Technicolor’s revival of its dye-transfer process (also known as Technicolor process #6) was commercially available for a brief period of six years, roughly from 1997–2002, produced solely from the company’s North Hollywood laboratory, located on Universal Studio’s lot. The small team at Technicolor devoted to the reintroduction of imbibition (IB) printing were devotees of the classic imbibition printing process – created by the company in the early-1930s – that had run its commercial course by the end of the 1970s. That earlier period of classic Technicolor IB printing was deservedly known throughout the world of cinema as one of (if not) the greatest examples of motion picture color in cinema history.

The reintroduction of dye-transfer printing in the late 1990s was limited to a select group of noteworthy productions – but proved unsustainable due to its small print runs, higher price point and technical issues. 

It should be remembered that the paradigm for theatrical distribution and exhibition changed dramatically in the later half of the 1970s – in great measure prompted by the implementation of significantly larger print runs as seen with blockbusting movies from the New Hollywood directors, such as Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) and Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977). Eastmancolor prints, manufactured by Technicolor on new bespoke high-speed printers, had print volumes in the hundreds and premiered “day and date” across North America. Both films did, however, receive a few IB dye-transfer “show prints” from Technicolor London. (This new paradigm for theatrical exhibition grew dramatically over the following decades and peaked around 2010 with the day-and-date global theatrical release of the last Harry Potter films that employed nearly 20,000 35mm Eastmancolor prints, populating screens around the world.)

From the mid-to-late 1970s onward, Technicolor was ideally situated to take full advantage of the explosion of global cinema, while more quietly servicing the equally dramatic growth of home entertainment by manufacturing and duplicating VHS tapes and DVDs en masse. With the continued stability in its revenues and profitability through the 1980s, the company was able to devote the requisite funds required to explore relaunching a dye-transfer line from its Hollywood operations.

Based on the passionate regard for the storied process from major American and international filmmakers, Technicolor began feasibility studies in the early-1990s to reintroduce “the greatest name in color”. The company’s head of operations in Hollywood, Ron Jarvis, was committed to the reintroduction of IB printing and tasked company technical director/engineer Frank Ricotta to evaluate the realities of bringing back IB printing. A key member of the engineering team advising on IB printing was Keith Burnham who had earlier overseen dye-transfer printing at Technicolor West Drayton, near London. Further, Jarvis rehired famed Technicolor color scientist Dr. Richard Goldberg to oversee the effort. Ricotta and Goldberg negotiated with the Chinese government to repurchase the Technicolor printing equipment, originally based at Technicolor, West Drayton, that had been sold to the Chinese in the late 1970s. Earlier, Goldberg had consulted with the Chinese lab in Beijing having visited the facility with producer Jeffrey Selznick in the later part of the 1970s.

The goal was a quality product that satisfied filmmakers’ needs, that could also be scaled-up sufficiently to meet demand for massive day-and-date print runs at a cheaper price point than standard Eastmancolor prints. (In the early 1970s, it was not uncommon for up to 800 dye-transfer prints to be made from one set of matrices, greatly decreasing the cost of release prints). Ricotta explained at the time that the new process yielded sharper, less grainy images than conventional color positive prints, as well as “an extended tone scale resulting in blacker blacks, whiter whites and improved color rendition” (Desowitz, 1997).

The films released on dye-transfer prints between 1997 and 2002 were an interesting group of new features, with a smattering of restorations of earlier classics: for director Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now Redux (2001), as noted by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, Technicolor’s Rome lab had originally planned on producing select dye-transfer prints for the film’s initial release in 1979 – but the film’s post-production was seriously delayed, and by release Technicolor had shut down its dye-transfer line in Rome. 

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) was fully restored by Robert Harris and James Katz for Universal Pictures and printed in dye-transfer under the supervision of Dr. Goldberg. The film’s initial release in 1954 was assumed to have been printed in dye-transfer, as were other Hitchcock color classics – but this was not the case for Rear Window for a myriad of reasons. Other classics restored and printed in dye-transfer included Gone with the Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). New films given dye-transfer release or show prints included: director Warren Beatty’s Bulworth (1998), Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998), Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor (2001) and Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla (1998).

In parallel with the relaunch and demise of IB printing in the early 2000s, Technicolor was investing heavily in the transition to digital workflows with the creation of two divisions devoted to digital intermediate color-grading, and a separate group created to produce DCP masters and copies for digital projection that the world of theatrical exhibition would soon embrace. Despite the company's intentions to scale-up print volume to meet day-and-date release demands the industry desired, Technicolor's dye-transfer revival was hampered by quality-control issues and technical failures – as well as the impending industry transition to digital exhibition. As a result, the revival was not fully implemented as intended. It was ultimately used for only small print runs of show prints and classic film reissues.