James Cameron is fully aware that his fans have been eagerly waiting for the 4K special edition of the movie “The Abyss.”
The wait, however, is almost over, as the refreshed version of Cameron’s first ocean-themed film premiered in theaters on Wednesday, December 6th, with the release of the physical 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc scheduled for March 12, 2024 (alongside 4K collector’s editions of “Aliens” and “True Lies”). This marks the culmination of a long journey for Cameron and his fans, and the director stated in his video announcement for this release that viewers will “see the film that I truly intended to make.”
“I think it’s an extraordinary opportunity,” he told IGN in a recent interview. “I mean, the film wasn’t a huge hit. It did decently, but it never went away, and people continue to connect with it over time. The opportunity to see a special edition in the theaters is really unprecedented.”
Cameron had to trim “The Abyss” from nearly three hours to about two hours and 15 minutes for its original release in 1989. However, after the huge success of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” in 1991, he secured funding to finish a special edition released in 1992. But, as he points out, “it came out, what, on LaserDisc probably at that time, and it never got into theaters.”
Even Cameron admits he hadn’t seen the special edition of “The Abyss” in theaters until the end of our interview – and that was with his grown children. (“They liked it,” he says, “they were very impressed, and they’re hard to impress. I scored some dad points.”)
So, if the special edition has been around for so long, why have decades passed without it properly being shown in theaters and in 4K resolution? Honestly, as indicated by a tweet from 2019, even Ryan Johnson and Ryan Reynolds wondered about it, as well as “True Lies.”
Cameron knows the question is coming as soon as I start asking him: “What took so long?”
“First, it’s a very specific process for me,” he begins. “It takes me about a week in there all day, overseeing the transfer, tweaking every shot, every little bit of reconstruction, and working on every pixel of the image, and I don’t want to just do that lightly, nor do I want someone else to do it for me.”
“We were pretty under the gun during the making of Avatar 2, 3, and parts of 4 amidst a pandemic and production shutdowns, and it was really relentless,” he continues. That’s why he didn’t get to “The Abyss” or “True Lies,” and he tried to tell fans: “Guys, just wait. Just wait. It’s okay. Those movies aren’t going anywhere. They’re already old. We’re not trying to cash in on some big rush here.”
“We’ve done it all correctly, and now it’s possible to group them together as kind of a library,” he says. “That wasn’t my intention; it just kind of crystallized that way.”
This gives him another chance to revisit “The Abyss” with a certain amount of distance, and he still feels extremely confident about it. Reflecting on his recent viewing of the special edition in theaters for the first time, “I was amazed at how well the film still stands up. It wasn’t unpleasant.”
“Namely, of course, there are things we could do with CG effects towards the end of the film, in the last six or eight minutes, that would be far beyond what we could do at the time, but I think most of the film still looks very good, and the actors are outstanding,” he says. “And I’ve been away from it for a while, so I can speak objectively about it; what Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio does in that film, starting out as a really unpleasant character when you first meet her, and then by the end, you love her.”
“You just care about her and the way she expresses herself,” he continues. “That’s a really powerful performance. And Ed Harris is Ed Harris. He’s great. He’s always great.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis in the movie True Lies. Obviously, “The Abyss” isn’t the only film Cameron had the opportunity to revisit, as his 1994 film hit, the action comedy True Lies, is also part of this release. And, looking at the library standing side by side, it becomes even more apparent how much the film, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a government agent balancing his life as a spy and a father, while Jamie Lee Curtis plays his wife, stands out in his filmography. Even Cameron admits that it’s “an anomaly in my career path.”
Still, the film has become a favorite among his fans, and Cameron attributes that to something easily recognizable; it’s “a very universal, human story if you’ve ever been married.” It just happens to be within the framework of a James Bond-style spy thriller.
“We jokingly referred to that film, while we were making it, as the domestic epic because it’s essentially just about this married couple and their little misunderstandings with each other,” he says.
So, acknowledging that it’s certainly an anomaly, would Cameron ever consider remaking a comedy like that (of course, after he’s done with “Avatars 3, 4, and 5”)? That’s a question he’s seriously considering.
“I could imagine making a movie similar to that,” he says. “It was fun to make. I mean, movies are hard, but that one, in particular, was fun to make.”
“I was terrified the whole time it wouldn’t be funny enough,” he admits further. “But it turned out that Arnold and Tom Arnold had great chemistry, Jamie Curtis and Arnold also had great chemistry, and then the humor is very natural to the scenes and the characters.”
His producing partner, Jon Landau, who also participates in the interview, quickly interjects to remind Cameron of another member of the cast: “Bill Paxton, Jim.”
“Bill Paxton, oh, god,” Cameron responds. “He’s hilarious.”
We can’t disagree.
The special edition of The Abyss in 4K format will be shown only on December 6th, while the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray collector’s editions of The Abyss, True Lies, and Aliens will be available starting March 12, 2024.
