14 DAY TRIAL // As fans have by now begun to expect from a Peter Jackson film, the theatrical version was cut down to the bare essentials out of reasons of comfort for the audience. No one wants to sit through a 3-hour film with snacks and drinks and no bathroom breaks. But now the extended version has been announced on Blu-Ray, and it's going to be a full 25 minutes longer.
The Blu-Ray version will be released by Warner Bros on November 4 this year. It adds a full 25 minutes to the movie's original 161, as well as some scenes that have not been seen before by audiences.
Speaking about the release, Peter Jackson teased, “The Smaug movie, we've got 25 or 26 minutes of pretty good stuff for that DVD. The first one, there wasn't that much we left on the cutting room floor and it wasn't earth shattering. But this is worthwhile stuff that you haven't seen before.”
And to give you a taste of things to come, Yahoo Movies has released one of the deleted scenes in the form of a video you can see right now. It's a scene where Bilbo and the dwarfs are trying to cross the Enchanted River.
If you can't wait for the disc to come out, the extended version is also going to be available for digital purchase starting with October, so a full month early. But the wait is well worth it, because the Blu-Ray version is said to contain over 9 hours of special features, such as audio commentary and a documentary which showcases the making of the film and the trilogy as a whole.