James Cameron Hints at The Abyss Finally Getting 4K Release

James Cameron has a history of telling stories and developing special effects that feel ahead of their time, and while projects like Titanic and Avatar remain staples of the pop-culture zeitgeist, one of his earlier efforts, The Abyss, doesn’t always earn the same attention. Cameron recently offered some good news for cinephiles who are fans of the 1989 film, as he confirmed that, after years of rumors and extended waits, The Abyss is expected to finally get a 4K Ultra HD release in the coming months, finally showcasing the impressive achievements of the sci-fi spectacle after years of waiting.

Over on Twitter, journalist Arthur Cios reported that during an interview with Cameron about Avatar: The Way of Water, the topic of The Abyss on 4K came up, to which Cameron claimed “he had a new master and it would be out by March 2023 max.”

The film focuses on the crew of a submarine that crashes unexpectedly, with the government sending in Navy SEALS to assist them, resulting in the discovery that aquatic life might not be the only thing they are encountering in the depths of the ocean.

Interestingly, despite the notoriety of Cameron and of The Abyss specifically, the last physical release was on DVD, with the film failing to even earn a Blu-ray release. One of the last updates about the film’s hi-def remaster came a year ago from Cameron himself.

“We finished the transfer and I wanted to do it myself because Mikael [Salomon] did such a beautiful job with the cinematography on that film. It is truly, truly gorgeous cinematography,” Cameron shared with Space.com in December of 2021. “That was before I started to assert myself in terms of lighting and asking the cinematographer to do certain things. I’d compose with the camera and choose the lenses, but I left the lighting to him. He did a remarkable job on that movie that I appreciate better now than I did even as we were making it.”

He continued, “I’d also like to point out that he took one look at the first day’s dailies of the underwater lighting and he went out and learned to scuba dive. He came in the following Monday morning, the worst diver in the world, but he reinvented underwater lighting. He went for indirect lighting and he got everybody doing things that were not just outside their comfort zone, they’d never even thought of it. Suddenly the underwater shots start to live up to the surface photography.”

Stay tuned for details on the release of The Abyss in 4K.

Will you be adding the film to your collection? Let us know in the comments!