Peter Jackson on the blu-ray release

[Emmie]

The theatrical cut of the "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy was just released on Blu-ray, and dedicated fans are purposefully giving the set one-star reviews on Amazon and other online marketplaces because they want the extended version on Blu-ray. How do you navigate fans like that?

I agree with the fans. I was heavily involved in the DVD process when the films were being released through New Line, but now that Warner Brothers has taken control over the releasing of the films, they just tell me what they’re doing and don’t involve me in the process. [With New Line,] the one thing we never did with the fans was make them feel cheated. Back in the original release, we always put extra material in, extra documentaries — a lot of added value. I so totally understand why the fans would be upset; I don’t disagree with them.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/04/19/peter-jackson-on-the-lovely-bones-and-lotr-blu-rays-3-d-conversions/

I think he's pretty awesome for publicly disagreeing with the studio on something like this. Seems like a lot of directors would just keep silent.

I also wonder how likely it is that he'll be involved in the extended editions, what type of special features they'll include on them, and whether the video quality will improve any.

[Sowen]

aye, it's courious what extra they can add..anyway, blueray or 3d I would like to buy the extended edition as well. Since I bought my extended boxset I onl watch that..

[Sam]

I remember watching the EE of the films and I can remember PJ saying they had tons of footage of bloopers etc, maybe stuff like this will be crammed on the BR EE disc sets.

[Lanyare]

I suppose, if this edition doesn't sell well, Warner Bros might have learnt a valuable lesson: don't mess with Lord of the Rings fans! Or maybe even fans in general.
However, if people are going to buy it anyway and sales turn out to be good after all, despite the bad ratings, we might expect more of the same in the future.

I'm not buying it in any case, because I want the extended edition as well, and even then I'll probably only going to buy something that actually has extra stuff on it
Like Sowen, I only watch the Extended Editions anymore.

Anyhow... It is awesome that Peter openly agrees with the fans. He totally rocks, doesn't he?

[MithrilBox]

Agreed, he's pretty awesome for agreeing with the fans!

Lanyare, you may be right about the sales. And probably some people are going to buy these versions just because they're HD... but I hope they understand that even if sales for these are reasonably good, they could be MUCH better if they made a version that the fans really got behind.

[Lanyare]

I know it's a tad bit cynic perhaps, but WB is a business and they want to make profit. Nothing more, nothing less. That's why I'm very worried that they will make the Hobbit in 3D anyways, simply because 3D has been having so much success off late.
I don't even have anything against 3D, but I'd prefer it if the Hobbit is made entirely in the same style of the Lord of the Rings. It's going to be visible in the regular version that the movie's intended for 3D.