LotR: RotK Extended Edition Preview Available

Topoimagery writes "After months of speculation and a few low-quality bootleg video clips, we finally get some official video from New Line. The Official Lord of the Rings Site has a preview of the upcoming Return of the King EE in Quicktime format. Here are direct links to the small version (4 MB) and large version (9 MB). Highlights include Voice of Saruman, Mouth of Sauron, Houses of Healing, and Aragorn confronting Sauron. Released date is December 14, and you can pre-order now. (For those of you who can't get enough spoilers, here's a site describing all anticipated new scenes on the DVD)."

Comments

Super Box Set?

[TheAntiCrust]

Does this mean soon we get to buy the super box set with all three of the extended editions?? I hope so =)

Re:Super Box Set?

[Karzz1]

You know, it is funny, when they announced the latest extended version it would have a list price of ~$40.00 rather than the previous two extended versions list price of ~$30.00. My first thought was "Is that how they are going to justify $100 for the boxed set?". Seriously though, why the price hike for this one?

Scouring of the Shire

[Xpilot]

I'm sorry Peter Jackson didn't film The Scouring of the Shire. It would have made a nice addition to the Extended DVD, even if it didn't "work" for a box-office feature. The Voice of Saruman, and Shelob's attack are both in The Two Towers, and personally I think Jackson should have filmed it that way, removing the unnecessary Arwen scenes to compensate. But that's just me.

Re:Scouring of the Shire

[JaredOfEuropa]

I'm sorry Peter Jackson didn't film The Scouring of the Shire.

Same here... it would also have made for a better winding down of the story. As it stands now, many people complain about the way the movie seems to end 3 times or so. Although personally, I would have hated this movie to end with a bang, say, with the celebration and coronation thingy on top of Minas Tirith.

Re:Scouring of the Shire

[gustgr]

I know how many chapters the battle at the pellenor fields takes at the book, I have read it.

The point is that the movie needs to make money. If the audience don't like it or gets bored with it, the movie will not be profitable. That's all about Hollywood.

I don't agree with the movie in several aspects, but I will not mourn or cry because the movie is crap compared with the book. I am just glad I had the chance to read the book before the movies were released, so my visions and imagination were not interfered or messed up by Jackson's point of view.

Re:Scouring of the Shire

[jdbo]

Actually, the Aragorn almost drowning scenes fo accomplish several things relevant to the plot:

1. by separating Aragorn from the larger refugees party, he is able to encounter the Uruk-Hai army before Theoden does - this sets up the conflict between him and Theoden, as Aragorn (apparently) sees a greater threat than Theoden does.

2. Eowyn's belief in his death dramatizes her feelings for Aragorn (something that's much harder to accomplish in cinema than in text).

3. provides an opportunity to shift away from the Rohan story and reflect on what happening with the elves (otherwise the appearance of the elves would not have made as much sense/had as dramatic an impact.

While it's certainly acceptable to state that these elements are uncessary changes to the book, they are all set-up and supported by the Aragorn-nearly-drowning "twist". Despite the obviousness to the audience that Aragorn will survive, this plot device actually sets up the second half of the Helm's Deep storyline very well.

Re:They are really milking it with all these DVDs

[The Snowman]

It seems like every other friggin' month they're releasing another special edition of one of these flicks. The movie studio is playing you all for fools, and treating you like mindless sheep who happen to have money.

Actually, they release a new special edition each year, not every month. Just one per film, no more.

Any 'Rings' fan who was stupid enough to buy each and every DVD that was put out for this trilogy is too dumb to be allowed to reproduce. Fortunately, anyone who is that rabid a fan of this stuff probably wasn't going to be reproducing anyway, so the universe balances out.

I bought the first two special editions and plan on buying the final one too, but not any of the "normal" editions. I do not know of anyone who bought all of the versions, that is a stupid waste of money. Some of my friends bought the regular editions, some like me only buy the special editions. That is not stupid. Oh, I did reproduce, sorry universe.

Re:They are really milking it with all these DVDs

[gaj]

I don't normally feed the trolls, but since you already did, I'll reply to you, thus maintaining plausable deniability. ;P

I mostly agree with your response to the troll, but have to differ with you on the stupidity of buying both sets of DVDs. For the record, I've only purchased the extended versions. However, I can certainly understand why someone might wish to own both. If, for instance, they enjoy having friends over to watch movies, but not many of their friends are big enough fans of the trilogy to sit through the extended cut, it'd be nice to have the theatrical release to show instead.

As for the whole reproducing thing, I am rabid enough a fan to have read the trilogy more than 15 times (I've lost count), to have compiled an pair of Elvish dictionarys back in my early teens by pouring over the text and appendixes of The Hobbit, The LOTR and Silmarillion, I spent a day of PTO to see the theatrical releases on their first day (not quite rabid enough to do the midnight thing, I suppose) ... and yet I have a son. Go figure.

Re:Coming soon

[foreverdisillusioned]

1) It was specifically said AHEAD OF TIME (though I cannot find the link offhand) that there would be two versions, regular and extended.

2) The LOTR extended editions have so far proved to be worth the money. I could care less about the behind-the-scenes stuff, but the added scenes are long (50 additional minutes for Return of the King!) and add to the story immeasurably. I particularly liked the extended edition of the Two Towers. The scenes like the flashback with Faromir and his father and the ents at Helm's Deep are so good/important you'll wonder how they ever got cut in the first place.

Not /.'ed ?

[gustgr]

Before I click on the link to the .mov I tought: "The site will be down for sure, after all, it is LOTR, it is a movie, and it is a DVD preview. The nerds will not forgive". For my surprise the site is still up.

Are the nerds losing their power to slashdot sites?

Re:They are really milking it with all these DVDs

[jdbo]

I always find it interesting that there's so much fuss about the Star Wars changes (i.e. the unavailability of the original/last versions's footage w/ each new edition); meanwhile, people complain about LOTR's production company making both the theatrical (i.e. original) and EE versions available.

Somehow, I doubt that the /. population of SW complainers (lack of choices) includes none of the LOTR complainers (too many choices)...

For those who feel "tricked" into buying the theatrical cut when they could've bought the EE, you're frankly in the wrong. This is one of the few cases where the film producers have been entirely upfront w/ the public about the differences between editions, including pre-announcing release dates for the different releases so that customers could plan ahead. So, if a few people buy the movie twice by mistake - too bad for them. And if you "couldn't wait" for the EE, then clearly the theatrical cut was worth the twenty bucks and there's nothing to really complain about.

As for those fools (myself included) who deliberately seek out both versions, we're a particular strain of film enthusiast that enjoys watching different versions of the same movie; this can be incredibly educational about the editing process (for example, the studio re-cut of "Brazil" entirely belies the plot and meaning of the original cut of the film, though it uses no different footage; the special edition DVD includes both these cuts plus an alternative European cut).

Furtheremore, we get a kick from being able to view the movie "the way that audiences first saw it" - at the least this makes later viewing the most updated/remastered/restored/extended version of the film a fresh and more interesting experience.

So there is a reason to own/view multiple versions of a movie; it may not appeal to some, but there's enough of "us" out here that the DVD market will often cater to this irrational and unnatural desire. ;)

How to connect up with the previous EEs?

[Flyboy Connor]

I am very interested to see how Jackson manages to connect up with the previous EEs. There are scenes added to the previous two EEs, which are not in the theatrical releases, which will have an impact on scenes already shown in the cinemas. I am thinking, for instance, of the scene where Merry and Pippin drink the Ent's stuff that makes them grow. At the crowning, the four hobbits are standing next to each other. In the theatrical release, the hobbits are of equal length. In the EE, Merry and Pippin need to be at least a head taller than Frodo and Sam! Will new special effects do the trick here?