Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition 4K remaster might happen

At San Diego Comic-Con, the news broke that Paramount is considering a 4K remaster of the Director’s Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

This year marks 40 years since Star Trek: The Motion Picture arrived in theaters. The movie was s decidedly mixed bag, with some saying it was too long and too boring while others say the movie is one of the best examples of what Star Trek truly represents.

There is no question the movie does have its fans. So many in fact that director Robert Wise had the chance to go back and finish the film.

As all Trekkers know, the production of The Motion Picture was incredibly rushed as a result Wise never felt he had a chance to create what he thought was a satisfying movie experience. So in 2001 Paramount released the Director’s Edition of TMP. It edited some of the more tedious sequences down and digitally updated some of the visual effects. The Director’s Edition is the version Wise considers the definitive cut of the movie.

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Unfortunately, you will have a hell of a time trying to see it.

The Director’s Edition has only been released once on DVD back in 2001. That’s it. It never got a Blu-ray release or a high definition upgrade. So for the past 18 years fans have had to either troll Ebay for a copy or hope that it airs on television, which it does every once in a while.

But if news out of San Diego Comic-Con is to be believed, that may be changing.

Revealed during the Inglorious Treksperts panel on Friday, David Fein, producer of the Director’s Edition, broke the news that talks with Paramount have begun regarding doing a 4K remastering of the 2001 version of The Motion Picture.

Daren Dochterman, who was the Director’s Edition visual effects supervisor was also on the panel and shared the news on Twitter.

After the panel, TrekMovie.com spoke with Dochterman and he said that Mike Matessino, the restoration supervisor for the Director’s Edition is also involved and that they hope to bring back as many of the original team as they can.

Unfortunately, even if they started right away, chances are that any release of a 4K remaster of the Director’s Edition wouldn’t be until next year at the earliest.

It is also important to remember that Paramount is just “talking” about the “possibility” of making this happen. That means we could be years away from having a copy of The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition in our hands. But the fact that discussions are underway is a very good sign.

Keep it here on Redshirts Always Die for more from SDCC and updates on the status of Star Trek: The Motion Picture arriving in glorious 4K.