Latest News on Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-rays

[Blu Falcon]

http://bluray.ign.com/articles/108/1086145p1.html

New Content for LotR, Hobbit Blu-rays
Insiders have been talking about what fans can expect.
by Cindy White

April 26, 2010 - When the Blu-ray edition of Lord of the Rings was released on April 6, we heard from a lot of you that you were planning to wait until the extended edition came out. Last Friday provided a wealth of information about that potential release, from interviews with producer Michael Pellerin via Digital Bits and director/producer Peter Jackson via The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog.

Pellerin, who worked on the original Special Extended Editions of The Lord of the Rings on DVD, talked about how the Blu-ray box set (for which he was a consultant) came together and the work that was done to make the films HD-ready. Most interestingly, he provided some hints as to what's in store for the eventual Extended Editions on Blu-ray.

Pellerin told the site that Jackson himself supervised the creation of new HD masters of the films for the Blu-ray release. There were existing HD masters available, but they had been created a decade ago when the films were released in theaters and were not up to today's standards. New Line had originally planned an ambitious box set that would have included the extended editions, but when the company was folded into Warner Bros. the decision was made to hold off until the full set could be released in conjunction with The Hobbit's debut in theaters. The theatrical edition that came out on April 6 was a compromise solution, getting a Blu-ray edition out there while reserving some content for the ultimate box set. It did have some technical tweaks, however, like color corrections and an improved audio presentation for The Fellowship of the Ring.

But here's where the excitement comes in. Pellerin revealed that he and Jackson have been planning an HD box set for nearly a decade, and set aside some content specifically for that eventual release.

"We didn't even have the room to fit everything on the original releases anyway," he said. "Truth be told, even with the six Appendices discs on the original Extended Edition DVDs, which we packed to capacity with content, we knew there would be a lot of material we just could not fit onto the original DVDs. So we purposefully held back some of the best stuff for later use. Every idea we had, Peter vetted and was placed into one of two categories: 1) Stuff to put it on the Extended Edition DVDs – or 2) Stuff saved for the HD Box Set."

- New Line

So what kind of stuff did they save?

"One of the crown jewels was to be Peter's documentary," Pellerin revealed. "Peter had always talked about creating his own feature-length documentary, that tells the whole process of creating LotR chronologically, from his – the filmmaker's – point of view: what he was thinking and why he made decisions, and inviting us to walk with him on that journey, from beginning to end."

The additional content will also include "anecdotes; shenanigans on and off screen; practical jokes, the gag and outtakes reels (which are myriad), and the stories only people who were there know about."

According to Pellerin, he and Jackson have about 20 hours worth of ideas and material set aside for the box set. He didn't reveal any potential release date, however, explaining that Warner Home Video is concentrating on the theatrical releases for the time being.

Meanwhile, it seems as though Jackson has similar plans for The Hobbit when it eventually comes out on Blu-ray and DVD. Jackson is producing and co-writing the two-part follow-up, with Guillermo del Toro at the helm. According to the Speakeasy report, Jackson and his team have been filming supplemental material for about a year now.

"[Director] Guillermo [del Toro] has been doing location scouts and design work, with the DVD people following him around, so we've shot 20 or 30 hours of DVD material so far and we're still a few months away from the first day of shooting."

Jackson also said that although he was "heavily involved" in the DVD process when New Line was handling the releases, now that Warner Bros. has taken over, they haven't involved him beyond giving him updates on what is being done. He added that he gets why fans might have felt let down by the recent Blu-ray release.

"The one thing we never did with the fans was make them feel cheated," Jackson told the site. "Back in the original release, we always put extra material in, extra documentaries – a lot of added value. I so totally understand why the fans would be upset; I don't disagree with them."