New Line has confirmed that the four-disc extended edition of Return of the King will arrive on the 14th December. The set will include around fifty-minutes of additional footage, including the highly anticipated confrontation with Saruman. Stacks of extra material will also be featured, including cast and crew audio commentaries and multiple behind the scenes documentaries and featurettes. The SRP will be around $39.99. Also arriving on the 14th will be a collector's giftset which includes the aforementioned four-disc extended edition, along with a Sideshow/Weta statue of Minas Tirith and a Howard Shore Creating the Lord of the Rings Symphony DVD. The retail price for this will be set at around $79.92.

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Q: What about the 15 disc Ultimate Super Directors Cut Special Collectors Edition Trilogy Box Set with 3 weeks of previously unseen footage?
A: You won't get that until after the prequels and sequels are done.


More goodies: Somehow I came across this Noam Chomsky's analysis of LOTR's semiotic significance. Well worth reading.