OK, yes another LOTR thread. I was so bowled over by “Fellowship” that I bought the DVD as soon as it was released (ok, I’m an easy mark, I saw Bakshi’s version on the big screen).
Lo and behold, a few months later, the “Special Edition” DVD was released with extra goodies (including the hidden SNL schtick).
Now I get an email from Amazon offering me the option of pre-ordering “The Two Towers”.
Any thoughts on whether Jackson et al will pull the same kind of bait n switch with all 3 releases ?
Perhaps the most reasonable thing is to wait for the entire trilogy to finish and then pay what will most likely me a premium for the “box set” or whatever they will call it. Hell, Greedo doesn’t even shoot first on my dvd <--------------- joke.
I think your asking are theyre going to be two versions of TT on DVD? Well if you are then the answer is yes. The film we all know comes out August 26th I think and the extended version comes out Sept 9th, theyre the UK dates but I think they are the same as the US.
Hey least this time youll know your getting screwed…
Yes. It was announced months before LOTR: FOTR was released that each movie would be done this way, and I didn’t know anyone who didn’t know that there were going to be multiple versions.
You have chosen to think of this as being screwed. Many of us prefer to think of it has giving people a choice. Screwing you would be releasing a features-deprived version and then after that was out making it known that a special edition would be available. In this case, the versions are completely different. The special stuff on the theatrical version will not be duplicated on the extended version. That’s an incentive to buy both if you choose to look at it that way. I did, and I’m happily planning to own 6 DVDs (and with any luck, 3 sets of bookends!) by the end of 2004.
In regards to the LOTR DVD, New Line and Peter Jackson let everyone know up front that there’d be a regular edition and a special edition. I don’t feel like there were any shenanigans there, trying to sucker people into buying both.
Ditto with Two Towers, afaik, and I’m expecting the same with ROTK. I haven’t bought any of them, though, because I suspect there’ll be the “Ultra Platinum Super Extended Boffo Collector’s Director’s Producer’s Box Set” of all of the movies sometime next summer.
Punditry:
I do hate when a movie is released on DVD and then without notice, months or years later, another edition is released with more features. I have a copy of Tombstone which is the second of three version that have been released on DVD. Bah.
I appreciate the info, especially as it was such common knowledge, and no I am not hungry to learn about DVD releases. I’m just a LOTR fan who works 60 hours a week and I’m glad to have a resource like the SDMB to ask silly questions and get condescending answers to. It’s a blast.
if I recall correctly, the instructions were stated thusly,
go to the first scenes menu
scroll down to “The council of Elrond”
scroll down one more time, the cursor will point to blankness, which you can choose. Much hilarity ensues, or so I’ve heard.
but only on the second DVD release of TFOTR
New Line anounced in APRIL 2002 that there would be both a theatrical release and an extended edition, and gave the dates.
I’m sorry word did not get to you, but I’m not sure what NL could do other than make Amazon put in 24 point font “Warning: extened version soon”
The stick is form the MTV movie awards, and is on the first disk of the extended edition. I don’t remeber the deatils, but go to the chapter after the last “real” chapter"
Yes, there will be a theatrical and an exteneded edition of Two Towers. The thetrical is in August, the extended is in November.
details are probably avaialable at www.lordotherings.net.
According to http://www.dvdtalk.com/ourweek/ New Line has stated that they are not going to punish loyal fans who buy their Extended Editions buy putting out some sort of other ‘Super-Ultimate’ Edition or Collection after the third film is out.
Me,I’m hoping top get the theatrical version for free (I got FOTR free for test driving a Kia)
I’m buying the “Special Editions”…not the eighty dollar ones with the statues (or whatever they’re doing this time around), but the four DVD set with all the cool extra stuff. Heck, I still haven’t finished watching all the stuff on FotR.
“bait n switch” implies knowing fraud and is a derogatory term. It does NOT apply to the LOTR DVDs. New Line announced several months in advance that there would be 2 versions. The press releases for both versions went out at the same time, so you’d know exactly what was going to be on each one, then you could decide which one you wanted. If you’re a “LOTR fan” maybe you should keep up a little bit more on what’s going on with it, instead of accusing them of screwing you over. All the DVD sites and movie sites and fan sites were talking about it.
New Line has bent over backwards to please both the casual and the hard core fan. Casual fans or the merely curious can buy or rent the theatrical version and get a few nice extras. Hard-core fans can get the extended version and get very in-depth extras. Hard-core fans (like me) who buy both will not be double-dipping, because there is NO OVERLAP on the contents. Not with the movie, not with the extras, not with the artwork. They’re entirely different beasts. And, the first version to be released, the theatrical version, has a coupon for money off the extended version, just as the extended version has a coupon for money off the Deluxe version (with the statues).
People who complain about this really piss me off. New Line is doing it EXACTLY THE WAY THEY SHOULD BE DOING IT, yet people still need something to bitch about.
If they waited until November to release both versions, people would be bitching about the wait (and the extended version DOES need extra time to be put together) or if they waited until November and then released one big-assed set with both versions and ALL the extras, people would be bitching about the wait AND the higher price for a bunch of extras they don’t want.
You’re the latest complainer from last year and the first complainer from this year. There will be many more to come. You haven’t SEEN “condescending” yet. Just wait.
If you think you’re “getting screwed” by the extended versions of these movies, then you’re not really a fan anyway and what the hell are you doing even thinking about it?? Dumb and Dumberer will be out by then. Enjoy that!
I have to agree; I don’t pay attention to DVD releases but I read in two different magazines that the DVD release of FotR would have 35 minutes of extra scenes. When I picked up the DVD in the store, no mention of extra footage was mentioned, so I figured, “This must not be the special edition.”
I do have a gripe about special editions in general, though, to wit: if they’re going to label it “special edition” there’d better not be a “deluxe” or a “complete” edition coming out later. Anyone listening at the Terminator HQ?
For the record, I bought both versions of FotR. (Bought the special edition first.) I’ll be buying both versions of the others as they come out. I thought it was pretty obvious from regular magazine coverage there’d be two versions.
Even I knew months before LOTR:FotR came out that there were going to be three versions, and I’m the most casual of fans. Every single pre-release article I saw about it mentioned three releases, the dates, and projected contents. There were threads on the internet about it everywhere, even on boards having nothing to do with the movie. Online stores outlined the differences in descriptions of each, so people would know there were other versions besides the one they were looking up(also to encourage you to buy the most expensive). In all it was hard to miss.
Personally, I’m looking forward to the August release, it suits my “needs” entirely, since I have minimal interest in the extras. I don’t think I’ve even finished watching all the extras on the first movie.
If it isn’t a form of “bait and switch” to release both a regular and a “special” edition, then why don’t they release both editions simultaneously? That way, anybody who wanted to pay more for the special edition could do so, without having to wait weeks (or months) for the privilege.
The thing is, the studios know that fans are eagerly awaiting the DVD so they can go home and watch it obsessively. By releasing the “special edition” weeks or months later, they can guarantee a lot of extra income from fans who end up buying both simply because they can’t stand the wait.
Barry (who still refuses to buy “X-Men 1.5” on general principles, even though he really wants to hear that commentary track)
Well, like Equipoise said, in the case of the LOTR Extended Editions a lot of extra work needs to be done on the films, since the new footage is, in a sense, woven into rather than pasted onto the theatre release version. Also, new music needs to be scored and recorded. All of this extra production has to be balanced with producing the next film, as well, which furthur lengthens the process.
So they could either delay the non-extended edition DVD release to coincide with the extended edition (which would get people bitching about the almost year-long wait), or, as New Line have done, strongly publicise the fact that there will be two editions well before either is released. Obviously, retailers are going to try to promote the normal edition as much as possible when it comes out, while not publicising the extended edition. But at least New Line are trying to do the right thing in this case, which, as has been pointed out, makes them a damn sight better than most studios.
Incidentally, ROTK may have a simultanious extended/non-extended DVD release, since the extended edition production team won’t be distracted by the production of another theatrical release. That’s just my own speculation though.
$20 do it ?