Edgar Wright Calls AI-Upscaled ‘Spaced’ Re-Release ‘Disheartening’ and ‘Not Authorized’

Edgar Wright has disowned a new, AI-upscaled blu-ray re-release of “Spaced,” calling it “disheartening” and “not authorized by anyone involved in making the show.”“Finding out about this on [social media] for the first time is… disheartening,” Wright wrote Sunday on X. “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…” “Spaced,” which ran for two seasons on the U.K.’s Channel 4 from 1999 through 2001, was created by Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes and starred the two, as well as Nick Frost. Wright, for his part, directed every one of the show’s 14 episodes. The series’ cult success helped turn Frost, Wright, Pegg and Hynes into U.K. stars. It went on to receive renewed attention and retroactive love as Frost, Wright and Pegg spent nine years making their Cornetto Trilogy (2004’s “Shaun of the Dead,” 2007’s “Hot Fuzz” and 2013’s “The World End”) together. “Spaced” is still as beloved among British TV fanatics as it has ever been. Ahead of its time, the series featured many of the same machine-gun editing tricks and pop culture references that Pegg and Wright both became known for later in their creative careers. In 2008, a DVD edition of the series boasted commentary and special features with guests ranging from Quentin Tarantino and Patton Oswalt to Bill Hader and Kevin Smith. Given the show’s enduring popularity, a blu-ray re-release makes sense. However, as was noted by the fan tweet to which Wright originally responded, the new “Spaced” blu-ray features a 4K remaster of the show that was apparently achieved using AI tools. Per the release’s official description, “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 blu-ray is slated to be released in February 2027 by All3Media, which merged with Banijay Entertainment earlier this year. “It’s a Channel 4 show,” Wright added on X, in response to a fan asking how the blu-ray was made without their knowledge. “We were all very involved in the previous editions, but not this one. Don’t know. Finding out.” “News to us all. Very curious. We had been pushing Channel 4 since six years ago to do a new release,” he reiterated. “Reading about it on here was a surprise. Not a nice one either.”