Ultra HD 4K Blu Ray LOTR and Hobbit boxsets announced (presumably this will be the long talked about 'Ultimate edition')

https://www.filmstories.co.uk/news/lord-of-the-rings-and-the-hobbit-set-for-4k-release-in-december/

https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2020/10/07/108839-uhd-4k-lotr-and-hobbit-announced-a-special-message-from-sean-astin/


Bit confusing   , but it sounds like we will be getting:


December 2020: Newly remastered 4K blu ray releases of LOTR and The Hobbit trilogies in seperate boxsets (containing both the theatrical/extended editions)

Summer 2021: A massive box set of all 6 movies (extended/theatrical editions) newly remastered, in a massive set with new bonus content (and presumably the existing bonus features)  

Autumn 2021: 'Standard edition' Blu-ray remasters

Peter Jackson has overseen the remasters personally, I wonder if he'll go the George Lucas route and update some of the CGI/fix mistakes etc?

I don't have a 4k Blu-Ray player but this is very interesting news, and depending on the new bonus features I may be tempted to get one just for this set...

     

2021 marks the 20th(!) anniversary of the release of The Fellowship of The Ring, and even back then Peter Jackson was already making references or hints towards a hypothetical 'Ultimate Edition' of the films with all sorts of bonus content, deleted scenes, redone special effects held back deliberately for such a release...since he's involved with the remaster personally I suppose the 20th anniversary is a good opportunity to do this release.

Whilst seeing the films in 4k (possibly with remastered SFX as well) will be great, the chance to see some of the deleted scenes and bonus features is the real exciting thing i.m.o...

A few years ago I started a thread to discuss some of that content (some of the website links may now be broken or expired):

https://www.forumshire.com/t976-unreleased-deleted-scenes-from-the-trilogy-etc

One of the things Jackson has talked about doing is putting together a brand new chronological 'making of' Documentary of the LOTR films (in the style of the Hobbit production diaries) going through production day by day, editing together raw behind the scenes footage. He's branched into directing documentaries in recent years (first with They Shall Not Grow Old and now the upcoming Beatles documentary he is working on).

I also seem to recall reading somewhere that much of GDT's pre-production/designs for his version of The Hobbit films had been saved and archived with the intention of possibly publishing a book or documentary exploring in depth what his version of the story would have looked like. For obvious reasons GDT's contribution The Hobbit films wasn't really explored in much detail on the appendices to The Hobbit films, but perhaps with the passage of time, perhaps it may be a good opportunity to find out more about what GDT's Hobbit may have looked like (though obviously it's Jackson's boxset so perhaps such a documentary would be best explored individually...)

Whilst alot of information about LOTR deleted scenes has drifted out over the years, as I understand it relatively little is known about deleted Hobbit scenes though...with the expansion from 2 to 3 films, some of the story structure was expanded, reshuffled or axed completely so there's probably a fair bit that was altered (I wonder what Tauriel's storyline originally looked like, prior to the love triangle added in re-shoots...), the Azog/Bolg designs and their whole subplot seems to have changed enormously during production...

deleted scenes would be nice if they are brought up to presentation standards. Undoctored scenes can be painful to watch.

They released so much bonus material I don't see how much can be left. I'd be waiting for reviews before plunking down money for this. Could be worth it but will need to be convinced. The already released special editions contain so much I don't feel I'm missing out.

halfwise wrote:deleted scenes would be nice if they are brought up to presentation standards.  Undoctored scenes can be painful to watch.

They released so much bonus material I don't see how much can be left.  I'd be waiting for reviews before plunking down money for this.  Could be worth it but will need to be convinced.  The already released special editions contain so much I don't feel I'm missing out.

I thought that too for a while, but as I mentioned in that other thread a few years back:

Digging around in my old stack of EMPIRE magazines I came across this nugget (EMPIRE Issue 248 February 2010, page 142). Part of an Article/Interview with Jackson about the then non existent Blu Ray Release it's obviously rather out of date and may not be relevant any longer-but interesting none the less:

And sparking hope in the hearts of those for whom the myriad hours of extras available just aren't enough, Jackson mentions the possibility of even more exhaustive material. "I have a couple of ideas for a new documentary. We shot and uploaded seven million feet of film to the Avid in New Zealand, and when we finished Rings we said to New Line. 'Why don't leave that here, under lock and key with a dust cloth thrown over it, so we can go back in later?' They said, "No send it all back" and wiped the drives, even though we begged them not to. So to do another documentary, they're going to have to re-digitize all that 35-mil footage, which is in LA now, frame by frame. Which they seem very reluctant to do". So there you have it: all that candid behind-the-scenes material and filmed-but- abandoned footage (perhaps including Arwen's appearance at Helm's Deep and Aragorn's early years). hidden somewhere in Burbank waiting to be discovered like the One Ring itself. But don't hold your breath. "That'll probably turn up on what they call 'the big box set'-the Lord Of The Rings films and the two hobbit films," says Jackson."So it's still four or five years away."

This corroborates with this I found on Costa Botes weblog (he directed the feature length making of's included with the special editions of LOTR and the BlurrRay set) regarding future behind the scenes documentaries

http://costabotes.com/making-of-lord-of-the-rings/

...So with the creative and practical help of our indefatigable editor Jason Stutter, we ended up taking 1000 + hours of footage and turned it into not one, but three feature length verite style docos. Note – this was in addition to the 18+ hours of content originally asked for. The final delivery was closer to 20 hours – comprising some 200 self contained stories and vignettes on every aspect of the trilogy’s gestation, from Hobbiton to Mordor and back again. This material resides on a dusty shelf somewhere in the New Line archives...

malickfan wrote:This new interview with Michael Pellerin (director/producer of the EE appendices special features for both trilogies) teases once more deleted scenes and new special features (and addresses complaints about TH films):

http://geekleagueofamerica.com/2015/12/09/21324/

Over the course of the production, we collected all sorts of material in 3D to tell a proper story about high frame rate, about 3D, and do that whole side. That was originally going to be part of the 3D release but by the time the Hobbit films came out, 3D home video wasn’t doing as well as they had hoped they would. So consequently, they weren’t paying a lot of money to support extra features for 3D. So that stuff never saw the light of day. I have all this 3D stuff and not just behind the scenes shot in 3D, but actually behind the scenes with the 3D guys demonstrating 3D IN 3D! You know what I mean? It’s there, it’s in the treasure box with all the other goodies. Maybe someday, if there’s enough interest, certainly the raw materials are there to do something with it.

From the earliest days, all the material was vetted by Peter and decided to be used now or saved for later and we saved A LOT of cool stuff for later. It was conscious. It was like, you know, “Years from now, they aren’t going to believe this!” We’re got this treasure chest of (about) 20 hours of content and some of the stuff … is some of the coolest stuff we have. I’d like that to have that see the light of day. Like I said, there is no chronicles of the Lord of the Rings, that chronological story that we got to do with The Hobbit, that Costa didn’t get to do with his documentaries, and I didn’t get to do with the Lord of the Rings appendices. That has yet to be done and Peter has always threatened to direct that himself, to actually do that himself Even recently, he’s said that. So suddenly a Peter Jackson directed chronological series on the Lord of the Rings using the dailies and using the call sheets and using all the behind the scenes footage, of which there is so much that never even saw the light of day, as the backbone, …that would be mind-blowing and as well, of course all the deleted scenes. Because as you know, on the Lord of the Rings (home video releases), there was no deleted scenes. On The Hobbit, we got away with including deleted scenes material in the context of the Chronicles… and there was a lot of stuff out of Rings.

So from the sounds of it there's absolutely hours and hours of behind the scenes footage/deleted scenes they could clean up and edit together if they found a budget/time to do so.

(kinda funny to see just how long this taken to come to fruition, Jackson was set on doing this even before the hobbit switched to 3 films...)

Pretty dumb-ass of Newline to wipe digital material, but computer memory was far more expensive back then.

I expect PJ had to get through all his long planned projects and now sees this as more of retirement project.

halfwise wrote:Pretty dumb-ass of Newline to wipe digital material, but computer memory was far more expensive back then.

I expect PJ had to get through all his long planned projects and now sees this as more of retirement project.

Isn't he still planning on doing The Dambusters remake? (and I think was planning on doing a film about The Gallipoli landings) And a Tintin sequel? he's been working on those on and off for years...

I'm not sure if I'd call overseeing six remasters and a whole bunch of new special features a retirement project...

Just looked on the TORn facebook page, and in answer to a comment the page admins hinted that more will be announced next week on 'TORn Tuesday' regarding the new bonus content

{{{ Mmm given most of what we didnt see was stuff where they went right off the Tolkien rail line, such as Arwen at Helms Deep, I'm not sure of the value in seeing it now, even more worrying if they try to bring up to standard and shoehorn it back into the films just for the sake of having a different, longer cut to sell us over again.
Sadly they ever shot the versions I'd like to see- one where Frodo isnt a hopeless git, or where Faramir isnt a contrary dickhead, or Denethor a pantomine villain having an off day. You know that version.
Maybe instea dof puttingin every scrap of extra they have left lying about they shoud release a purist version and let someone like me have access to the original footage and scenes and a pro-editor to put together properly At least that would offer something different to folk and closer to Tolkien, not more stuff going further away from him. }}

Look on the bright side though Petty... there might be more stuff in there along the lines of the book that then then reshot as the films went on... so you might be able to further purify your edit!

Probably not much. They did say they found themselves getting closer to Tolkien as they revised.

Did they? I thought they got further away... definitely film by film that they did.

Arwen Warrior Princess was one thing they backed off on, there were a couple others I can't recall. We had a discussion earlier where I opined the later movies were worse because the revision was now happening during filming, though that was partially shot down because much was shot out of sequence. I still maintain Fellowship was front loaded.

ooooh there is lots of stuff I would love to see, the wedding of Faramir and Aowyn, Helms Deep and Aowyn in the caves fighting orcs, so much stuff I bet they have, maybe even some Tom Bombadil? here's hoping they filmed him, but they probably didnt.

In the prologue to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, has the scene in which Bilbo finds the ring been replaced with the similar scene from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey?  If the 6 movies are to be a true series that has been remastered, that needs to be done, I'm thinking.

{{ Welcome to Forumshire kgreen20.

If they are going to do more than just remaster the footage and make changes, or add new material or reedit old, then I would certainly expect to see that one among their changes. Made the same change to my purist edits myself so I could hardly complain about it if they did similar.

I have mixed feelings on going back and changing existing films, in some cases such as the original Wicker Man film where the studio butchered the original against everyones wishes, failing to understand it, for its theatrical release. I am all for the resotoration of the makers original vision, script and what they shot and edited as their film. But in the case of Donny Darko I thought the directors cut was a poorer film and constrained the freedom of the viewer to interpret events far more than the original. And many of Lucas's alterations have likewise fallen on the side of ruining a shots compsoition or a scenes flow for no gain over improvng anything or adding anything to the original. Yet even there I have no issue with example them fixing the two sunsof Tatooine when Luke stares at them so they dont wobble all over the place as they do in the orignal primitve compositing technique used. That sor tof thing I dont mind at all, you are simply putting what was originally intended but not fully achieved back on screen.

With the Lord of the Rings films I see so much room for what needs improved, but as its unlikely they ever shot a proper version of Faramir, or a Denethor who was still a good and noble man broken by grief and depression born out of palantir use and despair at what Sauron revealed to him rather than a raving lunatic. Or a recognisable Merry and Pippin, these things in all likehood never existed, what we know existed is mainly what was best changed or left out- Arwen fighting at Helm's Deep and the like.

If they do add extra cgi and the like Id like it to be minimal, with replacing Bilbo being at the extreme end of it. For the rest in the wide higher shots of Hobbiton you could cgi in a better background so you can see that there is a lot more of the Shire going off into the distance, very small changes that woud mainly effect background but add to the scene, in this case preventing the Shire seeming like one small community round a muddy pond in a big field.
Of course if The Hobbit taught us anything its that when it comes to cgi and effects scenes no one ever opened a dictoionary at the word 'minimal' and pointed it out to PJ! }}

I think with any remaster/extended/recut edition of a film (especially in the case of something as critically/commercially successful as the LOTR films) a director as the 'author' of the work has the right to modify the film as much as they want, as long as the original version is still available as an alternative, there's certainly a few bits of dodgy/outdated CGI or continuity mistakes Jackson could fix if he wanted, but a completely new recut is unlikely and not something I'd agree with.

The various versions of the star Wars film that George Lucas oversaw took this to extremes-with increasingly pointless CGI additions which rather than fixing minor issues just felt unnecessary.

The extended 'director's cut' of The Kingdom Of Heaven on the other hand was fantastic and much better than the theatrical edition (about 45 minutes footage was added back in).

Wouldn't mind seeing a 4k remaster of Braindead as well if Jackson has the time, imagine seeing all that gore in shiny HD...

{{ So to start with at least its just the same films upgraded to 4k, for those with a 4k tv and even then is it worth it for barely noticable improvements in detail and sharpness if you already own the special editions? I'd say not. Smacks of milking the fandom some more, like they havent released enough versions so far to do that }}

If I do buy one it will be The Fellowship because the colour grading was real bad, so the experts say. Too much green tinge or something. There's the boxset release next year with extra bonus material. Wonder what it could be?

{{ Probably trying to fix the grass problem. }}

The guy on the left makes it sound unbelievably good. All new colour coding no green. How do I watch it without buying it. Wanted to wait next year for the box set with the extras. Sounds like there could be a ton of them.

{{ Still think be a wait and see for me (apart from fact I'd need to reedit them into something good again I can actually bear to watch! ) as ToRN are maybe not the best source for being unbiased about stuff, they are a bit arse licky. }}

This guy likes it. On another review it mentions the green tinge as gone.

{{ One issue he doesnt mention, which I find, even with just the bluray versions, are the body doubles and occasionaly use of masks on doubles for the hobbits in medium to long shots become very obvious and stand out. I can only imagine in 4k this is even more blatant. Also pricey from my point of view given Id have to reedit them all again and the resulting file sizes would be massive. }}