The movie that kickstarted (and almost killed) Star Trek’s first second life goes to be remastered, as soon as once more. Star Trek.com (through Gizmodo), says that Paramount has green-lit a “full restoration” of Robert Wise’s 2001 “Director’s Edition” of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The web site says that the challenge, which is able to take between six and eight months to complete, shall be formatted in 4K, with Dolby Vision HDR and a brand new Dolby Atmos soundtrack. David C. Fein, Mike Matessino and Daren R. Dochterman, who labored with Wise on the 2001 DVD model, will all return to work on the 4K spruce up.

The Motion Picture (TMP)’s fraught manufacturing meant that the movie was barely completed earlier than it premiered, with Wise carrying the print himself to the premiere. Wise had stated that the movie was “unfinished,” and regardless of a wholesome field workplace, took a pasting from critics who deemed it to be too gradual and talky. At the daybreak of the DVD period, Wise, Fein, Matessino and Dochterman collaborated on a re-edit of the movie that higher confirmed off Wise’s unique imaginative and prescient. This included remastered visible results and a remastered and re-edited rating by Jerry Goldsmith. The results for the 2001 model had been produced by CGI pioneers Foundation Imaging, which was Star Trek’s (then) contractor for all laptop generated work.

(After its theatrical run, ABC broadcast a “Special Longer Version” of the movie that’s infamous for together with additional scenes with clearly unfinished results. The most evident of which is the beginning of Kirk’s EVA, the place the airlock set is surrounded by studio scaffolding, meant to get replaced by a matte portray.)

It was a well-held fantasy in fan circles {that a} 4K model of the Director’s Edition was unattainable as a result of the CGI property and movie footage had been scanned and edited for normal definition. The chapter of Foundation Imaging, which came about shortly after the movie was launched, additionally dashed hopes for any higher-definition re-releases. However, as Memory Alpha lists, producer David C. Fein confirmed in 2017 that the digital materials essential to facilitate a 4K remastering nonetheless exists.

Given how TMP’s repute has been slowly rehabilitated over the past three many years, a 4K model of the movie may be very welcome. If solely as a result of, in addition to a sensible and attention-grabbing imaginative and prescient of the longer term, the mannequin work and rating are so good that they should be seen in the absolute best decision. We can’t wait to expertise this in 4K when it arrives sooner or later between December and subsequent March.