Hey, Who Wants To See “The Two Towers” On DVD?
-By Claude Flowers
Be patient! It’s coming!
The second installment of director Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, “The Two Towers,” has yet to premiere, however work has already begun on its 2003 DVD release. New Line Home Entertainment Vice President Mike Mulvihill says, “Our (DVD content) producer, Michael Pellerin, actually left for New Zealand (on September 25). His goal is to get up and running (on assembling bonus footage for the “Two Towers” DVDs)… The same folks who put together the (supplements) for ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ are at this point developing programming for ‘The Two Towers,’ but nothing has been locked in at this stage.”
While Mulvihill is understandably hesitant to predict what will appear on the DVDs, one possibility is that featurettes created for the official www.lordoftherings.net website will be included. “The team is developing material at this point, but as far as we’re concerned, that’s stuff that’s still in development. We haven’t been exposed to it here in Home Entertainment.”
Another likelihood is that we’ll see double-tiered release schedule of “Two Towers” DVDs, emulating August’s two-disc version of “The Fellowship” (which archived the theatrical version of the film) and November’s four-disc “Special Extended Edition” (which adds various scenes).
“That’s not locked into place, but it’s something we anticipate,” Mulvihill says, “that we’ll follow the exact same philosophy that we followed on ‘Fellowship.’ But that’s not confirmed at this point. It’s something that we’ll go back to Peter with once he’s finished the film, to basically reevaluate (whether or not a “Special Extended Edition” of “Two Towers” is warranted). But our thoughts at this stage are that we’ll follow the same release strategy.”
Devotees of “L.O.T.R.” have a voice in whether or not this comes to pass. Mulvihill admits, “One thing we were exposed to early on was a petition from fans asking for the TV specials and the Internet pieces (to be released on home video). That went a long way in terms of the complexion of the theatrical edition DVD (of “The Fellowship”). The voice that they raised regarding their interest in having this material had an impact on our decision to add as much of that stuff as we did to the August theatrical edition. What we’ve been hearing a lot from fans now is an overwhelming sense of eagerness to see the ‘Special Extended Edition.’ These fans are competists the same way that a Beatles fan is a completist. They want to have everything associated with the film. That was the message from the petition we received: ‘We want to see everything. We want all of the web episodes. We want you to put the TV spots on there.’
“We really wanted to deliver all of that while at the same time not creating any overlap (between the two DVD projects). It’s important that fans understand that the releases are discrete. They are meant to be complete and whole experiences in and of themselves. They shouldn’t get a sense that the August edition is somehow incomplete, and likewise for the ‘Special Extended Edition.’ In both cases, we wanted to deliver Peter Jackson’s vision.”
