Before embarking on a storied career as a director, young Edgar Wright began his career in TV, helming every episode of the classic British TV series Spaced, which was created by and starred future Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson. Running for two short seasons, with the whole run only being fourteen episodes, it’s long been beloved by fans, with it centering around comic book shop worker Tim Bisley (Pegg), who moves in with Daisy Steiner (Stevenson) as her new roommate, and their various twenty-something shenanigans. Wright regular Nick Frost co-starred, and the series was full of pop culture references. While it got an extras-loaded DVD release, it’s been unavailable on Blu-ray—until now. But before you get too excited, know this release does not have Wright’s blessing.
Why?
It seems the show, which dates back to the nineties, has been given an AI facelift. Here’s how it’s put in the press release from distributor All3Media: “This global first Blu-Ray collection has been upgraded to a brand new 4K master using a combination of traditional and proprietary tools in a multi-step process of non-commercial and algorithmic corrections that are additionally enhanced frame by frame by a manual operator – guaranteeing the most state-of-the-art upconversion possible.”
The news was met with outrage online, with Wright himself noting on X this was the first he’d heard of a Blu-ray release, posting, “Finding out about this on for the first time is… disheartening. I had been pushing to do a Blu-Ray of SPACED for years, so to find out that someone just went ahead without our involvement is…. a bummer. Not authorized by anyone involved in making the show. Finding out what happened as we speak…”
AI upconversions are nothing new, but given the show was shot on old Sony DV cams, it will likely be given a huge overhaul that may fundamentally change how the show looks. It’s slated to come out on February 27th, but with Wright now involved, I’d take that release date with a grain of salt.
What do you think of AI upconversions? Let us know in the comments.