Cool, but not the extended versions.

Apparently those will be released on Blu-ray as well, once some time is given for the theatrical releases to sell.

Why the extended movies aren't all you can buy at this point seems silly to me, as they are so much better. If anything I'd add an extra hour or two to each of the extended editions - they still wouldn't even scratch the surface of the detail to be found in the novels. One would think the theatrical versions had served their purpose of packing more paying customers into theaters, but should now quietly go away....

Surprisingly, many people actually don't like long movies, period, and are pretty vehement about it.

Of course I recognize that some films should have been edited more tightly, but 'running time' as such is never on my list of criticisms; movies to me are either worth seeing or they're not — fully realized, or not. Some stories simply demand more time than others to stretch their wings fully, and should be given that. Pure action, horror, and comedy generally run their creative course in far less time than epic adventure or sweeping historical drama. My point is, a film should run as long as it needs to in order that it be the best film it can be - no more and no less.

But obviously not everyone sees it this way, and that's fine. The thing is, for those kind of people with short attention spans who prefer 90 min movies and actually complain when movies are "too long," the theatrical editions of all three of the LOTR movies are likely too long for them anyways! They were all still nearly 3 hours.

Might as well go all out and see the whole 12 hour enchilada, in my mind, if you're going to undertake the journey into Middle Earth in the first place. But, whatever. New Line obviously see more money to be made this way, and anyway I've read that we'll see the extended set in 2010. They're not going to make us wait a whole lot longer. Hopefully by the summer, and if not, then certainly as a holiday release.