Peter Jackson's eagerly-awaited 'Lord Of The Rings' trilogy may be attracting comparisons to 'Star Wars', but there's already one big difference.
The New Zealand director is already working on the DVD for the 'Lord Of The Rings' trilogy, with a boxed-set director's cut version of the movies to appear in 2004. By contrast, there's currently no word on when any of the 'Star Wars' movies will eventually make it onto the format. The three films in the 'Rings' trilogy are being released theatrically in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

Variety reports that the DVD version of the 'Lord Of The Rings' trilogy will probably contain "more extreme footage than the tamer version released in cinemas". One of the problems Peter Jackson is currently facing is displaying graphic battle sequences but still obtaining the all-important PG certificate for his saga when it's released in cinemas worldwide.

The trade paper also reveals that New Line Home Video has employed had a crew filming in New Zealand for two years, capturing all the behind-the-scenes details on this $270m epic. New Line is renowned for its DVDs, with the likes of 'Boogie Nights', the 'Austin Powers' movies and even Adam Sandler's 'Little Nicky' all receiving impressive treatment in the New Line Platinum Series.

The first part of the JRR Tolkien trilogy, 'Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring', is released in the UK on December 14 and the US the following week.