New 'Return of the King' footage online

Peter Jackson has released a teaser for the extended edition, while a full six-minute trailer is due to hit on Monday.

Nov 26 2004

Monday marks the debut of new 'Lord of the Rings' footage on the net for those suffering withdrawal symptoms from the trilogy.

In spite of the fact that he's been monkeying around in New Zealand for the last few months working on his 'King Kong' movie, bearded genius Peter Jackson has nevertheless found time to put the finishing touches to the special extended edition of 'The Return of the King', and a six-minute trailer for this new cut is all set to debut on the film's official site www.lordoftherings.net on Monday.

For now a 2-minute teaser can be found at the same place, giving fans a few clues as to what they should expect from the new version.

Peter Jackson explains that 'Return of the King' had more footage leftover than either of the other two movies, and for that very reason the new cut will include an extra 50 minutes of never-before-seen footage, resulting in the final cut coming in at a butt-numbing 250 minutes.

Elijah Wood talks of further character development in this version, while the teaser includes a dramatic clip from the 'Mouth of Sauron' sequence that was lost from the original cut due to time constraints.

Elsewhere the teaser talks of a wealth of extras appearing on the disc, including 20 hours of all-new bonus material for die hard fans, true aficianados and those who haven't got too many friends.

As for the DVD itself, 'The Return of the King' hits shelves on December 10 and will be available as either a special edition, or as part of a collectors set that includes a small statue of 'Minas Tirith' for a further 20 hours of 'Lord-of the Rings'-related fun.