LOTR The Hunt for Gollum

So yeah, this movie is actually happening.

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-movie-2026-release-warner-bros-1235997102/

I have honestly no idea how that is gonna turn out, it just seems so freaking random. And is there really that much material around the hunt for Gollum that you can make a full-on movie about it? I mean yeah, I know there is a fan-made movie, but we can probably expect another 3 hour flick here.

Edited by Forenperser on May 11th 2024 at 6:23:21 PM

Two hours dedicated to Saruman and his deal with Sauron.

I doubt they'll do that without Christopher Lee.

Quality wise this will probably be about as good, or as bad, as The Hobbit films.

Who asked for this? Like I love Gollum but I just can't see this doing any better than that video game they did.

Maybe they have an angle on the subject matter that we're not seeing...?

I don't know! But I am curious to see a trailer and get some idea of what we're dealing with...

Gollum is a strange focus for a film to be on, but I definitely don't think it's inherently bad and he is one of the most complex and interesting characters from Middle Earth. This could be great and unique, though it will have to be exceptionally well done to be so.

WB has expressed desire to utilize their LOTR rights more, considering them to have untapped potential. The problem for them is those rights are very specific—The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit only, with none of Tolkien's other writings allowed to use as a basis.

Specifically and most significantly, The Silmarillion and its component tales are off-limits, and the Tolkien estate is not budging on this. These are where the vast majority of the stories of Middle-earth that have been written, but not filmed, are found.

So that leaves WB either to make up something whole-cloth and slap the LOTR name on it, or find some alluded-to background story within the text and build it out into a coherent narrative. Critics would say Amazon's The Rings of Power is doing the former, while Amazon claims it's the latter.

In the LOTR text, there's a 17-year time skip between when Bilbo leaves the Ring to Frodo and when Frodo learns the significance of his heirloom and sets out on his quest, and it's during that time this film would be set. (In the LOTR film, Elijah Wood's Frodo doesn't age 17 years, but there's probably still some time to work with.) Gandalf has his suspicions about the Ring and researches it, eventually concluding that Gollum must be found to determine conclusively that it really is the One Ring rediscovered. He enlists Aragorn to help him do this.

Each of them speaks of long journeys and many difficulties—there definitely is a tale to be told here by a skilled enough writer. But it's a very thin thread to hang a whole movie on. It could turn out well or terribly.

On the one hand, "we want to make money off this IP we're sitting on" is not a hopeful beginning. On the other, Serkis loves the world and the character (Gollum made him, after all), and I trust him to do his best with what he's given. We'll see.

I haven't seen all of the Jungle Book film he made (Mowgli), and I get it had mixed response, but from what I saw (and from what it seems even the critics who disliked the film agree) he has a lot of potential as a director. It's not fantasy, but the story of The Jungle Book isn't hundreds of miles away, so he has experience with this sort of thing.

In regards to the concept, I don't think it's fair to write it off, but I do think it's fair to be cautious. If done well, this could be a very good film, it just would need especially good writing to be a good film.

Edited by king15 on May 11th 2024 at 8:53:17 AM

His Venom movie was pretty good. I think this could work with the right script.

There's also stuff like the war in the North; the Siege of Dale and other parts of Gondor.

When was the Siege of Dale? Was that during the Hobbit? Was it in the movies?

It was during the War of the Ring, at about the same time as the Battle of Pelennor Fields. Sauron attacked Dale and the Lonely Mountain. Bard’s descendant the King of Dale, and Daín Ironfoot who was still King Under the Mountain, both fell in the battle. Gandalf tells the hobbits about it in one of the appendices.

Oh, well, then I dunno if the movies have the rights to show that stuff…

They should, actually. It’s part of LOTR and not the Silmarillion. “It’s mentioned in the appendices” is also the basis for The Rings of Power.

Come to think of it, Aragorn’s family history and the backstory of his romance with Arwen are also in the appendices, and there were some rumblings of a movie about his early life a while back. If he’s a big character in this Gollum movie they could bring some of that in.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on May 11th 2024 at 10:48:11 AM

I dunno, this just doesn't sound condusive to good art to me.

Oh, we can't get the rights to any of Tolkien's other books, so we need to mess around in the margains of the books we already have the rights to. That sounds very fanficy XD.

Granted, necessity is the mother of invention, and restrictions can often lead to inspired choices, but I just don't see it here.

Edited by GNinja on May 12th 2024 at 3:59:46 PM

Yeah, nobody really cares about the search for Gollum. There are other things set during the movies or even the history of Middle-earth that could have been better.

Angmar's war against Arnor, the founding of Rohan, whatever else.

Do a movie covering the war in the north stuff that the movies didn't get into. I have at least a passing familiarity with that thanks to Battle for Middle-Earth 2 and other games, and I don't think I'm alone there. "Gollum solo movie" is a weird sell, especially since right now most people probably associate Gollum with that terrible video game.

Oh, I'd love the Angmar War being covered - it'd also be a good opportunity to show how evil in the setting will often prey on people with legitimate grievances to rope them into its wars, like the Witch-king did with the Hillmen of Rhudaur during that time (or how Saruman did with the Dunlendings).

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on May 12th 2024 at 7:07:41 PM

From a general audience perspective, covering wars from hundreds of years before the familiar story requires creating all new characters for people to care about. And they are doing that anyway with the animated The War of the Rohirrim this December—and even then they got Miranda Otto back to narrate the story as Eowyn.

Angmar at least has the known Witch-King as antagonist, but he had a different fashion sense back then (and a face). But maybe Elrond could cameo.

“Gandalf and Aragorn hunt for Gollum,” on the other hand, has three familiar characters right there, even if they’ll probably have to recast two of them.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on May 12th 2024 at 3:04:24 PM

The hunt for the audience's interest.

and their wallets!

Lord of the Rings VII: The Search for More Money

Edited by CharlesPhipps on May 12th 2024 at 2:07:06 AM

I'd love a film about Bullroarer Took instead personally

It's really sad that Earendil on his flying ship leading a flock of eagles to fight the continent-sized Ancalagon the Black will never be adapted to film until they get the rights to The Silmarillion.

Middle-Earth has space kaiju battle, why don't we get to see that?