In addition, our own Russell Hammond has just posted the weekly Release Dates & Artwork update, featuring all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K cover artwork with Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, anytime your order literally anything from Amazon after clicking through to them from any of our links, you’re helping to support our work here at The Bits and we surely do appreciate it.

Now then... in announcement news today, Warner Bros Home Entertainment has officially announced the Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD release of Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders on 11/1. Extras will include 2 featurettes (Those Dastardly Desperados and A Classic Cadre of Voices). Those voices include Adam West (as Batman), Burt Ward (as Robin), and Julie Newmar (as Catwoman).

Warner and Cartoon Network have set Adventure Time: The Complete Sixth Season for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 10/11.

Showtime has set Billions: Season One for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 11/8 (SRP $49.99 and $42.99).

Kino Lorber has announced that they’re working on a Blu-ray release of Don’t Give Up the Ship (1959), starring Jerry Lewis. It’s listed as coming soon.

And finally, we have a bit of an update on Warner’s controversial Middle-Earth: Ultimate Collector’s Edition release. First off all, it’s officially confirmed to be an Amazon-exclusive. And based on the 201 (and counting) new negative reviews currently posted on the Amazon listing, most of you feel the same about it as we do. In fact, Warner has already lowered the price to $599.99 from $799.99. And I would be willing to bet that it’s going to drop lower over time.

Meanwhile, our friends over at TheOneRing.net have not taken the release positively either: In fact, Cliff Broadway has written a very well-researched essay on the subject over there that we highly recommend. He found out some additional details, including the fact that the original plan director Peter Jackson had in mind for new extras was to create new 2-hour retrospective documentaries for each film, that would offer all kinds of rare material including never-before-seen deleted scenes – a plan that Warner passed on because they didn’t want to pay the cost to produce the new material. TheOneRing even got an official statement from Jackson (via his Wingnut Films) on the release in which he confirms this and further adds:

“In addition there was the added difficulty of Warners needing to access the original negative and scan the outtakes, bloopers, and additional sequences. They declined to do this, which made Michael Pellerin and my original plans for the comprehensive documentary we hoped to produce for this box set, impossible to produce. Neither Michael nor myself are therefore involved in this release. Maybe Warners will support our planned documentary for the 25th anniversary, because we would love to make it one day.”

So there you go. That certainly confirms the information we posted on our original editorial on the subject last week (click here for that in case you missed it).

Nevertheless, there’s been some confusion about what, exactly, this new set includes in terms of disc-based content. So here’s a detailed breakdown of exactly what we believe each disc in the set offers:

1. – Fellowship Ext: Movie Pt 1 (BD)
2. – Fellowship Ext: Movie Pt 2 (BD)
3. – Appendices 1 (DVD)
4. – Appendices 2 (DVD)
5. – Fellowship Costa Botes doc (DVD)
6. – Fellowship: Theatrical Extras (DVD)
7. – Two Towers Ext: Movie Pt 1 (BD)
8. – Two Towers Ext: Movie Pt 2 (BD)
9. – Appendices 3 (DVD)
10. – Appendices 4 (DVD)
11. – Two Towers Costa Botes doc (DVD)
12. – Two Towers: Theatrical Extras (DVD)
13. – ROTK Ext: Movie Pt 1 (BD)
14. – ROTK Ext: Movie Pt 2 (BD)
15. – Appendices 5 (DVD)
16. – Appendices 6 (DVD)
17. – ROTK Costa Botes doc (DVD)
18. – ROTK: Theatrical Extras (DVD)
19. – Hobbit Unexpected Ext (BD)
20. – Appendices 7 (BD)
21. – Appendices 8 (BD)
22. – Hobbit Unexpected: Theatrical Extras (BD)
23. – Hobbit: Desolation Ext (BD)
24. – Appendices 9 (BD)
25. – Appendices 10 (BD)
26. – Hobbit Desolation: Theatrical Extras (BD)
27. – Hobbit: Five Armies Ex (BD)
28. – Appendices 11 (BD)
29. – Appendices 12 (BD)
30. – Hobbit Five Armies: Theatrical Extras (BD)

So this set includes all previously-produced extras, as well as the Extended Editions of all 6 films. What’s missing are the Theatrical Cuts of all 6 films on disc and the Blu-ray 3D versions of the Hobbit films (both the Theatrical and Extended 3D presentations). You do get both the Theatrical and Extended versions as UltraViolet Digital copies only. Plus the obvious swag. So while the set is certainly loaded, there is no newly-produced material and the set isn’t complete. If you’re wondering what you’d need to buy to get everything there is in the best quality, what you want is...

• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Theatrical Editions (Blu-ray set)
• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Extended Editions (Blu-ray set)
• The Hobbit Trilogy: Theatrical Editions (Blu-ray 3D set – which also includes 2D Blu-ray)
• The Hobbit Trilogy: Extended Editions (Blu-ray 3D set – which also includes 2D Blu-ray)

Those four SKUs will get you literally everything there is on disc (click on the links to find them on Amazon). Just so you know.

We’ll leave you with a look at the Blu-ray cover artwork for Warner’s Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders and Sony’s 4K and Blu-ray Supreme Cinema Series Blu-ray versions of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which is now available for pre-order on Amazon by clicking on the links...

Stay tuned...

- Bill Hunt (@BillHuntBits)