intersting news on LOTR status... (1 Viewer)

[Tim Glover]

Dan, I hope you live a very long time...I really do. But when that time does come to meet your maker; I can see it now: "Please bury me in a 24 bit, 10 channel, lossless casket. NO IMPOSTERS!"

Tim

 

[Michael Osadciw]

last night I had a movie night at my house...I invited over 3 people who have not watched any LotR films...we started with Fellowship...I made the mistake of playing the extended cut for them. It doesn't leave the same impression as the theatrical cut...plus it feels long. This was the first time I've sat through the EE myself, but I've seen pieces of it before...

Let's just say that they weren't as impressed with the film...some parts became very boring for them...and the beginning takes forever just to start...

I knew I should have went with my gut instinct and went with the theatrical version instead...but the audio on that edition has not be repurposed for home theater and sounds aweful when comparing to the EE. Unfortunately that was my deciding factor.

I will, however, proceed showing EE of TTT and RotK on my next movie nights over the coming few weeks.

Basically I'm saying I'm all for the Theatrical Releases of these films in HD...mostly the first one...it's much more effective with the storytelling on film.

Mike

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Except for a couple rough narrative spots in The Two Towers (where PJ unnecessarily deviated from Tolkien's writings-- unnecessary because it wouldn't have effected the run time if he had kept the scenes like the book) I like the extended cuts better.

In fact, wasn't Peter Jackson going to put out really long, mini-series like editions of these films? He must have shot a lot of usable footage if that's the case.

I was very surprised at how often during the shorter theatrical cut of Return of the King people started fidgeting and getting up from their seats and going for snacks, etc. Quite distracting! Are people's attention spans that short these days? Lay off the MTV, Michael Bay films, and sugar people!

Tim, you're only partly right. I want to be buried in an uncompressed, 32 bit, 12.4 channel casket.

 

[Vincent_P]

I don't think this is a fair assessment. Aside from the fact that often during the LOTR series the films ARE edited in "Michael Bay" fassion*, in the past, long movies like the LOTR series had intermissions- hell, even 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY at a 'mere' 140-minutes had an intermission. For whatever reason, the inclusion of intermissions on these "epic length" movies has been abandoned, and I, for one, think this is a bad, bad thing.

Building in an intermission into a film that's more than 2 1/2 or 3 hours in length would A. make the prospect of seeing such a long film more palatable for most folks, since they'd know that they'd be able to get up and stretch their legs and/or go to the bathroom without missing anything, and B. add to movie theaters' profits, since a lot of folks would make a second trip to the concession stands during the intermission, and most movie theaters make most of their profits at the concession stands.

It's simply baffling to me why intermissions have been abandoned for plus-sized movies these days. The practice makes sense in every way. Expecting people to sit without interruption for 3-hours doesn't, just as it didn't back in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s when intermissions on such long films were the norm.

Vincent

* Length of the finished film alone is not what I'm talking about here. In my view, these films are often WAY over-covered in the shooting and editing, in particular FELLOWSHIP. Look at the scene where Frodo is confronted with Galadriel and she talks of what she could do if she had possession of the ring- the scene as Frodo approaches her is played very mystical and slow, and yet the cutting is CONSTANT between the various angles that Jackson shot. A simple shot of Galadriel pouring some water is broken up into several different shots when one would not have only sufficed, it would have worked better given the tone of the scene. FELLOWSHIP may be a long film, but it's cut like just about every other "MTV style" movie today.

 

[Tim Glover]

You're a GREAT sport Dan!

 

[Garrett Lundy]

How did you find people who've never seen a LOTR movie?

 

[TravisR]

I'm inclined to agree with you in the case of some movies (although it seems like it's always a two hour movie that feels like it's five hours that I want an intermission on ). On the commentary for Titanic, Cameron says that Paramount wanted an intermission but he felt that if he had the audience, he didn't want to lose them by having a ten or fifteen minute break in the middle of the movie. I'd imagine that Jackson has the same idea.

 

[DanR]

Interesting post about people becoming bored with the longer EE cuts. I guess I never thought of it that way because I assumed everyone would have already seen the theatrical cuts. But definitely, I could see someone being bored with the longer EE cut, especially if the LOTR type genre is not your cup of tea to begin with.

I can sit here and say that I would only buy the EE in high definition, but I suspect that once the theatrical editions are released on TotalHD discs and I hear about how good the A/V quality is that I'll cave in and get them.

 

[ppltd]

I agree on the loss of intermissions. The intermission always made the movie feel bigger to me. More of an event. I miss them.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

If people get bored with the FOTR EE, they will get bored with the TC too. Actually as we all have seen, FOTR EE flows a lot better than the TC and feels shorter. They would have gotten even more bored if they had watched the TC.

 

[Radioman970]

I won't buy. I don't mind waiting to see what comes up next...and after than if the need be. I just bought the recent TC/EE flippers that came out and gave my old TC only version to my LotR-loving mother. Everybody's happy for now.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Yep and the Theatrical Cut makes the cardinal sin of leaving out the "Concerning Hobbits" section which explains what a hobbit is; which is crucial for non-book readers. I can't tell you how many people I heard at the theater or that I talked to after the 1st film that referred to Frodo and Sam as the "little boys" or that they thought the movie was unrealistic because no one would send kids on such a dangerous mission.

 

[PattyFraser]

Sam and Randy: I agree wholeheartedly. The "Concerning Hobbits" scene was THE one scene I think was left out to the film's extreme detriment. It should have been necessary for those non-book readers to "bond" with the Hobbits. There are those folks who bonded in spite of its omission, but I'll bet many others would have been on board in the caring department if they had been able to bond during that scene. You would have thought that people would realize they weren't "little boys" because it was shown that Sam had a thing for Rosie, but they didn't.
As a book lover, I would really have wanted the gift-giving scene, but it was not as imperative as the CH scene.

 

[Andrew Chong]

--------
Michael Pellerin, dvd producer of the Lord of the Rings releases spoke graciously and openly about his work in an excellent, informative interview with DVD Verdict's Michael Stailey. The interview was released in the first week of 2007.
...

• Michael Pellerin and team had planned a very extensive Lord of the rings box set for high definition release.
• all the while making the Lord of the Rings dvds, they'd been carefully saving a whole bunch of really special goodies because they knew there'd be high def and the studio would want to release the movies again. They figured that if they're going to do it, Michael and team want to make something special out of it.
• while making the dvds, they had put aside all the true deleted scenes, gags and bloopers, and the funniest anecdotes over the ten year period, plus Peter Jackson wants to do a feature-length documentary himself: a chronological filmmaker's journey from his point-of-view with a lot of untold stories, of course all depending on the relationship with New Line.
• a few months ago, New Line had approached Peter about doing the boxed set, then the lawsuit got in the way.

...
Source:
http://www.dvdverdict.com/podcast/ (it's a great listen for fans of Michael's work)
it's episode 25, mp3 format, about 52:35, and 48.3 MB

 

[PattyFraser]

Thanks for this, Andrew. I tried to access the link on TheOneRing.net and it had a shortened version that cut before this information was disclosed. Of course the Bob Shaye "banning" of PJ happened after this was recorded. The chances look much less likely that they will still work together for "The Hobbit."

But doesn't New Line absolutely control what gets put on a possible HD uber set for LotR? (with the exception of the proposed PJ documentary) So even if the lawsuit draws on in chancery forever we may still see this uber set in the next few years. There was talk of deleted scenes showing Arwen and Aragorn's first meeting in Lothlorien, etc. that I hope one day to see. I'm not much on bloopers for this film, but scenes that were constructed to be put in the film but were edited out either to go in a different direction or for time constraints interest me. All except Arwen at Helm's deep, that is.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Are you referring to HD DVD's 1x vs. BD's 1.5X read speed? If so, you should know that Microsoft's Amir stated at AVS that he was told by Toshiba that this particular triple layer proposal involves increasing the read speed to 1.5, so it should be able to have higher bandwidth for muxing as well.

Still rumor, as far as I'm concerned, at this point. But at least that is what the buzz is.

 

[Dave H]

Also, I don't believe Toshiba has confirmed whether or not the 51 GB disc would play on existing players. If not, it would really be giving the middle finger to all the early adapters who've kept them in the game up to this point IMO.

 

[Andrew Chong]

That's a good question, Patty. I gathered from the interview that the possibility of a high def box set is dependent on Peter Jackson, et al.'s relationship with New Line.

 

[ppltd]

I agree with this statement, but that is the way of early adopters. There is not guarantee that the Java Extensions coming out in BD will work on the first gen players. Too soon to tell on either account.