The Lord of the Rings
The Motion Picture Trilogy – Extended Edition
Blu-ray
Directed by Peter Jackson
Starring Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom
Warner Home Video
Release date: June 28, 2011

If you want to turn a hit theatrical franchise into a long-term moneymaker in Hollywood, it’s all about the home video releases. Sequels or prequels are an often shaky proposition (see The Godfather, Part III and Star Wars Episodes I, II, III, for example.) If you or your company own one or more films with a solid cult following, however, home video releases can be the gift that keeps on giving, usually at reasonable cost and low risk to revenue. George Lucas is a proven master at this, hauling out a new home video revision of one or more of his Star Wars films that highlights some new video format, some different cut of the film (including a reversion back to the original theatrical release), some new documentary extra, or even a preview of some upcoming Star Wars project. Likewise Francis Ford Coppola has cut and re-cut The Godfather films into releases like The Godfather Saga and The Epic Godfather box set that added material and joined scenes in chronological order, as well as offer re-masters like The Godfather DVD Collection and The Godfather: the Coppola Restoration. Some studios and directors take this process even further with direct-to-video revisions of flawed but remembered chapters of well-known franchises like Paramount and Robert Wise did with Star Trek: The Motion Picture The Director’s Edition.

Not too long ago we saw the first peek at Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in director Peter Jackson‘s two-part prequel adaptation, The Hobbit, as well as our first look at Sir Ian McKellen‘s return to his iconic Gandalf the Grey character.

Now the movie is making its magazine debut, featured on the cover of Empire Magazine who fittingly got things rolling over a decade ago before most of us really knew that The Lord of the Rings (the Extended Edition Trilogy Blu-ray is out today!) was about to become in cinematic history.

You can see the Empire cover by continuing on below now, and as the magazine points out: “look closely for subtle differences in costume from his 60-year older Rings self” in regards to Mr. Gandalf.

The first three images from The Hobbit have been released online, two of which look to be actual stills from the movie while the other includes director Peter Jackson, you know…directing stuff!

The most exciting of the three is obviously our first official look at star Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins with a few friends in the background. The second image is of Ian McKellen in his return to the role of Gandalf the Grey, and the third is of Jackson talking to Freeman on the set.

You can see the first official images from The Hobbit via Entertainment Weekly by clicking on over to the other side now, and the first of the two-part film will be arriving during the holidays, 2012.

As we’ve been reporting for months now, Peter Jackson has been hard at work on his two planned Hobbit film adaptations, and back in March, rumors arose about what the official titles of the two films would be.

Now, the official titles as well as the final release dates have been confirmed for the two movies: Part I, which will be released on December 14, 2012, is called The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; Part II, which will be released a year later on December 13, 2013, is called The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

Director Peter Jackson has posted to his Facebook account the first video blog from the set of The Hobbit, which began shooting in New Zealand last month.

Watch the 10 1/2-minute video here below.

This is truly a must-watch for those of us eagerly anticipating Jackson’s next installment from the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. There’s tons to see in this video, too, it’s not just Jackson sitting in Bilbo’s house talking — there’s much more.