(Image used by Warner Bros. for movie.)

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Thomas submitted the following info after
viewing the preview in his theater in Florida:

"The preview is interesting. It starts out with the words on the screen:
'The House Began to Pitch' and it shows the Kansas house 'pitching' :)
It moves on to 'The kitchen took A slitch' then 'It landed on the Wicked Witch' and 'In the middle of a ditch' -- all with appropriate footage of it doing just that.
Then it goes on to say,
'Generations have waited to see it on the big screen... now digitally remastered!' and the Wicked Witch says, 'These things have to be done deeeeeelicately!'
Then it says, 'And remastered in Digital Stereo Sound!' and it cuts to an emerald city person saying, 'Well, now THAT makes a difference!!'
Thanks, Thomas, for all the great info!!!

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The Official page for the Re-releasing of the movie:
http://www.thewizardofoz.com

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Thought everyone would like to know which theatres across the country will be showing the superior DYE TRANSFER prints of OZ
(Only 50 prints were made; some are being held as "back-up" prints.)
Here they are:

From the LA Times October 24th piece on OZ :
"Technicolor President Ron Jarvis says there's no substitute for going back to the
original negative. 'It's incredible what we've been able to extract from the negatives,' he says. 'And with improved dyes and (film) stocks, we can make 'Oz' look like it's never
looked before. I wish we could've done 'Gone With The Wind' this way. If they'll
let me, I'd still like to go back and do it right. Of course getting here has required some
very meticulous registration correction that we can only do because we have the records,' Jarvis adds. 'Those negatives have to be lined up just right, shot by shot. There was misregistration in the camera and misregistration due to shrinkage over the years. It won't
be perfect. But we can correct most of it.' About the only complaint about this ultimate
OZ is that there's a bit too much contrast in the brighter scenes. Even so, the splashy use
of color looks like eye candy. .... UNFORTUNATELY, few moviegoers will be seeing
OZ in it's original Technicolor glory or in it's proper 1.33:1 aspect ratio. That's because
of the accelerated release schedule (from December 25th, to November 6th), and
extremely large print order (for 1,835 theatres), as well as the fact that most multi-plexes
don't want to be bothered renting special lenses or making correct aperture plates. As
a result, Technicolor was asked to make TWO DIFFERENT SETS of prints : about
1,800 standard color compositives for conventional multiplexes, and about
50 SUPERIOR DYE TRANSFERS for SPECIAL THEATERS
(including the Mann Chinese in Hollywood),
recalling the old road-show engagements of the 50's and 60's.
That's not to say the color positives won't be superb. They'll look just fine, thanks to
entire pre-fitting done by Technicolor. Still, THEY WON'T HAVE the vibrancy, the
3--D like sharpness or velvety blacks of DYE TRANSFER. NOR will the color positives
be shown unadulterated. 'We're going to shrink the image slightly so most theaters can
play it using a 1.85 lens.' 'But you won't lose any actual picture information.' This is
preferable to the tortuous process used on 'Gone With The Wind,' which actually
degraded the image quality." "According to Aljean Harmetz, author of 'The Making Of The Wizard Of Oz,' to be reprinted next month by Hyperion, the landmark fantasy has
earned approximately $300,000,000 in it's nearly 60-year history, including $225,000,000
in home sales over the last 10 years.
(Thanks, Jim)

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Also, Scott Essman (that many of you know from his recent
Oz makeup tribute)
has been recruited by Warner Bros. to recreate 5 Oz characters
for the premier screening at the Mann's Theater on Halloween morning!!!
Look for his OZ characters (Lion, Tin Man, Scarecrow, Dorothy, Witch)
on Halloween.
They should be on the major entertainment news programs ...
(ET Tonight, Access Hollywood, etc.).
Congrats Scott !!!

Watch for more on this topic in the next issue of
The Baum Bugle - TheBBugle@aol.com