Big Picture Big Sound

We reported on the preliminaries of this announcement earlier in the month, but the studio left us guessing as to a release date and the technical details for the upcoming Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-ray set. Now we know that the one box set to rule them all will be available on June 28th, 2011. You can pre-order it over at Amazon for a lot less than the $119 street price.

Peter Jackson has thrown literally everything but a Hobbit into this colossal 15-disc set, including the insightful documentaries on the making of each film by director Costa Botes.  It looks like you may need to call in sick that week; the bonus features run a staggering 26 hours. The extended versions of the films add another couple of hours to the total running time of the set.

This is easily a multi-day affair for the serious fan of the film. You may want to keep your therapist's number handy in case things start getting a tad confused on Day two; when you start thinking about sacrificing the family dog in the BBQ (Mordor) because you think he's Gollum and after the remote...I mean the one ring.

The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition comes in a beautiful and hopefully rigid slipscase. The studio has pulled a "TTC" (The Ten Commandments) and split each film across two Blu-ray discs.  No, it isn't an homage to the days of laserdisc.  Even with a whopping 50 GB of storage on each disc, splitting the film over two platters is really the only way the studio can offer the films with the highest possible bit rate for maximum sound and picture quality.  It also leaves some room for bonus features on each disc.  Each Blu-ray disc in the set is BD-Live enabled.

In a somewhat surprising move, it appears that only the Fellowship of the Ring has been remastered from the original 2K digital files. The image quality of original theatrical release of the first film on Blu-ray was fairly disappointing, with more digital artifacts than we would have hoped, so we're looking forward to seeing the film in its new clothing. The audio on the Blu-ray discs (there are 6 of them) is in glorious lossless 6.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio which should sound pretty spectacular.  Even the DVD release of the trilogy offered outstanding sound in its old-fashioned lossy DTS-ES incarnation.

With the filming of the Hobbit finally underway, we suspect that these discs are going to get a lot of use from the rabid fans until that two-part prequel is released in theaters in 3D (being shot with the RED EPIC cameras).  The Hobbit Part I is expected to arrive in theaters in December 2012 with Part II to follow in December, 2013.

Is this Extended Edition boxed set truly going to be the one edition to rule them all? We wouldn't bet against it.

Where to Buy:

• Pre-order The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-ray on Amazon

Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-Ray Boxed Set Details:

DISC 1: (Blu-ray)

• Fellowship of the Ring Feature--Extended Edition Part 1
• The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – The Untold Story
• Commentary with Director & Writers
• Commentary with Design Team
• Commentary with Production & Post Production
• Commentary with Cast
• Easter Egg-MTV Movie Award Spoof (The Council of Elrod)

DISC 2: (Blu-ray)

• Fellowship of the Ring Feature-Extended Edition Part 2
• Commentary with Director & Writers
• Commentary with Design Team
• Commentary with Production & Post Production0
• Commentary with Cast
• Easter Egg-Two Towers Sneak Peek

DISC 3: (DVD)

• The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition
• The Appendices Part 1-From Book to Vision (M. Pellerin)
• Peter Jackson Introduction
• JRR Tolkien: Creator of Middle Earth
• From Book to Script
• Visualizing the Story
• Designing and Building Middle Earth
• Middle Earth Atlas Interactive
• New Zealand and Middle Earth Interactive

DISC 4: (DVD)

• The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition
• The Appendices Part 2-From Vision to Reality (M. Pellerin)
• Elijah Wood Introduction
• Filming "The Fellowship of the Ring"
• Visual Effects 57
• Post Production: Putting it all Together
• Digital Grading
• Sound and Music
• The Road Goes Ever On…

DISC 5: (DVD)

• Costa Botes Documentary
• The Fellowship of the Ring: Behind the Scenes

DISC 6: (Blu-ray)

• The Two Towers Feature-Extended Edition Part 1
• The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – The Untold Story
• Commentary with Director & Writers
• Commentary with Design Team
• Commentary with Production & Post Production
• Commentary with Cast
• Easter Egg-MTV Movie Awards Clip (Gollum Accepting Award)
  
  

DISC 7: (Blu-ray)

• The Two Towers Feature-Extended Edition Part 2
• Commentary with Director & Writers
• Commentary with Design Team
• Commentary with Production & Post Production
• Commentary with Cast
  
  

DISC 8: (DVD)

• The Two Towers Extended Edition
• The Appendices Part 3 - The Journey Continues
• Peter Jackson Introduction
• JRR Tolkien: Origin of Middle Earth
• From Book to Script: Finding the Story
• Designing and Building Middle-Earth
• Gollum
• Middle-Earth Atlas Interactive
• New Zealand as Middle Earth (map with video location)
  
  

DISC 9: (DVD)

• The Two Towers Extended Edition
• The Appendices Part 4 - The Battle for Middle Earth From Extended Edition
• Elijah Wood Introduction
• Filming the Two Towers
• Visual Effects
• Editorial: Refining the Story
• Music and Sound
• The Battle for Helm's Deep is Over…
  
  

DISC 10: (DVD)

• Costa Botes Documentary From Limited Edition
• The Two Towers: Behind the Scenes
  
  

DISC 11: (Blu-ray)

• Return of the King Feature-Extended Edition Part 1
• The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – The Untold Story
• Commentary with Director & Writers
• Commentary with Design Team
• Commentary with Production & Post Production
  
  

DISC 12: (Blu-ray)

• Return of the King Feature- Extended Edition Part 2
• Commentary with Director & Writers
• Commentary with Design Team
• Commentary with Production & Post Production
  
  

DISC 13: (DVD)

• The Return of the King Extended Edition
• The Appendices Part 5- The War of the Ring
• Peter Jackson introduction
• JRR Tolkien: The Legacy of Middle Earth
• From Book to Script
• Designing and Building Middle-Earth 1
• Home of the Horse Lords
• Middle-Earth Atlas
• New Zealand as Middle-Earth
  
  

DISC 14: (DVD)

• The Return of the King Extended Edition
• The Appendices Part 6- The Passing of an Age
• Introduction
• Filming "The Return of the King"
• Visual Effects
• Post-Production: Journey's End
• The Passing of an Age
• Cameron Duncan: The Inspiration for "Into the West"
  
  

DISC 15: (DVD)

• Costa Botes Documentary From Limited Edition
• The Return of the King: Behind the Scenes