Another Russian Hobbit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hWwu17udnI

News on the Hobbit Extended Edition front:

*US & UK Release Date will be October 22 for digital download, and November 5 for DVD and BluRay sets.

*This cut is extended by thirteen minutes of additional footage.

*Bonus features are set to run about 9 hours, and include the following:

 * The Filmmakers' Commentary - Director/writer/producer Peter Jackson and writer/co-producer Philippa Boyens provide their perspective and stories on creating the first film.


* New Zealand: Home of Middle-Earth - From Matamata to Queenstown, travel with Peter Jackson and his team across the stunning locations of New Zealand, transformed by the filmmakers into Middle-Earth.


* The Appendices Part 7: A Long-Expected Journey - A 14-part chronological history of the filming of An Unexpected Journey, covering pre-production in the various departments of the film in the months leading up to the start of principal photography, the boot camp training for the main cast, and the work done on set chronologically through the three shooting blocks and in the world of its digital effects. Chapters include:

        -The Journey Back to Middle-Earth
        -Riddles in the Dark: Gollum's Cave
        -An Unexpected Party: Bag End
        -Roast Mutton: Trollshaws Forest
        -Bastion of the Greenwood: Rhosgobel
        -A Short Rest: Rivendell and London
        -Over Hill: The Misty Mountains
        -Under Hill: Goblin Town
        -Out of the Frying Pan: The Forest Ledge
        -Return to Hobbiton: The Shire
        -The Epic of Scene 88: Strath Taieri
        -The Battle of Moria: Azanulbizar
        -Edge of the Wilderland: Pick-ups and the Carrock
        -Home Is Behind, the World Is Ahead

* The Appendices Part 8: Return to Middle-Earth - Another selection of documentaries and featurettes await, further detailing the development, design and production of An Unexpected Journey:

* The Company of Thorin - Explores the characters and backgrounds of the five families of dwarves and the company of actors chosen to play Thorin's company on the Quest of the Lonely Mountain. Chapters include:

            -Assembling the Dwarves
            -Thorin, Fili & Kili
            -Balin & Dwalin
            -Oin & Gloin
            -Dori, Nori & Ori
            -Bifur, Bofur & Bombur

* Mr. Baggins: The 14th Member - A revealing look at the film's charismatic and talented lead actor, Martin Freeman.


* Durin's Folk: Creating the Dwarves - Reveals the journey and process of designing, conceptualizing and physically realizing the dwarves in The Hobbit.


* The Peoples and Denizens of Middle-Earth - Focuses on the realization of new characters and creatures encountered in the first film, from casting to characterization to physical and digital design. Chapters include:

            -The Stone Trolls
            -Radagast the Brown
            -Goblins
            -Azog the Defiler

* Realms of the Third Age: From Bag End to Goblin Town - Follows the creation of the Middle-Earth locations from conceptual design to set and prop building to fully digital realities. Realms explored include:

            -Hobbiton
            -Rhosgobel
            -The Misty Mountains
            -Goblin Town

* The Songs of The Hobbit - A look at the realization of Tolkien's songs in An Unexpected Journey.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the bonus material sounds very pleasing and I'm sure PJ et al will do/have done a good job on extended the cut. On the other hand...only 13 minutes? Seems pretty skimpy compared to the LOTR extended editions, which all had 30+ minutes of additional footage. I suppose overall I'm eager for this release, but it just seems a lot cheaper than the LOTR counterparts. Substantially less additional footage, only one audio commentary track (IMO, the cast commentary, which will not be present on this release, was one of the most entertaining features on the LOTR EEs), and the box art is extremely unremarkable:

Links to a couple of news articles, including a preview of one of the extended scenes:

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/the-hobbit--an-unexpected-journey-deleted-scene--exclusive--065952595.html

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=11784

Thoughts?

^That's correct.

Yeah, good point. I'm not sure how they got away with that one. Maybe the reasoning is that, if anyone were to press the issue, they could argue that they're not referring specifically to the character in The Silmarillion, but just using the term generically since "Ungoliant" is simply "dark spider" in Sindarin.

(Yeah, seems like a stretch to me, too...)