Good and bad news for fans in Brazil and Chile, concerning the extended version DVD of FOTR and the release date of TTT. [More]
Category: Original TORn
Elenah writes that Valinor.com in Brazil noted TORN’s coverage of the possibility that Latin America might not receive the Extended Edition DVD. Valinor sent their petition asking for a the DVD to Warner, and Warner is now (according to Valinor) saying they’re interested in releasing the extended edition in Brazil, but it depends on New Line.
Gabriel had much more to say about the situation – including some good news for fans in Brazil:
“I am from Brazil, a die hard fan of LOTR and also of TORN …. About the DVD: Warner IS going to release Region 4 Extended Version of FOTR. It’s not coming out the same day as it is in the rest of the world, but they WILL release it. The whole thing about saying that they’re not is because they know that, if they announced the release of both versions, the theatrical version wouldn’t sell as many. But it IS going to come out.
“In regards to the movie opening date, I can only speak for Brazil: Warner, Brazil’s distributor for LOTR, had a national movie to open in December [last year] that featured a great local pop star, and her movies always get nice box office figures. What happened was that this movie was going to open here a weekend before LOTR opened in the rest of the world. Warner could put FOTR to open on the 25th, but that would turn out to be very bad for them. So they postponed it to open January 1st, and you know what? It broke a lot of records. Being that it was such a great move by them, they decided that TTT and ROTK will also open Jan 1st. It sucks? Yeah. But at least there are countries with worse release dates.
“In the rumour section, apparently Warner is planning to show, in selected theaters throughout Brazil, a “premiere” in the last weekend of the year. Nothing sure yet, but just maybe…”
From Chile, Andres writes,
“TTT will be released in Chile on January the 2nd of 2003. That date is the first Thursday after New Year’s Day, so that release date will be the same date that the TFOTR was released this year (this year TFOTR was realeased on Thursday, January the 3rd)”
News from Spain – new desktops online – and news about the extended DVD in Norway and the TTT trailer in Finland. [More]
Spain: Beorn de Valencia gave us the link for the Spanish official LOTR site, which has new Eomer, Eowyn and Theoden wallpapers. Very nice one of Eomer. Babe alert! [More]
Norway:
According to Ringer spy Ingve, presale for The Towers will begin in Norway on the 4.november 2002, according to the webpages of distributor SF Norway.
[More]
Ingve adds, “I’ ve spoken to my former colleage at a local videostore, and he said that the release date of The Fellowship SE DVD was 11.november. I told him to doublecheck his papers, and on the papers from the LOTR distributor in Norway, SF Norway, the realese date was 11.november, he says. This is a day before the rest of the world isn’t it?
“Though videostores probably get the DVD some days before all others, it is strange that the DVD release should be on the 11th, rather than the 12th. Only the New Line Cinema shop has the 11/11 as shipment date, the rest has 12.November.”
There were inaccuracies about this last year about release dates in various countries, so I wouldn’t believe it just yet. – T
“In Finland, the TTT trailer will premiere in Finland with the movie xXx. At least in Finnkinos theaters. Check first “- that came in from Isa.
News about a uniquely Japanese collectible, the shitijiki, and a description of the Japanese FOTR DVD with the ‘Passport to Middle-earth.’ [More]
Wandering Mage Chichiri wrote in to tell us about a unique collectible from Japan:
“The Lord of the Rings: FotR, Shitajiki
“Shitajiki are pencilboards, their original intent is to be used underneath paper you’re writing on to prevent any indentation marks or possible ink stains occuring on the furniture. They have evolved into a collectible industry in Japan. They are sometimes erroneously marketed by US concsumers as oversized cards.
“Boards for movies (foreign and domestic) are usually limited to a finite run. The items themselves are only sold in movie theatres showing the movie when it first appears in the theatres. You can find them later on ocassion, both at Ebay, and/or Yahoo Japan (an auction service).
The LotR boards were only available at the movie theatre, or in the re-sale market. Pencilboard.net has scans of the item.
“Odds are, there will be a Two Towers shitajiki released in Japanese movie theatres once the movie releases there.”
About the Japanese DVD:
“I recently picked up my copy of FOTR on DVD in Japan and I was pleasantly surprised. When I was home for the summer holidays in Australia I bought a copy only to find it was incompatible with my DVD player in Japan and I have to say that I like the Japanese DVD packaging much more than the Australian. On the box cover is the two teaser posters of Frodo with the One Ring (Frodo looking ahead and Frodo looking down) front and back respectively and inside is a spread of the three boats approaching the Argonath with the DVDs set in clear plastic over them. The DVDs are pretty cool too. The movie DVD has a montage of the good guys and the Special Features has one of the bad guys. In regards to the Passport to Middle Earth that some fellow Ringers mentioned earlier, there are apparently four of them, each a different colour for the different races. You can be either Hobbit, Elf, Man or Dwarf (I got a Hobbit one in red) and the campaigns that the passport is designed for will continue for the next two years.
“In each release of the DVD, in the packaging material will be items that you add to the passport in order to apply for more campaigns – pretty good marketing ploy if you ask me. So far the only campaigns I can decipher at the moment are one to go to the Premiere (two months after everyone else’s premiere) and for a few other prizes to be one although my Japanese is a bit shaky so I could be mistaken.
“All in all, I was very impressed with the whole setup. The only drawback is that the Gift Set will not be coming here. Still, the Passport gives Ringer fans in Japan something to look forward to for the next two years.” – Lyrian