SciFi Wire: DVD Enhances First Rings
October 14, 2002

The upcoming special extended version DVD of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings features a completely new edit of the hit movie that now clocks in at more than three and a half hours, according to a preview offered to SCI FI Wire. Director Peter Jackson significantly altered the theatrical-release version of the movie, which itself ran nearly three hours in length, extending most of the film's scenes and adding important new scenes, new visual effects and a new soundtrack with nearly 50 minutes of new score music by Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore. All told, Jackson inserted about 30 minutes of new footage into the movie.

The new version of the movie occupies two discs of the upcoming four-disc special-edition DVD, which will be available Nov. 12 with a suggested retail price of $39.99. A limited collector's edition of the special version will also come out with a price of $79.92.

Among the added scenes:

• The film opens with a new sequence of Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) writing a journal entry entitled "Concerning Hobbits" and features extended scenes of life in Hobbiton.
• Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) witness the exodus of the elves from Middle-earth to the Grey Havens.
• Aragorn talks more with Boromir (Sean Bean) about the fate of men.
• Gandalf (Ian McKellen) intones the Black Speech inscription from the One Ring during an extended Council of Elrond scene.
• Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) bestows gifts upon the Fellowship before they depart Rivendell (and the new version restores Gimli's [John Rhys-Davies] crush on Galadriel).
• Extended scenes of the Fellowship with the elves in Lothlorien.

In addition to deepening the story and offering more insight into the characters, the restored footage also sets the viewer up for events to come in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the sequel that comes to movie theaters on Dec. 18.

SCI FI Wire