A great film -- but wait on the DVD

When it came time for Peter Jackson's critically acclaimed box office beast "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" to be released on video and DVD, the evil geniuses at New Line Cinema decided that one release in August, far before the lucrative holiday season, was not enough. Why not release one version now, soon enough to keep the public's LOTR palette nice and wet, and then, when their wallets are helpless to the black hole of consumption known to most as "holiday shopping," release another? \nSo here we have it: a cute little two-disc set for now and a behemoth four-discer to be released in November. \nDon't get me wrong, if any film of the past year is worthy of such extensive documentation and presentation, then this is it. Jackson's sprawling, three-hour masterpiece based on the first book in J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy saw itself nominated for 11 Academy Awards and was certainly one of the best films of its kind released in a long time. "Fellowship" tells the tale of a hobbit, Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), and a group of allies as they embark on a journey to destroy the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron.\nThe DVD itself has a good number of bonus features. There are three behind-the-scenes TV programs, 15 featurettes created for lordoftherings.net, a 10-minute behind-the-scenes preview of "The Two Towers," an Enya music video, a preview for a LOTR video game, a preview of the four-disc November DVD release and all the requisite trailers and TV spots. The bulk of the extras are reasonably entertaining but it's hard not to get past the fact that all of it is either a regurgitation of previously produced material or some form of advertisement for stuff that has not yet come out.\nCleverly, during the preview for the four-disc set, the producers are sure to inform us of all the original bonus material yet to be released and, most importantly, that the film will have 30 added minutes of unseen footage. To me, that's pretty exciting stuff, certainly worth owning. My advice: rent this one, get your fix and wait to add the November release to your DVD collection.