Return of the King DVD

[lawrencem49]

Does anyone know the release plan of Return of the King DVD? Will it follow the schedules of the previous two films, theatrical in May and Extended in November, or on a shorter timeframe?

[Mr.D]

Don't know my mates at Weta are currently working on the dvd (extras and extended scenes most likely) .

I'll see if I can find out but they may not know themselves.

[FoxyMulder]

Are u positive WETA have been given the job.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/rumormill.html#1219


Ain't it Cool News is reporting a that rumor that New Line is balking on the price WETA Digital is charging to finish the effects for the extra footage that Peter Jackson plans to add back into The Return of the King for the extended edition DVD. The thought is that the studio might be planning to cheap out and use a budget-rate American effects house to finish the shots. We can't vouch for the validity of the rumor, but if it's true, we'll be seriously ****** here at The Bits. New Line... if you're reading this, don't even think about it. You've got a good thing going and these DVDs have really been a cut above the usual studio cookie cutter fare. This is NO time to try to shave a little more profit out of it. Let Jackson and WETA do whatever the hell they want to with the DVD and that's that. They've earned the right. We'll look into this and try to find out if it's really something the studio is considering. If it's true, someone's gonna get an earful from us.

Ain't it Cool is also reporting a list of the scenes to be added back into the film for the extended DVD. These include Gandalf confronting Saruman at Isengard, Merry pledging allegiance to Theoden at Edoras, Aragorn using the Palantir to reveal himself to Sauron, the Witch King confronting Gandalf during the battle of Pelennor Fields, the Houses of Healing scene in which Faramir and Eowyn meet, Frodo and Sam joining a column of orcs on the way to Mt. Doom and the infamous 'Mouth of Sauron' scene at the Black Gates. Glimpses of a few of these appeared in trailers for the film. We've also heard that the drinking game at Edoras between Gimli and Legolas will be added back in, along with possibly more footage showing other characters going into the West at the end of the film. Peter Jackson has said that approximately 65 minutes of material was cut from the film for its theatrical release, so a good portion of that could find its way back into the extended cut. We'll post more when we hear it.

Stay tuned...

[PaulJ]

I like the sound of those extra scenes :smashin:

[zantarous]

Its defiantly Weta, that story has been around since after Christmas and it has been confirmed that Weta are doing the effects

[Mr.D]

Story is bogus.
They've already scanned the footage at Weta and don't have a huge amount of work at the moment with artists hanging around so it wouldn't be cheaper to send it anywhere else. Dumbass story.

[KraGorn]

Originally posted by lawrencem49
Does anyone know the release plan of Return of the King DVD? Will it follow the schedules of the previous two films, theatrical in May and Extended in November, or on a shorter timeframe?
Well the previous two theatrical came out in August .. however May 24th seems pretty reliable even though AFAIK there's no official announcement, reports from toy licensees for example say they've been told by New Line the theatrical DVD is out then .. that's important to the toy industry because Harry Potter 3 is out in June.

I'm not aware of anything other than November for the EE.

As far as WETA is concerned, only last week one of the big cheeses from there said in an interview there are at present 150 people working on RoTK:EE .. down from 400 when the film was being finalised.

[Rochdale]

May would be fantastic, I didn't fancy the wait til August for the theatrical edition. I really, really want the EE though :)

[lawrencem49]

Thanks, Mulder.

I myself would prefer the May theatrical and August EE release timeframe.

[James45]

thinking about the theatrical version, if it follows suit with the other releases that will mean fitting a 3hr 21min film on one disc, what's the PQ going to be like?

[peterc]

speaking of the ee, are the other two movies ee versions actual movie spread over 2 dvd's..?

[KraGorn]

Originally posted by James45
thinking about the theatrical version, if it follows suit with the other releases that will mean fitting a 3hr 21min film on one disc, what's the PQ going to be like?
Not good I'd expect. :( Of course, they could lose the interminable credits to save 20 mins and hundreds of megabytes. ;)

Originally posted by peterc
speaking of the ee, are the other two movies ee versions actual movie spread over 2 dvd's..?
Yes, roughly half and half .. though bear in mind they carried a DTS soundtrack which was well over 500Mb and 4 commentaries, for a total of over 1Gb of extra space per DVD not needed by the theatrical version.

[7 of 9]

very good film i thought and defantly enjoyed it a lot.

and am defantly looking forward to the extended version in november, a better version of the film, better video and a better and probobly excellant and and great and probably one of the greatest dts track ever.

come on november for the extended version:) :smashin:

[PaulBoy]

On the soundtrack for ROTK Howard Shore mentions that he is due to go back into the studio in March to start working on music for the DVD EE - My money is on an August theatrical & November EE (damn it!) I hope I am proved wrong ... Paul ;)
PS The ROTK Soundtrack is awesome & dead cheap at CDWOW!

[KraGorn]

The May 24th date has also been seen on some DVD sellers web sites .. one had March 24th but the consensus seems to be this was a mistake, 'May' became 'Mar'.

[FWA.jr]

PJ says he has to get the EE done lot earlier this year because he starts prepping King Kong very, very soon. Weta is a busy place, what with the EE, King Kong and The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe. Not forgetting that they farmed out the FX for Arwens escape from the Nazgul to another effects house.

[FoxyMulder]

If Howard Shore is doing the music in March then i predict a September release date for the Extended edition.

Can't wait :)

[KraGorn]

Originally posted by FWA.jr
PJ says he has to get the EE done lot earlier this year because he starts prepping King Kong very, very soon.
Yes but sadly 'done' doesn't mean 'released', that'll be down to New Line's marketing plans.

[KraGorn]

This quote seems to be appearing in several places so it seems likely to be true:

Director Peter Jackson just edited the four-hour, 10-minute longer cut, due in November. The theatrical version will arrive in May or June.

What isn't clear is if this includes or excludes the 20 mins. of end credits .. my guess is it includes them but only because the theatrical edition was quote at 3 1/2 hours but the movie itself was 3 hr 12 min.

[dsw182]

Not sure if this news is new but I only got it today:

"USA Today has confirmed (in a recent interview with director Peter Jackson) what we'd heard before, which is that the theatrical edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King will street in May or June, while the extended version will arrive in November. The most interesting thing here is that Jackson says he's finished editing the extended cut, which runs some 4 hours and 10 minutes (or 250 mins total). If accurate, that means the extended version is 49 minutes longer that the 201 minute theatrical cut. "

[WillyShatsWig]

We have been sent a what looks to be a shot of the cover from EIV's upcoming UK Region 2 2-disc release of Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King. According to what we have been sent the set will include:

Anamorphic widescreen transfer
DD5.1EX English audio
English subtitles
Revealing The Secrets Behind The Production Of An Epic Adventure indepth program.
A Final Look At Middle-earth & The War Of The Rings: 6 lordoftherings.net featurettes
Lord Of The Rings Trilogy Outtakes & Bloopers
Original Theatrical Trailer & TV Spots
"Into The West" Annie Lennox music video
Electronic Arts' Lord Of The Rings Trilogy video game preview
An Inside Look At The Special Edition DVD Edition Of Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King.

For the cover art confirming these features click here (http://www.dvddebate.com/article.php?sid=3929&mode=&order=0&thold=).

Appologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere.

[parkender]

From the BBC Website today:


The Return of the King, the last in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, will be released on DVD and video three months sooner than expected.
The film, which won 11 Oscars last month, will be released on 25 May, producers New Line said.

The date is three months ahead of the time the first two films were released in 2002 and 2001.

An extended version of the film - including previously unseen footage - will follow at the end of the year.

The initial DVD release of the film will include the film, as well as a 20-minute theatrical trailer and a range of behind-the-scenes material.

[Greg]

Originally posted by parkender
From the BBC Website today:
The initial DVD release of the film will include the film, as well as a 20-minute theatrical trailer and a range of behind-the-scenes material.

That seems a bit odd, why would you want a 20 minute trailer of the same film as you have bought??

Perhaps they meant 20min documentary or similar.

Greg

[Tejstar]

Originally posted by GregHook
That seems a bit odd, why would you want a 20 minute trailer of the same film as you have bought??

Perhaps they meant 20min documentary or similar.

Greg

It's meant to be a supertrailer encompassing all three films.

[KraGorn]

If it's the same trailer as was on AOL not long back and downloadable from elsewhere it's a mish-mash of scenes from all 3, all jumbled together like they put all the clips in a box and pulled them out at random .. utterly pointless promo material with no interest whatsoever IMHO.

[Gary D]

the LOTR "Supertrailer" is on the SE of the soundtrack, its about 7 mins long.


Gary

[KraGorn]

Ah, that one .. I was mis-remembering something else AOL had then.