Meaning of "rescan from original negative" for modern productions

[steady_eddy91]

Hi,

With UHD Blu-Ray increasing in full swing, 4K restorations/re-scans are happening frequently. I was wondering what the process of 'rescanning from original negative' for a modern production entails, seeing as virtually all modern editing, regardless of capture format, is done digitally?

I understand pre-2000s, because the editing was done photo-chemically. A rescan of an older film is essentially getting hold of the edited film negative, and scanning it again at a higher resolution.

I am confused when this terminology i used for a modern production. For example, Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad was shot on film, but I assumed scanned in and edited with a digital intermediate, like essentially all modern productions shooting on celluloid (with exemption of maybe Nolan and PTA). Does this mean they're scanning in the footage from film negatives at the higher resolution, and re-editing from scratch?? Editing, adding visual effects etc? Because unless they thought to scan those negatives in the first time around at 4K instead of 2K, I can't think of any other way a 4K finish to Breaking Bad (or any other modern film/TV show originally mastered in 2K) would be achieved.

Interested to hear your answers.

Thanks,

Ed