Warner Brothers is living right by its franchises these days, and, like any good company, it knows how to milk them for all their worth on home video. Today, the studio announced that Peter Jackson's upcoming "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" will receive an extended edition DVD and Blu-ray next year, while an "Ultimate Collector's Edition" of Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy is also in the works.
"The Hobbit" will be following in the footsteps of Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. While each of those films clocked in at three hours, all three saw deluxe home video releases that added even more footage to the runtime. For many fans, these are the definitive versions of the films, especially since they restore so much lore from the original Tolkien.
News that "The Hobbit" will be receiving a similar treatment may or may not be surprising; given Jackson's history, one might have expected it, but one has to wonder just what's going to be left out of "The Hobbit" in the first place now that it's being extended to a trilogy itself.
Originally conceived as two films, Jackson and company have opted to shoot more footage in order to make three films out of one book whose page count isn't even a third of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Now that each film will be extended even further on home video, there's little chance that no Middle Earth stone is going to be left unturned for material in the films.
Meanwhile, "The Dark Knight Rises" is set to hit home video in December, and a trilogy box set (that will likely just collect the already-released versions of "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight") will arrive with it. However, fans should already be forewarned that a double dip is coming, as Warner Brothers will release an "Ultimate Collector's Edition" during the third quarter of 2013.
While no information has been divulged about the upcoming set, it's likely to add new material that's been previously unseen--just don't expect a director's cut for any of the films, as Nolan himself has shot down that notion in the past.
