Trapped by Television · @LouLumenick
28th Jan 2016 from TwitLonger
Asked restoration expert Robert A. Harris if BFI's plans affect the previously-announced NAPOLEON restoration he is undertaking with Francis Coppola and Cinematheque Francaise. His reply:
"The two are not connected. We donated the UK rights to the BFI and Photoplay (Kevin Brownlow and Patrick Stansbury) back in the early days of the project, in recognition of the work they had done over the years.
Zoetrope/Film Preserve [Coppola and Harris' companies] own all world rights with the exception of the UK and France, which was donated to the Cinematheque by Claude Lelouch.
A few years ago, the Cinematheque did an inventory of Napoleon elements, many unseen since 1971, and discovered portions of the original camera negative, as well as other missing elements.
While we applaud the BFI's latest efforts, we have been working with the Cinematheque toward the preparation of a more cohesive, and higher quality presentation, based upon Abel's Apollo version of the film.
We anticipate to be complete in 2017."