New Line Home Entertainment is preparing a special two-disc special edition for the largest film in the studio’s history The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The set will come to DVD in August.

Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is an epic adventure of good against evil, the power of friendship and individual courage. The saga centers around an unassuming Hobbit named Frodo Baggins who inherits a Ring that would give a dark and powerful lord the power to enslave the world. With a loyal fellowship of elves, dwarves, men and a wizard, Frodo embarks on a heroic quest to destroy the One Ring and pave the way for the emergence of mankind.

Two separate versions of the DVD will be available; the first with a fullscreen ratio, and the second with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. Both versions will carry a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and identical features. Both discs will contain DVD ROM content, three documentaries titled “Welcome to Middle-earth”, “The Quest for the Ring” and “A Passage to Middle-earth”, 15 featurettes originally created for lordoftherings.net, which explore the locales and cultures of Middle-earth and include interviews with cast members Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler and others, a ten minute behind-the-scenes preview of “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”, an Enya “May It Be” music video, an inside look at the Special Extended DVD Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, a preview of Electronic Arts’ video game, The Two Towers TV Spot and theatrical trailers.

Coming on August 6th, the theatrical version of “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings” will come as a 2-disc set and carry a $26.98 suggested retail price.

On November 12 then, New Line will the release a Special Extended Version of the movie, featuring 30 minutes of additional footage reintegrated into the film. The release will come as a 4-disc Platinum Edition release in a specially created bookcase packaging. The film itself will be presented on two discs while the remaining two discs will be filled with bonus materials, most of which are created specifically for the release. For the hard-core fans of the film, New Line is also preparing a Limited Edition version of the Extended cut that will also be released on November 12. It features a box packaging designed by famed Tolkien illustrator Alan Lee, who has also worked on he films. The box will include the 4-disc version of the film, the National Geographic “Behind The Movies: The Lord Of The Rings” DVD, bookends crafted from models that were used in the film, trading cards and much more. This will be the Tolkien fan’s dream, so look out for a more detailed feature announcement of the Extended version once New Line has finalized the contents of the disc.