Before any king can return, New Line Cinema will re-release of the first two “Lord of the Rings” pics worldwide, this time with additional scenes and footage added.
Just two weeks before the Dec. 17 release of “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” — the final installment of the Peter Jackson-helmed epic trilogy — the first two “Ring” entries will be unspooling worldwide.
In memoranda sent to exhibitors on Wednesday, New Line laid out a game plan to promote the third film by refreshing filmgoers’ memories with “The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Two Towers.”
Plan calls for putting the films on 100-150 screens in top 10 U.S. markets. Many other U.S. cities will have one cinema participating in the special extended edition screenings. Running times for the extended editions are 208 minutes for “Fellowship of the Ring” and 214 minutes for “The Two Towers.”
Advanced ticket sales are scheduled to begin in late September or early October on exhibitor Web sites and movie ticketing sites like Fandango, MovieFone and Movietickets.com.
“The release of the third film affords us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give audiences a compelling new theatrical experience of Peter Jackson’s sprawling vision for this trilogy,” said Rolf Mittweg, prexy and chief operating officer for worldwide distribution and marketing.
The cost, one New Line insider estimated, will be between $10 million and $15 million. Due to the extended length of the new prints, the move is being cast as a promotional tool rather than a moneymaker.
“It is important to note,” the memo says, “that these events are produced as a marketing/publicity stunt and not as a revenue generating opportunity” and that media support will be limited largely to the Internet and participating theaters.
Starting the week of Dec. 5, the extended DVD cut of “Fellowship of the Ring” will be released in some 100 or so theaters in the U.S. and in 20 theaters in Canada.
Then, the week of Dec. 12, sequel “Two Towers” will unspool, just a month after having preemed on DVD, leading up to a worldwide Dec. 16 daylong marathon, during which all three films will be shown back-to-back. Exhib guidelines call for a 3 p.m. showing of “Fellowship” followed by a 7 p.m. screening of “Two Towers” and then an 11 p.m. screening of “Return of the King,” which will carry over into Dec. 17 — the day of its global release.
Overseas, it’s not yet clear whether all exhibs will be showing the new footage-added prints of the previous “Rings” pics. According to one New Line insider, the decision is being left to exhibs, which will make their requests known to New Line in the next few weeks.
Italy and Japan will not immediately be included in the foreign promotional blitz. Italo comedies dominate that country around the holidays, and corporate sibling Warner Bros. will be carpeting Japan with the next “Harry Potter” pic. Triad of “Rings” pics will instead screen in January in Italy and February in Japan.
“King” is produced by Barrie M. Osborne, Fran Walsh and Jackson, with a screenplay by Walsh & Philippa Boyens and Jackson, based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien.
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Badali Jewelry has just received licensing from Tolkien Enterprises to release the 7 Dwarven Rings of Power TM from Tolkien’s book series The Lord of The Rings. These are massive rings weighing about 24 grams in sterling silver, and set with 7 different 10mm round faceted gemstones. The rings are engraved with red runes of the ancient Futhark inside and out promising riches and treasure to those who wear them. The magic runic spell engraved on the rings roughly translates into English “Ax that never dulls, hammer that never breaks. Halls under the mountains filled with gold and treasure”. A spell to melt the heart of the gruffest dwarf! Each ring is hand crafted one at a time. These are truly awesome works of art! You can check them out at http://www.badalijewelry.com/dwarven.htm
“The Hobbit”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “The Fellowship of the Ring”, and the characters and places therein, are trademarks of the Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises under license to Badali Jewelry. All Rights Reserved.
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The official New Line Cinema Shop (LOTRShop.com
) is now taking orders for all of The Return of the King teaser posters, featuring Aragorn, Arwen, Gandalf, Gollum, and Frodo. In order to receive the Frodo & Sam poster, you’ll need to purchase the complete set.
So what do you think of the posters? My personal opinion (Calisuri) is that these posters are some of the most dramatic to date, with a keen emphasis on character and situation more than special effects and scale. Notice how all of the posters invoke a legit human/hobbit reaction. Frodo looks like he is pleading with fate to just let him die then and there. Like the will to go on has been completely sucked out of him. But enough of what I think! What what about everyone else? Please take a moment to vote on our poll and post in the discussion forum. [ROTK Teaser Poll] [Poster Talkback] [LOTRShop.com]
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Thanks to JediMistressDragon for sending this in!
Hollywood, August 20, 2003 – New Line Home Entertainment’s special edition of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring took four of the 15 DVD Awards handed out by host Leonard Maltin at the 6th Annual DVD Awards gala at the Universal City Hilton. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets disc received the award for Best Standard Release as well as the Viewers’ Choice honors which were determined earlier this month by nearly 40,000 DVD fans that voted on such Web sites as thedigitalbits.com. The event was the most well attended DVD Awards yet, with more than 400 leading executives from Hollywood’s content community.
The DVD Awards is held annually in conjunction with the DVD Conference and Showcase and is produced by the International Recording Media Association (IRMA) and United Media Entertainment (UEM). The purpose is to honor the technical and artistic achievements involved specifically in the creation of DVDs from menu design to the use of special features, with awards in 15 categories.
“This year, more than ever, it’s clear that people regard watching a movie on DVD as an experience all its own–quite apart from seeing the same film in a theater,” says renowned critic and historian Leonard Maltin, MC of the awards for the past four years. “Nothing illustrates this point more pointedly than [tonight’s big winners] the extended edition of Fellowship of the Ring prepared especially for DVD by the film’s director Peter Jackson.”
New Line Home Entertainment’s President and Chief Operating Officer Stephen Einhorn also received the DVD Awards’ 2nd Annual Pioneer Award in recognition of his tireless efforts to help get DVD off the ground in the earliest days before many in his field saw the format’s powerful potential. “The phenomenal growth of DVD has proved there is a strong consumer demand for DVDs and their many unique attributes. The wonderful added value content contained in so many discs will continue to make DVD unique and compelling.”
Best Authoring:
The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring – Special
Extended DVD Edition (submitted by: New Line Home Entertainment)
Best Video Presentation:
The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring – Special
Extended DVD Edition (submitted by: New Line Home Entertainment)
Best Special Edition:
The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring – Special
Extended DVD Edition (submitted by: New Line Home Entertainment)
Best in Show:
The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring – Special
Extended DVD Edition (submitted by: New Line Home Entertainment)
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Roheryn writes: This is a brief run down of the report about the LOTR:TTT DVD release that appeared on E! Live News on Wednesday evening.
First, they did a kinda cute tease for the DVD release story by showing a few clips from the film with a voiceover:
While we see the Rohirrim advancing with spears, the announcer says, “LOTR fans prepare to invade DVD stores again!” To which we see a rather beleagured Aragorn saying, “They will be here by nightfall!” Theoden is undaunted and replies, “Let them come!”
The report itself included brief clips of the film (mostly the hobbits with Gollum), as well as two of the special features: a music video with the singer of “Gollum’s Song,” and a snippet of Sean Astin’s short film, “The Long and the Short of It.” They had some quick interview clips of Elijah Wood with Dom Monaghan together, and Sean Astin separately. Though it wasn’t stated, I could tell from what they were wearing that the interviews were shot at ComicCon in San Diego.
Sean talked about his short film, and Elijah and Dom acted completely silly (as proper hobbit lads should, I suppose!) They said things in high munchkin voices, and professed to have no idea if the theatrical trailer was on this DVD or the Extended Edition. The announcer clarified that the trailer was indeed on this version, and they showed a few clips from that.
The announcer also said that a preview of the third film was included, but you’d just have to pretend, because they weren’t going to show any spoilers. The report ended with Elijah and Dom settling down long enough to say that if you thought that the Battle of Helm’s Deep was big, you would be shocked by the scale of the Pelennor Fields bat
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connections between the Ents and Great Birnam Wood in Macbeth; the belief that the undead inhabit grave-mounds and the origins of certain names. “I invented the name, Hobbit, and can say no more about it than it seemed to me to fit the creatures I already had in mind…or rather it generated them; they grew to fit it”.
I hope this is of some interest to you. Keep up the good work!
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