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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Special Extended DVD Edition
The Digital Bits ^ | October 2, 2002 | Bill Hunt

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...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment; The Hobbit Hole
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To: rightwingreligiousfanatic
They are out there

Look at this unjust patriarchal family structure. The big male has all the fun while the opressed female and neglected children can only watch. This is against natural rights - some feminist reeducation or sensitivity training is urgently needed.

81 posted on 10/07/2002 5:37:05 PM PDT by A. Pole
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To: Explorer89
ping
82 posted on 10/07/2002 5:45:15 PM PDT by MrConfettiMan
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To: A. Pole
Elijah Wood did an great job as Fordo he should
have been given the Oscar for best male lead actor!
83 posted on 10/07/2002 5:48:07 PM PDT by Princeliberty
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To: HairOfTheDog
Thanks. I hate having to wait.
84 posted on 10/07/2002 5:53:18 PM PDT by Thud
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To: Thud
Heh.... With this movie, everything is a long wait!
85 posted on 10/07/2002 6:00:19 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
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To: Princeliberty; ClearCase_guy
I like to think of LOTR as the great Christian answer to Wagner. Wagner was lifting up pride will and paganism.
Tolkien great tale was lifting up humility, faith and true Christianity.

I'm not Christian, no offense, but I didn't see any Christian symbolism in LOTR. I did see a lot of pre-Christian, pagan elements from German, Norse and Celtic mythology. Some of the characters have very clear counterparts in the Nibelungenlied.

Gandalf=Wotan
Aragorn=Siegfried
Arwen=Brunnhilde (Arwen is much more of a sword-swinging valkyrie in the movie than in the book, so maybe Peter Jackson also saw a similarity)

Bilbo and Frodo correspond, although not as strongly, to Alberich and Hagen from the Nibelungenlied, although Hagen and Alberich are much darker, more sinister characters.

Oh, and there is one strikingly modern resemblance that Tolkien never planned on or dreamed of, which is this:


86 posted on 10/07/2002 6:10:49 PM PDT by Alouette
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To: Alouette
There are many among my friends who think there are Christian themes in LoTR. I don't particularly see overtly Christian themes myself, but I can see their points. I think it brings them pleasure and strengthens their faith to see correlations and discuss them, and the story allows for it.

To me, the story represents the very basic principles of the human condition. Good, evil... Strength of will and temptation... Loyalty, friendship, valor, integrity and patriotism. Those who are Christian and believe in a world created by God also see these values being inextricable from the power of God.

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... but not if you are in a hurry ;~D
87 posted on 10/07/2002 6:36:44 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
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To: Alouette
Gandalf=Wotan
Aragorn=Siegfried
Arwen=Brunnhilde

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.

88 posted on 10/07/2002 6:39:34 PM PDT by A. Pole
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To: CyberCowboy777
If memory serves C.S. Lewis even used this fascination as part of his explanation of Christianity to Tolkien that long and late night when Tolkien accepted Jesus as his personal Savior.

I think you've got this backward. Tolkien was a life-long Catholic. Lewis went thru an agnostic or atheist phase which Tolkien helped him to escape.

89 posted on 10/07/2002 6:52:00 PM PDT by Restorer
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To: Destructor
Maybe you'd like to share your own numbers supporting your claim that "most, if not all" of the Hobbit weirdo/Fantasy Game/Renaissance Fair types here at Free Republic support the war on Iraq.

One Hobbit weirdo vote for stomping all over the Iraqi orcs!

90 posted on 10/07/2002 6:53:16 PM PDT by Restorer
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To: rmmcdaniell
I had a bunch of jocks who were making fun of how much the movie was "like Dungeons and Dragons"

Actually, D&D is like LOTR. Check your dates.

91 posted on 10/07/2002 6:54:22 PM PDT by Restorer
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To: HairOfTheDog; Alouette
Sam's post at #73 above says it all in a nutshell. But for another recent treatment of the Christian/Tolkien connection see this post: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/764709/posts
92 posted on 10/07/2002 6:57:02 PM PDT by rightwingreligiousfanatic
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To: Restorer; CyberCowboy777
You are right, Restorer...

Tolkien was a lifelong Catholic, and helped his friend Lewis to become Christian....

Just one hobbity weirdo helping another!


93 posted on 10/07/2002 7:02:37 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
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To: rmmcdaniell
The first time I saw it, it was at 12:05 am, opening night/morning and there were like 5 screens, completely packed (ran out of seats--people started sitting in the isles). Everyone there was LotR "nerd" with quite a few people dressed up.
94 posted on 10/07/2002 7:04:59 PM PDT by rb22982
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To: rightwingreligiousfanatic
Evening Vim!

I think when a story's foundations are based on basic truths, one can apply those truths to any creed. I like to see Christian themes in the story, but I would imagine that atheists can also see inspiration in the greatness of the human acts, and perhaps Buddists find inspiration in the story that applies to their faith.

That was my main point... that the story makes you want to be stronger in spirit and more worthy no matter what your faith. If you have faith, it is a Christian work... if you do not, then it is still a good story of great example.

95 posted on 10/07/2002 7:12:27 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
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To: rmmcdaniell
I have a very low tolerance for bad theater behavior.

I have a Pfffft! That can quiet a theater in one shot!

But who was the moron that packaged theater food in the noisiest crinkly plastic ever made?
96 posted on 10/07/2002 7:14:32 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
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To: HairOfTheDog; ksen; Corin Stormhands; Alouette
I can go along with that to a point. But to me the story becomes a richer experience when utilizing all the powers of Christian spiritual discernment. Kind of like having a fine steak dinner at a quality restaurant vs. a so-so hamburger at a short order grill. Both feed you and nourish you, but the quality of the experience is much greater and more memorable (meaningful) in the one setting vs. the other.....
97 posted on 10/07/2002 7:21:25 PM PDT by rightwingreligiousfanatic
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To: Alouette; rightwingreligiousfanatic; HairOfTheDog
I'm not Christian, no offense, but I didn't see any Christian symbolism in LOTR.

Perhaps, as has been pointed out, it is one's frame of reference. Tolkien said his work was not intended to be allegorical, but that as a Christian, his faith would be reflected in his work (that's a major paraphrase).

I did my freshman English paper on "Christlike Symbolism in The Lord of the Rings." I actually found a copy of it recently.

As I see it, these are the representations:

Gandalf = The Resurrection
Frodo = The Deliverer
Aragorn = The Triumphant King

98 posted on 10/07/2002 7:21:33 PM PDT by Corin Stormhands
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To: rightwingreligiousfanatic
Both feed you and nourish you, but the quality of the experience is much greater and more memorable (meaningful) in the one setting vs. the other.....

Very well put! - That is the concept I was looking for but couldn't articulate. Nice beef allegory! I am hungry!

99 posted on 10/07/2002 7:25:51 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
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To: rightwingreligiousfanatic; HairOfTheDog; ksen; JenB
You know our "friend" above scoffed at us and questioned our commitment to the war on Iraq. But he's missing a large part of the story.

After 9/11, no matter where we were, we all felt victimized. We all felt as if evil was winning. Even by December that thought was still with us.

So what if LOTR is escapist. We saw a darn fine presentation of good vs. evil. And most of us know the end of the story.

I think it was (is) an incredible movie and would have been a success in any year. But, I've never really thought about this, but perhaps last year was the perfect year for The Fellowship of the Ring.

100 posted on 10/07/2002 7:27:14 PM PDT by Corin Stormhands
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