Lord of the Rings Extended Blu-ray Details, Possible Street Date

The highly-anticipated Blu-ray release of the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy doesn't have an official announcement yet, but retailers are revealing further release details, including special features and number of discs. Also, according to Canadian retailer Futureshop, it will come out on June 28.

Amazon has put up a useful comparison table summarizing the contents present in all previous DVD editions, the BD of the Theatrical Editions released a year ago and the upcoming Extended trilogy on Blu-ray.

Reportedly, the box set will consist of 15 discs in total, most of them DVDs for the special features: in all likelihood, they will include the six discs from the extended-edition DVDs plus the three discs from the theatrical and extended limited-edition DVD set released in 2006.

Digital copies will be available online.


Contents of the extended LOTR box set

Special features will reportedly include:

The Fellowship of the Ring

• Commentaries:
• Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens
• Design team
• Production/post-production team
• Ten actors, including Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen
• Easter egg: MTV Movie Award Spoof (The Council of Elrod)
• Costa Botes Documentary: The Fellowship of the Ring: Behind the Scenes (on DVD)
• The Appendices (on DVD)
• Part 1: From Book to Vision
• Peter Jackson introduction
• J.R.R. Tolkien: Creator of Middle Earth
• From Book to Script
• Visualizing the Story
• Designing and Building Middle Earth
• Middle Earth atlas interactive
• Part 2: From Vision to Reality
• Elijah Wood introduction
• Filming The Fellowship of the Ring
• Visual effects
• Post-production: Putting it all together
• Digital Grading
• Sound and music
• The Road Goes Ever On...

The Two Towers

• Commentaries:
• Writer-director Peter Jackson and writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens
• Design team
• Production/post-production team
• Sixteen cast members, including Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis, John Rhys-Davies, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Bernard Hill, and Miranda Otto
• Easter Egg: MTV Movie Awards clip (Gollum accepting award)
• Costa Botes documentary: The Two Towers: Behind the Scenes (on DVD)
• The Appendices (on DVD)
• Part 3: The Journey Continues
• Peter Jackson introduction
• J.R.R. Tolkien: Origin of Middle Earth
• From Book to Script: Finding a Story
• Designing and Building Middle-Earth
• Gollum
• Middle-Earth Atlas interactive
• New Zealand as Middle Earth (map with video location)
• Part 4: The Battle for Middle Earth
• Elijah Wood introduction
• Filming The Two Towers
• Visual effects
• Editorial: Refining the Story
• Music and Sound
• The Battle for Helm's Deep is Over

The Return of the King

• Commentaries:
• Writer-director Peter Jackson and writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens
• Design team
• Production/post-production team
• Costa Botes documentary: The Return of the King: Behind the Scenes (on DVD)
• The Appendices (on DVD)
• Part 5: The War of the Ring
• Peter Jackson Intro
• J.R.R. Tolkien: The Legacy of Middle-earth
• From Book to Script
• Designing and Building Middle-earth
• Home of the Horse Lords
• Middle-earth Atlas: Tracing the Journeys of the Fellowship: interactive map
• New Zealand as Middle-earth: interactive map with on-location footage
• Part 6: The Passing of an Age
• Elijah Wood/Sean Astin/Billy Boyd/Dominic Monaghan intro
• Filming The Return of the King
• Visual Effects
• Post Production: Journey's End
• The Passing of an Age
• Cameron Duncan