A great deal of new info has come in on the releases of the second chapter of The Lord of The Rings. The Two Towers starts arriving this summer.

Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship continue their quest to destroy the One Ring and stand against the evil of the dark lord Sauron. The Fellowship has divided and now find themselves taking different paths to defeating Sauron and his allies. Their destinies now lie at two towers – Orthanc Tower in Isengard, where the corrupted wizard Saruman waits and Sauron’s fortress at Baraddur, deep within the dark lands of Mordor.

The first release of the film will be coming on August 26th in both widescreen and fullscreen releases. In addition to the previously announced specs, the set will also include a ten minute preview for The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King, a video game preview and an inside look at the Special Extended DVD Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Also arriving on August 26th will be a box set including The Two Towers and The Fellowship of the Ring. I’m not certain why someone would want to buy a box set of 2/3 of a trilogy, but there it is if you want it.

Most of the new details center around the massive four disc set coming on November 18th. Forty minutes have been reinserted into the film featuring footage of Faramir and Boromir, character development for Denethor, the death of Eomer, the emotional troubles of Eowyn, more footage of Treebeard and lots of eating. The longer cut is in anamorphic widescreen and carries audio in Dolby Digital EX and DTS 6.1 ES. Four commentaries run with the film; one with director Peter Jackson and the writers, one with the design team, one with the production team and the one with the cast. The supplements include several featurettes including “Sending Actors to Battle”, “Post-Production” and “Principal Photography”. Other features include a tour of the digital effects, “Bigatures” a close-up look at the detailed miniatures used in the film, a sound design demonstration, a documentary which covers adapting the book into a screenplay and planning the film, the design and inspiration for locations in Middle-earth storyboards to pre-visualization and a Weta Workshop visit to see the sculptors in action as they create the weapons, armor, creatures and miniatures from the film, interactive maps of both Middle-Earth and New Zealand, still galleries and DVD-ROM features.

And of course, there is more. To match the deluxe set which came last year with bookends and a National Geographic DVD, a new deluxe box has been commissioned. The time the set comes with a sculpted Gollum and a DVD created in-house by the Weta Workshop with a special on the creation of the computer generated character. The disc will also arrive on November 18th.

So lets count them up, a fullscreen and widescreen release of the two disc set, the two-pack with Fellowship, the four disc release and the deluxe box. That comes to seventeen discs. Good luck to all you completists out there.