The Rumor Mill

All right, we haven’t had a Rumor Mill update in a very long while, so now that we’re up and running on the newly-redesigned Bits, it feels like it’s time to get the Mill going again, yes? And with a nice Cold War-era, espionage-inspired logo to boot!

So here’s today’s dispatch: A number of our industry sources are now telling us that Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is planning (and in fact may already be gearing up to) release their classic TV series The X-Files on Blu-ray. As fans will already be aware, the first four seasons of the show were produced in 4x3 format, like many TV programs of its era. The series then went to a 16x9 widescreen format for the remainder of its run, as anamorphic widescreen displays were starting to become common. The entire show was still broadcast in standard definition – not actual high-definition – and the visual effects and post-production were finished in SD. (Note that the first actual HD broadcast on Fox was for the 2004 NFL season, while X-Files ended its run in 2002.) Our sources say Fox has likely decided to “rebuild” the seasons in high-definition, in much the same way that CBS has done with Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Provided all the original camera negative has been properly stored and archived, it’ll presumably be an easier task as the show featured fewer and less elaborate visual effects.

This wouldn’t be the first time Fox has upgraded a show to Blu-ray: They did something roughly similar with Firefly on Blu-ray back in 2008, although to be fair all of the show’s visual effects were upconverted to HD rather than re-rendered in actual high-definition to save costs.

If all goes well, we’re told the first seasons of The X-Files could appear on BD sometime in late 2013. We’ll post additional updates as they come in. Stay tuned…

- Bill Hunt

Wow… what do you know?  We have a rare Rumor Mill update for you today!  We’re so deep into the Blu-ray format now, there just aren’t all that many stories that really merit a separate Rumor Mill post.  I mean, after the Star Wars films finally hit BD, the biggest topic of Rumor Mill discussion was made moot!  But it turns out there are still a few titles worth talking about here.

Anyway, we’ve been hearing for over a year and a half now from our industry (and studio) sources that Fox was slowly and quietly working to bring James Cameron’s True Lies and The Abyss to Blu-ray Disc at long last.  Back in September we reported that Cameron was finally taking time from deep sea diving and planning Avatar 2 to work on a new HD transfer and master of the films for Blu-ray, but that actual releases were at least 12 or more months away.

Well… now we have reports that actress Eliza Dushku was on Chris Hardwick’s The Nerdist program on BBC America on Saturday night.  When asked by the host what she’s been up to, she apparently blurted out that she’d just finished participating in work on a True Lies Blu-ray.  You’ll recall she played Harry Tasker’s daughter in the film – one of her early roles.  (Thanks to all the Bits readers who e-mailed to report this!)  So it seems that work continues on True Lies at least, and probably The Abyss too.   As to when they might hit store shelves, our best information says next year – 2014 just happens to be the 25th Anniversary of The Abyss and the 20th for True Lies.

Speaking of Fox, we’ve also learned that the post facility HTV is involved in the effort to bring The X-Files TV series to Blu-ray Disc.  Which is good in that it’s further confirmation that The X-Files is coming to Blu-ray (something we first revealed here in The Rumor Mill back in November)… but it’s bad because we’ve also heard there’s some up-conversion going on of original footage (rather than a full HD upgrade and restoration).  As it happens, HTV was the company that did the remastering work on CBS’ Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Two (which really wasn’t up to the quality standard set by CBS Digital’s in-house team on Seasons One or Three).  So draw your own conclusions.  Let’s hope that all the series’ dark, gritty goodness isn’t just digitally scrubbed away.  [Editor's Note: I should be clear, it's not a complete upconversion.  Like Star Trek, all the original camera negative is being rescanned in high resolution.  However the original VFX work was done in low resolution and much of this is simply being upconverted rather than being re-rendered.  And any stock footage used – shots of the Hoover Building for example – is being upconverted.]

Finally, while we’re talking CBS… we’ve had additional confirmation that the company is working to being more catalog TV series to Blu-ray, following the success of Star Trek: The Original Series and The Next Generation, including David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.  More on that in the weeks ahead.  Stay tuned…

- Bill Hunt