"2001: A Space Odyssey" in digital sound

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The 70mm Newsletter

One of the most anticipated re-releases of a 70mm film in recent times will happen in March next year when Stanley Kubrick´s "2001: A Space Odyssey" will hit 70mm screens in key markets around the world. The international release of the film begins in selected cinemas in London on March 7th.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" will be "previewed" a bit earlier on February 18, 2001 as the closing event at the Berlin Film festival. There will be new 35mm and 70mm prints available. "35mm prints will most likely carry all 3 major digital formats", Leon Vitali comments, "and we haven't decided about the 70mm prints yet. There are still a couple of plants that apply magnetic striping", he continues. The obvious choice for 70mm digital sound would of course be to go with DTS 70mm, but that decision has not yet been made.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" is scheduled to open England, Italy, Germany, Australia and Japan but is expected to open in even more countries. Probably in July 2001, the classic movie will also open in North America. "There is a huge interest in showing this film again", says Leon Vitali from his Burbank office. When asked about any difficulties in finding suitable 70mm theatres, Vitali denies that to be a problem.

The soundtrack is currently undergoing some re-working to eliminate high-end distortion and tape hiss which have been in "2001: A Space Odyssey"'s soundtrack since the original release (April 2, 1968). Initial work has been done by Chris Jenkins at Todd-AO in Hollywood. "We did a 5.1 mix in 1995", Leon Vitali explains, "but we did not remove the hiss and distortion at that point, but we are doing that now". Recording stocks have improved considerably since 1968 and Stanley Kubrick´s original 2-track stereo master is now being faithfully reproduced into a state-of-the-art 5.1 master. "One of the beauties of "2001: A Space Odyssey" is the complete silence of space, and we are now able to simulate that even better since the tape hiss is completely gone."

Further in 70mm reading:

"2001: A Space Odyssey" credits

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