After shelving what was to be the December arrival of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy theatrical versions on Blu-ray, Warner has come back with a new date and additional goodies for Tolkien fans.
As was the case with the scheduled and then canceled edition, the April 6 arrival of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on Blu-ray will be strictly the theatrical versions. Warner is promising the extended cuts at a later date (which speculatively could be timed with the theatrical release of The Hobbit films).
In addition, a week later on April 13 will see Warner release Ralph Bakshi’s animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings in a Blu-ray deluxe edition. No further details on that are available at this time.
The Trilogy set will span 9 discs with three discs allotted for the films and their trailers in high definition, three for digital copies of each film, and three for standard definition bonus features pulled off the extended edition DVD releases. There will be no newly produced bonus features in the set other than a preview for the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest video game.
At the same time The Lord of the Rings Trilogy hits Blu-ray, it will also arrive on-demand from cable and satellite providers and via downloadable sources including iTunes, Amazon Video on Demand, Zune Marketplace and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace on Xbox 360. To tie in with the big Tolkien push, new Lord of the Rings toys and games will arrives in stores around the same time.
Click here to pre-order The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on Blu-ray for $69.99 at Amazon.com.
Source: Home Media Magazine
