Commenting Rules: Keep the conversation civil and on topic. If your comment does not add to the conversation, it will be removed. Debate intelligently. Insulting the author, /Film, or other commenters will result in comment removal and possible ban. If you want to point out a typo, correction, suggestion or criticism for /Film, please email us instead. Please use your name or nickname and not your business name (ie Discount Car Parts) as we might confuse and mark it as spam. If you would like to have your own Avatar show up with your comment, sign-up for a free Disqus account. Any Links will go into moderation before being approved. Anything we deem as spam will not be approved.

Blu-Ray Release For Lord of the Rings Offers Theatrical Cuts Only

Posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly

rings_box

Amazon have started taking preorders for the full Lord of the Rings trilogy on Blu-Ray. A warning is probably in order before you leap right in credit card first: these are only the theatrical cuts of the films.

Genuine internet hero Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits managed to confirm this unfortunate news from ’sources close to director Peter Jackson‘. To follow after the break, everything we know about this release… and about Jackson’s plans for the extended versions to hit Blu-Ray too.

Here’s a full quote from Hunt:

Sources close to director Peter Jackson have informed me that he’s saving the extended editions of the films for an “ultimate” box set release closer to the debut of the new Hobbit films - that’s why these BDs are set to be theatrical only. That’s obviously not going to satisfy every fan, but it gives them something in the meantime. As was the case with the original DVD release, at least you’re now aware in advance that a more elaborate release is coming eventually if you’d prefer to wait for it. For Warner’s part, I’ve officially confirmed with the studio that this initial Blu-ray release is real and it’s coming before the end of this year, but I’m told it won’t be officially announced for another few months yet. So you should probably still consider this release to be semi-official and subject to change. Just FYI.

I noticed drastic price cuts on the DVD editions of the series in UK stores recently, including the most recent editions containing Costa Botes’ documentaries. As soon as those popped up at just a few quid, I was pretty certain the Blu-Ray launch was imminent.

The set is carrying an RRP of two cents under a hundred dollars. That’s an obscene amount of money, I think. Amazon’s price is currently set at $69.99, which would have been a more healthy RRP. Even though I love these films, even in their definitely lesser ‘theatrical’ incarnations, I’m simply not going to spend more than $50 on the set. Thankfully, the pricing strategy in the UK is often very different on even the biggest titles (we got the 5-disc Blade Runner set for around £20 at launch while it was easily over twice as much in the US) and I’m hopeful we’ll be granted a better deal on my side of the Atlantic.

Comments 

Related Posts

Tags

Adaptation, Fantasy, New Line, ,

  • Great, thanks for the announce
  • Really don't care. Give me the Extend Editions and I'll be there Day 1!
  • Daniel
    To be quite honest, the extended cuts haven't aged all that well. The only one that really adds to the experience and fills out the corners with material from Tolkien is Fellowship. The other two add scenes that don't really feel fully necessary and don't necessarily draw from the books. I'm not sure that I would repurchase them at this point. But not having ever even owned any of the theatrical cuts, I think I'd spring for this. The standard definition copy of the extended cuts will suit me just fine.
  • Daniel
    Just to amend that, I did neglect to consider the Isengard scenes at the beginning of Return of the King. That actually was PURE Tolkien. But the rest of the added material in that film is pretty meh.
  • You have to also remember the healing gardens (I think that is the right description..) with Faramir and Eowyn after they were wounded and started to fall in love near the end of Return of the King. That was probably my favorite addition to the extended scenes. In the theatrical, they just sort of look at each other at the end of the movie, but this explains it a little more.
  • p0seidon
    going to have to double dip I guess. If he plans to release for the hobbit, thats like 3 years from now.
  • that's pretty disappointing that the true fans have to wait so long for the "ultimate edition" i'm beginning to hate how blu-rays are not the definitive editions of the films. they want us to double dip on blu-ray too. (I'm looking at you No Country For Old Men!)
  • Extended editions or bust.
  • this is why I'm getting mad at the studios at some of their blu-ray releases. While there are special editions of movies like Predator and Ronin, their blu-ray versions are bare bones. What?

    I'm not gonna spend my extra cash on blu-ray if they half ass the releases like this for any movie. It's greed.
  • Exactly!! I sold my Kingdom of Heaven 4 disc Directors Cut and got the Blu-Ray. Turns out the amazing 2 hour documentary on WHY the Director's Cut was made was missing. WTF?! Now I'm going to RE-BUY (used of course) the 4 disc DVDs just to get that awesome documentary. Sheesh. These studios better wise up, they can kill off Blu-ray easily.
  • I think even the Digital Bits and other blu-ray/dvd sites are complaining what I'm complaining about. And no, it's not the same with DVD and their double dipping. This is worse.
  • I honestly like the theatrical versions more. That extra shit was cut out for a reason.
  • I'm not about to pay a premium for the standard theatrical versions. Its just another excuse to double dip on the fans. Nut up and put out the extended editions even if its for a limited time.
  • Wait for the "full" release to come...don't allow them to double dip you.
  • I am game for this and will rebuy in 3 years lol
  • ehh, i love my extended dvd's, and have yet to jump on Blu-Ray, so this ins't that big of a deal for me (though i'll probably have a BDplayer by the time these come out).

    not only will this coincide with "The Hobbit"'s release, but does anyone think that this will also be a 10th Anniversary box set as well?
  • But I already did that with two of the disks after I bought one of the extended editions.
    So I guess they want fans to sell their DVD extended editions, then buy the BD then resell them again when the extended editions come out?
    I could do that if I had the income of a studio head and the common sense of a marketing exec.
  • If you had the income of a studio exec you wouldn't sell your old DVD's you'd throw them in the trash or give them to your cleaning lady.
  • I'm with a lot of people here: waiting for the Extended Editions. Both versions are great, and seeing and hearing "Fellowship" in HD greatness would rule so hard. But, alas, at the current BD prices, I'll just wait it out until they release the extended editions.
  • What the hell!? Put the extended on there!!!
  • cenzo
    That reason was because no idiot would sit at the theater for 4 hours... and no theater would play a 4 hr movie when they can play 2 shows and rake in twice the cash. Most scenes are taken out for a good reason, with LOTR, it's usually because of a time crunch. So if you think it was CUT for a reason, such as it didn't better the film... think again. It simply was too long. And yes, they lesser relative scenes were cut.
  • By the time The Hobbit comes out and the Blu-Ray extended editions of Lord of The Rings comes out, I wonder if Blu-Ray is going to matter anymore?

    Dennis
  • Good point. I don't see any movement on the Hobbit project so in about 5 years, blu-ray could be the best thing in the world, or it could be obsolete.
  • I know I'm crazy, but I prefer the Theatrical cuts over the Extended edition. I like to be able to watch a movie in one sitting, and while the extended cuts fulfill your love of Tolkien they fail as films. For the record I owned both versions and sold off the theatrical cuts and then regretted the decision. There is a reason Jackson called them extended editions and not directors cuts. In an interview he made it clear that the theatrical releases were his director's cuts.
  • oh no! now i can only spend 12 hours of my life watching these films instead of 20...
  • Crap.

    I love Lord of the Rings. I love Blu-Ray. I want these, but I'm afraid that I can't bare to watch Return of the King without Saruman's death in it.

    Screw you sirs, I'm waiting. You shall have none of my money here.
  • Also, they better give us some really cool inside boxes. If Jackson really loved us, he'd have Alan Lee or John Howe do some special sketches especially for the release - like the Extended DVDs.

    I hope studios will someday get Blu-Ray releases right. The Ultimate Matrix Trilogy BD boxes over here in the UK sucked compared to the DVD ones.
  • This may have already been said, but I hope they put BOTH versions on the Extended Blu-Ray release. Because I'm away from home for a while, and I only brought the extended editions with me, and sometimes I just don't have the time to watch an extra 40 minutes of each film. Of course, I HAVE to watch all of them, even if I only get to see half of each individual film in a sitting.
  • It's a little bit disappointing to hear that we won't be getting each version of each film at once, but now that I think about it, it was foreseeable since the announcement of the LOTR Blu-Rays.
  • Just another studio strategy to get more money out of the fans. I bet in a few years the director's cut will be released in Blu-Ray.
  • GregM
    The extended cuts are bloated, plodding, and, well, suck. Even Jackson has said that the theatrical cuts are the "definitive" versions. The only news that would be better is if the extended cuts weren't coming out at all.
  • i don't know man... i'd like to have both still...
  • I'm thinking I'll wait for the best release available, well, that's unless they decide to release the ultimate edition right after I buy what I think is the best edition.
  • jman
    WTF?!! and the industry still wonders why people would have the indignation to use p2p to download and deprive them of their due, when they've already paid for a movie 4 or 5 times over starting with VHS, then going to DVD and now Blu-Ray, and the extended/ultimate/director's cut/final/criterion/superbit editions that come with each, all promising to be the creme-de-la-creme version, worth plopping down another 30 bucks for. they already put the extended version out on dvd, why in the hell can't they just put the Blu-Ray version out too? is anyone else as sick of this bs as i am? and we all have the next medium after BR runs it's course to look forward to. like yogi said, it's deja vu all over again.
  • kostatec
    Excellent news
    It's about time

    Long live king aaragorn!!!!
  • Paul
    Just another money making scheme to get everyone to buy it twice again, not falling for that again!
  • TS Phillips
    I will never buy the theatrical releases. The so called Extended Editions are actually the only complete versions.

    American distributors refused to put Jackson's first film, the Fellowship of the Ring in cinemas if it was over three hours length. The result was a horrible hachet job that barely makes sense to viewers unfamilar with the novel. If you haven't seen the Extended Edition of the first two films you haven't seen the actual films.
  • Name
    it's stuff like this that makes me so mad, I wont buy it, and just download it for free. Screw the studios.
blog comments powered by Disqus

gorilla nation

/Film

Copyright © 2010 /Film. Web design by Pro Blog Design. Logo Concept by: Illumination Ink

All names, trademarks and images are copyright their respective owners.