Posted on 10/07/2002 11:39:26 AM PDT by Paul Atreides
To kick things off today, we've got a more comprehensive spec list for New Line's 4-disc The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Special Extended DVD Edition (11/12 - SRP $39.99). Here goes...
Discs One and Two - The Extended Version of the Film
208 minutes (split over both discs), anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX and DTS 6.1 ES, isolated 5.1 sound effects mix, isolated 5.1 music track, Commentary Track One with the director and writers (Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens), Commentary Track Two with members of the design team (Grant Major, Ngila Dickson, Richard Taylor, Alan Lee, John Howe, Dan Hennah, Chris Hennah and Tania Rodger), Commentary Track Three with members of the production and post-production team (Barrie Osborne, Mark Ordesky, Andrew Lesnie, John Gilbert, Rick Porras, Howard Shore, Jim Rygiel, Ethan Van der Ryn, Mike Hopkins, Randy Cook, Christian Rivers, Brian Van't Hull, Alex Funke), Commentary Track Four with members of the cast (Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee and Sean Bean).
Note: Discs Two and Three can be viewed in "explore" mode with traditional menus or "tour" mode via a Play All feature.
Disc Three - The Appendices Part I: From Book to Vision
2 and 1/2 hours of documentary content, including J.R.R. Tolkien-Creator of Middle-earth featurette, From Book to Script featurette, Visualizing the Story section featuring Storyboards and Pre-viz featurette, Designing and Building Middle-earth section featuring Designing Middle-earth featurette, Costume Design featurette and Weta Workshop featurette, design galleries including The Enemy, The Last Alliance, Isengard, The Fellowship, Rivendell and Lothlorien, interactive Middle-earth Atlas with timeline, New Zealand as Middle-earth intertactive map with video, disc introduction with director Peter Jackson.
Disc Four - The Appendices Part II: From Vision to Reality
3 and 1/2 hours of documentary content, including Filming section featuring a production photo gallery and the The Fellowship of the Cast featurette, A Day in the Life of a Hobbit featurette, Cameras in Middle-earth featuette, Visual Effects section and featuette, Post-Production section featuring Editorial featuette and a multi-angle presentation, Digital Grading featuette, Sound and Music featuette and Sound Design Demo, The Soundscapes of Middle-earth featurette, Music for Middle-earth featurette, The Road Goes Ever On featuette, disc introduction with director Peter Jackson.
All told, the 4-disc set is expected to include over 30 hours of unique content created just for this release (including the film and the commentaries). The discs will also feature additional DVD-ROM content and over 2,000 photos and conceptual sketches. And let me tell you... we've seen a few of those featuettes. These aren't 5-minute EPK pieces. They're much more substantial - 20 to 30+ minutes in many cases. Good stuff.
Now then... in a feature in today's print issue of Video Store magazine, Warner reveals that they're gearing up to release an 18-title Charlie Chaplin Collection on DVD, starting in June 2003. Each title will be digitally remastered and cleaned, and will be released as a 2-disc set with numerous extras, including documentaries, outtakes, photo galleries, alternate versions re-edited by Chaplin himself and other material. They'll be available in 2-disc digipack (SRP $26.99) and collector's box ($34.99 - also containing a booklet and film frame) versions. All this is being done in association with MK2 and the Chaplin family. The first three films tentatively due next June are The Great Dictator, City Lights and The Circus. More information will be available at CharlieChaplin.com in the weeks ahead.
Stay tuned...
OK, Mum's the word.....
Hmm, not really. Gandalf is rather a type of a Biblical priest or prophet or angel (he is after all a type of incarnated angelic being). Aragorn and Arven correspond rather to the JRR Tolkien himself and Edith Bratt while the role of Elrond could be inspired by Father Francis.
I don't see why Tolkien couldn't have taken characters from classical Germanic mythology and then adapted and modified them with his own personal characteristics. It is certainly an author's prerogative to do so. So what you say and what I say may be right on different levels.
Weren't you also the one who hasn't read it since you were a teenager? - I think there are so many layers to the story that there is certainly more there than you could have picked up with a teenager's perspective. Give it another try
Yeah, I definitely plan to read the trilogy again and then watch the movie again. It's strange that my son (who is 19) absolutely LOVED the books and couldn't put them down, but my daughter, who is 15 (the same age I was when I read LOTR) thought that the story was slow and boring. She's a big fan of the Harry Potter books but that's definitely juvenile literature and LOTR was written for adults.
Another book I could not get into was the Silmarillon. It started out biblical, begat this, begat that, until I thought I might as well read the REAL bible since it has more relevance to me.
Ditto
LOL. Perfect pic.
Agreed. I know my daughter and I have talked about September 11 and the terrorists, and we often use The Fellowship as allegory. I honestly believe it has helped her handle things. This has been an especially bad year for my famiy, and often I just look at my daughter and say, "Remember what Gandalf said." If Dubya hasn't read LotR, he should.
I have made the similar observation before. Not only is this a "Good vs Evil" story for the ages, but it is an amzingly pertinent tale for today.
Check my dates? I was just ranting about what a couple of meatheads were saying a few seats down. I'm not trying to start a pissing contest on who copied off of who.
Good point. (although escaping to Rivendell does seem like a good idea sometimes...Even with the elves there...)
Well, no one is geekier than I am. :) Tolkien had a collection of essays about writing that I liked very much. There is one in which he which he analyzes the fantasy and the symbolism of J.M. Barrie (who wrote Peter Pan and another, much more obscure play, Mary Rose. It made me scurry over to the library and get a book of J.M. Barrie's scripts. Forget Disney. Forget about Robin Williams. Forget Mary Martin's old TV production. Read Tolkein's essay "on the suspension of disbelief" and then read the original script of Peter Pan.
Then, you tell me which modern version (Mary Martin, Disney or Spielberg) of Peter Pan comes closest to Tolkien's analysis.
It's my opinion that the ideals represented in LOTR (good vs. evil, loyalty, self-sacrifice) are universal and that there is nothing about the story or the characters that are uniquely Christian. It's a fantasy that is based in European mythology but which could be enjoyed by someone of any background, like a Hindu or a Japanese.
I am Jewish, and while I did not find anything in the story that is uniquely Judaic, I suppose that I could if I looked hard enough. FWIW, I have had some Jews tell me that I shouldn't enjoy LOTR because they associate it, quite unjustly I think, with some of the plot elements that it shares with the Wagner Ring Cycle.
I heard that Tolkien once wrote a scathing letter to a nazi reader, who had asked if he was Jewish. Can someone post that letter here?
I like Wagner. Don't let the Elders of Zion find out or they'll take away my black helicopter.
Well, at least you have that much sense. Good for you!
This could be next, and what is important Hobbit can be made into a movie without any significant modification. But who could play younger Bilbo?
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