Hey folks, Harry here with Dig Dug's report upon the Extended Edition, which looks to be extended by 50 minutes... which bums me out cuz I was kinda pulling for an extra 285 minutes... but then... I'm a greedy bitch. Here ya go...

Here's what I can remember from the LotR: RotK Extended Edition segment from Comic-Con:

First, no Peter Jackson (I know, not a surprise, but I was hoping). We had some lady hosting the panel, DVD producer (sorry, don't know the name), Producer Rick Porras, and actors Billy Boyd (Pippen) and David Wenham (Faramir). They showed a bit more than I thought: a four minute 'preview,' and then three short scenes.

From the preview I recognized (forgive me if names are a little off; It's been awhile since I've read the books):

*stuff from House of the Healing

* stuff from Gandalf vs. Saruman (Gandal confronts him to get info, and a fight breaks out: at least, Saruman shoots fire from atop the fallen 'tower')

* a flashback or something of Faramir, Boromir, and Denathor that explains (I think) all of that friction (how Denathor wants Boromir to get the ring for himself).

* a face-off between Gandolf and the Witch King

* extra battle stuff, and extra scenes of Sam and Frodo in disguise as Orcs

* Aragorn using the 'eye' to deceive Sauromon

I can't remember what else was in the trailer, but very cool stuff

For the scenes they showed:

1. A scene with Faramir courting Eowyn at the House of the Healing

2. A scene with Faramir and Pippin talking after Pippin changes into the 'knight' outfit. Faramir tells him that the outfit belonged to a boy who dreamed of fighting dragons instead of studying, unlike his brother. Pippin says "it was yours" and Faramir talks about Denathor's greater love of Boromir. Pippin then says something about how Denathor will love and appreciate his wisdom or something in time. It was a nice scene

3. Peter Jackson (via video; he was in pre-production for King Kong. It was funny, as he seemed genuinely bummed to miss Comic-Con...again... and said one of these days he'd make it out) introduced a scene that was added 'for fun.' It was an extended cut of Aragorn recruiting the Army of the Dead. After he offers them eternal rest for paying off the debt, the Dead back off, and disappear and tens of thousands of skulls poor out of the mountains in the cavern. Cool stuff.

The box will be blue. Here's the cool part:

There are FIFTY extra minutes. I know; my jaw hit the floor too when I heard that! I guess there were 300 FX shots to finish, and in March after Return of the Kings had racked up the Oscars, Peter Jackson wanted to shoot one more scene (a close up of the skulls from the above Army of the Dead scene). So the last shot filmed was done in March.

Anyway, that's the scoop. Cool stuff; too bad we have to wait until December, but I guess this'll make great Christmas gifts (as if anyone can wait that long to watch these discs).

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dig dug