It’s been roughly 6 years now, and still no known plans on what, if anything, is being done with the original negatives.
For those who may not know, the original negatives of “Halloween” were “discovered” a few years back. The guy who owned them seem to be having a hard time figuring out what to do with them, or who to sell them to.
This footage contains all the actual film shot for “Halloween”, including outtakes, bloopers, alternate takes, etc. At the time it was reported, the footage did not include audio. Despite this, I would imagine these negatives would be invaluable not only for a true restoration of the film, but also a full documenting of its making.
Has there been any news of late on this? Haven’t heard anything for awhile and am not finding anything online.
I could be wrong, but I thought that the footage was everything that was NOT in the film… outtakes, different shots, takes, etc. As well as early test work with the masks, steadycam, etc., but not the entire film.
Let me throw another ‘could be wrong, but…’ out there as I thought the hiccup here was that Billy had a $ amount that he would license the footage to be released but that the owners of the franchise feels they shouldn’t have to license or pay anything for a film they already own and here we are.
Kirkus sold the whole thing to Don Mays, Jr. of Synapse. I was told this by Sean Clark and I confirmed it when I met Don at ScreamFest not too long ago here in Lexington. I asked him what was up with it, he just said that they won’t let him do anything with it… I could see in his face that it was hopeless. “They” as in the license holders. It’s a power struggle that is what keeping us from seeing them. I have also heard some stories from people who are on Malek Akkad’s side. All of this is ridiculous. I just want to see the damn thing.
You would almost think it was actual video from a helmet cam attached the lead guy on Seal team 6 who shot Bin Laden, instead a some outtakes of a scary movie.
I own the footage…Synapse does not own the footage and never did. This is all I can say at the this time.
Speaking of the original negatives, it’d be nice to see Trancas go back to them for a brand restoration of the film, all the other classics have been receiving 4-8K digital scans and restorations, but if I recall Halloween hasn’t had a restoration since they went to the interpositive for the THX remaster in the late 90’s and hasn’t had a new scan since the old Divimax scan. Technology has leaped far enough to where even a super low budget late 60’s Jean Rollin film like Rape of the Vampire or a super low budget 16mm film like The Evil Dead look amazing with new restorations.
…Though I’m not holding my breath, especially seeing as Halloween 4 and 5’s blu-ray releases used the old Divimax masters despite saying they were brand new ones, and the recent theatrical re-release was (unfortunately for the people involved as well as the viewers) botched in most places it was shown.
Thanks for your responses!
Sounds like they are still in limbo. Such a shame!! This is amongst the greatest American films ever made. It deserves better treatment. I realize that there is a lot of money involved, but I’m very surprised there aren’t interested parties.
In the words of David Coverdale and Whitesnake…Here we go again lol
