The long-awaited 4K remaster of The Abyss is going to be available within months, James Cameron has confirmed overnight.
It’s become something of a holy grail in the world of physical media: a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of perhaps James Cameron’s most interesting film: 1989’s The Abyss. Heck, even a Blu-ray release of it.
The Abyss previously got an extras-packed double disc DVD set, but that was over 20 years ago. Since then, Cameron has been teasing the fact that he’s working on a 4K remaster and a new version of The Abyss, but the years keep ticking on, we all keep getting older, and it’s still not in our hands.
See also, True Lies, in fact.
This though has been a year for James Cameron films getting fresh physical media outings. Avatar arrived on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray for the first time, Titanic is coming in December, and an announcement on True Lies is believed to be imminent.
Furthermore, it’s been known for some time that the actual remastering of The Abyss has been completed. Then, overnight in Los Angeles, the film was screened as part of Beyond Fest, with Cameron appearing afterwards for a Q&A.
During that Q&A, he did indeed confirm that the aforementioned holy grail (not a proper noun in this case) is nearly done.
To the delight of the audience, Cameron confirmed that the remastering is done, and the disc will drop soon, “in a couple of months”. In fact, further than that, he confirmed that the release was now “out of my hands”, which suggests that he’s signed off what needs to be signed off, and it’s now up to the current rights holders of the film – Disney – to get it scheduled and on sale.
There will be lots of added material he confirmed, and that the release will not just be on physical media, but back on streaming too. “I wanted to do it right, and I kind of had a day job getting Avatar 2 finished”, he said.
Somebody thoughtfully videoed his comments, and you can hear them here…
The very end of the Q&A with James Cameron following the Beyond Fest screening of the 4K restoration of THE ABYSS: SPECIAL EDITION where he says that it should be released “in a couple of months.” pic.twitter.com/HA66XKsYNU
— Ed Wang (@edataoldotcom) September 28, 2023
Bottom line: there’s a slight chance that The Abyss might sneak out this side of Christmas, but even if it goes beyond that by a month or two, that’s no longer down to James Cameron. We’ll keep you posted…
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