Fans of The Abyss and True Lies may finally be tempted to throw away their DVDs, VHS tapes, and/or Laserdiscs soon. Speaking to The Digital Bits during a press event at his Lightstorm Entertainment offices, Jon Landau, producer of the Avatar films and one of James Cameron’s closest collaborators, confirmed to the publication that the director’s 1989 sci-fi film and 1994 spy action comedy with Arnold Schwarzenegger should finally be released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray this year, and not only that, they’ll be joined by 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray versions of Avatar and Titanic as well. The Abyss and True Lies have never received a Blu-ray release (at least, not outside of Spain), and while Blu-ray versions of Avatar and Titanic are already available, fans should be able to revisit those classics relatively soon in glorious 4K and HDR. Avatar: The Way of Water will also be getting 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray releases this year following its digital debut on March 28.
From a Digital Bits post:
I had the good fortune early this morning to attend a press event with producer Jon Landau at his Lightstorm Entertainment offices to preview some of the special features you’ll find on the impending Digital (and forthcoming Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD) release of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water. Rest assured, I’ll talk more about those next week here at The Bits.
But here’s what’s important: I took the opportunity to ask Landau directly about the physical Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD release of James Cameron’s original Avatar (2009), along with The Abyss (1989), True Lies (1994), and Titanic (1997). And if you watch the video I shot below, you can see what he said for yourself…
Yes, Virginia… all four of those films are planned for release on 4K UHD and Blu-ray this year!
Keep in mind, the studios in question (Disney/20th Century and Paramount) still have to complete all the remastering, authoring, QC, and replication work, and all of that has to go flawlessly for the discs to actually arrive in consumer hands before the end of the year. Therefore, street dates are still TBA/TBD. But you can now at least be reasonably confident that these titles are indeed all coming at some point in the months ahead. And yes, we have good reason to believe that at least a couple of them will include a Blu-ray 3D option.