35MM Restored Print, Possible DVD/BluRay soon

This is pretty good news for fans of this classic movie. I was searching through DVD Talk reviews and found a review of a special screening of a newly restored 35MM Cinemascope print.

From the DVDTalk/DVD Savant website....
Footnote:

1. The Day of the Triffids may indeed be surfacing in an excellent copy sooner than later - Savant has been informed that its original copyright has been verified and the negative is undergoing a painstaking restoration. I've also been told that new theatrical prints restore Ted Moore's color cinematography to its original luster. I'll report on the restoration further if I'm given permission - at the present time I've been asked not to say more. I certainly hope it all comes to pass as promised.

NOTE, October 20, 2006: One year later, I've only been told to be patient about progress on the film restoration of Triffids, which prompts me to suggest that nobody hold their breath. I know for a fact that the restoration is happening, but I no longer list it on a 'keep checking back' basis.

Added NOTE, October 31, 2009: Last night on Vine Street in Hollywood restorationist and friend Mike Hyatt screened a 35mm CinemaScope answer print of his photochemical restoration of The Day of the Triffids. This is the film that Mike has spent most of the last decade cleaning by hand, picking tens of thousands of tiny particles out of the soft emulsion of the original negative. What would have projected as a snowstorm of white flecks now looks pristine, clear, as if it were brand new.

The title hasn't been seen in its original color and 'Scope since who-knows-when. Because Mike's original negative hasn't faded, we can see cameraman Ted Moore's cinematography for the first time and it's truly beautiful, with red and yellow highlights. When one character is killed by the walking plants, he's immediately struck a shade of Green. Before, I always thought the man's odd appearance was just a bad print.

Although technically the screening was a staff Halloween party for the Academy, Mike Hyatt invited a few guests to see the film on the Academy's big Pickford Center Linwood Dunn screen. The house was filled with friends and well-wishers who have been hearing about Mike's painstaking one-man restoration

Now Mike begins the digital restoration, cleaning up the film's title and optical sections where dirt and scratches are built-in, and have to be painted out. Mike Hyatt holds substantial rights to the picture and is hoping for an eventual DVD and Blu-ray release as well as making restored prints available for theatrical screenings.