Hey

Here are the official details a day early The disc will indeed be available from the 25th May as originally reported, and will be available in seperate widescreen and fullscreen editions - retail for each will be $29.95. The only thing that isn't mentioned in the press details I have is whether or not the Into the West music video will be included. I'll find out about that on Monday. Anyway, disc specs and artwork are below and we've posted a few menu shots here

2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer
English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX Track
English Dolby Surround 2.0 Track
A Journey Completed: A Director's Vision
A Filmmaker's Journey: Making The Return of the King
The National Geographic Special Feature
Multiple Lordoftherings.net Featurettes
- Aragorn's Destiny Feature
- Minas Tirith Feature
- Battle of Pelennor Fields Feature
- Samvise the Brave Feature
- Eowyn White Lady of Rohan Feature
- Digital Horses Feature
Original Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots
Lord of the Rings Trilogy Super Trailer
Closer Look at Electrnic Arts Video Games
DVD-ROM: Lord of the Rings Weblink
English, French Subtitles

This disk looks great. I can't wait!

This one?

Well, the full title is National Geographic Special: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King if that's of any help to you! I can't ask anyone about it until Monday I'm afraid...

Oh no, the dreaded critic's quote on the cover art!

Well, at least there was no time to include "winner of 11 academy awards", hehe...

No sneak peek at the Extended Edition?

I am delighted to hear about the National Geographic special being included, makes you wonder what the extra DVD will be for the EE giftset.

Looks good!

I would imagine there woudl be "Best Picture" award mention somewhere on teh cover, but who knows, New Line has been smart thus far and maybe they wont

Hmm.. Were all three films 2.40:1? Or were the other two 2.35:1?

weird...no Oscar mention on the cover...I imagine this will change...

The official aspect ratio is 2.39:1. It gets rounded up or down depending on the day of the week and what the copywriter had for lunch.

IOW, no biggie.

Because the entire film is being put on one disc, I will just wait for the EE. I would buy it if they spread the film over two discs and increased the video quality. It doesn't seem like there are a ton of extras so there should have been enough room to do it.

Maybe New Line might put a sticker on the shrinkwrap on front, or they could put the Best Picture winner on the back cover.

Theres plenty of films with more than this and are just has long...JFK being one...the movie runs 205min and has two 5.1 tracks and a commentary...and it looks and sounds excellent!

Can't wait for this one...although maybe I should save for the EE editions I dont own any yet!

looks nice - might have to get both this and the ee

That may be true, but it would definitely look better if it was spread over two discs. The Extended Versions of the FOTR and TTT looked much better than the theatrical cuts did and the theatrical cut of the ROTK is even longer.

Looks good. Every year I get tempted to buy the theatrical release, but I will just wait for the extended. I'll probably give this a rent.

I'm a sucker, every year I buy both editions and when EE's come out I never end up watching the TE. I'm sure I wont change my practice though, there will always be a part of me that will want the TE just for the sake of having both versions of the film.

I'll wait for the extended edition...

I'll definitely be buying both versions.

The National Geographic special is probably the same feature as posted above - which I got for Christmas this year.

I hope it's different, since I'll feel a bit ripped off if it isn't (ripped off, as in - they could have put new features on the RotK disc, but instead went with the same feature I already bought/received).

Oh well. I don't expect much from the theatrical releases anyway. At least it'll have the trailers and tv spots.

Bring on the EE!

Thanks for the info. I'll be waiting for the EE though

The extras on this edition sound huge. I actually never bothered with the regular editions in the past, so my question is this: Have the features on the regular editions appeared later on the EEs? I know the music videos didn't, but what about the others?

I'll buy it of course, but their decision to place the whole 201-minute movie on one disc seems to doom it to be overly compressed. The Two Towers theatrical DVD looked fine, but I wonder about this one.

And no Extended Edition preview...may have to do with the disc coming out earlier and not enough shots being ready, or torturing us to increase anticipation.

None of the features from the previous theatrical versions have reäppeared on the Extended Editions later.

That will likely be the case here, as well.