LORD OF THE THEATRES

The Two Towers DVD hits stores tomorrow. The Return of the King hits theatres in December. All three LOTR films will return for a marathon:

Cinephiles who couldn't get enough of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring special edition DVD, which clocked in at 208 minutes and included scenes not in the theatrical version, will be able to see the epic on the big screen in all its glory starting on December 5 in about 100 movie houses in the U.S. and 20 in Canada.

A week later, on December 12, New Line will unspool the special 214-minute extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. That version is slated to premiere as a DVD first on November 18 (the DVD of last year's "official" theatrical release is due out on Tuesday).

But wait! There's more!

For those with serious Hobbit habits longing to venture into Middle Earth for more than a few hours, New Line plans to screen all three films back-to-back-to-back on December 16 in a daylong marathon that will carry over with The Return of the King's global release on December 17.

If you go for that Dec 16th back-to-back run, you'll be sitting through something like 650 minutes of movies. And for once, it would probably be worth it.

**Memo to George Lucas: Please, please, let Peter Jackson direct Star Wars Episode III. Then let him go back a remake the first two.