Warner Bros. has announced the release dates for two of its most ambitious films from last year, Cloud Atlas and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Both landed in 2012 with each possessing its own huge appeal. Cloud Atlas had one of the best casts of the year and the first chapter of The Hobbit finds Peter Jackson returning to Middle Earth for the first time since he won an Oscar for Best Director and Best Picture for The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
Look for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey first as it arrives March 19 on DVD and Blu-Ray and a week early on HD digital download! The first chapter of Jackson's three-part Hobbit journey introduces us to Bilbo as a young man and showcases the first glimpse of what would prove to be a lifelong friendship with Gandalf the wizard.
The adventure focuses on a group of dwarves who are seeking to reclaim their homeland and how Jackson intertwines his action with charming laughs is exquisite, as we stated in our The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey review.
The DVD and Blu-Ray extras are highlighted by the video journals that Jackson made while filming the movie. Movie Fanatic has published many of them and to watch them all as a precursor to witnessing the film itself would be quite fascinating. Check out The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey trailer to get an idea of the scope of the film as it also shows that fans of The Lord of the Rings are in for an unexpected treat.
Speaking of treats, those who purchase the Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack will get a special sneak peak at the next film in the series, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Then, on May 14 a superstar cast including Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon, Tom Hanks and Halle Berry tackle multiple roles in the film from the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. As teased in the Cloud Atlas trailer, the film covers centuries of time and millions of galaxy miles to tell a tale of how we are all connected. Some adored the work and others were left confused by it (check out our Cloud Atlas explained and fill in those blanks!).
The DVD and Blu-Ray arrival will provide a fascinating look into the making of a film that was certainly one of the most ambitiously made in recent memory. Special features on the package DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack include featurettes: A Film Like No Other, Everything is Connected, The Impossible Adaptation, The Essence of Acting, Spaceships, Slaves and Sextets, The Bold Science Fiction of Cloud Atlas and Eternal Recurrence: Love, Life and Longing in Cloud Atlas.
Cloud Atlas will also be available on digital download platforms including iTunes, PlayStation and XBox.