Well, you have your opinion, but I don't think any of the footage "looks DV".
Hi, I'm the D.P. of this movie. Although there was some 2nd unit footage I was not a part of shooting, all the footage I shot with Allen pulling focus looks amazing. The 1080 uprez, digital projection, and 35mm projection all look absolutely stunning to me and everyone in the biz who I've shown. Although some of the 2nd unit stuff I'm less than pleased with, I believe it holds up better than any digital format I've seen (aside from varicam's and F900 stuff in Star wars, Spy kids, etc.)
Bill, honestly, have you seen any DV-> 35mm lately? Or even 16mm-> 35mm? Everything I've seen in the past 10 years has been less than acceptable for my eyes. When coloring in Los Angeles at Plaster City Digital Post, everyone was amazed at how good it held up on the 26' screen (thanks to their up-rezzing). When I saw the 35mm print this last weekend I thought it looked as good as a digital projection I saw at the premiere.
As for why not shoot 1080, the short answer is our research showed that it wasn't any better when it all came down to the uprez, and it took a lot more resources. We shot this movie on 2 8gb and 2 4gb cards. We didn't have a whole lot of time to test, but the 720p stuff was looking so nice, we went with it. I'm not sure 1080 would have improved anything at all, it might have even "degraded" the image, as increased sharpness make it look to video-like. We were trying to smooth the image out and go with a more cinematic style, so 1080 was passed over.
I've posted a bunch of info on the Redrock Micro forum, and I have an article in next month's American Cinematographer and IGN Magazine, talking about the production.
Hope this helps!
Andy Kuepper