One more ring to rule them all

BREAKING NEWS: Peter Jackson sends Frodo on another quest — The Lord of the Rings trilogy gets one-day theatrical rerelease in June to pump up new Blu-ray release

Another noxious element of the ongoing 3D hornswoggle (see previous post) is that it creates an additional avenue for filmmakers and studios to endlessly repackage/rerelease old movies instead of making new ones. Before James Cameron even gets to theaters with Titanic next April, George Lucas will already have been there in February asking loyal viewers to kiss the ring of The Phantom Menace in 3D.

Which brings me (sort of; it will all make sense, I promise) to Frodo and Blu-ring — er, -ray. At least until it becomes the preferred format for all home viewing (assuming it gets there before streaming and/or digital download wipes out the disc market altogether), Blu-ray is to home video consumers as 3D is to theatrical. Check it out, all these movies you already own on DVD are even cooler in Blu-ray! All you have to do is, um, buy them from us again. Please?

At any rate, it's no surprise that Warner Home Video is exerting a positively Sauronic pull on the wallets of hobbit lovers with a new mammoth 15-disc version of Peter Jackson's signature trilogy. The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy: Extended Edition on Blu-ray (there are almost as many words in the title as discs in the set) streets on June 28. (It has a mammoth price tag, too. Yours for just, er, $119.98)

Now, Peter Jackson isn't doing the 3D thing (yet; dude's busy with Guillermo Del Toro's his own two-part version of The Hobbit, with Part I due on Dec. 19, 2012). You can, however, see all three of his Rings movies at a limited number of theaters next month, one night only, as a sort of 10- or 12-hour commercial for the gargantuan Rings Blu-ray release. There's even the potential for a (greatly limited) sneak peek at The Hobbit: Jackson will "present" each of the films (on June 14, 21 and 28) via a filmed introduction shot on location in New Zealand. And we all remember what he's working on there right now, right?

Since theatrical rereleases are a dicey proposition at best and home viewers seem to be the ultimate market for tricked-out, rejiggered versions of old stuff, an interesting question arises (and probably a semi-moot one, at least until home 3D becomes a going concern): Is it better to risk an all-out theatrical rerelease, with all of associated marketing and distribution costs, to drum up interest in your old wine with its shiny new bottle? Or will Warner Home Video's cheaper, more narrow approach — the studio's Rings Party partner, Fathom Events, is an old hand at the specialty theatrical release market — become the preferred model?

Also, how long until studios deliberately withhold the 3D experience on the first go-round so that they can strategically rerelease the same movie a couple of years down the road? Hey, Hollywood, did you get that? Back off on the 3D thing just a hair, and you can release every big blockbuster twice. And none of us will go see it the second time. Whoops. Did I type that, or just think it?