And in today’s “But I can’t wait that long, this better be an April Fool’s Joke!” news, New Line Cinema officially announced that:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, will be held for domestic release until Wednesday, May 12, 2004. The effects work on this third and final film of the trilogy will surpass its predecessors in scope and intensity, and the producers as well as director Peter Jackson feel that the extra time will cement the film’s status as the king of fantasy films and the crowning jewel of New Line’s massive effort to bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic to the screen. A senior New Line executive made the announcement, joined by Jackson, who stated, “With the earlier Oscars in 2004, the original December release date will not make the deadline for Academy consideration. Given that fact and the tremendous amount of work needed in postproduction for this film to reach its full potential, New Line has decided to take the extra time in order to best please the fans.”
Jackson added, “The May release schedule is typically the biggest of the year, including the kings of the summer box office. The lineup for 2004 is a bit empty at the moment, and we feel that placing Return of the King in May will give the fans something out of the common run of action films to appreciate all summer as well as establish New Line at the top of the order for the summer rush.”
I do love the summer and the movie fervor that it brings, and judging by how good the first two have been, I’m sure that they know what they’re doing. I wonder if this means that they’ll release the special edition DVD of the Two Towers any earlier because they won’t be timing it to come right before the next film, or if (gulp) they’ll delay it.