Fans rejoiced when it was announced that The Lord of the Rings Trilogy would be coming to Blu-ray. When we realized it was only the theatrical editions, the wind went out of those sails pretty quickly. Well it took a while but it seems that Warner Brothers and New Line are finally preparing to release Peter Jackson‘s Extended Editions of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on Blu-ray. Amazon has begun to take pre-orders for the set and have revealed a photo of the box art along with the full details, which seem to be almost identical to the original DVD releases. Unfortunately, Amazon only list the release date as “2011 or 2012.” and Warner Home Video “hasn’t announced their release details yet.” Still, these are on the way. Check out all the information after the break.

Thanks to Bleeding Cool for the heads up from the information over at Amazon. Here’s the box art:

And here are all the details of the set:

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Over 30 minutes of footage incorporated into the theatrical release of the film

Commentary by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens

Commentary by the design team

Commentary by the production/post-production team

Commentary by 10 actors, including Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen

Easter egg: MTV Movie Award Spoof (The Council of Elrod)

Costa Botes Documentary: The Fellowship of the Ring: Behind the Scenes

The Appendices, Part 1: From Book to Vision (on DVD)

Peter Jackson introduction

J.R.R. Tolkein: Creator of Middle Earth

From Book to Script

Visualizing the Story

Designing and Building Middle Earth

Middle Earth atlas interactive

The Appendices, Part 2: From Vision to Reality (on DVD)

Elijah Wood introduction

Filming The Fellowship of the Ring

Visual effects

Post-production: Putting it all together

Digital Grading

Sound and music

The Road Goes Ever On…

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers



Extended edition of the film, incorporating 43 minutes of footage incorporated into the film

Commentary track by writer-director Peter Jackson and writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens

Commentary track by the design team

Commentary track by the production/post-production team

Commentary track by 16 cast members, including Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis, John Rhys-Davies, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Bernard Hill, and Miranda Otto

Easter Egg: MTV Movie Awards clip (Gollum accepting award)

Costas Botes documentary: The Two Towers–Behind the Scenes

The Appendices, Part 3: The Journey Continues

Peter Jackson introduction

J.R.R. Tolkein: Origin of Middle Earth

From Book to Script: Finding a Story

Designing and Building Middle-Earth

Gollum

Middle-Earth Atlas interactive

New Zealand as Middle Earth (map with video location)

The Appendices, Part 4: The Battle for Middle Earth

Elijah Wood introduction

Filming The Two Towers

Visual effects

Editorial: Refining the Story

Music and Sound

The Battle for Helm’s Deep is Over

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King



Extended edition of the film, with 50 extra minutes incorporated into the film

Commentary track by writer-director Peter Jackson and writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens

Commentary track by the design team

Commentary track by the production/post-production team

Costas Botes documentary: The Return of the King: Behind the Scenes

The Appendices, Part 5: The War of the Ring



Peter Jackson Intro

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Legacy of Middle-earth

From Book to Script

Designing and Building Middle-earth

Home of the Horse Lords

Middle-earth Atlas: Tracing the Journeys of the Fellowship: interactive map

New Zealand as Middle-earth: interactive map with on-location footage

The Appendices, Part 6: The Passing of an Age



Elijah Wood/Sean Astin/Billy Boyd/Dominic Monaghan intro

Filming The Return of the King

Visual Effects

Post Production: Journey’s End

The Passing of an Age

Cameron Duncan

If you head over to the Amazon Page, they have a detailed chart on the differences between all the different sets and it seems like this Extended Edition Blu-rays are pretty much identical to the Extended Edition DVDs with a few very minor additions from the theatrical release DVDs. So are you going to pick this set up? Or are you going to wait for the inevitable six movie box set with The Hobbit?