[Proposal] The Abyss (1989) BD

[spoRv]

Film scan - Amazon widescreen theatrical - HDTV open matte 1.78:1 special edition - HDTV open matte 1.33:1 theatrical edition

[LucasGodzilla]

Well one thing's for sure: That film scan (despite being a bit milky) has nice skin tone and detail as well as having the deepest tone of blue for the background.

[PDB]

Hey spoRv, where did you find the film scan and are you regrade to it?

[spoRv]

Just found a clip - like 30s more or less almost 4 minutes; dunno if it could be enough to regrade, though... I must admit I do not like Amazon color grading, and love the film scan!

[LucasGodzilla]

I would first wait and see how the upcoming restoration of the movie comes along before starting any real regrades. I may make a small test re-graded still though one of these days out of boredom. Will you link the clip here by any chance?

[spoRv]

They talk about an official BD release since... forever, maybe?

Link (please keep it inside FanRes):
https://streamable.com/lzu9l

[Stamper]

Wow. All the past video releases look like crap compared to this.

[Bigrob]

Wonder if that's the theatrical or special edition print.

[Beber]

Wonder if that's the theatrical or special edition print.

Theatrical. That's specifically a scene where the SE has extra footage.

[LucasGodzilla]

I really do like the scanned clip. Despite it being a bit worn, it definitely shows some very nice and deep colors.

Seeing how this clip encompasses shots of outside daylight, underwater bits, base interior and all that, I believe it theoretically could be enough for a re-grade. I wouldn't say it'd be perfect (obviously), but it'd likely be far better / more accurate than before. Also, I believe that image is evidence of the blu-ray actually coming out soon since it was posted by an official professional re-grader, but I don't know. Things can easily go sideways lol.

I will say though that if I get my hand on a good rip of The Abyss (Perhaps the aforementioned HDTV open matte since it seems to be more neutral than the Amazon widescreen color wise judging from the stills you posted, plus the open matte aspect of it would be more noteworthy / lasting than a widescreen rip likely to be outclassed in the relatively near future), I may make an attempt at a regrade and see how that goes, but we'll see: I probably won't even get a chance to make a test re-grade with the posted stills here until next week.