'The Hobbit' Part 3 News: 'Desolation of Smaug' DVD and Blu-Ray Release Date Announced
The DVD and Blu-ray for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug is scheduled to release on Apr. 8.
Sean Astin to Reprise Role as Samwise Gamgee in The Hobbit: There and Back Again?
The film will be available in a variety of packages which will also feature a limited collector's edition set for $105.43, a Blu-ray 3-D combo pack for $44.95, a Blu-ray combo pack for $35.99 and a 2-disc DVD special edition for $28.98.
Only 25,000 pieces of the collector's edition will be available in the U.S. and will include two Gates of Erebor replica bookends and a theatrical version of the film in 3-D high-definition, high-definition and standard definition.
Visual Effects Supervisor Reveals Build-Up and Spectacular Battle Scene in The Hobbit: Part 3
After the success of The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, fans eagerly await the last in the trilogy, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, which will release later this year.
Giving away a few spoilers, director Peter Jackson had previously told Yahoo! that there could be a massive clash -- as in J.R.R. Tolkien's original novel -- between the elves, men, dwarves, and goblins, when they arrive at the Lonely Mountain.
In a recent interview with Hypable, Jackson also spoke about his decision to break the story into three parts, making it a trilogy, suggesting he wanted to give it a similar structure as he gave The Lord of the Rings.
"You want the narrative to be told either through the dialogue or the actions, so that's really why we ended up with the depth and exploring the character depth that we had done on The Lord of the Rings," he said.
The director went on to speak about needing three parts to engage the complexity of the story.
"I was also acutely aware that there was going to be, ultimately, when this cycle of releasing a movie each year is done, you're going to end up with six films. The Unexpected Journey being the beginning and the Return of the King being the end. I did want to have a unity. I didn't want to make The Hobbit feel any more simple. We wanted it to feel like it was the same," he said.
The Hobbit: There and Back Again will hit theaters on Dec. 18.
Watch the trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug below:
