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One DVD To Rule Them All
Obiwan Kenobi writes "In a gala event last night New Line Cinema revealed their Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring DVD Plans. This includes a 2-disc version on August 6th (in both Pan & Scan and Widescreen, click here for box art), and a special 4-hour, R-rated cut of the film debuting in a 4-disc set on November 12th. While the August release includes some nifty features, it's the four disc version, with the longer cut and three audio commentaries, that really gets the drool flowing."
Now that's what I'm talkin about!
Was having trouble getting to the site, so:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring will be released in no less than four versions this year. On 8/6, separate widescreen and pan & scan versions will be released, each a two-disc set with identical extra features. Disc one includes the film presented in English Dolby Digital Surround EX and Dolby 2.0 surround (sorry, no DTS). Disc two is where all the goodies are at, and retail will be $29.95 for either the pan & scan or widescreen editions. The extras to be found on disc 2 include:
3 in-depth documentaries that reveal the secrets behind the production of this epic adventure, including "Welcome to Middle-earth" in-store special as shown by Houghton Mifflin, "The Quest for the Ring" as debuted on the FBC Network, and "A Passage to Middle-earth" as premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel
15 featurettes originally created for lordoftherings.net, which explore the locales and cultures of Middle-earth and include interviews with cast members Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler and others.
Exclusive 10-minute behind-the-scenes preview of the next The Lord of the Rings theatrical release, "The Two Towers"
Enya "May It Be" music video
An inside look at the special extended DVD edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Preview of Electronic Arts' video game "The Two Towers"
Original theatrical trailers and TV spots
Exclusive online content only available to DVD-ROM users via a special website set to go live on street date
Then, on 11/12, New Line will release a mega four-disc set, with a new extended cut of the film created by Peter Jackson himself, and featuring over 30 minutes of additional footage. This cut of the film will be Rated R due to some extended violence, and no retail price has yet been set for this release. The now nearly four-hour film will be spread over the first two discs and presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen (alas, no sound format information is yet available.) Unfortunately, all the supplements for the 4-disc set are still in production, so final details were not revealed. However, the disc is planned to include 3 audio commentaries and another four hours of bonus material. It is also not yet known if all the features on the "standard" two-disc set edition will also be included here.
Last but not least, New Line is also planning on release a special limited edition gift set of the 4-disc set, with two bookend statuettes by sculptor Sideshow Weta, the National Geographic "Beyond The Movie" DVD, and several collectible Decipher game cards. There were also rumors floating around that after all three films are done and released, a fifth mega-box set of all three with possible additional material may be released, which would be sometime in 2004.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
The site says R for extended violoence.
Nice.
sig is
Actually,
LotR was released on DVD before it was released in the theaters. I know someone who's owned video rental stores for about forever and a day (can we say Video Disc? Note: not Laser disc, Video disc) Ah, those were the days.
Anyway, he has dealings with studios to rent their product, yadda, yadda, yadda, and had a special "screener" copy of LotR shipped to him on DVD before the official theatrical release.
So this two disc set is probably pretty similar to the data they already had that was DVD mastered.
Just my two cents.
"Genius may shine aloof and alone, like a star, but goodness is social, and it takes two men and God to make a Brother."
MIRROR!! (Box cover art)
l owship_w.jpg
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~mohanc/lordoftherings_fel
The Digital Bits has good info on the new scenes:
A new addition to the opening sequence in which Bilbo provides background on Hobbits and their history in voice-over as he writes his memoirs.
A new introduction to Samwise Gamgee, seen in his capacity as a gardener.
A scene taking place at the Green Dragon Inn, which introduces us to the camaraderie of the Hobbits (we see them singing together) and sets up the geopolitics of the story.
The Hobbits witnessing the departure of the Elves from Middle Earth on the way to Bree.
Aragorn watching over the sleeping Hobbits, singing the ballad of Beren and Luthien to himself in the night.
Aragorn at his mother's grave, in which we learn that he was raised by Elves and that Sauron has long hunted him.
Two new moments during the departure from Rivendale, one in which we see Arwen's emotional reaction to Aragorn's leaving, and another in which Elrond sees the Fellowship off.
A scene with the Fellowship in the mines of Moria, in which we learn how the Dwarves themselves unleashed the fire-demon that eventually destroyed them.
A scene at Lothlorien, where Galadriel bestows upon each of the Fellowship a gift which will play an important role later in the Trilogy.
And finally, more footage of the battle at Amon Hen. This is not particularly bloody footage, but its addition will likely result in this cut of the film receiving an R-rating.
"We were half way to Rivendell when the drugs began to take hold."
-- Hunter S. Tolkien
Avast ye dirty dog, Enya Rocks! To compare her to Celine Dion is just so wrong.
You do realize the video also features a lot of stuff from the film, right? Seems worth filling up the empty space on DVD to me.
Anything is possible given time and money.
I find it difficult to equate Enya to Celine. What other Enya title tracks for movies offend you?
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
There's your reason to go see it again.
Doesn't work that well.
First, most DVD players don't have a "zoom" feature. Mine doesn't, and I think that it's only really common on Toshiba players.
There actually is a standard in the DVD spec for panning and scanning a "wide" image based on the DVD player's setting (16:9 vs 4:3 letterbox vs 4:3 p&s). If it's ever used, it's used in menus that can be displayed wide. Unfortunately it's too flaky to work with the movies themselves.
Another problem is that it would only be useful for 1.77:1 images. A movie that is 2.35:1 (like Blade or Contact or FotR) couldn't be panned and zoomed without still having small black bars at the top and bottom.
I'm not sure how having 16:9 resolution affects it either -- though if allowing a movie to be p&sed by the player would require dropping the 16:9 resolution then you can forget it; widescreen affectionadios are not going to be happy sacrificing image quality to appease the peons who like watching butchered films.
And finally a number of movies aren't filmed directly in the aspect ratio they are shown; they're filmed "full-frame" or at least with more of the image at the top and bottom than what you see onscreen -- it's just that the extra information is matted by the black bars. In those cases you'd look for scenes where you can get away with showing that extra information to minimize the panning and zooming that needs to be done, however there will be times when the top and bottom information shows things that don't need to be there, like set equipment, and CG FX is usually rendered and applied to the finished frame rather than the open frame, so those shots need to be cropped more. Very complicated work and doing that on the fly is not in the DVD spec.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Heck like half a year passes in the first book.
In fact, a little less than 18 years pass during the first book. For seventeen of them, Gandalf is researching the ring and Frodo sits on his ass in Bag End.
Five months pass between Frodo leaving Bag End until the breaking of the fellowship at Amon Hen. Two of these are spent lounging around Rivendell, and they spend almost an entire month at Lorien. I don't think we'd want to see all of these periods represented accurately in the movie. A sense of urgency in the movie is appopriate and appreciated.
Here's the list of new scenes in the longer cut of the movie:
-A new addition to the opening sequence in which Bilbo provides background on Hobbits and their history in voice-over as he writes his memoirs.
-A new introduction to Samwise Gamgee, seen in his capacity as a gardener.
-A scene taking place at the Green Dragon Inn, which introduces us to the camaraderie of the Hobbits (we see them singing together) and sets up the geopolitics of the story.
-The Hobbits witnessing the departure of the Elves from Middle Earth on the way to Bree.
-Aragorn watching over the sleeping Hobbits, singing the ballad of Beren and Luthien to himself in the night.
-Aragorn at his mother's grave, in which we learn that he was raised by Elves and that Sauron has long hunted him.
-Two new moments during the departure from Rivendale, one in which we see Arwen's emotional reaction to Aragorn's leaving, and another in which Elrond sees the Fellowship off.
-A scene with the Fellowship in the mines of Moria, in which we learn how the Dwarves themselves unleashed the fire-demon that eventually destroyed them.
-A scene at Lothlorien, where Galadriel bestows upon each of the Fellowship a gift which will play an important role later in the Trilogy.
-And finally, more footage of the battle at Amon Hen. This is not particularly bloody footage, but its addition will likely result in this cut of the film receiving an R-rating.
It seems like the added scenes will add much needed depth to the movie.
his mundanity and simplicity, joy in all things, and humility were proof of that. who would be the exact opposite of Bombadil? Sauron.