New Lord Of The Rings Film: The Hunt For Gollum (Andy Serkis stars & directs)

[JNHFan2000 2,999]

 

[Barnald 382]

I'm not expecting much from this, but can we please just get another Howard Shore score? Pretty please?

[Holko 9,624]

I hope it's based on the brilliantly written and gorgeous Gollum game!

[Barnald 382]

On another note, if WB see Middle-earth as an active franchise again, it may (hopefully) increase our chances of getting expanded Hobbit soundtracks. Everything crossed anyway...

[Edmilson 7,657]

Brace yourselves folks: the Tolkien Cinematic Universe is imminent!

[Richard Penna 3,785]

Hell yeah, if there's any project where Shore needs to compose, end of story, it's this!

[Barnald 382]

Will McKellen come back for one last hurrah? And would they de-age Viggo or cast someone younger? The mind boggles!

[Brando 1,895]

28 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Brace yourselves folks: the Tolkien Cinematic Universe is imminent!

To be fair this technically does exist just not in movie form😂

[Faleel 5,460]

Just now, Brando said:

To be fair this technically does exist just not in movie form😂

Tolkien Literary Universe? Legendarium?

[Edmilson 7,657]

2 minutes ago, Faleel said:

Tolkien Literary Universe? Legendarium?

The Tolkenverse! And, to differentiate the books from the New Line movies, the Amazon show and the animated movie: the Tolkien Multiverse of Madness!

[Nick1Ø66 4,879]

Wait...is it April 1st?

[Romão 2,276]

Fuck this project and fuck all the other endeavours that are turning Tolkien in fan fiction driven Cinematic Universe.

 

 

[Nick1Ø66 4,879]

52 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Brace yourselves folks: the Tolkien Cinematic Universe is imminent!

 

Don't say I didn't warn you. A dream for @Chen G., a nightmare to others!

 

[Edmilson 7,657]

2 minutes ago, Romão said:

Tolkien fan faction

I mean, I know Tolkien fans can be rabid, but are they officially a faction now? When will the CIA hunt this new criminal organization? 

[Monoverantus 387]

Sigh... just constant remakes these days.

 

[Chen G. 4,047]

My huble contribution (at least so long as it is up): https://fellowshipoffans.com/news/new-line-cinema-announces-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-hunt-for-gollum/

[Nick1Ø66 4,879]

Given Ian Mckellan's disdain for all the time he had to spend in front of a green screen for The Hobbit, I'm sure he'd be less than thrilled at the prospect for doing it even more for this film. It's frankly hard for me to see him, and particularly Viggo, interested in doing this, especially as it will presumably involve their entire performance be de-aged. But who knows. 

 

[Chen G. 4,047]

Weaving was the biggest grump in terms of the prospects of coming back, so...

 

The whole thing seems a nightmare to produce in terms of the cast angle of it. I'm surprised its what they went with. But I'm not going to condemn it or anything.

[Nick1Ø66 4,879]

I'm not condemning it, I wish them well. But I am as sceptical about it as I am all the other fan fiction projects (and make no mistake, they're all fan fiction) that have sprung up since the curtain closed on The Battle of the Five Armies ten years ago.

 

As for why they chose to go this direction, I can only speculate it's because they've already given a lot of thought to, and presumably some production work, on this material when The Hobbit was going to involve a "bridge" film.

[Faleel 5,460]

6 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

I'm not condemning it, I wish them well. But I am as sceptical about it as I am all the other fan fiction projects (and make no mistake, they're all fan fiction) that have sprung up since the curtain closed on The Battle of the Five Armies ten years ago.

 

As for why they chose to go this direction, I can only speculate it's because they've already given a lot of thought to, and presumably some production work, on this material when The Hobbit was going to involve a "bridge" film.

They also kinda hinted at it, in BOFA "His name is Strider"

[Chen G. 4,047]

Well, Jackson thought about doing this for a long time, so...

 

[Stark 343]

To be fair, there’s plenty of appendices material for this to be based on.

[Chen G. 4,047]

To me all this talk of it being fan-fiction or not are secondary to the core question: Do I think this story is worthwhile to tell? I think it is.

[Nick1Ø66 4,879]

4 minutes ago, Stark said:

To be fair, there’s plenty of appendices material for this to be based on.

 

Not really. A few dozen pages, if you add it all up, at most. Maybe not even that, if you really look at it. Sketches, really, and like ROP and War of the Rohirrim, most of the story will essentially have to be made up. Anyone who tells you otherwise hasn't even glanced at the Appendices. 

3 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

To me all this talk of it being fan-fiction or not are secondary to the core question: Do I think this story is worthwhile to tell? I think it is.

 

The stories have been told. By Tolkien. 

 

If you want a story almost wholly made up by screenwriters, fair enough. But that's all it is.

[Chen G. 4,047]

2 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Not really. A few dozen pages, if you add it all up, at most. Maybe not even that, if you really look at it. Sketches, really, and like ROP and War of the Rohirrim, most of the story will essentially have to be made up. Anyone who tells you otherwise hasn't even glanced at the Appendices. 

 

I actually did a very, very detail-oriented tally of pages for each project: If I'm being super, super generous (by which I mean, counting descriptions of landscapes relevant to the locations of the show, people, all the lingustic stuff in the later appendices), Rings of Power is based on 60 pages of Tolkien, but in actuality its based on about 12 pages, for what's probably going to be a ~43 hour show.

 

Rohirrim, which is a two-hour-ish film, is based on three pages, but - and this more important than the mere page-count - tells us more about what the characters did within the scope of the events. Angmar, if New Line next choose to adapt that, which would make the most sense to me, is like nine pages. I hadn't done a tally for the Aragorn stuff.

 

But I don't mind the idea of the writers extrapolating. The fact of the matter is, Jackson's Middle Earth had become an entity of its own, with a life of its own and a fandom of its own, and so projects like this ought to be seen more as extensions of Jackson's vision for Middle Earth, which is absolutely fine, at least by me.

[Monoverantus 387]

Say what you want about that old YouTube fan film, but it at least understood that this story can at most be pushed to 40 minutes of story.

[Nick1Ø66 4,879]

9 hours ago, Chen G. said:

But I don't mind the idea of the writers extrapolating.

 

I don't mind this when it's part of the normal process of adaptation, i.e. the kind of extrapolation that had to be done to make Lord of the Rings narratively engaging for cinema. I get that. There were things that needed to be shown on film that either weren't present in Tolkien's novel or only referenced.

 

But then, of course, they pushed this to the limit for The Hobbit when they tried to turn a relatively short children's novel into a three film epic. So I guess those who liked Radagast with poop on his head, Alfrid, Dwarves acting boorish in Rivendell and murderous Laketown mobs, will love this. 

 

9 hours ago, Chen G. said:

The fact of the matter is, Jackson's Middle Earth had become an entity of its own, with a life of its own and a fandom of its own, and so projects like this ought to be seen more as extensions of Jackson's vision for Middle Earth

 

This is true enough. It is its own thing. But it's still largely fan-fiction. I have immense respect for what Peter Jackson & Co. did with Lord of the Rings, but the fact is, the further they got from Tolkien's story, and the more they ventured into "extrapolating" with the extraneous material in The Hobbit, the weaker the final product became. So as talented as Jackson, Boyens and Walsh were at adapting Tolkien's novel, what they're doing now is essentially what they're doing with ROP...writing their own fantasy stories with some names and places from Tolkien. 

[Chen G. 4,047]

Hey, I'm skeptical myself, if only because I'm increasingly turned off by these entries-between-the-entries kind of prequels that we've been getting increasingly, like in Star Wars. But part of the difference here is that this seems to be a one-parter, not a "lets absolutely spell out absolutely everything that happened between the end of Five Armies and the beginning of Fellowship" as is the concentrated effect of Rogue One, Solo, Andor, Obi Wan, etc...

 

And, as I said, its not going to have that pretendquel quality that The Rings of Power had.

[Barnald 382]

48 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Given Ian Mckellan's disdain for all the time he had to spend in front of a green screen for The Hobbit, I'm sure he'd be less than thrilled at the prospect for doing it even more for this film. It's frankly hard for me to see him, and particularly Viggo, interested in doing this, especially as it will presumably involve their entire performance be de-aged. But who knows. 

 

 

McKellen's 'breakdown' was caused by him having to act on his own in front of a load of tennis balls, but given scaling wouldn't be all that necessary in this film (unless he came into contact with Hobbits, Dwarves or of course Gollum), it surely wouldn't be as much of an issue.

 

Given Gandalf's age, I don't think they'd need to do much work with McKellen de-aging wise. But McKellen is coming up on 85, so would he want to do it (including going over to NZ for several months presumably), that's the question.

[Chen G. 4,047]

10 minutes ago, Barnald said:

McKellen's 'breakdown' was caused by him having to act on his own in front of a load of tennis balls

 

It was partially that it was some of his first scenes, and they were doing really difficult oners. Jackson says in the commentary that it took McKellen quite a few takes to "find" Gandalf again. He got over it pretty quick, and by the midpoint of the shoot they stopped doing scale in separate sets, so...

 

I'm sure they'll be accomodating with McKellen shooting in the UK, if need be.

[Nick1Ø66 4,879]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

Hey, I'm skeptical myself, if only because I'm increasingly turned off by these entries-between-the-entries kind of prequels that we've been getting increasingly, like in Star Wars.

 

To be honest, I'd rather Jackson spend his time on finally giving us his long awaited, much anticipated, new six-film, cohesive cut of his "Middle-Earth Saga".

 

By all means, incorporate flashbacks to Aragorn's "hunt for Gollum". Give us Martin Freeman in the FOTR prologue and Peter Hambleton's Gloin at the Council of Elrond. Give us Tauriel running around Rivendell if they must. Let's see a new epilogue telling us what happened to the rest of the Fellowship. And whatever other Lucasing he wants to do to create a cohesive, connected sextet. And by all means, incorporate some of the deleted scenes and unseen footage that's apparently sitting in a vault in Wellington. Give us more of the Battle of the Last Alliance, the orc attack on Lothlórien, etc. I'd actually be interested in seeing that. Provided, of course, that such a release is accompanied by the existing Theatrical & Extended Editions in the best currently available format.

 

Then, perhaps, the sextet will truly be a saga as Jackson tells us, and one I'd be more excited about than any of the projects being discussed now.

 

[Barnald 382]

 

I suppose they could weave Balin and his company in Moria into this. We know their presence there was fleeting; he arrived in 2989TA and it fell in 2994, but Jackson has never been afraid to shift the timeline of the books around a bit. Aragorn is said to have entered the East-gate at one point and been spooked off by something (Durin's Bane?), presumably some time prior to Balin's arrival. But maybe they can weave something in with the hunt for Gollum? Whatever happens, Aragorn (and even Gandalf maybe) would have to leave prior to the fall of Balin's colony, as it wouldn't make any sense for them to know what fate befell him.

[Chen G. 4,047]

2 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

By all means, incorporate flashbacks to Aragorn's "hunt for Gollum". Give us Martin Freeman in the FOTR prologue and Peter Hambleton's Gloin at the Council of Elrond. Give us Tauriel running around Rivendell if they must. Let's see a new epilogue telling us what happened to the rest of the Fellowship. And whatever other Lucasing he wants to do and create a cohesive, connected sextet. And by all means, incorporate some of the deleted scenes and unseen footage that's apparently sitting in a vault in Wellington. Give us more of the Battle of the Last Alliance, the orc attack on Lothlórien, etc. I'd actually be interested in seeing that. Provided, of course, that such a release is accompanied by the existing Theatrical & Extended Editions in the best currently available format.

 

I had thought of that. Personally, if I were doing it, I'd do the Martin Freeman bit (easy!), put a quick closeup of Tauriel in the Elves leaving bit (right before Sam's "It makes me sad"), maybe flashbacks to Balin et al, a cutaway to events at Erebor somewhere in there, and then I'd use the Aragorn Palantir scene to do a quick "recap" right before the final confrontation. But honestly, just editing Freeman in would be enough. I'm amazed Jackson hadn't done it.

[mrbellamy 6,353]

3 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

Hell yeah, if there's any project where Shore needs to compose, end of story, it's this!

 

I'd prefer John Powell

[Richard Penna 3,785]

Why Powell? I'd have no issue, but this is Shore's natural territory.

[filmmusic 1,912]

4 hours ago, Barnald said:

I'm not expecting much from this, but can we please just get another Howard Shore score? Pretty please?

Aren't you tired of Lord of the Rings scores?

I don't know, I cannot understand people wanting more of a certain franchise, be it either Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc. etc..

I haven't even listened to the complete recordings of the initial trilogy yet.. 

[Chen G. 4,047]

4 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

Aren't you tired of Lord of the Rings scores?

 

"'Parsifal?!' Aren't you tired of Lohengrin?" 

[Stark 343]

How could I get tired of perfection?

[Nick1Ø66 4,879]

To steal from Samuel Johnson's quip about London, if one is tired of Shore's Lord of the Rings, one is tired of life.

 

[Chen G. 4,047]

Seriously, the whole point of these leitmotivic scores is to see a composer work with the same basic body of music material and spin a huge yarn out of it all.

[Monoverantus 387]

Feels like this one just got appropriate again...

[Chen G. 4,047]

"Franz, let us just spin a melodic line until it could be spun no more."

[Jurassic Shark 12,255]

4 hours ago, Chen G. said:

My huble contribution (at least so long as it is up): https://fellowshipoffans.com/news/new-line-cinema-announces-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-hunt-for-gollum/

 

Nice article. You might want to know I found an autocorrect typo. Search for thing...

 

Quote

This will be the first of two films in a deal between Jackson, Walsh and Boyens with New Line Cinema

 

Let's just make it three right away, Peter.

[Chen G. 4,047]

5 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Let's just make it three right away, Peter.

 

Well, there's War of the Rohirrim rounding the bunch up...

 

Its all really quite remarkable. I don't think no single filmmaker and production crew had left such an imprint on a film series: by 2026, Jackson's Middle Earth will have encompassed eight films of at least 23 and a half hours, of which six were directed by Jackson, and seven produced and written by Jackson.

 

Ontop of that, Jackson's firms (Weta Workshop, WetaFX and Six Foot Seven) and other cast and crew members have worked on The Rings of Power (especially Season One), The Shadow of Mordor, Tales of the Shire, Return to Moria, audibooks and the "Beyond the Door" expansion in Hobbiton.

 

I like it!

[Faleel 5,460]

Does The Third Age count?

[Chen G. 4,047]

Did Weta or Lee-Howe or someone else from the Jackson gang work on that game?

[Nick1Ø66 4,879]

8 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

Well, there's War of the Rohirrim rounding the bunch up...

 

Its all really quite remarkable. I don't think no single filmmaker and production crew had left such an imprint on a film series: by 2026, Jackson's Middle Earth will have encompassed eight films of at least 23 and a half hours, of which six were directed by Jackson, and seven produced and written by Jackson.

 

Ontop of that, Jackson's firms (Weta Workshop, WetaFX and Six Foot Seven) and other cast and crew members have worked on The Rings of Power (especially Season One), The Shadow of Mordor, Tales of the Shire, Return to Moria, audibooks and the "Beyond the Door" expansion in Hobbiton.

 

I like it!

Yes, yes. It’s become quite the franchise. 

 

And now I'm reminded of Matthew 16:26.

[Edmilson 7,657]

1 hour ago, Stark said:

How could I get tired of perfection?

I am tired of the CR FOTR. I mean, it's great and better than if we only had the OST, but... I still want to hear the original Theatrical versions of cues and original material before tracking and etc. The same goes for TTT and ROTK.

 

What is Matessino doing? He should be doing this while waiting for Disney's approval to work on SW and Indy.

[Chen G. 4,047]

1 minute ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Yes, yes. It’s become quite the franchise. 

 

To me, the fact that its the same people working on it kind of divorces it from the usual Hollywood franchise territory.

 

My gripes with Hollywood franchises are two: one, there are way too many entries, which is not REALLY the case here: by 2026, we'll be eight movies into Jackson's Middle Earth, while Star Wars will be heading into its fourteenth film and about as many in television series, and Lor knows how much Marvel stuff there'll be by then!

 

The other difference is that most other franchises are creativelly "faceless": the studio hires different directors, writers, editors, cameramen for each entry or every couple of entries. So it doesn't have that stylistic uniformity. There are some exceptions there, namely pre-Disney Indiana Jones, but even there while the Spielberg-Lucas duo remained a constant, the crew (including the principal writers) changed a lot between entries, much more so than is the case here.

[Edmilson 7,657]

Considering War of the Rohirrim hasn't released a trailer or even a first look yet and December of this year has become quite crowded (Kraven the Hunter, Sonic 3, Myfasa, etc), I wouldn't be surprised if we get the Gollum movie before it.