I just wonder what all the new extras will be on the uber-edition that Peter and Fran mention on the commentaries from the Return of the King EE ?

I'll be keeping my EE DVD's that I never watch and wait for them to hit Bluray, no Theatrical for me

One thing I like about the EEs, which I hope they keep when the BD versions come out, is the fan club list at the end. Not that I know anybody on the list, but the extended end credits/fan club music is terrific. I liked the Howard Shore score enough that I bought the CD/DVD soundtrack box for FotR (an Amazon DotD) and the single disc CD of TTT. They've been played a lot.

So, while I am not a "completest" when it comes to DVDs — having only the EEs — I am a fan of Peter Jackson's magnum opus.

I'm on my iPhone; but blu-ray.com just posted the special features specifications.

As of now, Disc 7 will consist of all of the extras that were on the original theatrical cut DVDs of the trilogy.

That's just pure fucking laziness on New Line's part. The "second disc" worth of extras could all easily fit on each film's individual disc as the material in MPEG-2 is only about 5-6GB per movie; leaving the films still enough space (40GB plus) to breathe.

If all those extras are on a BD-25, they could've upgraded to a BD-50 and threw in all the production diary footage on the LE sets as well.

The better question is why just not go all out at once? Release the basic theatrical BD set for the casual BD buyer and the balls-out multiple-disc set for the fans?

Cause they want to sell you the EE's a year or two later - again. Double the sales. At that point the BD base should also be bigger so re-launching LOTR would make sense. I'm not playing the re-release game on Blu-ray unless its a freaking miracle of a brand new transfer. Extras features and/or lossless (over a DD+ on HD DVD) is not enough (for me).

Yeah, but apparently they realize a lot of people are suckers for the Lord of the Rings. With most movies this would = epic fail. For the Lord of the Rings it = epic paychecks.

some specs: (nothing about the audio)

LOTR.net featurettes
Previews, theatrical trailers and TV spots
Documentaries:
Fellowship of the Ring:
"Welcome to Middle Earth" (17 min.)
"Quest for the Ring" (21 min.)
"A Passage to Middle Earth" (42 min.)

The Two Towers:
"In the Set" (Starz/ Encore) (14 min.)
"Return to Middle Earth" (WB) (45 min.)

The Return of the King:
"The Quest Fulfilled: A Director's Vision" (23 min.)
"A Filmmaker's Journey: Making Of" (28 min.)
National Geographic special (46 min.)

I have all 3 EE's. Although I like the movies, I've only watched the EE's once and have never even popped in one of the extras discs. I just have no interest in watching 12 hours of extras on a 3 hour movie. I'd rather watch the other 2 movies.

Yes, I noticed those too. They each add about 22 minutes to the movies' published run times, effectively making the 11 1/2 hour epic, closer to 10 hours.

Now you do!

^ Congratulations on getting your name in the credits. I hope the eventual EE BDs keep it that way so you can keep your name in lights and I can have my extended end credits score.

The fan club list was a nice touch. We tend to forget now how controversial the Rings movies were. "Peter Jackson who?" "They're filming it in New Zealand?!" "They're making all three at once?" And Tolkien fans had their misgivings about the inevitable changes needed to bring it to the screen. ("No Tom Bombadil? How dare they!") It was a risky venture and I would guess that the early fan support was much appreciated by Jackson and crew.

Strangely, TDB mentioned LotR a couple of days ago, and they referred to the BD box set as a "3 disc set".

Wha.. what? Who said that? Show me, so I can smack them.

It has been a long time, but IIRC there were some concerns by fans that Peter Jackson's movie résumé was pretty thin, a couple of obscure horror films, I believe.

Tolkien fans were also concerned about the many changes being made to the story to turn it into movies; they had not been pleased with the earlier cartoon version. It wasn't until the trailers started coming out that there was a sense that Jackson might be doing a good job and that the movies had the potential to be good. Please understand that I am not a fan of the LotR books — didn't much care for them — I preferred the lighter, more fun, Hobbit. So, I am just reporting the sense I got from the discussion at the time.

Then The Fellowship of the Ring movie hit the theaters and became a well-deserved hit (IMHO). Most of the Tolkien fans seemed to be mollified and Peter Jackson's (and New Zealand's) notoriety skyrocketed.

I can't believe they haven't announced the audio on these yet.

Wouldn't surprise me. Theatricals would fit on 3 BD-50s...with few extras of course.

Yeah, but I thought it was already known that this was a seven-disc set (three movies, three digital copies and a bonus disc).

dvdfile is reporting that the lotr movies will have DTS-HD 7.1

Jacob

it's speculation at this point, but why can't they just include the 6.1 soundmix too??

Woo hoo! http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=107978

I wouldn't get my hopes up just yet. The news is a paraphrased quote from PJ, and is not officially from the studio. There have been numerous BD and DVD releases over the years where a director or others involved with the film announce a special edition due out "soon" that is endlessly delayed by the studio. Hell, even the studios themselves have announced titles, then subsequently pushed them back.

So I won't be counting on having the EEs in 2010, at least until there's an official release date.

Maybe all the bitching on the LotR's blu-ray page on amazon (which studios definitely read), and the hundreds of reviews giving it one star and calling the studio greedy precipitated events to get the EEs to blu quicker.

That's awesome. I think they do have it backwards though. They should start with the EE since all the hardcore fans will also be early/BD adopters. Toss out the Theatricals when BD has a slightly bigger audience (i.e. people that don't care about the extra footage).

I don't think so. The people that will only buy the bare bones theatricals, it doesn't matter when they are released. When those people buy a player, they'll buy the theatricals.

But the diehards? If you release the EEs too close to the bare bones, they may wait and skip the bare bones. By releasing the bare bones much earlier than the extendeds, they may get two sales per movie.

Offically announced for April.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3884