Hi BC,
That would be good news if it happens, because I kept the faith and some Kodachrome all this time: have some deep in the bottom drawer of the freezer! (I have a brick of 120 Velvia 50 too, so if a good, local E6 outfit springs back up...)
Of course, there's always a bigger, broad question mark: will the costs of reintroduced film types make sense for anyone no longer doing it professionally? My bet is that it could make sense for Kodak to offer its own processing, even of Ektachrome. I base that thought on the fact that, as we both know very well, running lines, replenishing etc. is a precise science, and can't really be done at home by the average photographer without very deep pockets: it doesn't make sense, and beyond that, unlike printing in darkrooms, it's not the exciting work that you expect photography to be about: it's all about being a good lab technician and not making it up as you go along. Are small, commercial pro labs that reliable regarding replenishing and lab controls? I often used to wonder. If Kodak kept a leash on processing, then maybe price and quality might be in safer hands - or not! For a time there used to be Q-labs or something, where I seem to remember the film companies ran some sort of checking system on the commercial labs using their stuff; maybe they doubted the labs too!
Film look. Yes, that's important for those of us with the experience to know how the two differ, film/digital, but you'd be surprised how many younger guys think I'm nuts for trying to make my digital captures look 'distressed' by adding some tiny touch of almost invisible grain; truth to tell, I have even stopped doing any sharpening at all on some files, and both Nikons have that in-camera facility as far Off as it can be put. On other images I sharpen just tiny parts of them, and like them that way.
However, as I think I mentioned before somewhere in this thread, the convenience and cost factor of digital imaging is pretty unbeatable an argument in its favour for most non-pros; for me, I think the appeal of film has become a matter of camera-love: those 500 series things were just exactly where I had striven to be, and getting there was a dream come true. Rollei TLR cameras were certainly better hand-held animals than 'blads, simply because of no mirror-bounce, but once on a tripod, there was nothing I ever met better than those Swedes! I have also kept three meters: two old Westons and a Minolta Flashmeter 111, so if can remember how I did it...
;-)
Rob