The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Blu-Ray Controversy

The Lord of the Ring fans won't be happy with this breaking news.

The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy on Blu-Ray which will be released on April 6, 2010 won't be good as promised because they will only contain theatrical cuts of the movie.

This means the ones who will be buying the Blu-Ray disc will only be watching the same flick they've seen in the theaters. No special features, no exclusive clips. Hey, you can easily download that online, right?

Anyway, as reported by Bill Hunt of The Digital Bits, according to sources close to director Peter Jackson, the reason they are releasing a theatrical edition only is because he’s saving the extended editions of the films for an “ultimate” box set release closer to the debut of the new Hobbit films.

The Hobbit movie will start shooting June 2010 and is expected to open on December 2011.

Here's the full quote from Bill Hunt:

Sources close to director Peter Jackson have informed me that he’s saving the extended editions of the films for an “ultimate” box set release closer to the debut of the new Hobbit films - that’s why these BDs are set to be theatrical only. That’s obviously not going to satisfy every fan, but it gives them something in the meantime. As was the case with the original DVD release, at least you’re now aware in advance that a more elaborate release is coming eventually if you’d prefer to wait for it. For Warner’s part, I’ve officially confirmed with the studio that this initial Blu-ray release is real and it’s coming before the end of this year, but I’m told it won’t be officially announced for another few months yet. So you should probably still consider this release to be semi-official and subject to change. Just FYI.