Gretchen Wayne, the president of Batjac Prods. — the film company co-founded by her father-in-law, John Wayne — is restoring and looking for a distributor for the actor’s 1953 3-D classic “Hondo.”
The U.S. premiere of a newly restored version of the film was presented Tuesday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of its Science and Technology Council’s 3-D program.
“I would love to get this film (restoration) as good as possible and take it out for a theatrical release,” Wayne said.
The Western was made in 3-D and shown using a Polaroid 3-D system during its original theatrical release. It aired once on broadcast TV in 1991 using an anaglyph system.
“The digital world is constantly evolving, and as it does we are able to do more and more with this very old 3-D version of ‘Hondo,’ ” she said. “We showed it last year at Cannes. It was simply an upload from the original negative. It was color corrected and the dirt was removed. Since then, we’ve been able to do much more, and we have a much better product.”
The restored film was projected digitally Tuesday at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater and viewed by a full house using active glasses. Leonard Maltin conducted an onstage interview with Wayne as part of the program.
