I’m already pissed at having bought both FOTR DVD’s, though I don’t regret the special edition purchase. I just wished I’d had known it was going to come out, otherwise I wouldn’t have bought the first FOTR DVD.
The special edition FOTR DVD is much better, if only for the elven gifts scene.
Does anyone know what’s in store for the TT DVD? Will there be a 4-disc special edition for that one, too?
How did you miss hearing about the various DVD editions? They announced it up front.
Yes, there will be an extended edition DVD but I haven’t heard yet when it’s expected to come out. I would guess on the same scehedule as FOTR. I did hear a rumor that the theatrical DVD would be out in July instead of August though.
The latest I’ve heard is that the theatrical DVD will come out in August, but that might just be a rumour.
And I guess I should have answered your last question. Last I heard, everything was just guessing as to the contents of the EXT Edition.
My guess (Based entirely on screenshots I have seen that weren’t in the movie) is that we’ll get the question about how exactly the elves ended up at Helm’s Deep and where is The Sword That Broken.
Here’s the schedule from theonering.net.
that after ROTK is out there will be a regular ROTK DVD, a deluxe ROTK set & then a few months to a year later- a super-deluxe with TONS more outtakes, deleted scenes, re-edits etc LOTR TRILOGY SET with special previews of what may be planned for the Hobbit & the Simarillion.
I have no cite for this- it’s just marketing instinct.
And every one of you will buy it.
Btw, I don’t think Jackson is beyond filming & editing in Bombadil scenes either- I actually hope he does!
I just hope The Two Towers DVD has Orthanc and Barad Dur as the bookends. It’s the reason I passed on the Argonath the first time around.
thanks for theonering.net link.
It says the extended versions come out in november after each movie. So I’ll wait till then, obviously.
As far as a possible extended trilogy set, I can see that happening but I doubt it’ll contain much more footage, unless Peter Jackson just has nothing else in his life to do.
And I can’t see why he’d approve someone else to edit-in footage.
Then again, it depends on how much money is layed down on the table.
FriarTed - Do you have a cite for them filming the Silmarallion or is that also just your instinct? I know they have the rights to it but for some reason I just kind of hope it doesn’t get made. Conversely, I hope the Hobbit does get made.
And I’d say there’s not a snowballs chance in hell of seeing Bombadil on screen, stop trying to get our hopes up :).
I’m with FriarTed – I ain’t buying nothin until the super-extended-deluxe-platinum-wet-dream trilogy boxed set edition comes out. And you know it’s coming.
So far as I know, the film rights to the Simarillion have never been sold. It was Tolkien himself who sold the rights to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in '68. The rights to the Simarillion, which was not published until after Tolkien’s death, belong to Tolkien’s son Christopher and the Tolkien estate. Christopher Tolkien has shown no interest in selling the rights so far.
New Line does own the film rights to The Hobbit, which they bought mainly to prevent another studio from cashing in on the popularity of LOTR. There’s still plenty of obstacles in the way of a Hobbit movie, including legal tangles involving the distribution rights and Jackson’s statement that he has no interest in directing it any time soon.
The FAQ at TheOneRing.net says New Line has the Silmarillion as well for the same reason.
I think that The Silmarillion and The Hobbit are practically a given at this point. New Line has stumbled into what is likely going to be the most profitable film franchise since Star Wars and much like LucasFilm they’re not going to let it die. Even if Jackson doesn’t direct he’s not the only person who could do it. In fact, I think getting someone else at least for the Hobbit would be a good idea just to get a different feel to the film. I bet development on them is going to be announced some time next year to keep the Lords hype running.
As for the DVD’s I’d love it if after Return of the King there’s just something like Lord of the Rings: Appendices. Just a couple of disks worth of extras that pertain to the whole series of films. On the Fellowship EE there’s a lot of need things but I want to read all of what was on those papers Gandalf was shuffling through (looked like part of the Silmarillion to my eyes) or go through the rewrite of the Hobbit that was in Bilbo’s book. Translations of all the text in the movie that those without a handy Elvish-English or Dwarven-English dictionary can find out what they say. Maybe virtual tours of certain key sets (the static photographs just don’t give you a sense of space and so much design just never made it on screen in any method). There was just so much more I wanted to know that didn’t make it on the Fellowship DVD and I’d be a bit more irritated if the later movies got those kinds of nice features with Fellowship left off. Another set of just Extras would be fine by me.
My guess on The Silmarillion would be that, assuming that it is true that the rights for it has never been sold, that New Line has bought the option in case the estate of Tolkien ever decides to sell them.
Very good point. New Line is like any other studio—they are not about to let a cash cow die.
If Jackson turns down the chance to direct, someone else will pick it up—and given the amount of money they would dangle in front of him, I doubt he would turn it down.
It’s not as if JACKSON owns the rights to the Hobbit—were that so, I can see it not being made. But the studio probably doesn’t care about Jackson’s feelings in the matter.
What a shame it would be to see another director take up the reigns for future Tolkein epics. Jackson is a genius and should have first bite at the cherry. In reality, we will probably get Ron Howard (or worse…)
Perhaps William Shatner is free.
You can’t make a movie out of The Silmarillion anymore than you can make a movie out of the Bible. The Silmarillion is a whole bunch of loosely related stories. If a LOTR franchise does take off, you could make movies out of the material in the Silmarillion (not to mention the Appendices to ROTk) for a hundred years, if you really wanted to.
The problem is going to be finding “suitable” material. It’s true that since far fewer people have been exposed to The Silmarillion than LOTR, you can get away with substantially skewing the story lines. Nonetheless, pretty much every story in the Silmarillion ends on, at best, a bittersweet note. Wait and seek how ROTK ends – and the reaction to that ending. Virtually the entire non-LOTR-reading public is expecting an explosive and happy ending were the bad guys get what’s coming to them and the good guys live happily ever after, at least 'till the sequel. The LOTR-reading public isn’t and will be mightly upset at such a denouement.
Anyway, a new version of The Hobbit is a near-certainty. It is literally a can’t-miss project. It’s ironic, in a way. LOTR was originally written because Tolkien’s publisher demanded more stories about hobbits. The Hobbit will get filmed for more-or-less the same reason.
The Silmarillion is a tougher call. There are both rights issues and suitability issues. One particularly unpleasant rumour I heard (and I hope it is just a rumour) is that New Line would like to create a series of “new” adventures for TV featuring the LOTR world. That’s right folks, LOTR: The Next Generation. Yeesh.
No offense to Tolkien, and I enjoyed the Silmarillion, but a film version would seem to me to come off quite boring. It’s a grand scope of mythological stories, but there is nothing to connect to and hold for a movie.
It may follow the folly of Lucas’s Prelude Trilogy: grand scope and story, but no soul. Although, in Lucas’s case it’s his own fault that he hasn’t connected the character of Anakin to the audience, just flat out poor directing.
But in the case of the Silmarillion, there’s no one character to connect to, unless perhaps they did it as interesting vignettes.
Oh, how I wish Lucas would let someone else direct the last prelude movie! Please!
When I bought the original release of LOTR I knew that an extended version was on it’s way. However, I wanted to see the movies as originally released and, also, there is no duplication between the special features on the first release and those on the extended release.
Bob
Agreed. It’s as if Lucas was banking on the audience being so wowed by the special effects, that we wouldn’t notice little things like plot, character development, and acting. Such a disappointment. He blew his wad a long time ago.
Peter Jackson on the other hand, is just getting warmed up 
That would be very cool.
Yep, can’t wait for the extended DVD of all the movies to come out, then to see a super-duper 10 hours of the LOTR special boxed set with 16 discs… just in time for Christmas, 2005!
I’d buy it.