Shortly after the film's premiere, Cameron and video editor Ed Marsh created a longer video cut of "The Abyss" for their own use that incorporated dailies. With the tremendous success of Cameron's "" in 1991, Lightstorm Entertainment secured a five-year, $500 million financing deal with 20th Century Fox for films produced, directed or written by Cameron. The contract allocated roughly $500,000 of the amount to complete "The Abyss". ILM was commissioned to finish the work they had started three years earlier, with many of the same people who had worked on it originally.