If you’re like me, you’ve already got both the two-disc set and the four-disc set for each of the Lord of the Rings movies. Not only does each set come with a different version of the movie in question — the shorter versions actually have bits of footage that aren’t in the “extended” versions, including one of my favorite shots, depicted here — but each set comes with a completely unique set of extras. So there isn’t that much overlap.
In other words, I for one do not feel particularly gouged.
Now, however, The Hollywood Reporter reports (via Reuters) that New Line is re-issuing the three films — and for apparently no better reason than to provide us with a new set of extras:
Three “The Lord of the Rings Limited Edition” sets, one for each movie, will roll out August 29. Each two-disc set will include the original theatrical and the extended versions of the film, along with Costa Botes‘ feature-length documentary on each film’s creation. . . .
New to DVD are the documentaries, in which director Peter Jackson and his crew gave Botes full access to the set for hours of behind-the-scenes footage.
“It’s something fans have been asking for,” Lasorsa said. “Costa was hired a year before principal photography began, and his job was to capture all the production, relate his personal experiences and provide his perspective for Peter.”
Except for the first documentary’s screening at the New Zealand Film Festival, none of the three video production diaries have been seen anywhere, Lasorsa said.
“New Line has owned these documentaries and waited to make them available to the general public,” Lasorsa said. “The style of these documentaries is quite different from the documentaries on the extended-edition DVDs. These are more organic, and had they come out sooner people might have been confused.”
I dunno, I rather liked the documentaries on the four-disc sets, myself; but I guess new footage is always good. And how are they going to cram between eight and ten hours of film onto the two discs? (That’s figuring three-plus hours for the “shorter” film, four-minus hours for the “extended” film, and an hour or two for the “feature-length documentary”.) I assume they won’t recycle any of the previous extras, including commentaries; and who knows, they might even make some discs double-sided.
Does this remind anyone of the Star Wars “limited editions”?
JUN 22 UPDATE: Cinematical says the two versions of each movie will be squeezed onto a single disc with the help of “seamless branching”, while each brand-new documentary will have a disc unto itself. Given that each of the “extended” films was originally spread out over two discs, and given that the shorter films also have some unique footage, I wonder if they will have to be compressed even more to fit on single discs. That is, I wonder if the picture quality will be noticeably poorer on these discs.
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