The Hobbit To Get an Extended Cut Blu-Ray in 2013

As his Lord of the Rings films did, the first film in Peter Jackson's trilogy based on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (out later this year and titled The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) will be released in a special extended edition in 2013, according to The Digital Bits, who have an official list of Warner Brothers's 90th anniversary home video releases. Says the story,

"Among the new films you can expect on Blu-ray and DVD in 2013 are The Wachowskis' Cloud Atlas and – officially confirmed here for the first time – Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Extended Edition (Q4). One suspects a theatrical cut will be released earlier in 2013, following the home video release pattern of the previous Lord of the Rings films. And it's reasonable to suspect that a Blu-ray 3D version will be forthcoming as well."

That isn't the only major release from Warner Brothers that's likely to see a 2013 home video release that fails to make the list--Man of Steel, due in theaters in June, will almost certainly be available on video by the end of 2013--but as we saw with The Dark Knight Rises, Warner Brothers can sometimes be tight-fisted with the details of their big franchise releases. What DC Comics fans will get is a pair of anniversary edition DVDs--The Superman TV Collection, The Best of Warner Brothers: DC Comics 25 Cartoon Collection. Additionally Superman, Batman and The Dark Knight will be included in a 100-movie DVD collection and a 50-Blu-ray collection showcasing the all-time greatest Warner Brothers films. That same box set will include all three Lord of the Rings films.