When I heard about the Lord of the Rings Trilogy being released on Bluray, I was excited. But when I heard it was only going to be the standard DVD release HD transfer, I passed.
My various Star Wars Editions called to me from the bookshelf like the Ghost of Christmas past clanking its chains of regret and disappointment, and I held my breath.
It was almost simultaneously that they announced the Special Edition cuts would be released at a later time, so I waited for it, and my wife patted me on the head condescendingly for issuing retail restraint too little too late.
But now the time is upon us, and the The Lord of the Rings: Limited Extended Edition is set to be released on Bluray. The official date is not set, however Amazon.com is taking pre-orders, so its going to be soon!
ThinkHero shares what the Limited Extended Edition will contain:
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Over 30 minutes of footage incorporated into the theatrical release of the film
Commentary by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens
Commentary by the design team
Commentary by the production/post-production team
Commentary by 10 actors, including Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen
Easter egg: MTV Movie Award Spoof (The Council of Elrod)
Costa Botes Documentary: The Fellowship of the Ring: Behind the ScenesThe Appendices, Part 1: From Book to Vision (on DVD)
Peter Jackson introduction
J.R.R. Tolkein: Creator of Middle Earth
From Book to Script
Visualizing the Story
Designing and Building Middle Earth
Middle Earth atlas interactive
The Appendices, Part 2: From Vision to Reality (on DVD)Elijah Wood introduction
Filming The Fellowship of the Ring
Visual effects
Post-production: Putting it all together
Digital Grading
Sound and music
The Road Goes Ever On…
Lord of the Rings: The Two TowersExtended edition of the film, incorporating 43 minutes of footage incorporated into the film
Commentary track by writer-director Peter Jackson and writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens
Commentary track by the design team
Commentary track by the production/post-production team
Commentary track by 16 cast members, including Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis, John Rhys-Davies, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Bernard Hill, and Miranda Otto
Easter Egg: MTV Movie Awards clip (Gollum accepting award)
Costas Botes documentary: The Two Towers–Behind the ScenesThe Appendices, Part 3: The Journey Continues
Peter Jackson introduction
J.R.R. Tolkein: Origin of Middle Earth
From Book to Script: Finding a Story
Designing and Building Middle-Earth
Gollum
Middle-Earth Atlas interactive
New Zealand as Middle Earth (map with video location)
The Appendices, Part 4: The Battle for Middle EarthElijah Wood introduction
Filming The Two Towers
Visual effects
Editorial: Refining the Story
Music and Sound
The Battle for Helm’s Deep is Over
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingExtended edition of the film, with 50 extra minutes incorporated into the film
Commentary track by writer-director Peter Jackson and writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens
Commentary track by the design team
Commentary track by the production/post-production team
Costas Botes documentary: The Return of the King: Behind the Scenes
The Appendices, Part 5: The War of the RingPeter Jackson Intro
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Legacy of Middle-earth
From Book to Script
Designing and Building Middle-earth
Home of the Horse Lords
Middle-earth Atlas: Tracing the Journeys of the Fellowship: interactive map
New Zealand as Middle-earth: interactive map with on-location footage
The Appendices, Part 6: The Passing of an AgeElijah Wood/Sean Astin/Billy Boyd/Dominic Monaghan intro
Filming The Return of the King
Visual Effects
Post Production: Journey’s End
The Passing of an Age
Cameron Duncan
So rush over to Amazon.com where you can pre-order the copy of the Lord of the Rings Limited Extended Edition that will be the ULTIMATE version of the films (until The Hobbit is done and they release them all on Blu in one glorious box set to Rule them All)
Looks really nice. I like the packaging. But still I don’t have a blu-ray player or a HD tv so I’m still perfectly happy with my glorious DVD set of the extended editions.
What does limited extended edition mean? 30 minutes added to the entire series seems sort of short of what the extended editions were. Or is this 30 minutes added to the extended editions? Checking Amazon, the regular series was 557 minutes, extended edition 681 minutes. That is 2 hours difference, not 30 minutes.
You’re not reading the entire listing, FotR has 30 minutes added, TTT has 43 minutes added, and finally RotK has 50 minutes added. All this appears to be the same footage added to the Extended Edition DVDs, the only difference here appears to be a couple new special features and of course the fact that it is in glorious 1080P.
Ok… First this new set… Then, there will be a set with The Hobbit combined with LOTR, standard set… And then, we will get The Hobbit extended edition… and then, FINALLY, The hobbit extended edition WITH LOTR extended edition… Many years to wait until then… so, 1080p HD will be something of the past then… a new format with better resolution will be at it’s beginning… so, we will wait again… Damn… I will never see the end of it!
Don’t forget the 3D versions. lol
I hate the extended editions. Especially the first movie is just way too long, they never seem to get out of Shire.
My take of the Extended Editions:
The extended edition of The Two Towers is absolutely essential, it’s so much more satisfying that the theatrical release in every way. I can’t even bare to watch the theatrical release any more.
The e.e. of Fellowship has a certain gravitas that was lacking in the theatrical release, and I do consider it to be the better cut, but its not essential. Having said that, I’m also one of the rare geeks that wasn’t terribly impressed with the original Fellowship when it was released back in 1999. I’ve always considered it the weakest link in the series.
The e.e. of Return of the King, despite having the most extra footage, actually feels the most slight of the three. There is only one additional scene in the film that I really enjoyed, and that’s The Mouth of Sauron. The confrontation with Saruman was poorly staged and poorly acted; Jackson was right to cut it out of the film (though it should have been re-shot).
Good job Rodney, I’ve been waiting on this for some time! I haven’t bought any of the extended editions, just holding out for the ultimate version and this may be it.
Can’t wait!
But, will there be any new content or is it basically like the SE DVD’s, except the films will be in 1080p HD?
Yeah they’ll release the LOTR trilogy along with the hobbit extended blu in one package in a true ultimate set. I’ll wait till then.
I may actually finally invest in a bluray plyer…