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The big Blu-ray news today is this: Warner Home Video has just officially set The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Extended Edition for release on 3-disc Blu-ray and 5-disc DVD on 11/17 as we expected (SRP $35.99 and $34.99), with a digital release on 10/20. The film is R-rated (presumably for added violence) and will be 20 minutes longer than the theatrical cut. There will also be The Hobbit Trilogy: Extended Edition 9-disc Blu-ray and 15-disc DVD box sets that same day (SRP $99.98 and $78.92). All of these will include UltraViolet digital copies.
Now… Warner’s press release doesn’t really mention a Blu-ray 3D release of either, so I called and asked for clarification. Here’s the deal: The Blu-ray 3D versions of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Extended Edition and The Hobbit Trilogy: Extended Edition are going to be Amazon-exclusives. That’s why they’re not listed in the press release. [Read on here…]
None of these SKUs are listed for pre-order on Amazon yet, so we don’t have more information on the 3D SRPs, nor do we have all the cover artwork. However, we can tell you roughly what’s going to be included on The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Extended Edition in terms of special features. It’s 9 hours of bonus content and, as you can probably guess, it includes audio commentary with Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens, The Appendices: Parts XI and XII (which “showcase a chronological history of the filming of The Battle of the Five Armies, documenting the work done on set chronologically through the three shooting blocks and in the world of its digital effects”) and the New Zealand: Home of Middle-earth – Part 3 featurette. Obviously, we don’t gave the details on The Appendices yet, but we expect (and have good word) that special edition producer Michael Pellerin is packing them with tons of great material. We’ll update you on all that when we can.
You can see the final cover artwork for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Extended Edition Blu-ray above left there, and we’ll certainly add all the additional cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links as they become available.
Don’t forget that today’s Amazon Deal of the Day is Criterion’s terrific 25-film Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman Blu-ray/DVD box set for just $97.99 – 56% off the regular SRP. Click here to take advantage of that.
Stay tuned…
- Bill Hunt
