find an original film print and have it scanned

The 4K77 project did just that, scan and color correction to reverse fading, and effectively no other processing so they cannot claim copyright. Arguably, Harmy’s Despecialized Edition cannot either, even if the original becomes public domain, as it could be argued that their effort only served a technical purpose. I don’t think you can scan, upscale and denoise Steamboat Willie (Walt Disney, 1928) and claim copyright on that even if you do it by hand.