A new restoration of Ben-Hur at the TCM Film Festival

[Canada]

Source: Digital Bits

Now then, the big news today is that we’ve just confirmed that a brand new restoration of William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959) is going to premiere at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood on Saturday, April 26! Details of the screening are available here. We’ve learned that this is indeed a new scan and restoration from the original 65 mm negative that’s been completed by Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging in collaboration with The Film Foundation.

And given that previous WBDHE film restorations have debuted at the festival, and then followed on physical 4K Ultra HD—think Se7en, The Searchers, North by Northwest, Rio Bravo, and more—it seems very likely that a physical 4K Ultra HD release will follow sometime in the next 12 months. Note that the film’s original theatrical release date was November 18th, so that’s probably the earliest time frame that a physical release would be planned for. In any case, this is certainly very good news for those who love this big screen epic.