LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING on DVD
© 2002 New Line Home Entertainment
LORD OF THE RINGS DVD release
By: Christopher Allan SmithDate: Thursday, March 28, 2002
There's a lot of official news (finally!) on the DVD release of Peter Jackson's modern classic THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RINGS, so saddle up.
First is this: the film you saw in theaters is coming to DVD in both full screen and letterboxed versions August 6. Then in November, in preparation for the December release of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS, comes the much discussed extended director's cut Jackson recently finished. That version, now officially dubbed the "Special Extended Cut," will clock in at almost four hours and intersperse over 30 minutes of never before seen footage into the body of the film. It's not just a few scenes slotted in, but rather a re-editing of the film along the lines of Cameron Crowe's definitive recutting of his own ALMOST FAMOUS: UNTITLED version (if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and check it out).
A DVD menu screen for LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2 of 2)
© 2002 New Line Home Entertainment
Does this mean that New Line Home Video is pulling the old, "put-a-crappy-slimmed-down-extras-lite-version-out-only-to-ask-you-to-buy-the-movie-a-few-months-later-again" bait and switch? For once, thank Tolkien, no!
The August release will sport the theatrical cut of the film (just try to get the original cut of ALIENS on DVD, and you'll know how valuable this choice is) plus a HUGE amount of extras, like commentaries, a 10-minute preview of TWO TOWERS, a preview of November's DVD Special Extended Cut edition, along with the 15 part web documentary series from the official site, interviews with director Peter Jackson and other production big-wigs, and three fat featurettes. Of course, all of this sports 5.1 Dolby sound.
The Special Extended Edition will be released November 12, with its own set of extras (it's not yet clear if it will include extras from the original set) spread across four discs. It will also include the National Geographic documentary LORD OF THE RINGS: BEYOND THE MOVIE, as well as special edition bookends.
More on the specifics of the Special Extended Edition as it comes.
