Synopsis:

After reconstructing the TV cut of Legend and finally replacing an old DVD I had of the Euro cut, I decided I wanted to update the 11-year-old HD transfer of the European theatrical cut using the Arrow Video restoration. This idea was also spurred on by the fact that Arrow Video had the footage for Euro Cut on hand and included bits and pieces of it in a bonus feature available on their set, but weren't allowed to release a restoration of the cut because of rights issues and no cooperation on the part of a certain House of Mouse. So I am glad to present the European theatrical cut of Legend restored.

Intentions:

To restore and remaster the European theatrical cut of Legend.

Change List:

Switching back and forth between the director's cut, the US theatrical cut, and the alternate footage bonus footage, there are way too many individual trims and rearrangements to name all in one go, but I will make mention of two changes that were done for this remaster, as they easy enough to explain. - 00:00:00:00: Added the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare from The Final Conflict: Omen III to the beginning of the film. - 01:26:24:05: In the Fox Ultimate Edition release, Lilli is seen in the background as Jack jumps down to retrieve her ring to wake her up. This is an error that was first seen in the DVD releases of the Euro and Director's Cuts. Lilli was removed from the shot in the Director's Cut when the Ultimate Edition was brought into HD but that change wasn't implemented for the Euro Cut. I corrected this error for this transfer using the corrected shot from the Arrow Video Director's Cut transfer.

Additional Notes:

I extracted the European theatrical cut from the 20th Century Fox BD and placed it on a timeline in Premiere Pro to use as the base for the restoration and remastering process. I then extracted the Director's Cut, US Theatrical Cut, and Alternate Footage bonus feature from their respective discs in the Arrow Video Limited Edition and conformed footage from each cut to the Euro cut. For restoring the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare to the front of the film, I extracted The Final Conflict (Omen III) from it's deluxe edition BD out of the Scream Factory box set, and lifted the logo and 5.1 fanfare from it. For restoring the new stereo mix, I captured my The Final Conflict and Japanese Legend Euro Cut LDs, created a new timeline with the assembled remastered transfer, and synced up the PCM tracks I created from the captures. The audio for Legend was slightly shorter than the new transfer, as the LD runs at 91 minutes compared to the BD's 94 mins, so I had to do some work with it in Audacity and manually sync it by eye. Once the audio mixes were edited, I rendered them out as DTS-HD MA tracks not only for the sake of having lossless soundtracks but also to emulate the director's cut and US theatrical cut presentations in the Arrow Video set.

Other Sources:

Region B 20th Century Fox 2012 Legend: Ultimate Edition Blu-Ray: The base of this project, the European Theatrical Cut, was taken from this blu-ray release. Not only was it used as the timing guide for the restoration process, but two elements of footage unavailable in other sources were taken from here and recolored to match other with the other sources. The 5.1 surround mix was also taken from this release. Region A Arrow Video 2021 Legend Limited Edition Blu-Ray Set: the Director's Cut, the US Theatrical Cut, and alternate footage bonus feature were sourced from this set. The restored Director's and US Theatrical cuts were restored by Arrow Video for this set, and their restored transfers were what I used to update the European Cut. A handful of footage that couldn't be found in either of those cuts were taken from the bonus footage feature, and color matched to either the DC or US TC to blend in. These transfers were used to create uniformity among all three of the cuts. Region A Scream Factory The Final Conflict Blu-Ray: As the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare were removed from the 2012 blu-ray transfer, I lifted a 1981 2.35:1 Cinemascope opening from the The Final Conflict blu-ray and added it before the film. The 5.1 fanfare audio was taken from the disc as well, and added to the 5.1 mix. Japanese NTSC Warner Home Video 1990 Legend European Cut Laserdisc: Seeing as the 20th Century Fox blu-ray did not include a stereo track upon its release, I decided to create a "new" theatrical stereo mix restoration. I captured the digital stereo track from my Japanese Euro Cut LD and synced it up to the finished restored transfer. This audio makes up the bulk of the restored theatrical stereo audio for this project. US NTSC CBS/Fox Video 1989 The Final Conflict: Omen III Laserdisc: As I had to restore the 20th Century Fox logo to this restoration and take said logo from the blu-ray for The Final Conflict, I captured the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare from the 1989 The Final Conflict LD, and synced its audio to the blu-ray sourced logo for the restored theatrical mix.

Special Thanks:

To Ridley Scott for creating a beautiful fairytale experience that I have genuinely loved since childhood.