek movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. All year long fans of the movie have been wondering if Paramount would do anything to celebrate. At San Diego Comic-Con, we got news fans should appreciate

During the Inlgorious Treksperts podcast Comic-Con panel which was focused on the anniversary, an announcement was made from the audience by David Fein, the producer of the 2001 Director’s Edition of TMP. He revealed that he and members of the team who worked on The Director’s Edition were in talks with Paramount to develop a 4K version for release on standard HD Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.

Prior to the JJ Abrams films, The Motion Picture was one of the few truly cinematic Star Trek movies. It is best experienced on the big screen, and in as high a quality as possible. So having a proper 4K restoration (and a new version of The Director’s Edition) would make this already visually stunning movie really come to life for Trekkies new and old.

The Director’s Edition was created in 2001 by working closely with director Robert Wise. In addition to edits for pacing, a number of small fixes and changes were made to the visual effects, and a new sound mix was created. TMP was rather famously rushed to completion in December 1979, because of this Robert Wise considered The Director’s Edition to be his “final cut.”
 
#2 ·
‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ Returning To Big Screen For 2-Day Anniversary Screenings

https://trekmovie.com/2019/07/29/st...-big-screen-for-2-day-anniversary-screenings/

| JULY 29, 2019 | BY: TREKMOVIE.COM STAFF 52 COMMENTS SO FAR

This morning, Paramount and Fathom Events announced they are bringing Star Trek: The Motion Picture back to the big screen.

“Experience the Adventure” in movie theaters nationwide on September 15 and 18
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, directed by Robert Wise, premiered in December 1979. In celebration of its 40th anniversary, the theatrical version of the film will return to movie theaters for two days only, on September 15 and 18. This will be the first nationwide cinema release for the film since its original premiere.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the fourth highest-grossing film of 1979 and earned three Academy Award nominations, including Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, and Best Music, Original Score. It featured the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan.
 
#3 ·
Interview: VFX Pioneer Douglas Trumbull On How It Took A Miracle To Complete ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’

https://trekmovie.com/2019/07/26/in...cle-to-complete-star-trek-the-motion-picture/

JULY 26, 2019 | BY: BRIAN DREW 57 COMMENTS SO FAR

2001: A Space Odyssey. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Blade Runner. All of these effects-driven films were brought to the big screen by some of the cinema’s great directors – Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Robert Wise, and Ridley Scott. And all of them have the wizardry of Douglas Trumbull to thank for helping them realize their vision.

In 1979, Trumbull was enlisted by Paramount Pictures and director Robert Wise to come to the rescue of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was having serious problems with its visual effects and was in very real danger of missing its December 1979 release date. As part of TrekMovie’s celebration of the film’s 40th anniversary, we spoke to Mr. Trumbull about how he got involved, the race to get the film’s special effects done, working with Robert Wise, and more.

Trumbull will be heading to Star Trek Las Vegas next week, where he will appear on a panel celebrating the film’s anniversary. More details about that and the rest of the convention can be found at creationent.com.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Like ST-Discovery and the JJ films, there are a lot of polarized opinions re: ST-TMP out there.

Yes, it was rushed to theaters and suffered editing and pacing issues because of it.

And it was written as a slow, cerebral scifi tale a la 2001 A Space Odyssey, so that turns off most of the film going masses right there.

But it was a giddy time for Trek fans.

And the years appear to have done it well, as the quality of the FX, designs, and cinematography attest, highlighting the input of Robert Wise.
 
#5 · (Edited)
The Trumbull interview was interesting. The stress of finishing up that movie, put him in the hospital. He mentions the scene with the light probe on the bridge. That was probably one of the most intense scenes visually and sonically, that I had seen up to that time. The surround sound in the theater was completely electrifying, then the girl vanished, then silence. That contrast was stunning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeneVqyoBTo&frags=pl,wn
 
#6 · (Edited)
Yes, so many "hard scifi" ideas and visuals in this one to enjoy.

The bridge probe was out-of-the-box high concept thinking and execution at its best, with demo quality visuals and audio.

With so many A-list names associated with this film- Wise, Trumbull, Dykstra, McCall, Syd Mead, Probert, etc, TMP is a cinema-history and culturally significant film.

If the 4K disc makes it to market, I suspect scenes like the bridge probe and The Enterprise flyby will be audio, music and visual demos for HT's for some time.
 
#7 ·
This is a movie I would love to see remade because it had a great concept but poor execution. In fact you could say that about a lot of old sci-fi.


They previously said the Director's Edition would not be available in HD because the effects were produced at only 480p for the DVD. So it will be quite an undertaking to remake this for 4k.
 
#10 ·
See Douglas Trumbull as part of special TMP 40th panel at Star Trek Las Vegas
Douglas Trumbull is attending the Star Trek Las Vegas convention for the first time next week. He will participate in a special “Star Trek: The Motion Picture 40th Anniversary Retrospective” panel along with Rick Sternbach (illustrator for Star Trek: The Motion Picture) and Star Trek art department veterans Doug Drexler, and Michael and Denise Okuda. The panel will be held at 12:30PM Saturday, August 3rd in the Nimoy Theater at STLV.
Anyone go to this?

Anyone have a link to video?

Quick YT search didn't turn up anything
 
#17 ·
Anyone go to this?

Even if I could I wouldn't go there, what a travesty!


The one man that would have to be there is Andrew Probert, he designed the TMP-Enterprise among other things, here his excerpt from Wikipedia:


In 1978, he was hired by Robert Abel and Associates to work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, where he worked as a concept designer/illustrator.[2] When Abel's group was replaced, Andrew survived the transition to the group of new effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull. Andrew was primarily responsible for designing the human and Vulcan space technology seen in the film, including the refitted starship Enterprise, Space Drydock, Orbital Office Complex, Travel Pod, Work Bee support vehicles, and the Vulcan long range shuttlecraft.[3] His concept sketches for the bridge set of the Klingon battlecruiser set the style for all future Klingon ship interiors.


After artistic differences with Rick Berman he left after the first season of TNG. When it came to the TNG Blu-rays he almost wasn't there for the documentaries (he designed the Enterprise-D, too) because the documentary content provider didn't want to go through the hazzle of setting up an interview environment in New England, at first...
 
#15 ·
I originally saw this in the theater and considered it a bit slow and boring at the time but enjoyed it to a modest degree. I would have been in high school at the time of it's initial release (December 1979) so perhaps saw it as a late night re-release in the mid 80's, I really don't remember, but it's unlikely my parents took me to see it (we lived rural, both worked full time, any extra time was spent on the ski slopes which was fine by me).

Since then I've grown to enjoy it more, I've watched other slower moving movies since then and have come to appreciate that particular style of movie.

It's been quit a few years since I've binged the ST movies, I'm not sure I'd upgrade from my BD box sets, the DVD versions I had were horrid transfers and these look and sound pretty good.

Cheers,
 
#16 ·
I'm done buying these. The BDs weren't the best, too smoothed out. This has to be perfect for me to even consider buying this for, oh, the 3rd time now...


Seggers
 
#22 · (Edited)
Welcome to our world- the HT hobby! :D

Been this way since The Beginning!

VHS/Beta>VHS HiFi stereo> LaserDisc with analog audio and 4x3>Laserdisc special editions/director's cuts/widescreen/PCM digital audio>LD with DD/DTS> (VideoCD)>DVD initial release>DVD Special Editions, Anniversaries, DTS-ES 7.1, DD-EX> D-VHS> HDDVD> BluRay> BD 3D> BluRay Special Editions, Anniversaries, Remasters> 4K UHD BD > Special Editions, Anniversaries > (8K...)

As long as new releases have technical improvements:

lossy audio > lossless> immersive;
480i analog video> 480p digital> 1080p 8bit >4K + HDR/WGC/10bit

and/or enjoyable/collectible added/new content, I don't mind.

Knowing this going in, you learn to time your purchases to minimize costs if needed (Sales, used, thrift, etc)

Sell or gift editions you don't need/want any longer.

For film buffs/geeks/collectors/completists, we may want to keep each edition for varied reasons- specific edits or censored content, audio track differences, artwork, OOP rarity & value, etc
 
#19 ·
I sat through this at the theater twice in a row just for the score! The opening theme and Enterprise are still at or near the top for me for all music, not just film scores, that I've ever experienced. This was actually one of the things which inspired me to build a home theater later. Not dating ,sat through it three times ultimately not giving a hoot because I was the only one to please.:p

Art
 
#23 ·
Thanks for all the links @Rgb! I would pay a pretty penny to have the directors cut restored and mastered in 4K. I can only imagine seeing it cleaned up with the redone effects. Please Paramount make this happen.

Glad to see TMP getting some love in here. Maybe someday we'll get Paramount to put out another pure Sci-Fi Trek film where the resolution involves something other than phasers.
 
#24 ·
I may be in a minority here, but I prefer the theatrical cut, even with its rushed editing, to the Director's Edition. The latter felt too choppy to me, and the new CGI looked really cheesy.
 
#25 ·
Well they are almost certain to release the original cut (probably seamless branching). Much less effort to do it.

I liked a lot of what they did with the CGI (the Vulcan changes standout). It was a product of it's time and reflected the budget allotted to it. If they redo it for 4K I can't imagine it not looking a whole lot better. It's been a while since I watched either, but I thought the editing and pacing changes were better in the DC. Hopefully we get both versions and it won't matter which version someone prefers.
 
#36 · (Edited)
1701 TMP Enterprise underwater "flying" RC model



This would have been/would be a spectacular way to film flying space shots and ship battles, retaining real world physics and motion FX.

Lasers fitted to the models would look perfect under water.

Genius re: POV cameras mounted to model

Combined with CG tweaking/cleanup, any serious director ought to consider...

(James Cameron, Nolan looking at you :D )
 
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